I am very new at this. I purchased a domain through Godaddy and and I am looking at different hosting options (Dreamhost is one). I want my site to be both a typical website with links, fixed pages, photos, etc, but also want a blog or forum included. I was looking at Wordpress software which is a one click option at Dreamhost, but don't know if this is just blog software or if it will present with a nice website look and other options too. Can I use both Wordpress or other blog software and a web design software too with my host, or can you only use one software program? Can I link a blog to a regular website, For example, if my domain is www.mywebsite.???, can I create a: www.blog.mywebsite.??? and attach it to the primary site. How do you do that? Does it require another domain called blog.mywebsite? Any suggestions or help is appreciated. I want to know what my options are, before signing up with a host. My domain is parked at Godaddy.

pohaver

That's about as many questions as I have seen in so little space! Wow.

First of all, "Yes, you can" to just everything you asked, IF you really want to. But you might not want to do some of it and probably won't as you look into it further.

Personally I like Dreamhost and use it altogether for my hosting. You get unlimited domain and subdomain hosting which leaves lots of options for any type sites. They give you incredible amounts of space to work with. Perhaps most important, they include support for just about anything (php, MySQL, WordPress, etc.) you could need to do anything. I never know what I will want to do next and wanted to avoid getting locked into a setup that didn't meet my needs later on. That's one of the main reasons I went with them. The last thing I want to do is move--my house, my ISP, or my host.

After getting your initial setup, it takes about ten seconds to add another domain, like www.mywebsite.???, or a subdomain www.blog.mywebsite.??? and you can have all you want at Dreamhost, some providers make you pay for each one so watch out.

Wordpress is very extensive. You can use it for setting up a site with almost any option imaginable. It doesn't matter what software you use in addition, most of us use a wide variety of them, you just upload the files you create with your ftp program (file transfer program like the excellent free FileZilla).

Good Success!

James

The short answer is yes.

Easy...with he right HOST. eg: www.yoursite.com as the site and then you install Worprperss in a directory...www.yoursite.com/blog or yo can do it the way you suggest with a subdomain. The difference is the subdomain is a DIFFERENT domain and viewed as a different site and unless you do a lot of linking between them the engines will treat them as different sites.

You need to look at what you get from the host for the package you select.

It depends on what the HOST offers for the package you buy. lot of hosts offer Wordpress as a one click install via cPanel otherwise you have to DL the blog software and install it on the host. Yes you can use whatever design software you want and have WP installed in the "blog" directory. In fact you can make another directory for another blog...don't know why anyone would do that but it's just to illustrate the point.

The advantage of putting the blog in a directory is that you get the all the benefits blogs offer for SEO and rankings in search engines for your site. It's a big help if the site is new

--Mike

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