New Member with a FEW Issues...

[MLETI]

Hi there, I'm new to Bluehost and the whole 'blogging' thing in general. I ran into a couple of issues that I hope someone can give me a kick in the butt towards the right direction.

Background - I have five websites for homebased businesses. I'm NOT a programmer, I've always used Yahoo! sitebuilder because it is virtually 'idiot proof.'

I decided to make my training biz more interactive and tried a blog on wordpress.com. (www.mleti.com). I liked the setup and called Bluehost SEVERAL times asking all sorts of questions about the ease of use - I am NOT into coding at all! I was assured that all would be the same as WP.com so I purchased a plan.

Now that I'm on Bluehost with their version of WordPress (www.mleti.biz). I've found several differences. For example: I cannot load images into the sidebars with the easy widget like I could on WP.com, there is no option for people to subscribe to the blog, the headers do not edit as easily as they did (or at all) on WP.com... these may seem like simple/stupid issues to have to some, but the bottom line is that these issues really keep me from getting my blog running the way I envisioned it. The whole 'graphics in the sidebar' issue is a MUST because - I have sponsors that expect their ads up in January!

The more I look into this, the more it seems like I need to KNOW coding before using WP on Bluehost. Is that the case? Are there just simple plug ins that I'm missing? If I have to learn coding, where can I take a crash course??

Or should I just scrap this service and look into something else?

+++++
I just worked a midnight shift and tried to figure this out for the past hour... so I am pretty agitated and heading to bed.

I'll check back later this evening and would really appreciate any/all guidance.

Thanks
Joe

[Justin]

But you have the option to go straight to WordPress website, download the script to your local PC and upload through FTP to your Bluehost hosting space. You're not stuck with only the software Bluehost provides in SimpleScripts and Fantastico within the control panel.

You have a choice to upload any script to your space. So, go for the one you feel that is better.

[felgall]

You could install WordPress using SimpleScripts and then upload whatever plugins you want by first downloading them to your computer from the WP plugin site and then uploading them to the wp-content/plugins folder.

[andyJH]

MLETI, you may be feeling overwhelmed at the moment, but none of the issues you described involve coding in any shape or form. They are a combination of simple settings issues and installing (usually a one click process) the plugins you need. BlueHost is an excellent cost effective place to host Wordpress sites.

[MLETI]

Andy, Justin and Felgall - THANKS for the encouragement. I thought I just might be missing something simple!

Like I said, I'm not a techie at all so I'm going to muddle through some stuff tonight before I go to work and depending on the outcome, may schedule a marathon call with tech support tomorrow ;)

Thanks again - hopin' I can figure something out!

Joe