Back in August 2005, Matt and the WordPress team launched a hosted blog solution using the multiuser version of the WordPress blog script — WordPress Mu. The service is hosted at WordPress.com. The name often causes confusion but really the different has been summarized above.

The first time you login into WordPress.com you should be able to access your dashboard and other options using a neat little bar at the top of any blog or pages inside the domain.

The Difference with Standalone WP

The dashboard includes tag surfer, my comments, blog stats and feed stats, which are really great tools only hosted WordPress users have.

Everything else is much the same, other than the fact that you don’t have the options to import your blog from different platforms and access to plugins. The latter is obviously disabled for security reason.

You can write, publish, edit, add pages, set options just like the standalone WP installation. Several options are disabled. For example, you can’t set which hosts to notify (ping) when publishing new content.

The Benefits

With those limitations set aside, actually for new bloggers who want a complete zero administration solution to blogging, this is a great option — although I can’t recommend it because you can’t have your blog on your own domain.

Wordpress.com are currently planning on doing this. The migration will be transparent as they plan to enable permanent redirect (301) to your chosen domain. It may be a paid option.

Back to the benefits, the blog service allow blogger to only post content without having to worry about future upgrades. Moreover, WordPress.com is adding more features every day.

My Take About Using WordPress.com for Business

I won’t say useless. I personally know some bloggers who are very successful in using this blog platform. Using WordPress.com doesn’t prevent you from publishing earthshaking content.

The problem is, you don’t own the domain. If you decide to sell your business, the blog may not be sold and can not add distinct value to your whole business — at least in a less powerful way than if the blog resides on your own domain.

If you don’t mind that, WordPress.com really is an excellent blog tool that I would recommend wholeheartedly.

By the way, you are recommended to sign up anyway because even if you decide to own a standalone WordPress installation, you need a WordPress.com key to be able to use Akismet blog comment spam software.