zoopmedia » WordCamps

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

Justin Wright — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:56:53 +0000

One of the most common questions we get from our clients and readers is which version of WordPress is best for them: the free WordPress.com version or the self-hosted WordPress.org version? There are many reasons why you might benefit from using one version over the other and it mainly comes down to your goals and what features you need to utilize.

Here’s a great video from the Montreal WordCamp that talks about the various differences and why one version might be better than the other for your website or blog:

For even more information on the differences, check out the official comparison page.

Quick summary of the two versions:

WordPress.com

The free version of WordPress is a breeze to setup and requires no investment on your part. The hosting is provided free of charge, along with a URL to your blog. You can purchase upgrades if you wish which will allow you to use a custom domain, premium themes, as well as make CSS changes.

WordPress.org

The self-hosted version of WordPress gives you the most flexibility. It requires a hosting account and domain name to get started, which you can find over on our WordPress resources page.

The biggest advantage to using the self-hosted version of WordPress is having complete control over your content, as well as WordPress installation. You are free to add your own plugins and themes, as well as have the ability to modify any of the code on your website.

What’s Next For WordPress?

Justin Wright — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:58:58 +0000

Now that WordPress 3.0 has been released, many people are wondering what to expect next. Here’s a great video that touches base on some of the things we can expect from WordPress in the near future:

A Few Upcoming WordCamps

Justin Wright — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:46:46 +0000

As many of you know, we love WordCamps. They are a great place to learn new things about WordPress and get a glimpse of what’s happening on the development side. Plus they’re a great venue to meet local bloggers, developers, and WordPress fanatics.

Here’s some details about a few upcoming WordCamps:

WordCamp Boston

January 23
Boston, Massachusetts

WordCamp Indonesia

January 30
Jakarta, Indonesia

WordCamp Greece

January 30
Greece

WordCamp Miami

February 20
Miami, FL

WordCamp Fukuoka

February 27
Fukuoka, Japan

To see more details along with a list of all the upcoming WordCamps, check out the official WordCamp website.

A Few WordCamps Left In 2009

Justin Wright — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:15:20 +0000

A few months ago, I went and checked out WordCamp Dallas/Fort Worth. It was an amazing time and I managed to meet a ton of bloggers and WordPress fanatics. If you’ve never heard of a WordCamp, I HIGHLY recommend checking one out.

In a nutshell, a WordCamp is a conference devoted to WordPress. You’ll hear from various speakers about plugins, themes, and much more. You might even get a chance to listen to the founder of WordPress talk about what’s happening in the near future. Best of all, they’re really cheap to attend.

Here’s a list of WordCamps that are happening in the next few months:

September

WordCamp Seattle
September 26, 2009
Seattle, Washington, USA
WordCamp Birmingham
September 26-27, 2009
Birmingham, Alabama, USA

October

WordCamp Spain
October 10th
Barcelona, Spain
WordCamp Las Vegas
October 16-17, 2009
Las Vegaz, NV
WordCamp Netherlands
October 31, 2009
Utrecht, Netherlands

November

WordCamp Phoenix
November 2009
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
WordCamp New York
November 14-15, 2009
New York City, New York, USA
WordCamp Mexico
November 20
Mexico City, Mexico

For more information on any of the WordCamps, check out the official WordCamp schedule.

Plan On Attending?

If you plan on attending any of them, feel free to leave a comment and let us know.

Tim Ferriss: Blogging Without Killing Yourself

Justin Wright — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:03:43 +0000

When it comes to blogging, Tim Ferriss is a perfect example of someone who knows what they’re doing. He uses web analytics and experiments to figure out what works and what doesn’t. He also knows exactly what he wants to get from his blog.

Tim was one of the speakers at the San Francisco WordCamp this year and did an amazing presentation on blogging without killing yourself. He touched base on what he uses his blog for, what he does to get the best results, and also answered some questions from the audience.

We highly recommend watching this video as it contains some great tips on blogging. The length comes in at just over 50 minutes but it’s well worth it to take the time to watch the whole thing.

What are your thoughts on the presentation? Learn anything you might use on your own blog? If so, feel free to leave some feedback below.

WordPress: Beyond A Blog

Justin Wright — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:19:33 +0000

Although WordPress is known for being a blog platform, it can easily be used for other things. We’ve seen people use it for photo galleries, video sites, podcasts, and full on CMS systems. We wrote a post awhile back about using WordPress as a CMS that talked about some of the various plugins that extend the capabilities of WordPress.

However, from time to time we still get people that are not sure if WordPress is powerful enough to handle their project. Isn’t it for bloggers? That’s a common response when we suggest to small businesses that they should use WordPress to manage their website.

But since WordPress works so well for so many different types of websites, we thought we would share this really useful presentation we found from WordCamp Toronto last year. It has some great information about using WordPress as more than a blog and also has some great examples of sites that are utilizing WordPress. Check it out:

As you can see, WordPress is capable of a lot of things. It’s just a matter of testing it out and seeing if it will work for your website. The great news is more and more people are utilizing WordPress, which is great for the community and will ensure that more and more plugins, themes and add-ons continue to come out.

WordCamp Dallas Live Stream

Justin Wright — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:27:05 +0000

For those of you who want to follow along with what’s happening at WordCamp Dallas/Fort Worth, you can check out the live stream below. The entire event will be streaming through Sunday afternoon.

If you’re interested in learning more about the schedule, you can check out the schedule of events. You can also search for the hashtag #wcdfw09 on Twitter.