If you work from home or are trying to get that elusive first
project, creating a professional website is an important step. As a home for
your business, your website can showcase your skills, provide details of your
experience, and give potential clients and customers a convenient way to get in
touch.
What's more, being able to create or work with a website is a
useful skill in itself. For many people that work at home, the ability to get a
website up and running is an additional service that can be sold to your
existing clients.
You don't need to spend a fortune getting a website developed
for you. You can do it yourself, even if you have never had any experience.
Thankfully, there is a secret - WordPress. WordPress is a free system that
streamlines and simplifies the process of web development and, as you will find
out, can still be flexible enough for just about any website imaginable.
What Does WordPress Do Besides Blogging?
Many people have heard of WordPress, but do not understand the
full capabilities of the system. Most people think that WordPress is a platform
for blogging when, in fact, it is far more than that.
Today, WordPress has grown into what would be called a content
management system, or CMS. A CMS is a tool to store all of the information
required for your website and present it to your visitors in a professional,
organized way. Other content management systems include Joomla and Drupal, but
the reality is that WordPress is the easiest to understand, the easiest to work
with, and the most easily adaptable.
Let's look at - in simple terms - how exactly WordPress works
once it is installed:
·
You access a convenient WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) interface to securely work with all of the content on your website
·
You can create new web pages in a variety of formats
·
The content that you create is stored in a database
·
You can use the same interface to edit your content in the
database
·
When visitors access your website, the information in the
database is presented to them in a website layout. You can change this layout
at any time and your content will automatically adopt the right look
In technical terms, WordPress is fairly advanced. In the nine
years since the platform first launched, this advanced functionality has been
used in all kinds of exciting ways.
Why Should You Use WordPress?
You may be wondering why people choose WordPress as their CMS.
The answer is because WordPress can make just about anything that you want to
do easier, quicker and more convenient!
Press agency Reuters uses WordPress to keep journalists up to
date with the latest news as it happens. Music streaming service Spotify powers
its entire website with WordPress.
WordPress makes creating, editing and organising your content
simple and, as a result, less time-consuming. That gives you more time to focus
on other areas of your business. WordPress also gives you the chance to get a
professional design to make your website look great - often free of charge.
The best way to see how WordPress streamlines setting up your
website is to try it for yourself. WordPress is easy to install on your web
hosting or, if you sign up on the WordPress website, you can explore its
features with no set-up required.
There are a few different ways to get started with WordPress,
depending on your budget, your expertise and whether you use a web hosting
service.
If you are just trying out WordPress and do not have your own
web hosting, visit signup.wordpress.com and sign up for a free account. You
will be guided through the entire process of creating your WordPress site,
which will be stored on the WordPress servers for you. It is also possible to
pay for a custom domain name (the address of your website) during the sign-up
process.
Alternatively, if you already have a web hosting plan that
supports PHP and MySQL, you can install your own WordPress on your server. This
can be done by visiting WordPress.org and downloading the necessary files. The
website also offers a convenient guide to installing WordPress in 5 minutes.
Finally, see if your web hosting provider offers an automatic
script installer such as Softaculous. If so, you will be able to log in from
your web hosting control panel and install WordPress in just a few clicks.
Finding A Great Theme
Once WordPress is up and running, you will need to log in with
the details that you chose during set-up - usually at yourdomain.com/wp-admin. You
will see the WordPress dashboard, a control panel that lets you work with your
website, and a range of different menu items on the left-hand side. A good
place to start is by selecting a theme, under the Appearance menu.
Using the 'Install Themes' tab at the top of your screen, you
can explore an extensive database of layouts and designs for your website. From
conventional business layouts to distinctive and unusual looks, there are
currently 1,607 themes available. After finding one that you like, installing
is as easy as clicking the 'Install Now' button.
As well as these free WordPress themes that are available from
within your control panel, many websites offer a great selection of themes -
some of which are free, and some of which are 'premium' themes that incur a
charge. If you are just getting started with WordPress, a free theme is a good
choice. Of course, paying for a premium theme guarantees high quality, good
performance, and continued support from the theme developers.
For professional WordPress themes, check out these websites:
·
ThemeForest
·
WooThemes
·
GetYourThemes
Once you have installed your theme, you will be able to
conveniently customize it to suit your specific requirements. You can do this
using Widgets.
Using Widgets
Many people choose WordPress because there are so many
professional-looking themes available for it. However, it can be useful to
tweak your chosen theme to make it more individual.
When a developer creates a theme, he will name specific areas of
the layout that you can customize. For example, you may be able to change the
menu at the top of your layout, a sidebar that runs down the side of every
page, or the footer.
Under the Appearance menu on your WordPress control panel,
select the Widgets option. On the right, you will see a list of the different
areas of your theme that you can customize. On the left, there is a range of
included widgets that you can simply drag and drop into the relevant section.
Standard WordPress widgets include Links to other websites, an
automatic list of your Pages, and a calendar of when Posts have been published.
You can also install other Widgets free of charge, in the form of Plugins.
Use Widgets to personalize your theme. Once you are happy, it is
time to start thinking about the most important thing of all - your content.
Pages And Posts
A common obstacle for people that are new to WordPress is the
distinction between two similar types of content - Pages and Posts. Whenever
you want to publish something on your website, you will need to decide whether
it is a Page or a Post and select the appropriate option.
Originally, WordPress only offered the ability to create Posts -
a term that is short for Blog Posts. Posts are content items that are
time-specific and, when they are created, they have the current time and date
attached to them. Creating a new Post causes two things to happen:
·
An individual web page is created with the content of your
post
·
Your post is added to a single page that collects together
each individual post
This is perhaps clearer as an example - let's imagine you have a
blog section on your website, at yourdomain.com/blog. When you publish a new blog
post, a single page will be created - for example, this could be yourdomain.com/blog/my-post-name. But, at the same time, your blog post
will be added to the central page at yourdomain.com/blog, giving your visitors the chance
to see all of your most recent posts in one convenient place.
Posts are also added to your website's RSS feed - more on that
in our next article on advanced WordPress tips. Pages, on the other hand, are
static items that do not have a date attached to them. They are the pages of
your website that stand alone, offering general information about your
business.
If you're still unsure, ask yourself this question before you
create your content - is this something
that will stand alone (a Page), or something that is part of a section of the
website that I will update regularly (a Post)?
Explore And Learn On The Fly
You now understand the concepts of WordPress, including what it
can do, common terminology, and why you should be using WordPress to build your
site. So start exploring!
The great thing about WordPress is that it is intuitive and easy
to use. Anything that you create can be deleted or edited with ease, so the
best advice is to check the menu options included in your control panel and
start working on your content right now.
Once you've made a start, be sure to read our next article on
making the most of your WordPress installation to create a website that really
stands out from the crowd.
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