networks, such as Scientific American (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com), have a full network of staff blogs. Also, several services match advertisers with bloggers so that the advertisers pay bloggers to make blog posts about their products. Is it possible to make money as a blogger? Yes, and making money at blogging has become common these days. If you’re interested in this type of blogging, check out Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger blog at www.problogger.net. Darren is considered the grandfather of all professional bloggers.
Dipping into WordPress Technologies
The WordPress software is a personal publishing system that uses a PHP and MySQL platform. This platform provides everything you need to create your own website and publish your own content dynamically, without having to know how to program those pages yourself. In short, all your content is stored in a MySQL database in your hosting account.
Every time a visitor goes to your website to read your content, he makes a request that’s sent to a host server. The PHP programming language receives that request, obtains the requested information from the MySQL database, and then presents the requested information to your visitor through his web browser.
In using the term content as it applies to the data that’s stored in the MySQL database, I’m referring to your posts, pages, comments, and options that you set up in the WordPress Dashboard. The theme (design) you choose to use for your website – whether it’s the default theme, one you create for yourself, or one that you have custom designed – isn’t part of the content, or data, stored in the database assigned to your website. Those files are part of the file system and aren’t stored in the database. So create and keep a backup of any theme files that you’re using. See Part IV for further information on WordPress theme management.
Packaged within the WordPress software is the capability to maintain chronological and categorized archives of your publishing history, automatically. WordPress uses PHP and MySQL technology to sort and organize everything you publish in an order that you, and your readers, can access by date and category. This archiving process is done automatically with every post or page you publish to your website.
When you create a post on your WordPress website, you can file that post under a category that you specify. This feature makes for a very nifty archiving system in which you and your readers can find articles or posts that you’ve placed within a specific category. The Archives page on my personal blog (see it at http://lisasabin-wilson.com/archives) contains an Archives by Subject section, where you find a list of categories I’ve created for my blog posts. Clicking a link below the Archives by Subject heading takes you to a listing of posts that I wrote on that topic. See Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1: An archive of my blog posts by subject.
WordPress lets you create as many categories as you want for filing your content and posts by topic. I’ve seen sites that have just one category and sites that have up to 1,800 categories – WordPress is all about preferences and options for organizing your content. On the other hand, using WordPress categories is your choice. You don’t have to use the category feature.
One of the most exciting and fun aspects of blogging with WordPress is getting feedback from your readers the moment you make a post to your blog. Feedback, referred to as blog comments, is akin to having a guestbook on your blog. People can leave notes for you that are published to your site, and you can respond and engage your readers in conversation about the topic at hand. See Figures 2-2 and 2-3 for examples. Having this function in your blog creates the opportunity to expand the thoughts and ideas that you presented in your blog post by giving your readers the opportunity to add their two cents.
Figure 2-2: Readers use the form to leave their comments.
Figure 2-3: Blog readers comment on my blog about one of my WordPress books.
In the WordPress Dashboard, you have full administrative control over who can and can’t leave comments. In addition, if someone leaves a comment with questionable content, you can edit the comment or delete it. You’re also free to choose not to allow any comments on your blog. Chapter 5 has the information you need about setting up your preferences for comments on your blog.
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a standard feature that website visitors have come to expect. The Introduction to RSS page on the resource site WebReference.com (www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro) defines RSS as “a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable ‘What’s New’ for your site.”
Readers can use feed readers to download your feed – that is, their feed readers automatically discover new content (such as posts and comments) from your blog. Readers can then download that content for their consumption. Table 2-1 lists some of the most popular feed readers on the market today.
Table 2-1 Popular RSS Feed Readers
For your readers and website
