Several years ago when I first wanted my own blog I first started with Googles Blogger. I figured that since it would be hosted on Google that it would be noticed faster than using another service. After about 6 months I noticed this was not getting noticed like I had wanted so then I hosted it on my own server and started modifying the theme. Being color blind a lot of visitors would tell me how awful the color scheme I had chosen was and there were not any themes I could install and use.



My next blog was using one of the earlier releases of Wordpress. I liked that there were a few themes available and when they were installed they gave you several options regarding a color scheme and the colors all looked good together which was entirely different from what Googles Blogger offered. The only thing I did not like about Wordpress was that it could only ever be a blog and just blog.

That's about the time I started looking at other options and the hosting company that I was using offered this item in Cpanel called Fantastico which would take an Opensource solution and install it and set up everything I would need in a MySQL database without me having to manually configure and install everything.

I looked at several of the blog software that fantastic offered and finally after weighing all the pros and cons of each one I decided to use Drupal. With Drupal I could use a shopping cart which at the time Wordpress did not offer plus I could have authors from all around the world collaborate on a book. I could also make use of video, flash, and several other technologies plus there were a lot of modules or plugins as Wordpress refers to them as and there were many free themes available.

I have used Drupal now for over 2 years. I have told others of how easy it is to use and the things that could be done with it. At present, all the articles that I've written are posted on my Drupal site as blog posts. I will probably always keep this site but with the latest craze with social bookmarking sites like MySpace I wanted to change the theme of my site to one like one of these new social bookmarking sites. I have tried many modules that were meant to help with this but none of them have worked like I wanted them to work and all these marketers are ranting and raving about the use of Wordpress that now I am designing a new home for NoSugarCoating News using Wordpress and the plugins that are available.

This will not be a quick one day change over since the are other things I have to do on a daily basis. Over the next several weeks I will import as much as possible over to this new Wordpress Blog and hopefully I will start seeing an increase in the site visitors that I receive.

I plan on incorporating a lot of features of Web 2.0 with this new home for my site plus allow users to be able to upload their own pictures, videos, and stories. Once my site visitors increases enough I will then create a forum where everybody will be able to communicate with each other and share their experiences. As always I always will have an ear open for any suggestions any body wishes to add.