WordPress Crash Course

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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.