WordPress, the most popular and versatile Content Management System today, was initially released with one purpose of blogging. As soon as it arrived, users couldn’t stop gushing praise about it, which eventually created a fad among the users. Today, WordPress enables bloggers to create an entire website for themselves, which can easily be updated and modified.
There are over 1 billion websites on the internet and the giant platform covers ~31% of the internet today. That number is incredible. It has evolved from a publishing platform to a user-friendly CMS.
WordPress is easier for every individual, even for a layman because of its short learning curve, which has led WordPress to become the most distinguished and widely used CMS today. While the world is using WordPress, others are pining for it and the rest of them are just oblivious to its abilities. It would be unfair to say if WordPress entirely vanquished Joomla and Drupal as they are two of the most used CMSs. But every developer would concede that WordPress is the easiest CMS out there.
The best way to learn WordPress is to use it and get used to it, so let’s get to know WordPress a little more.
WordPress.Com v/s WordPress.Org?
TBH, WordPress.Com & WordPress.Org, both are a bit daunting for new users. Simply put, WordPress.Org is self-hosted and WordPress.Com is a service managed by Automattic (the company behind WordPress). WordPress is like any other software that can be downloaded and installed on your internet server. However, setting up an internet server itself, is a hectic job for a naïve user. That is where WordPress.Com helps you!
It is hypothesized that WordPress.Org & WordPress.Com are same entities. However, they are significantly different.
With WordPress.com, you sign up, set-up your profile, choose a theme and start blogging. Voila! That’s easy! A major plus point is that Automattic is managing all the “other-things” for the user. Things like hosting the site, performing backups & maintenance, security, spam control and performance optimization, etc. will all be a part of their job and not yours. All these tasks can be pretty much burdensome when you’re busy running a business or creating content.
This brings us to WordPress.Org, where all the things listed above will solely be your part to play. You will have to find a host and do a bang-up job of finding and setting-up a server, hosting the website, security, themes, plugins and backups and the rest of the stuff, for there’s no one else to pay heed to it, giving you more power, control and authority over your website. With WordPress.Org, it is more like taming your own animal which has rather more potential and you have the control to unleash that. You can always choose between thousands and thousands of themes, plugins, structure your website as and when you want and even scale-up your WordPress installation based on your performance requirements.
Themes & Plugins
WordPress has ever-growing number of themes and plugins which makes your website look pleasing and adds special features to it. Our developer explains “Your WordPress website is an HTML skeleton until you put some skin and clothes to it using themes and plugins“. That’s a good perspective, though. Using a theme, everything from background color to font could be extensively customized which changes the website’s appearance.
The best part about it is that there are free as well as premium (paid) themes. The only difference between a free and a premium theme is that the latter provides more features and functionality plus support than a free theme. Free themes are built to cater to a specific purpose and are meant to be installed, activated and use them as is, typically with some kind of limitation. This is one reason why developers prefer premium themes over free themes.
A plugin, generally helps to fulfill the need of an added functionality to a website. In WordPress fashion, there are various plugins to help you add a plethora of features to your website. For instance, to make sure your website stays safe from potential spam, malware and other attacks, you may want to install a security plugin on your website. A website may require a name-your-fantasy feature, or a pop-up that’s when those plugins come to your rescue.
Power of WordPress
WordPress is multilingual and is available in more than 70 languages. Its one-click installation and upgrade is worth it. WordPress has an enthusiastic and open community where developers from around the world collaborate and enjoy discussions on its features. It’s an easy task to customize and change the appearance of your site using themes and plugins. The extensibility of WordPress has a vast horizon because of the various plugins available.
WordPress offers you the flexibility to create any kind of website not limited to blogging, photography or a personal website but a full-fledged website such as an eCommerce store, news or government website.
Publishing a post and creating a page are two tasks which can be performed effortlessly. WordPress provides the facility to create posts and schedule them, protect them with a password (if required) and what not. It lets you make your content public or private. When the website grows, there may be a need for multiple users to collaborate and manage it, in such a case, you can add and assign roles to users such as administrators, authors, editors, etc.
These are just the basics of WordPress and there is so much more to WordPress. Today, WordPress is not only a blogging tool, it has evolved into a platform which can help you power your business online and establish your online presence. And there is enough room for limitless opportunities when it comes to developing with WordPress.
Besides this, most of the brands like Time Inc., The New Yorker, LinkedIn, Sony Music, Forbes, etc. are already using WordPress to build and grow their businesses.
Are you using WordPress yet? If not, you’re missing out on something big. And for the ones who are into WordPress, your game is up and strong.
Happy Blogging!