Mind on Marketing

Although this blog is intended as a forum for conversation about marketing, I’m starting out by sharing my adventures in social networking. I’m a complete noobie, although I’ve had a page in Facebook and a listing in Linked-In for about a year. It’s time to learn more, and I’m going to share what I learn here. Blogging is new, too, and I’m sharing my initiation into this world that’s new for so many of us who began in the business world when we all used IBM Selectric typewriters or had assistants who did.

Installing WordPress
WordPress is available in two ways: you can set up a blog that’s hosted on their site, wordpress.com, or you can host it on your own server by downloading the software from wordpress.org. I chose the latter, because I wanted to understand the technology better, to see if I could do it myself, and to have more control over the look and feel of the blog.

Last week I put on my propeller hat (I’m not a programmer, but am proud to say that I do have nerd tendencies) and installed and upgraded Wordpress on my web host server. I use Blue Ridge Internetworks (BRI) here in Charlottesville, and they made the original installation incredibly easy. WordPress provided excellent instructions on how to upgrade the software. Because I couldn’t figure out how to unzip the WordPress TAR files on my hosting server, I found and downloaded a program, 7-Zip, that did the job on my Windows XP system. Then I uploaded the unzipped files to the server. I had a few second thoughts about downloading and using a program (7-Zip) I know nothing about, but figured my Symantec Antivirus would intercept any problems. All looks well so far.

Adding the WordPress Theme
Then I downloaded a theme for this blog, which is essentially a set of style sheets and other files that create the visual appearance you see here. I’m using “Atahualpa,” which provides many possibilities for customization, along with user support on the WordPress site. Or perhaps I should say, in the WordPress community.

The Beauty of Open Source Software, for Beginners
That brings me to the topic of open source software. For years I’ve worked with programmers who are highly committed to using open source software. For readers who aren’t familiar with this term, open source software makes the source code available to others to use, modify and distribute. Wikipedia says it’s often developed in a public, collaborative manner. That’s how WordPress and its many themes have evolved. It’s all available at no cost. Here’s what WordPress.org says:

“Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. (More than most commercial platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for anything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune 5 web site without paying anyone a license fee.”

I’m not essentially a technical person, but this particular batch of open source software and stylesheets has been very easy to work with. And I won’t hesitate to make a donation to the creator of this theme, once I know that I’m going to stick with it. I’m still looking at other designs.

Next: Modifying the Theme (Design Template)

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