I am a cheapskate. I only have one hosting account, with Kiosk, which hosts all of my 12+ sites. It included a few SQL databases, so I could run osCommerce, and this WordPress blog. My account has plenty of bandwidth and storage space, and is more than paid for from my affiliate site earnings.

But I did have to install WordPress myself. So if that scared you off, some good news is that Yahoo now provides very affordable hosting, with installation of WordPress in seconds, and automatic updating of the latest version. A very easy way of setting up a functional website and blog like this one. With a choice of templates, too.

Of course, if you only have simple requirements, and are happy with a basic version of WordPress, a free version is available at WordPress.com. Simply choose your userid (eg hotmum), and it creates hotmum.wordpress.com, for you to instantly start blogging. Dead easy.

While I’m here, I have to mention some of my bugbears – spelling errors.

At Target the other day, there were T-Shirts for kids with the typical message – “If the music is too loud, then your too close”. At least they spelt “too” correctly. Obviously it should have been “you’re” – short for “you are”.

Then I read an ad for a product with the standard hype. They said they wanted to “peak your interest”. They probably have never seen the word “pique” before. I won’t buy from them.

An extremely common mistake is the confusion between “lose” and “loose”. It usually twists the meaning quite nicely.

Then a few minutes ago I visited NineMSN.com.au. Went to the mobile section, to see what they were offering. And they warned me to “ensure that you’re GPRS is activated ” . Surely a company as big as MSN could afford an editor to teach them the difference between “your” and “you’re”. Pathetic.

I admit going often to dictionary.com to check on spelling and meanings. It’s easier than trying to find a dictionary on my kids’ bookshelves. And my punctuation is rarely perfect. But mistakes by big companies on simple words like “your” really get my goat.

(Disclaimer: any spelling mistakes on this blog are probably caused by the dog hairs and CCs that always seem to get stuck in my keyboard.)

Merry Christmas.