WordPress is open source blogging software that allows users to interact through comments on blog posts. Blogs contain written content, images, and sometimes video or audio in a chronological order. WordPress runs on a MySQL database and uses PHP for functionality, CSS for design, and XHTML markup. It features plugins, themes, categories, tags, and built-in search to make blogs search engine optimized. Setting up a blog requires obtaining a domain, hosting, choosing a theme, installing plugins, consistently creating content, and generating traffic through social media and email lists. Useful WordPress plugins include Akismet, Google Analytics, related post plugins, and SEO optimization plugins.