First you will need to decide on what type of website you want.  What will you use the site for?

• To promote your business
• To sell your products or services
• To sell other peoples products or services
• For non-profit such as a church or charitable organization
• Just for fun or as a hobby

If your new site will not be just for fun and you are serious about it then those free sites where everything is provided for you are not recommended.

Next you’ll need to decide if you want to make your website yourself or you want to hire someone else to do it.  Even if you plan to hire someone I suggest that you learn, at least, the basics of doing it yourself.

This will assure that if you need to make a quick change or update to your site that you are able to do so.  Also, if you hire someone you’ll want to know what you are talking about.  You want to be sure that you get the type of site that you really want and that you the designer doesn’t take advantage of you.

To build a real website or blog you’ll need three things to start with and they are…

1)  A domain name

2)  A hosting account

3)  Website building software

It also takes a little bit of money to start a real website.  The domain name will cost you about $12 per year.  The hosting account will cost around $10 per month and website building software usually goes from $100 to $400, but the software that I’m going to tell you about is actually FREE!  This is not to be confused with the “everything is included free website solutions”.  The problem with those is that you don’t actually own the site.  They can place unwanted ads on your site and if they don’t like what you put on your site or it’s used for any type of commercial purposes they can take your site down without notice.

The most difficult part of building your first website is learning how to use the website building software.  Many people think it’s overwhelming to start a website or that it takes weeks or months to learn how to do it.  The truth is, it’s now easier than ever to make your first website and anyone can learn how to do it very quickly.  That is if you do it “the easy way”.  The easy way to make a website is by using a piece of software called WordPress.  See my post What is WordPress.

It’s also important to choose the right domain name, the right type of hosting and the right type of WordPress software (hint, there are two types).  If you would like free access to 7 short video tutorials that will show you exactly how to have your first website online in less than two hours just add your name and email address to the form in the top, right sidebar.

What is WordPress? I get asked this question quite often.   WordPress is an easy way for the average person to create their own blog or website without becoming a web developer or learn lots of code.  It’s actually a piece of free software and once it’s installed your site is, pretty much, built for you.   You can also modify the look and design of the site again without messing with the code.

Due to the fact that it’s free and easier to use than just about any other type of web design software it’s become incredibly popular.   According to the creators of WordPress there are over 25 million WordPress sites online today.

One of the great benefits of using WordPress is the ability to switch themes.  By changing theme you can instantly change the entire look, colors, and fonts of your website with one click.  And there are literally thousands of themes that you can get for free.

There are even premium themes that you can get which are related to specific professions or businesses.  For example, if you are a wedding planner, a photographer, a chiropractor, a musician, a real estate agent etc., there are themes available specifically related to your needs.

Along with themes you have the ability to add plugins and widgets.  These add to the functionality of your site.  It’s similar to adding apps to an iPhone.  For example, if you wanted to add a contact form to your site so customers could contact you.  It would be pretty difficult to do if you had to code it in HTML, but with WordPress there is a plugin for that.  You simply upload it and activate it and you have a contact form.  Or let’s say you want one of those fancy featured slide shows well there is a plugin for that too.

There are plugins for Facebook and Twitter integration, in fact,  just like with themes there are thousands of plugins available that can make WordPress do just about anything you want.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, WordPress sites are extremely search engine friendly by default and there are even optimization plugins that can help you achieve even higher rankings in the search engines.

Now, I should point out that there are two types of WordPress.  WordPress.com and WordPress.org.  They are both created by the same company, but there are some significant advantages to using one over the other.  With WordPress.com your domain name includes the words WordPress.com in it.

Hosting is provided by WordPress so there is no charge for it; however they reserve the right to place ads on your site.  If you plan to use your site for business or any commercial purposes you don’t want other people placing ads on it unless they benefit you specifically.  Also at WordPress.com you are limited as to what you can do with your site.  They have lots of rules and if they don’t like your site for any reason at all they can immediately take it down.

You are also limited as to which themes and plugins that you use.  You can’t just install any theme or plugin that you want.  If you want to use your site for business or you are serious about a hobby that could turn into an income producing site then the software from WordPress.org is the one that I recommend.  The main reason for this is because with WordPress.org you own your website.  You can do whatever you want with it, as long as it’s legal, and no one can take it away from you.  You would purchase your own domain name and hosting and build your site the way you want it.  No one can put ads on it unless you want them to and you get paid for it.

So the real answer to the question, “What is WordPress” is it’s a piece of software that makes it easy for the average person to build their own website or blog without hiring a professional webmaster.  If you want to build and maintain your own website or blog and you don’t want to spend months learning how to design or code your site then WordPress is your best choice.

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It’s EASY to learn

With WordPress getting a web presence online is easier than it’s ever been.  You can build websites and blogs without being a coder, a graphic designer or a webmaster.  I’ve been designing my own websites since 1998 and I’ve used several different web design solutions.

WordPress is, by far, the easiest web design and blogging software that I’ve used.   It enables you to spend your time focusing on the content of your site instead of spending all your time learning how to build the site.

Unless you want to be a website developer or designer for a living you don’t want to spend months learning how to hand code or use expensive Web design software.  With WordPress you can make beautiful Websites and blogs without learning code or graphic design.  In fact, with the right WordPress tutorial you can have you first site up, running and looking great in about a day!

It’s FREE to Use!

The WordPress software is free that is.  You’ll still need to pay a small fee for website hosting and a domain name.  When you use the WordPress software that’s provided by WordPress.org you can use it free of charge to build any type of personal or commercial site.

Usually, when website design software or a service is free you are required to place ads on your site and this is the last thing that you want when you plan to use your site for commercial purposes; however, with the WordPress.org software there are “no strings attached”.  Compare this to professional web design software like DreamWeaver which is around $400.00 and takes months to learn and you’ll see why WordPress is becoming so popular.

You should also be aware that there is another type of WordPress that is essentially a service. It’s provided by the creators of WordPress.  This service is located at WordPress.com and this type of WordPress is not recommended for sites with any type of commercial intent.  See my blog post here…WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com.

It Uses Themes

This gives WordPress a tremendous advantage over traditional web design software.  Themes are a form of template that controls the entire look and layout of the site.  They are created by graphics designers and web developers so they look great and there is no shortage of free and also premium paid themes online.

They take seconds to install or change so if you don’t really like the look of your site after it’s up and running you can easily switch out the theme for a new one in a matter of seconds.  Themes are also independent of your content (articles, videos, images, posts and pages), this means that if you want to change your theme six months down the road you can do so and all of your articles, posts, pages, etc. will still be there.

It Uses Plugins 

Plugins are similar to aps on a smart phone.  They are little programs that extend the functionality of WordPress for your specific needs.  For example, let’s say you want add an contact form on your site so visitors can contact you.  With traditional web design software you needed to work with complex code to make any type of form.  Now there is a simple plugin that will do all of the hard work to create the form for you and place it on your site.

There are even plugins that help your site rank higher in the search engines.  In fact, there are plugins that can make WordPress do almost anything you want it to and like themes, there is an abundance of free and paid plugins available. You just download them to your site, activate them and you are usually good to go.  I say usually because some plugins require you to choose some settings.

The Search Engines Like it

The search engines like well-structured sites because they provide a good user experience.  WordPress is search engine friendly as soon as you install it.  It works with pages, posts, categories, tags and easy navigation menus to keep everything well organized. The search engines reward the organization with higher rankings.

There is a Large WordPress Community 

If you have a problem there lots of places to find help.  With over 25 million other WordPress users you’ll be part of a huge community.  There are lots of forums and tutorials online dedicated to WordPress.  One of the best places to find help is the WordPress Support Forums.

Build Your First Website or Blog TODAY!

WordPress is a blogging and content management  software and yes, there are two types.  WordPress.com is a blogging platform and your site would be hosted for free on the their servers.

With WordPress.org the software is still free, but your site is self-hosted with a paid hosting service such as  HostGator for example.

This information is very important because you don’t want to spend weeks or months building a blog or website on the wrong platform for your purposes.

Both are free to use and in functionality, both platforms are very similar, but there are some very important differences.

Here are my top 5 reasons for choosing to use
Wordpress.org for your online business
over WordPress.com

1. You own it. You can do anything you want with it (assuming it’s legal of course).  With the .com version they own it.  Your site is on their servers.  They control what you can do with it and if they don’t like what you’ve done they can… take it down.  Simple commercial activity can be considered spam.  This means weeks, months or even years of work could suddenly disappear.
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2. You can upload themes. You can choose from hundreds of themes online that you can download and use for free.  You can also purchase premium themes and even design your own themes.  With the .com version you have to use one of their 70+ themes.  You can modify the theme, but you can’t run a custom theme.  This means that your blog will probably look like thousands of others using the same theme.
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3. You can upload plugins and widgets. These add functionality and can enhance the design of your site.   The .org version provides unlimited flexibility and customization options.  You have complete control over the look and feel of your site.   You can even change the underlying PHP code if you know how.
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4. You can run ads on your site. In fact, there is no restrictions on monetization. With the .com version they don’t allow you to run ads on your site because  they can run their own ads on it.  You can’t really blame them for that though, it’s how they keep the service free.
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5. You can have your own domain name and domain email address.  The standard domain name on the .com version looks like this:  http://johndoe.wordpress.com.   You can have your own domain name with the .com version, if you pay an upgrade fee.  I think it’s $15 per year.

So the bottom line is if you just want to build a practice site, a hobby site that you don’t plan to monetize, or a special interest site on a topic that you just like to talk about then the .com version may work out ok for you.  On the other hand if you are planning to build a business or become a serious blogger then I strongly recommend going with WordPress.org.  For the best WordPress training online check out the WordPress Crash Course Videos link on the right hand side of this page.

John P

P.S.  If you choose the .org version it is just the type of software that you’ll be using.  It does not mean you would have .org at the end of your domain name.