WordPress Website Management 101
Hiya friends!
I’m so happy that you have stopped by my little corner of the interwebs and so very excited to resume blogging after a three year hiatus. This time my focus is shifting from the fantastic musings of a twenty something to free, high-value, instructional content for all you out there managing (or thinking of converting to) a WordPress website.
WordPress design and development have been a passion of mine since 2004 and over the years I have met many people who are really stoked to use the software yet have a few questions, are really intimidated, or sometimes just stuck and need a little advice. I’ve decided to start writing quick winks of support and advice on this blog to help folks out. I do offer professional WordPress design and management packages, but I firmly believe in empowering people to manage their sites as much or as little as they wish!
While you decide whether you should develop and manage your site on your own or hire me, you have evidence in these blog posts that I stand by my word. All you need to do is decide if my professional packages are right for you or whether this content was all the support you needed!
I’ll start my WordPress Wink with a series called WordPress Website Management 101 which will primarily be how-tos for managing your own WordPress.org, self-hosted website. If you want help with your WordPress.com hosted site, please check out their groovy support page!
Today’s topic: What is WordPress?
WordPress is (in my opinion) the best CMS (content management software) available. It’s free, open-source, easy to use, and is backed by the most amazing community of developers. Using WordPress as your content management system means that you can manage your website content easily without having to have a computer engineering degree.
You can download it for free and install it on your own web server (most reputable hosting companies have an automated install process these days, so check with your hosting provider first) OR if you’re not ready for the investment of a web server, you can have it hosted for free at WordPress.com
What’s the difference?
Good question! The major difference is where your website is hosted. With WordPress.org, you download the software and install it on the server of your choice – you are in charge of managing that server which comes with benefits and responsibilities. With WordPress.com, the software is installed on their servers, you don’t have to manage anything and you have a lot less control over the management of your server. Your choice totally depends on what your needs are.
Choose WordPress.org if you need any of the following:
- Your own domain name
- Email at your own domain name
- A custom, professional theme (more on themes later)
- An e-commerce site (more on selling online later)
- Custom plugins (more on plugins later)
- Access to your site’s code
- Access your site’s database
I created this free content to support you in deciding what direction you want to go in with your WordPress website. Still have questions? Check out my professional packages!
See you next Wednesday for my Weekly WordPress Wink! I’m going to talk about (drumroll, please) the DASHBOARD! Please note, these tutorials are going to primarily cover how-to manage your website using the self-hosted WordPress.org. If you want help with your WordPress.com hosted site, please check out their support page!