If you’re reading this, you’re on the right track. You’ve stopped making excuses for not creating a website and making money with it, and now you’re looking for information on how to start and you see that everyone talks about the same thing: WordPress. But what exactly is WordPress?
I still remember when I myself had no idea what it was, and I just listened to the people around me talk about creating websites with WordPress.
I, who had studied some web programming and knew how fucked up it was to create a web from scratch by picking code, saw how everyone created enviable fucking websites with incredible ease.
What was going on? How could those cool designs be made? Were they all programming cracks?
No.
They were using WordPress.
A new world opened up to me. A world of illusions, hope, and flying unicorns.
The same world that I hope will open up to you after reading this post.
Well, let’s get it over with and get to what you’re interested in: what is WordPress?
What is WordPress and what is it for?
WordPress is a content manager that is used to create and manage all types of web pages in a very simple way.
This would be the short explanation of what WordPress is, but you probably stayed the same as at the beginning. So let’s go a little deeper.
WordPress was created in 2003 with the idea that everyone would have a platform at their fingertips to create their own blog to communicate and share information with others.
Over the years it has not stopped updating until today, ceasing to be a platform intended solely for blogs, to become a platform capable of creating any type of web: blog, corporate web, personal web, online store … and in short, almost any type of web you can imagine.
Currently, it is estimated that about 25% of Internet websites are created with WordPress. In other words, 1 out of 4 websites are made with WordPress.
If you want to read more statistics about WordPress, you can take a look at this link.
And best of all… IT’S FREE!
And how is it possible to create such different websites?
Thanks to the themes or templates and plugins.
What are themes or templates
Templates, also called themes, by the most cools, are files that change the appearance of a website.
When you install WordPress, it comes with three default installed themes, from which you can choose for your website.
There are thousands of themes you can choose to install on your website, and thanks to them you can give it the look you want and transform it to fulfill one purpose or another. Here I leave my favorite topics if you want to keep an eye on them.
There are free and paid. Although if you want to create a professional website, it is always advisable to invest in a paid one, as it will have a better finish, will be better optimized and depending on the subject, you will have more customization options than with a free one.
What are plugins?
Plugins are tools that add extra functionality (which does not come by default in WordPress) to a website. In this post you can see more info about WordPress plugins.
Like the themes, there are thousands of plugins that you can install on your website, both free and paid.
What extra functionalities can you give to a website?
For example, from adding buttons to share on social networks or subscription forms, setting up backups on the web, making it load faster… to creating pages by dragging and dropping elements, turning the web into an online store, or making a membership site where you have to pay to see private content.
So, as you can see, thanks to WordPress, the themes and plugins, you can make almost any type of web you need.
Why WordPress is going to improve your life
You know what WordPress is and what it’s for, and if you’ve come this far, it’s probably because you’re interested in creating a website. But you may not yet be aware of the advantages of using it for your project.
The first thing you need to know is that WordPress is designed for people who have no idea of programming, or anything related to the most advanced computing.
If you don’t want to, you won’t have to write, modify or delete a single line of code.
Others have already done that for you.
All you have to do is install it, choose a theme you like, and start creating pages and blog entries.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t modify the code.
If it were the case that you needed to remove or add some extra function or further customize your website, you are completely free to do so if you know some programming (PHP and CSS above all).
Because customization starts by choosing a topic you like, but the limit is your programming knowledge.
But well, you’re here because you want to know what WordPress is, and not to talk about programming.
And not only that, but adding new content and new features will be a breeze.
Do you know how to use Word? Open Office? WordPad? or any other WYSIWYG text editor?
Then to write new pages and entries for your blog you will have it by the hand in 5 seconds, since WordPress has a text editor in which you will be able to write, add titles, format texts, insert images, add links, etc, as if you were writing in any program I just mentioned.
Do you know what a pain it is to create new pages by chopping code?
Uff…
With WordPress all this is easier than taking a candy from a child, as Mr. Burns would say.
Now let’s see the main advantages of WordPress that will make your life better.
Advantages of using WordPress for your website
- Easy to install, update and use: In less than 2 minutes you have WordPress installed on your hosting ready to start working with your website. Updating it is a matter of a single click, or even automatically, depending on the hosting you contract. And in addition, its ease of use will make you move around it in a few hours as if you were at home.
- Blog function: you can create a blog for your website in a minute in a very easy way. All the entries you publish will be automatically shown on it, you can add categories and tags to them, and people who read your articles can leave comments on it.
- Extreme customization: You have a huge variety of themes to customize your website, and if you still want to customize it further, you can add your own CSS styles.
- Almost infinite expansion of its functionality: thanks to the available plugins, you can add a lot of extra functionalities to your website, being able to achieve almost any purpose you want.
- It adapts to all devices: the vast majority of available themes are responsive, that is, they adapt to all devices so that it looks just as good on your computer, tablet or smartphone.
- Made to please Google: WordPress is programmed in a way that makes it irresistible to Google and other search engines, especially if you publish periodically on your blog. This is good to get visibility and that people find your website when they do a search related to the topic you deal with in it. Come on, what is known as SEO onpage.
- Easy to monetize your website: when you have achieved a good number of visits, you can monetize your website in a simple way, either adding advertising on it, promoting products or services, or even offer your own.
What types of web pages you can do with WordPress
When I explained to you before what WordPress is, I gave you a brushstroke of the kind of pages you can make with it, but let’s look at it a little more in depth.
Blog
It was the main function when it was created and is still its most well-known and prominent function today.
You can publish entries (or posts) and they will be seen one after the other in the main page of the blog, and in them, the users will be able to leave comments.
Also, depending on the topic, you have available one or two sidebars in which to add different widgets (modules) to show in them useful things, such as the latest blog entries, a word search engine, buttons to follow you in social networks, and so on.
Informative Web
If you have to make a website of a company, organization, etc, where you show information about what it does, what services or products it offers, what is its location, add a contact form, etc, with WordPress you will have it sucked.
There are many specific themes to create this type of websites, but one that stands out among all is Divi, a fully customizable theme with which you can leave the web completely to your liking. Ideal for people who do not want to complicate life.
Corporate or personal website with blog
Like the previous one, but completing it with a blog where you can publish entries related to the theme of the company.
The same if instead of a company, you are a freelance professional where you want to offer your services and have a blog in which to publish articles related to your profession.
If this is your case, you can also take a look at the Divi theme, perfect for creating this type of websites. In fact, it’s the one I use in the web of your life.
Online shop
There is a lethal combination to turn your website into an online store, which is WordPress plus the Woocommerce plugin.
There are several plugins that transform your website into an online store, but the best known and used is WooCommerce.
With WooCommerce, you will have all the functionalities you need to manage an online store: upload products, add payment and shipping methods, manage orders and customers …
In addition, there are lots of specific plugins to increase the functionality of WooCommerce, in case you need to do something other than what the plugin itself offers. You can see here how to create an online store with this plugin.
Other types of webs
The ones mentioned above are the most common types of websites that can be done with WordPress, but it doesn’t end there.
Thanks to the tremendous amount of themes and plugins you can install, you can turn your website into almost anything. Among others, these are some of the websites you can do thanks to them:
A social network with the BuddyPress plugin, a forum with the bbPress plugin, an online academy to make courses with LearnPress, a price comparator with the WP-comparator plugin, a dating search engine with the Online Dating theme or a web directory with the Website Directory theme, both developed by PremiumPress, and so on.