Introduction This is a brief synopsis of the popular WordPress software platform used by millions of persons (called 'bloggers') worldwide to host their blog sites on. Many bloggers are earning significant income from their blog sites by running ads thereon and by suggesting special buys on products or services they recommend, from which they earn commission revenue from. In this sense, they employ their blog site much like an e-commerce website. Some WordPress History In 2003, WordPress sprang into existence based on a primary piece of code that improved the typography of the writing act. It came about as a joint effort between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little to create a fork of the previous b2 program. In the beginning days, there were few users. It has since grown up to be used by millions of sites where it is seen and accessed by millions of persons daily. WordPress is considered the largest blogging platform of its kind in the world. WordPress is the official successor of the previous b2/cafelog program. It was derived out of a desire for a well-designed personal publishing platform built on PHP and MySQL, while being licensed under the GPL. Its original development dates back to 2001. WordPress is one of many 'open source' projects on the web. This means there are hundreds of persons around the world who may be working on improvements for its operation at any time. 'Open source' projects are developed by many persons volunteering to work on them, and then provided to the public for free. The end-user may use the system to display almost any type of subject (not porno please) and never have to pay any license fee to use it. WordPress sites are used for everything from a family site to a fortune 500 company website. In 2005, WordPress saw a banner year. In that year it released its very popular 1.5 version which introduced 'themes' for the sites. This system was downloaded over 900,000 times. They also stated up hosting service through WordPress.com to expand the reach of WordPress. In addition, several core members of the WordPress team founded a program titled 'Automattic.' Before the end of the year, they released a 2.0 version. They're programs have become so popular, they experienced a very rapid growth. In 2006, they saw over 1,545,700 downloads. In 2007, they jumped to over 3,816,965 downloads of their program. Currently WordPress will support one weblog for one installation. Multiple copies can be run via different directories provided they are configured to access separate database tables. Multi-Blogging WordPress Multi-User (WordPress MU) is an offshoot of WordPress. It was created so blogs can exist simultaneously in one installation. WordPress MU creates the possibility for anyone's website to be able to host their own blogging community, and to moderate and control the blogs comments and posts via a single dashboard control. A recent announcement by Matt Mullenweg stated that WordPress MU would most likely be merged with WordPress in the near-future. Another enterprise-edition of WordPress is called 'Lyceum.' Lyceum can store its information into database tables, usually of a set number. Online communities now employing Lyceum are TeachFor.Us (Teach For America-teacher's blog), the Hopkins blog, and the BodyBlogs. In 2008, the Automattic team was joined by Andy Peatling. He thereby continued his endeavors on 'BuddyPress', a plug-in extension for MPMU. It is designed to add some missing features to WordPress. Vulnerabilities In 2007 and 2008, some security issues were discovered within the software. In April, 2007, according to an advisory by Secunia, WordPress contained seven unpatched security advisories (out a total of 32) that constituted a "Less Critical' maximum rating. A current list of WordPress vulnerabilities, through version 2.3, is maintained by BlogSecurity. An even more up to date list is kept by Secunia. A notable problem was experienced in January of 2007. Some commercial blogs featuring AdSense ads, as well as many Search engine optimization (SEO) blogs were attacked by exploitation via the WordPress platform. Via one of the project site's web servers, a web hacker gained access and introduced an exploitable code via a 'backdoor' into some downloads of WordPress 2.1.1 version. This issue was addressed in the subsequent 2.1.2 version. Through an advisory issued, it was strongly suggested all users obtain an upgraded version. By May, 2007, 98% of WordPress blogs were found to be operating an exploitable version still, because they had failed to switch to an updated version, according to an in-depth study. Conclusion: A Word about Wordpress.org (Earning Revenue with a Wordpress Blog) This popular software script is available here for a free download. You will need a web hosting service and some time to implement it. Some positive aspects of this software program are it can be used for almost any website purpose, and it is fully customizable, which is a huge benefit for site owners/bloggers. Their sister service, WordPress.com, allows anyone to get started quickly and for free. Anyone can have a blog site up and running in less than thirty minutes, and have a site presence on the worldwide internet. Many persons earn revenue from Adsense ads placed on their blog sites, as well as by recommending certain products or services for purchase within articles posted on their blog sites. By Josh Holliday
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