Why WordPress?

If you’ve decided that having your own blog would be a good idea then your next decision is to choose a blogging platform.

You might go for the old favourite, Blogger or the funky fresh new kid, Tumblr. Or how about something like Posterous, allowing you to blog entirely via email?

They each have something to offer and they’re by no means the only choices,although they are the most well known. We’ll look at them all over the coming weeks, but I’m going to kick things off with a look at my personal favourite, the mighty wordpress.

You Twit?

Twitter is something you’re bound to have heard of even if you don’t use it. And if you don’t use it, you probably think it’s a place where celebs swan about pretending to be one of the ordinary folk while the rest of us talk about what we’re eating and how confusing it can be when your hands are very close to your own face.

Blogging as a writer

What do I get out of blogging?

Well, it gives me a place to lay out my methods which I hope will be of use to other writers. I can rant about some of the crap advice I’ve been given. I can post samples of my fiction. I can ask the opinion of other writers before getting too bogged down in a new project. Or I can just show off to an audience, something I never had the chance to do before the internet.

Do I Need A Blog?

If you’ve been trawling the web, for any amount of time, you’ll have noticed that there are lots and lots of blogs. Everyone and his cat (literally) seems to have one. Do they need to have one? Probably not, but why spoil the fun?

Blogging is a great way to build a presence on the web, but only you can decide whether you actually need one. In trying to decide, you’ll probably ask yourself a number of questions and I’m going to guess that somewhere near the top of that list will be: