WordPress.com versus WordPress.org

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WordPress.com versus WordPress.org

When I decided to start Cerebellum Strategies, I made a conscious choice to host on Amazon EC2 and install my own WordPress instance from WordPress.org.  I like technology and figuring things out so this made sense for me.  My blog has been operating for several months so I think I have a good idea about how installing your own copy of WordPress works.  However, you can also host your WordPress blog with WordPress at WordPress.com.  I have ideas for other blogs and I am curious about how wordpress.com works.  Since Cerebellum Strategies is a serious blog about information technology careers, I decided to start something less serious and low effort. I decided to dedicate my new blog to cheese.

Enter Coagulated Goodness

  1. Create a WordPress login and login.
  2. Click My Blog
  3. Click Create New Blog.
  4. Picking a Name is probably the hardest step all of the obvious and clever names are taken.
  5. Once you have a name – fill in the blog address, blog name and privacy settings.  I want my blog visible to the internet and search engines.  The language (not shown) is English.
  6. Choose free versus paid.  I picked free with Create Blog.
  7. You will get redirected to a new page where you can chose a theme.  I picked Origin, which is free.
  8. The next step confused me.  I got returned to the WordPress home page.  I clicked on the My Blogs tab and I saw my new blog.  When I hit post, I was directed to the familiar WordPress Admin Console.

WordPress.com Admin Console

The wordpress admin console has several differences with the WordPress.org console that you install yourself.

  • Jetpack is built in – You have to install Jetpack on WordPress.org installs.
  • Akismet spam filtering and has a panel under Dashboard.  You have to pay to enable it under WordPress.org installs.
  • Links are already populated with a number of WordPress links.
  • Polls and Ratings – These options don’t appear in WordPress.org installs.
  • Plugins – You can’t install plugins.
  • Advertising – It doesn’t look like you can advertise your site, because you can’t install plugins and add ads.
  • RSS Feeds are automatic – http://coagulatedgoodness.wordpress.com/feed/

The end result is my new blog – http://coagulatedgoodness.wordpress.com/

 

Conclusions

WordPress.com blogs are very easy to setup and automate a number of features. However, you can’t advertise or tweak the setup much.

Update

I just found out about a similar article at Freestyle Interactive on WordPress.org versus WordPress.com.

 

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