What Is WordPress?
WordPress remains the most popular way to create a website or blog. Over 40% of websites are built using WordPress.
WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System), this may sound complicated but, it is just a way of managing the different parts of your website content, images, post, and pages.
By managing all of your content WordPress makes it easy to concentrate on building a website.
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What is a WordPress Website?
Any website that uses WordPress to control the backend content of a website can be considered a WordPress website
You may never really consider what is going on in the background when running a website until something goes wrong.
WordPress also controls the front end of your website (the part is visible to viewers on the net).
WordPress has many different page builders to make designing differing websites simpler.
What is WordPress used for?
There are very few restrictions to what a WordPress website can be used for.
- Blog – this is the type of website typically associated with a WordPress website.
Blogs were often used for documenting personal interests. A blog can now encompass everything from recipes, interior design, hobbies, and pretty much everything else.
- Portfolio – WordPress is a perfect platform for displaying the portfolio from artists, photographers, or graphic designers.
- Business – WordPress is an excellent choice for many businesses.
The simple interface of the WordPress dashboard makes it easy for business owners to produce and update their website content.
- Forum – Forum websites can run with a WordPress website. Forums are a great way of engaging your users.
- E-Commerce – Having the ability to have an e-commerce aspect to your website is excellent. WordPress has many plugins or addons that make e-commerce a simple proposition.
- E-learning website – Online training courses are possible with the WordPress plugins available. WordPress is an excellent choice for allowing students access to resources and educational material.
- Membership website – Another website type is possible with additional plugins. WordPress can easily make it possible to charge for membership access to content.
What is WordPress used for? Pretty much everything., the beauty of the WordPress platform is its expandability through plugins.
What’s The Difference Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
WordPress.org
When most people refer to WordPress they are generally talking about WordPress.org.
The WordPress software is free for everyone to use, but you need to pay to have somewhere to host it and also a domain name.
WordPress.org does not supply hosting or a domain. This is why wordpress.org is often referred to as self-hosted WordPress.
As you are hosting WordPress on your own servers you have almost total freedom to use WordPress however you want.
You can use choose how your site looks through thousands of themes and plugins.
- Total Flexibility
- Can work out cheaper.
- Steeper learning curve.
WordPress.com
Automattic is the company that owns WorpPress.com, they offer free and paid plans. The free plan has limited themes and plugins, this considerably limits what WordPress can do.
The free plan has the advantage of a free subdomain. Meaning your site will be part of the WordPress main domain (e.g yoursitename.wordpress.com).
Personally, l would use the free plan to get a feel for WordPress in general.
WordPress.com also has paid plans which enable extra themes and plugins. The paid plans also include your own domain, which they will set up for you.
The convenience of a paid WordPress.com account has to be weighed against the fact that cheaper deals are out there.
- Hassle free setup
- Free plans are very restricted
- Cheaper hosting and domain registration can be found elsewhere.
Should I use wordpress.org or wordpress.com?
If you are a WordPress beginner then using a wordpress.com free plan could be a good idea
If you are a beginner and are wondering what is WordPress all about, then a free plan on WordPress.com could be a risk-free way of testing the waters.
If you put a high value on convenience and ease of use, the paid plans on WordPress.com could also be a good choice.
WordPress.org is the choice for most WordPress users because it offers maximum flexibility.
Setting up hosting and purchasing a domain name may seem daunting but most hosting companies will also register a domain name and even install WordPress for you.
Now you have a better idea about what is WordPress? and what it can do. Now you may need to think about choosing your niche in the market.
