We use WordPress for our how to create a blog site called My Newbie Blog.  WordPress is a wonderful platform for a blog.  It is simple to use and it has a large user base which helps keep the software fresh and innovative.  WordPress also has a lot of plugins available which can allow you to customize your blog in many creative ways.

One of the few drawbacks to using WordPress comes out of its innovation.  There are a lot of updates.  When WordPress is developing something new it may come through as a lot of mini-updates.  Each time this happens you need to update your site.  At least you should.  This is a problem if you have a lot of blogs.  If you don’t stay up with the updates you leave your site vulnerable to hackers.

One helpful tool to have is a plugin called WordPress Upgrade.  This plugin makes the process very simple and will save you some time.  The latest versions of WordPress have also made it easier to keep your plugins current.  You can usually get the latest update for a plugin now by just clicking on the update button on your plugin page.

Once a month I have a Site Maintenace day.  I visit all my sites and check on the staus of the WordPress version and see if any of the plugins need to be updated.  I also check the links out and make sure they are current and operating.  If I haven’t posted to the site recently, I will write an article of two or three hundred words on an appropriate topic.  I would encourage you to include a site maintenace day in to your regualr blogging routine.  In case you hadn’t realized it, today is site maintenance day for me.  This is an example of an article I post on my blogs on site maintenenace day.