4.2 Blogging Software

There is lots of Blogging software out there some are free open source while others are premium.

WordPress Blogging software is the ultimate for parties who want to build an online business.

WordPress Software can be found on their site http://www.wordpress.org , whereas if you are lucky to have a hosting company that allows one click install than you are in for the money.
Any hosting company that offers Fantastico enabled control panel then definitely WordPress software comes for free.

Such a company would include but not limited to Blue Host

Fantastico also includes other scripts in the following categories:
Blogs
b2evolution
Nucleus
WordPress

Content Management
Drupal
Geeklog
Joomla 1.5
Joomla
Mambo Open Source
PHP-Nuke
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
TYPO3
Xoops

Customer Relationship
Crafty Syntax Live Help
Help Center Live
osTicket
PerlDesk
PHP Support Tickets
Support Logic Helpdesk
Support Services Manager

Discussion Boards
phpBB
SMF

E-Commerce
CubeCart
OS Commerce
Zen Cart

F.A.Q.
FAQMasterFlex

Hosting Billing
AccountLab Plus
phpCOIN

Image Galleries
4Images Gallery
Coppermine Photo Gallery
Gallery

Mailing Lists
PHPlist

Polls and Surveys
Advanced Poll
phpESP

Project Management
dotProject
PHProjekt

Site Builders
Pro Edition
Templates Express

Wiki
TikiWiki
PhpWiki

Other Scripts
Dew-NewPHPLinks
Moodle
Noahs Classifieds
Open-Realty
phpAdsNew
PHPauction
phpFormGenerator
WebCalendar
Features of WordPress:
* Templating system
* Integrated link management
* Search engine-friendly permalink structure
* Support for plugins
* Nested categories and multiple categories for articles
* Trackback and Pingback
* Typographic filters for proper formatting and styling of text
* Static pages
* Multiple authors
* Can store a list of users who visit your blog
* Can block site visitors by IP address
* Tag support
WordPress allows use of plugins from freelance developers. The plugins are very useful for an online business. Here are a must have plugins for your site:

• Akismet 2.1.6 – Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.”
• Alexa Rank 1.6 – This plugin allows you add the Alexa Rank into your blog. By andot.
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• All in One SEO Pack 1.4.6.11 – Submit your posts to multiple search engines
• Amazonify – Add the ability to drop product links into your blog posts
• cforms – Place forms in your blog – cformsII offers unparalleled flexibility in deploying contact forms across your blog. Features include: comprehensive SPAM protection, Ajax support, Backup & Restore, Multi-Recipients, Role Manager support, Database tracking and many more.
• Google Analytics – Adds Google analytics to your blog, with various advanced tracking features enabled.
• Google XML Sitemaps 3.1.0.1 – This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
• Hello Dolly 1.5 – This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page
• Max Banner Ads 1.2.5 – Easily rotate banners and ads in almost anywhere in your wordpress blog without editing the theme. By MaxBlogPress.
• MaxBlogPress DealDotCom Widget 1.4.2 – Show the latest deal of the day from DealDotCom in your blog and earn lifetime commission from the sale. By MaxBlogPress.
• MaxBlogPress Favicon 2.0.3 – Easily add favicon to your blog without editing any wordpress files. By MaxBlogPress.

• MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad 1.7.4 – A new non-obtrusive way of displaying a single line of advertising message, a special note or other information right at the top of your blog. By MaxBlogPress.
• More From Google 0.0.2 – Ads related Google search results to your posts By Windy Road.
• Multi Pages widget 1.0 – Allows to have up to 9 widgets to organize your pages into your sidebar. Select sub-pages, exclude, and give a title… By Jerome Lecoq
• NextGEN Gallery 0.96 – A NextGENeration Photo gallery for the WEB2.0 (beta). By NextGEN DEV-Team.
• NextGEN Gallery Widget 1.22 -Adds a sidebar widget support to your NextGEN Gallery By NextGEN DEV-Team.
• Psychic Search 2.0.1 - Secretly discover what your visitors want to read on your blog. By MaxBlogPress.
• SEO Post Link 1.0.1 - Automatically make your post link short and SEO friendly by removing unnecessary words from your post slug.
• Social Bookmarking RELOADED 2.97 – Social Bookmarking RELOADED – Add the social bookmarks services’ icons to your articles in your blogs in order to submit them easily. Plugin based on Apostolos Dountsis one.
• WordPress.com Stats 1.2.2 – Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.

There are over 2,500 WordPress plugins and you can always search more plugins that relate to your site on WordPress. More tailored plugins are posted daily, so keep checking regularly.