If you see this post it means that BlogEngine.NET 1.6.0 is running and the hard part of creating your own blog is done. There is only a few things left to do.

Write Permissions

To be able to log in to the blog and writing posts, you need to enable write permissions on the App_Data folder. If you’re blog is hosted at a hosting provider, you can either log into your account’s admin page or call the support. You need write permissions on the App_Data folder because all posts, comments, and blog attachments are saved as XML files and placed in the App_Data folder. 

If you wish to use a database to to store your blog data, we still encourage you to enable this write access for an images you may wish to store for your blog posts.  If you are interested in using Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, VistaDB, or other databases, please see the BlogEngine wiki to get started.

Security

When you've got write permissions to the App_Data folder, you need to change the username and password. Find the sign-in link located either at the bottom or top of the page depending on your current theme and click it. Now enter "admin" in both the username and password fields and click the button. You will now see an admin menu appear. It has a link to the "Users" admin page. From there you can change the username and password.  Passwords are hashed by default so if you lose your password, please see the BlogEngine wiki for information on recovery.

Configuration and Profile

Now that you have your blog secured, take a look through the settings and give your new blog a title.  BlogEngine.NET 1.4 is set up to take full advantage of of many semantic formats and technologies such as FOAF, SIOC and APML. It means that the content stored in your BlogEngine.NET installation will be fully portable and auto-discoverable.  Be sure to fill in your author profile to take better advantage of this.

Themes and Widgets

One last thing to consider is customizing the look of your blog.  We have a few themes available right out of the box including two fully setup to use our new widget framework.  The widget framework allows drop and drag placement on your side bar as well as editing and configuration right in the widget while you are logged in.  Be sure to check out our home page for more theme choices and downloadable widgets to add to your blog.

On the web

You can find BlogEngine.NET on the official website. Here you'll find tutorials, documentation, tips and tricks and much more. The ongoing development of BlogEngine.NET can be followed at CodePlex where the daily builds will be published for anyone to download.

Good luck and happy writing.

The BlogEngine.NET team

More January sales on mortgages as Yorkshire Building Society cuts interest by up to 0.60% 

They must mean it when they say there are "signs of an increase in activity in the housing market", because Yorkshire Building Society are looking to welcome in thousands of new borrowers with a radically discounted mortgage line-up.

As well as across-the-board cuts in their interest rates, they've paid attention to mortgage product fees too: at £495 (or in some cases £0), chief executive Iain Cornish thinks their below-average fees could "help to make a big difference to customers". At a time when most competitors charge around £1,000, he's not kidding.

Highlights of the rate-cutting bonanza include:

• a 3-year fixed rate of 4.39% (≤75 per cent LTV, £495 fee) — that's 0.50% off the previous rate
• a 2-year tracker mortgage rate of 2.64% (BoE + 2.14%, ≤75 per cent LTV, £495 fee)
• Yorkshire BS's lowest ever fixed rate mortgage at 3.19% (≤75 per cent LTV) — only for 1 year, but the fee's just £195

The three-year option there is one of the best rate / fee packages on offer for borrowers with a 25 per cent deposit.  Remortgage customers get free legal and valuation fees, and all borrowers can take advantage of overpayments, underpayments and payment holidays.

Following our recent story about building societies raising their standard variable rates, it's good to see Yorkshire Building Society getting attention for setting a different and more mortgage-friendly trend. 

CEO reveals off-the-cuff statistic at meeting of Treasury select committee

RBS Group — the banking conglomerate that owns mortgage lenders Natwest, Royal Bank Of Scotland, Ulsterbank, First Active and Coutts & Co — claimed that it had stepped "into the breach" of UK mortgage lending since many other lenders had disappeared from the market.

Its chief executive Stephen Hester, speaking before a panel of MPs, described the bank as something of a safe haven for beleagured borrowers:

"[I]f you are someone in search of a mortgage, nine out of ten times we will sell this to you […] I think that is an appropriate statistic."

If that's really true, borrowers with 75 per cent loan to value ought to put this claim to the test and besiege RBS for one of their 3.75%, £299 fee, variable tracker mortgages with no tie-in period (i.e. you can be off again when rates do the inevitable).  Feel free to report back any experiences in the comments!

Spanish rebrand of Abbey and Bradford & Bingley branches ushers in new phase of mortgage competition

One of the first things Santander has done on introducing its name to the UK High Street is to introduce competitive two-year fixed rate mortgage deals.

As the first of 1,000 Abbey and Bradford & Bingley branch shopfronts puts up the new Santander sign, mortgage borrowers with 90 per cent loan to value will be able to walk in and request a two-year tracker with a £995 fee that charges only 4.99%.  

That's around 0.2% cheaper than the nearest competitors for that type of mortgage.

Meanwhile, Santander's 2-year fixed rate for borrowers with 75 per cent loan to value stands at 4.39%.  This is slightly more than the market average of 2-year fixed rates for those type of borrowers, which has recently fallen to 4.06%.  However, the Santander deal has no arrangement fee, making it a winner for some borrowers — particularly those with lower mortgage balances.

The might of the Spanish banking group has been focused on one thing: efficiency. From the outset, this certainly seems to be driving competitiveness. Will the government-supported big UK bank conglomerates be able to achieve enough similar efficiencies to compete?

A look at the good and bad guys when it's time to revert to your lender's standard rate.

Following yesterday's post on Standard Variable Rate (SVR) increases, we thought we'd round up the current highest and lowest revert-to rates we're aware of.

The range between the best and worst in the market is quite staggering — but then, these are (still) exceptional times. 

Best & Lowest Mortgage SVRs:

The following data is correct at time of publishing:

As you can see, some lenders followed the Bank Of England's movements and are still at 2% (a 'normal' kind of margin) above the base rate.  Their customers will be pleased to just sit tight at reversion time!

Worst & Highest Mortgage SVRs:

Meanwhile though, other lenders have acted as if nothing has happened in 12 months:

For an argument on why building societies are putting up SVRs, see yesterday's post. However, if you have one of these lenders' mortgages, you're not going to see the funny side of a standard variable rate nearly twelve times base rate.  Re-mortgage options might be a bit limited at the moment, but there's no harm in getting some advice!

Can you believe that some lenders are increasing their Standard Variable Rates at a time of static low bank rates?

Despite the Bank of England Base Rate (BoEBR) staying put at an all-time low of 0.5%, some lenders have increased their standard mortgage interest rates by as much as 1.49%.

Nationwide's change is the most remarkable, introducing a new 3.99% SVR for mortgages completed after 30th April 2009. Previously completed mortgages are still eligible for the bank's former SVR of 2.5%.  That's a big difference.

Accord Mortgages has increased its SVR by 0.65% to join a host of other lenders on 5.99%. The other lenders making recent increases have all been building societies: Cambridge BS (up by 0.59%), Ipswich BS (0.5%), Marsden BS (0.46%), Mansfield BS (0.35%), Scottish BS (0.25%) and Skipton Building Society (a bit more complicated).

How do you explain a move like this?

Increasing SVRs now, despite static base rates, could be a sign of lenders' frustration: a deliberate attempt to unsettle existing mortgage borrowers and prod them towards new deals.

The problem for lenders is inertia. 2009's drastic base rate cuts have resulted in lower SVRs, which in turn mean people don't want to re-mortgage. Existing borrowers find that when they come to the end of promotional interest rates (fixed, discount variable and so forth), the Standard Variable Rate they revert to is low enough for comfort. For mortgage holders with low equity, there's little incentive to apply for new deals as the likelihood of getting a better rate elsewhere may be non-existent.

Why does this inertia trouble lenders? After all, isn't their first priority to keep a customer base that steadily repays its loans and doesn't default on its debts?

The answer is surely the reliance of many lenders on mortgage fee income — they depend on people changing deals in order to charge profitable £999 arrangement fees per remortgage.

Another possible, less sinsister reason for the increases is to allow these building societies to attract funds from savers by raising their savings rates.  It's a competitive savings market, and shoring up the deposit base seems to be what matters.

Does this affect you if you're not with one of the societies mentioned? Not yet, although the concern is that this will now spark an across-the-board series of SVR rises. Borrowers whose monthly mortgage repayment amounts have been mercifully subdued by, for example, Lloyds TSB's 2.5% Standard Variable Rate, might find the big banks are tempted to follow suit, leading to higher monthly repayments for a lot more mortgage customers.