Having decided to start a blog I had two main options for how to do it. Either create a blog using one of the many blog hosting sites, or host it myself on my own 1 and 1 web space. Hosting it myself is clearly the most flexible option, and for a techy like me the most fun. I did a bit of research into different blogging software and Wordpress to me looks good enough for me.
I was initially a bit worried about the amount of MySQL database space that is needed for blog software. 1&1 databases are limited to 100mb and I wasn’t sure how much space Wordpress would need. At work I manage a 5db database with the largest table having over 100 million rows so I’m well aware that databases can get big! Fortunately it seems that Wordpress uses space very efficiently and even very large blogs only need a few megabytes.
Wordpress comes with a load of documentation, but I did most of my setup by following the instructions on http://antbag.com/how-to-install-wordpress-with-1-and-1-hosting/ which has some good instructions specifically tailored for people on 1&1.
I’ve left the configuration pretty much at the default settings for now but I did add http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 to the ‘Options->Writing->Update Services’ box so that Google Blog Search is notified for each update.
This blog is no longer powered by coal, oil, gas or nuclear. It is now fully powered by wind, water and solar power. This is because 1&1 webhosting (who provide the hosting for this blog) have now switched to a renewable energy supplier.
