Welcome to WordPress Blogging Tips at blogging.wordpress.com

I recently received an invite to WordPress.com, a hosted multi-user version of WordPress that I assume aims to compete directly with TypePad, Blogger, and other hosted blogging platforms. As those who have used WordPress know, it is an extraordinarily versatile and feature-rich blogging platform that is hard to beat — unless you a) don't have web hosting; b) don't have access to mysql databases (something your webhost should be able to install for you); c) don't feel comfortable or know how to use FTP to upload files; and/or d) want to customize the look and feel (theme) of your blog, but aren't familiar with php or css.

WordPress.com is a hosted, somewhat modified version of WordPress (actually it's based off of the WordPress Multi-User code) that takes all of those worries away, but at the expense of offering less customizability and power than the downloadable/install-on-your-own-server version of WordPress. I've got to say that it's very impressive for a free hosted blogging solution, and easily knocks Google's Blogger out of the water (categories and trackbacks are critical features that blogger doesn't have), but it will remain to be seen whether the final public version of WordPress.com bulks up it's feature set a bit more in order for it to dominate the hosted blog field and be the platform of choice over Six Apart's TypePad for those who are more interested in blogging than in mucking with code.

I run the website How to Blog, which used to be hosted on TypePad but I finally took the plunge and ported it over to WordPress. On that site I have documented my own experiences with learning how to blog, comparing the different blogging platforms and tools, and providing tips and tricks to help other bloggers get going.

Here at WordPress Blogging Tips, you can expect more of the same – but the focus will be for WordPress users – especially wordpress.com users.