WordPress is used for both business and personal websites. The versatility of this platform allows you to customise your site to your needs.
Crown Jules Presents
Crown Jules Presents is my own personal blogging site. On which I publish book reviews, craft projects, knitting and crochet patterns that I have designed, and write-ups for conventions and events that I have attended. And I occasionally (but not for a while now) write haiku poetry.
Blogging, or to blog, comes from an older term “weblog” which was initially used for online journals and diaries back in the 1990s. Some pioneering sites like LiveJournal are still going today. WordPress as a platform for blogging and web development was initially released in 2003.
Creating a site for a personal blog using WordPress is initially exactly the same as any other website. You plan your content, you choose a theme, upload images, and format the screen to your preferred style. The language you use within the site however can be much more conversational in tone than that used on a business website. You write for the audience that you expect will want to read the information.
On a personal journal or blog site you may decide to include a lot more images and fun content onto each page or post. In fact, you may not use “pages” at all and simply create all content using the post format. Posts contain not just the content you add (text and images) but also additional information such as the author of the post (if it is a shared site), the date and time it was published, and categories/tags applied to the post which are used for sorting and filtering. This allows the user to find exactly what they want to see quickly and easily; and allows the designer to place the same content in multiple places on the website without having to write it twice (or more).
A business website (like this one!) will often also have a blog or news section. This is a place for the organisation to connect directly with clients and partners to share knowledge, to display the achievements of staff, and shared successes with clients. It is a place to be a little less formal but to retain the integrity of the organisation.
In all cases, for the blog to remain relevant and engaging you must try to post regularly and with interesting content. Plan ahead and make time to get it right. If you create great content, then the audience will come to you. A blog is often an enhancement to SEO (search engine optimisation). Through the use of simpler language, search engines will be able to match user search queries to the blog or news items content on your website, and then subsequently they will be able to find your products and services.
Julia Barnard MBA 