Most people use the default Story/Article content type and vary it with Blog postings.
Set up your common content types. These are in four places.
Administer->Content Management->Content Type-> each content type you use
- Comments (if you rely on the permissions, just enable them in all cases; the reason for disabling is to funnel all discussion and comments to a central place instead of scattering them around).
- Workflow settings -- Publishing options (default is to publish for most people).
Administer->Site Configuration->IMCE
- You may have to set up or customize user profiles.
- Assign roles to user profiles. This is where you set the upload file size limits and types, as well as the directories for uploads.
Administer->Site Configuration->Input Formats
- Set roles that can use Full HTML (this include image uploads inside stories).
Administer->Content Management->Taxonomy
- Set up your terms and under Settings choose Required and Multiple Select so that at least one term is necessary. I don't choose Tags because then anyone can create any term and it becomes a mess in no time at all. Make certain to allow any content type you might like to use taxonomy.