I’ve used various content management systems throughout the year and I got to say, WordPress is still the best of the lot.  The other CMS options out there are just too complicated and not worth your time.  In addition, WordPress is free and it works excellent with Linux (also free) so why not use what is free and works great?  You can also use various mods with WordPress and there is a huge community out there to support us.  It’s a no brainer if you’re not sure what CMS to choose from.

And by the way, this post on how to monetize using WordPress is a pretty good read: http://weblogs.about.com/od/monetizingablog/u/MonetizeABlog.htm. Most people don’t realize that they can make some pretty good income from their site, provided they have good traffic and other good metrics.  I mean, you already have to pay for hosting and server costs so why not take advantage so that you can pay those expenses down?

I’ve been learning Mandarin recently and I had a chance to get a good online chinese tutor to help with my Chinese.  I usually do a Skype lesson with my Mandarin tutor about once a week.  For a foreigner, it’s pretty hard getting the tones down but my tutor helps me out and I have lot of patience.  Mandarin is a pretty tough language but it’s possible to master it as I’ve met other foreigners who have managed to master Mandarin.

I’ve had a chance to visit China before and it was a blast; definitely fun times back then.  I was in Shanghai and it was tonnes of fun so I want to go back again but of course, it helps you to get around if you can speak some basic Mandarin.  I look forward to going back to China and possibly visiting some other countries around Asia as well.  When I go back, I hope to be able to visit Korea, Japan, and of course the beaches in Thailand and Malaysia.

So you want to get WordPress up and running and you’re looking for a hosting provider.  These days, you can get extremely cheap hosting providers.  Right now, I’m using Hobohost and they charge $1 a month.  I’m running on Apache and Linux with CPanel.  For the price I’m paying, it’s very reasonable.  Interestingly, there are other hosters out there that are also charging $1 a month for hosting.  As long as you don’t have too much traffic, it may be worthwhile to check out some of these other hosters.  People have said good things about Bluehost and HostGator but they’re a bit more expensive; having said that, even though they are a little more expensive, I have heard that they do provide a more stable hosting environment and the support may be a little bit better.

Good luck with your hosting and I hope you find a stable and cheap host!

CPanel is probably the most popular control panel on the market today and is used by many hosting companies over the Internet.  The user interface is quite friendly for CPanel and you have easy access to all the programs and functionality with just a few simple clicks.  Installing programs and scripts is also easy and most hosting companies have the scripts ready for you to install by just a few clicks.  Probably the main drawback of CPanel is that is requires Linux.  Linux is a great operating system but it’s a bit cumbersome and has a steeper learning curve than say, Mac OS or Windows.  Having said that, Linux is a very secure and stable OS and best of all, it’s free.  If you can manage to get CPanel installed on Linux, everything else typically goes smoothly.  It’s quite easy to install WordPress and to setup your website.  The file manager and uploader is quite easy to use and it’s pretty much click here, click there, very intuitive.