Found this very long, but insightful piece on Blog systems compared, and using blog tools to manage a starter website. The key is being able to put you in control of your site- not some geek.

Bop on over to this informative article- it’s long, but useful.

Weblog Tools Collection » Blogging: The Not-So-New Trend

Probably thanks to MySpace’s confused contribution to the world, these days even “normal” people have heard of blogging. Blogging allows amateurs to freely publish information and manage sophisticated online, two-way communication with readers around the world.But, blogging isn’t just for geeks and aspiring musicians anymore. Businesses have jumped on the bandwagon and use blogging as a fluid way to gauge and manage customer sentiment.

Blogs also tend to be a compliment – and in some cases a complete replacement – to traditional online customer support.

So how can blogging help your business?
Use A Blog For Your First Website

While blogs are often only one aspect of a company’s web presence, I’ve noticed another pleasant trend: blogs as a starting point for businesses. Despite the lack of structure – or maybe because of it – blogging is helping expand website creation beyond its techie origins.

Blogs are making it easier for non-technical people to get involved.

read more…

Remember, once your site is built in a database, it can be transported into other more sophisticated site management tools easily- a hard coded site cannot. You also have the opportunity to deliver your content on cell phones- or change the look of your site with the push of a button- but best of all, you can get to the top of search if you’ve taken our Websitetology seminar.

While many bloggers are cashing in on paid advertising and affiliate fees, the options for setting up small shops is limited by “plugin” store solutions. WordPress is great for building community, the ideal way to target your customers, but when it comes to adding a simple solution you are limited to the three main options available now:
MicroShop
by Owen Winkler (RedAlt) which is currently down. It is the shopping cart I use on Websitetology. Current link: http://www.websitetology.com/wp-content/uploads/microshop.zip
Paypal or checks only, it has some issues with data entry in the phone field, and has limited tax, shipping, and notation options.

Note: June 08 This solution was pre WordPress 2.0, it’s highly unlikely that it still works.
WP-Shop
http://cregy.net/small-business-software/wp-shop/
Last time I installed this, there was no payment gateway. It was the nicest integration of the three, but without checkout, it was worthless. Since I haven’t tried to use it since June, I can’t tell you what the status is now.

UPDATE: June 08, this plugin seems to be abandoned.
WP e-commerce lite
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
We’re using this on www.londonbaystationery.com. It has no way of setting tax per order, or shipping charges. The only included gateway is PayPal, for a fee you can add authorize.net and dps.co.nz

UPDATE: Jun 09 This plugin broke again with 2.8. It’s been a constant headache.

We broke down and purchased the Shopp plugin http://shopplugin.net/ it works flawlessly with 2.8.

We also looked at e-shop, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/eshop/ but, we failed to rename the product page, and were in limbo for a while. It requires a page per post, which may or may not be a graceful way to handle things.

E-commerce with a WordPress shouldn’t be that difficult. While most of these solutions are limited to using WordPress with a PayPal solution, the ability to use other payment processors like 2checkout.com or google checkout should be available. WordPress is the easiest way to build a community- so shouldn’t it be just as easy to sell to your community?
A more complex option is to build a ZenCart site and add a WordPress blog to it with this module:
http://zencart-module.s-page.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id

JUNE 08: Another open source option that looks good for a cart is Magento: http://www.magentocommerce.com/features

There isn’t a WordPress module- or integration- but, it’s getting rave reviews as a well written piece of code.

There must be other shopping cart plugins out there- but this is what we’ve found. If you have any others, please leave a link in the comments.

UPDATE: Jun 09 found this link with 10 shopping cart tools for WordPress  http://speckyboy.com/2008/10/23/10-powerful-shoppingecommerce-plugin-solutions-for-wordpress/

UPDATE: Apr 8 2010: Here is a comparison chart of carts: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/2009/09/13/warts-and-all/

The great part about running a WordPress enabled business website is that you can answer your customers questions and share the answers with the world.

So, someone asks, where do I get started with business blogs- or blogging in general, and of course I suggest Websitetology. We teach you what you need to know, but, we also share things we find online with you here. So when I found this page, I used the PressIt function of WordPress to put the link into this post.

Jump on over to:

My 50 favorite blogging resources

and explore some more. Hopefully, one day, they’ll add websitetology to their list.