WordPress offers two platforms: WordPress.COM, which is more user-friendly, but does not allow ads; and WordPress.ORG, which is supposedly more complicated to use, but allows ads.

My questions is: Is WordPress.ORG significantly more complicated than .COM, especially for a novice blogger?

Hi Chris (think that is your name - could you add it to your signature, please? ),

My first question would be: are you going to be doing a business blog or personal blog?

If a personal blog then wordpress.COM might suffice.

If a business blog, I highly recommend you use wordpress.ORG.

(I posted in a bit more detail about this and the differences in another post here at VAF.)

The reason for recommending wordpress.ORG for a business blog is because you want to present yourself in a professional manner, and having a URL such as mybusiness.wordpress.COM is not professional. Plus, you can do so much more with the .org version! What if you decide in the future that you want .org instead of .com (can be moved, but pain in the rear)? Or your blog grows significantly and you use up your allotted disk space? Or wordpress.COM bails on you or boots you out because "they" don't like something about your blog? Just recently I did a blog post on Business Darlings regarding Free vs Paid Hosting – Which is best for your business? that you might find helpful because the post can be applied to blogs too (.com is free, .org you do need to pay for domain name/hosting).

As far as customizing and ease of use, once you get the hang of wordpress.ORG, you will love it! IMO, wordpress.ORG is not significantly more complicated.

HTH a bit,

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - WordPress Customization & XHTML/CSS Web Sites