One of the best things about WordPress is that it is free and will not cost you a dime to use. Whether you decide set up a free blog on WordPress.com, or purchase your own domain and install WordPress on it, it won’t cost you any money to do so. WordPress software is open sourced and developed and updated for free by a dedicated group of kindhearted and benevolent programmers. They donate their time and expertise because it is the right thing to do and because they believe in the software. They are not paid for their services.
WordPress.com may make some money off your blog, however, by displaying ads along with your content. This is usually done via AdSense ads which are displayed on your blog to certain visitors in certain situations. The money collected from such advertising helps to defray costs associated with servers, etc.
WordPress.org is a site that maintains the free WordPress software and its plug-ins. Free support can also be found there. It requires no payment or membership in order to access support or software. WordPress blogging software is completely free to download and install on your own website, ad free. This website, QuirkBrain, uses the free WordPress software as its content management system, for example. I have been using the software for three or four years and have never had to pay any money.
The developers of WordPress a kind enough to donate their time and energy to maintain the software. WordPress is open source software, so anyone is free to modify or update it. It is believed that one of the main reasons why blogging has become so popular with the masses in the last decade is because of the low cost and few barriers to entry, largely due to free blogging software such as WordPress.
The fact that WordPress is free is a wonderful thing for the Internet community at large. It means that anyone, regardless of access to money, can create their own presence on the web. This ensures a greater diversity of content availability, and prevents domination by a smaller number of companies or individuals.
So get started on that new WordPress blog and see if you can make some spare change with it, or even grow it into a nice business. And if you are so lucky to be successful, consider donating a small token to the developers of WordPress who are so gracious with their time and expertise.
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