If you have been into any blogging or site building related activities, you could have already heard of WordPress.
If you are completly new to wordpress, don’t worry because i will take you through the whole process of creating a website with wordpress without using any coding skills.
WHAT IS WORDPRESS
To begin with, wordpress is a free and open source software used to create websites. It provides you with free tools to not only create your site but also run it.
WordPress is a content management system(CMS) meaning that it controls the appearance and functionality of your website. To do so, it comes with free themes and plugins that you can auttomatically install via the wordpress dashboard.
With wordpress, one can create a dynamic website. This gives you the ability to access the backend of your website. By this you can easily update your website with a visual editor. You can easily create blog posts like you post on facebook.
HOW TO GET WORDPRESS
Automattic the company behind wordpress created two ways of accessing their software;
- WordPress.com. Here you can create a website with minutes by using the already hosted version of wordpress.
- WordPress.org. On wp.org you can download wordpress and upload it via ftp or you can install it via the cpanel using the softaculous installer.
WP.COM VS WP.ORG
How you will use wordpress depends on how you access it, thats the version you choose. So we will look at each version of wordpress, it pros and its cons.
WORDPRESS.COM
This is the hosted version of wordpress. It is hosted and managed by auttomatic on wordpress.com
To create a blog or website with wp.com, you will have to visit wordpress.com’s official site and go through the whole process of creating a website.
Depending on the website you are creating, this may take you less than 30 minutes. Below i will state the must dos;
- Visit wordpress.com
- Select a plan
- Choose a domain name
- Select your website niche
- Create an account with wp.com
Wp.com pros
- Secure. It is maintained by auttomatic
- Hosted. It comes with free hosting thats you dont have to buy hosting
- User friendly. It is easy to create and maintain a website with wp.com
- Free domain. You can get a free subdomain with wp.com.
- Free plan. Wp.com’s lowest plan is completly free for a lifetime.
Cons
- Expensive. Wp.com comes with some affordable plans but considering what you get, they can be a little bit expensive to begginers.
- Limited options. Wp.com is really limiting. You don’t get the room to customize your site neither can you improve its functionality. Uploading of themes and installation of plugins is not allowed unless you purchase one of their most expensive plans
WORDPRESS.ORG
Now this is where we get into the real stuff. Here you will hear words like; domain registration, web hosting, cpanel, nameservers, ftp and app installers.
These words should not scare you because you don’t need to know their meaning in the first place. The reason why we will have to go through this is because wp.org needs to be hosted online.
We have two ways of taking our software online:
- Uploading it via ftp. For this option we will download it from wordpress.org then upload it via ftp.
- Installing it via an app installer. For this one, we will auttomatically install the software via the Control panel provided by the webhost.
These two services are provided via the cpanel by the company hosting your website that is your webhost. Between these two options we will go for the automattic app installer i.e. softacolous because its quick and simple.
Before we proceed, there are two important things we have to do
- Register a domain name. We have to give our website an address, something like websitename.com.
- Buy hosting. We have to buy some space online where our website can be stored to be accessed via the internet.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
Assuming that you have registered a domain name, bought hosting and configured all the settings like pointing your domain nameservers to those of your webhost, now we can proceed.
Log into your cpanel with the details provided. Navigate to the tools and services section and select the softaculous app installer. It will return a list of other CMSs and softwares. Select WordPress.
In this section, you will be required to fill in some details. Most of this details will be used to create your admin account plus some few aspects of your website.
Make sure you add an email address where the installation details will be sent.After this, go to your email inbox or spam folder and open the email sent from softaculous.
Click the admin link. It will take you to wordpress login page. Enter your details,thats the user name and password you entered during the installation.
WELCOME TO WORDPRESS!
I hope you like the dashboard. Just take your time to get familiar with it. You can click the menu on the top left side of your dashboard to view more options.
Customising your website.
Now, lets make your website beautiful. Click menu, go to appearance, click and select themes. Here you will get a ton of free beautiful themes ready to be installed and activated with the click of a button.
Select the one that fits your niche could be, business,blogging, or E commerce. You can also upload a theme. You could have downloaded a theme you liked or purchased from a theme store like Evanto, template monster or theme forest.
To upload, click the upload button and choose the zip file you downloaded.install it and then activate it.
After activation, you can customize the colours, layouts or change the fonts of your theme. One can also add widgets on the widgetised areas.
Improving functionality
Lets make our website great. Go to the menu, select plugins then choose add new. First you will get a list of recomended plugins.
Below i will state some great plugins that you will need.
- Jetpack.
- Akismet
- Wordfence
- Yoast
With this 4 plugins, your site is safe. Now we can look at other plugins that you can use depending on your niche.
Here we will have 4 niches. Blogging, business, ecommerce and charity
Blogging
This niche requires plugins that will give the blogger a good writting and sharing experience i.e.
- Classic editor
- Add to any
Business
This niche needs plugins that can market your business
- Mailchimp or Aweber
- Captain form
- Vcita
- Rafflepress
E commerce
This needs plugins that can help yiu sell products online
- Woocommerce
- Paypal express
- Stripe or skrill
- Digital downloads
Charity
For this you need plugins that can collect donations
- Wp donate
- Charitable
- Wp give
WordPress.org pros
I would recommend anyone to go for wp.org and this are my reasons
- Affordable. It is 100% free and how much you spend depends on your choice. With wp.org, you dont need to upgrade to any plan.Considering the many free themes and plugins you get, wp.org can be considered to be more than free.
- Flexible. With wp.org you can upload as much plugins or themes as you want.
- Versatile. Create any kind of website with the surport of wordpress frameworks and highly customisable themes. You can also install a drag and drop sitebuilder to create beautiful pages for your site
Cons
- Not hosted. You will have to buy hosting for your wordpress site and also register a domain name.
- Maintance cost. The safety of your website is in your hands. Incase your site crashes, you will have to fix it if not hire an experienced webmaster. You will also need some basics on how to configure your hosting.
Regardless of the few cons of wp.org, i would still advice anyone to go for it. Why? Because they are easy to cope with. One best way to cope is to choose good hosting. Bluehost is the most recommended but if you are under a budget, you can choose lenasi affordable hosting.
We can help you
If you still find it hard to set up a wordpress site we can set it up for you. Its 100% free! You will just pay for the necessary purchases like hosting and domain registrations but the rest will be free. Just contact us.
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