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Wordpress is a blog publishing system, or content management system (CMS) made for creating and maintaining weblogs or blogs. A blog is an online diary, so entries can be archived and searched at a later date. This means you need some kind of filing system, and this is usually in the form of a mini calendar that you can click on to select entries for a particular day.

Wordpress is open sourced (Open Sourced Software, or OSS), which means anyone can use and alter the programme to suit their own needs and then pass it on. It is free, so you don't have to pay to use it. (This is different to a proprietary software such as Windows Live Writer which requires the purchase of a key to unlock it for use. Although, Windows also has a developer-hosted form in spaces.live.com. My Space and LiveJournal are also developer-hosted forms of blogging.)
Wordpress has been criticized for being too vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, but this is in versions older than 2.0.5. The latest release of Wordpress was 2.2.1, in June 2007, and this (plus older) versions are more security conscious and have worked to prevent these kinds of attacks.
Wordpress has the ability to customise your template, at a cost. So if you like a particular template but you want your business name at the top, for example, you can pay to have it put there. This is moving away from the free' part of OSS, but it is useful as you still get the template at no cost.
Wordpress don't allow advertising on their sites (one small ad for Amazon is allowed) so your site visitors won't be bombarded by advertising, and you don't have to worry about your site being overrun. However, if you violate their terms of service they can delete your account, leaving you site-less so don't try to sneak in a little advert where you think no-one can see it. They do have an anti-spam programme, so you don't have to worry about spam comments being left on your site, though. And they back up your site daily, in case something goes wrong.
Unfortunately, if you decide to do the whole thing on your own you need to either choose from a selection of templates (and run the risk of someone else having the same template as you) or pay to have one customised. Having said that, it is generally free and easy to use!

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