Archives > June 20, 2009

An Introduction to WordPress

By James Martell

You’ve no doubt heard of WordPress, but do you know what it is?

WordPress makes it extremely easy to add pages (articles, blog posts, about us, etc.), build photo galleries, work with writers, upgrade to a new version, track information and monetize.

According to the WordPress.org website...

"WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. (More than most commercial platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for anything from your cat's home page to a Fortune 500 web site without paying anyone a license."

The three main components of the WordPress system are as follows:

1. WordPress Core – Provides lots of great functionality;

2. WordPress Plugins – With over 5,500 plugins available, you can add extra features and functionality to your site;

3. WordPress Themes – Completely change the look of your website by choosing a new theme.

For a more technical explanation of WordPress, there is a great deal of information available on the website: http://www.wordpress.org.

Instead of focusing on the ‘technical’ aspects of the system, I’d like to take the time to share the many benefits of WordPress:

• Easy to install and set-up – It's easy to download and install the software script to get started. BlueHost makes it easy by offering a one-button installation.

• Easy to add extra functionality – WordPress themes make changes a breeze. Choose from a countless number of colors and designs.

• Easy to backup your website – There are WordPress plugins available that will automatically save a copy of your content, keeping you safe from data disasters.

• Easy to add video and audio – Again, WordPress offers plugins that will add video and audio content to your site in the click of a button.

• Easy to control spam – In addition to the spam blockers built in to WordPress, plugins offer added security.

On top of it all, when you get stuck, finding the solution to your problem is a breeze. The WordPress websites feature several troubleshooting guides, and with hundreds of thousands of users, the answers to your questions may just be a quick online search away.

Of course, in order to take advantage of this user-friendly system, you need an Internet connection, a web host (make sure PHP/MySQL is supported – even if it sounds like a foreign language to you), a domain name (www name), a theme, a few plugins, and an FTP program, which is just a tool used to upload information to the Internet.

If you are a business owner, there’s a good chance you already have most of this to-do list completed.

If you’re still weighing the pros and cons of branching out online, check out my article titled Small Business Owners Embrace the Internet, which appeared in the first edition of our May newsletter.

Happy blogging!

All the best,

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