Are you excited about being directly involved in building and maintaining your own website? If so, WordPress may be for you.
WordPress has fast become the most popular website building and blog platform for small businesses and individuals. What started out just as a blogging application has grown with extensive plugin extensions and themes to a powerful tool for building dynamic websites. The keyword here is "dynamic" and there is a price to be paid for that feature. That price is a learning curve and a commitment by the site owner to learn and do the work.
Your initial excitement can quickly be dashed as you struggle to figure out the best way to get started. You have three major hurdles to climb before you can feel confident that you are on your way:
- How do I get WordPress?
- How do I make it look the way I want?
- What else do I need?
We will tackle the first step in this article. You have a number of options for getting WordPress. The first point is that you don't really "get" WordPress; you either have it installed or you subscribe to a service that provides a WordPress site. The following outlines hour options:
Subscribing to a Service
The most direct way is to go to WordPress.com and create an account for a free WordPress website. Within 5 minutes you can have it running. The downside of this service is that there are limited themes (designs) and very limited plugins. Most of the upgrades have a monthly or yearly cost attached. The plus side is you don't have to maintain anything, it is all done for you. So if your needs are very simple, this is a good option.
Do-it-yourself
You can go to WordPress.org and download the software and install it yourself. WordPress has some very extensive install documents so if you are technically inclined, it is not that hard.
Hosting Service Installation
Many hosting services have WordPress as either a standard option or as an enhancement option. They have an install wizard that sets everything up for you. This is great with a few limitations: First it may not be the latest version -, it is up to you to check on that. Next because of that version issue, many themes or plugins may not work unless you upgrade.
Installation Service
Many web development companies provide installation services. It is usually advertised on their website. Pricing can vary a lot so you need to fully understand what you are getting
Choose the options that best meet your needs, time, resources and skill level and remember that WordPress is a hands-on website. Now that you know how to get started, you can explore the possibilities.
Enjoy
