Before WordPress, when someone wants to create a website, it can only be possible through two things. Hire a programmer or a web developer. Which literally can cost a hundred to a thousand bucks. The best news is. it is not like that today anymore, those days are over! Now, anyone can make and publish a website they made themselves.
WordPress is the most popular website publishing program in the whole world. Making up 40% of the websites on the internet. That’s a lot of websites!
Read to know more about WordPress, how to make a website using WordPress, and what is better for you; .com or org?
What is WordPress?
In 2003, WordPress was created by American developer Matt Mullenweg and English developer Mike Little. And ever since, it has been one of the best things and breakthroughs that happened on the internet.
WordPress is a free software that helps people build and publish all kinds of websites. For free! One of the best parts is that it has no coding is involved and fast and efficient, easy to use. Thank the heavens for website building with no coding!
WordPress is history! It changed the website-making game, and made up 40% of internet websites!
Imagine, before (which feels like the World War II era), you have to do coding and it will be interpreted as colors or shapes. But now, WordPress does the hard work for you!
That is why it is a no-brainer why it makes up 40% of the websites on the internet. From small to medium-sized enterprises up to big corporations, it is built on WordPress. They are not playing!
One of the many best things about this is that even though it is technically the most popular content management system around the world that offers straightforward tools, it is *drum roll please* free!
Yes! You can use WordPress to make websites and publish them for free! So continue reading to learn so much more!
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the best choice for you if you want absolute control over your website. But, there are some premises to it. You have to buy your own domain, control the plugins, themes, edit your website’s code, security and etc. WordPress.org is free of charge, whereas everything else involved in running a website costs money.
WordPress.com on the other hand is the best one for you if you are looking for something efficient, easy, and fast! Most of the hard work is already done for you. You will not have to deal with the stress of managing your servers, paying for your hosting, or buying a domain. Plus, there are also some options with a WordPress.com plan for customization. Make your website look how you want it!
WordPress.com can be used for free or paid. If you choose the free one, you will not be able to install plugins or upload these and you will have a subdomain “WordPress”. But, you always have the option of paying for professional upgrades or other packages that give you even more capabilities and management capacities. You can also choose to purchase a unique domain via a third-party website.
Which one do I choose?
.com
WordPress.com is where you go when you want to start a blog or a website with Webhosting, but here are a few downsides that affect you big times in terms of making a website :
- Your website can be easily deleted once WordPress feels like you violated their terms
- You can’t monetize ads on your website
- No plugins available
- No customizable theme, just their available theme choices
- The domain you will use is not your own domain name, it will be “yourdomain.wordpress.com”
If you want to make your very first website without limits and using your own domain, you can use wordpress.org which means you will be self-hosted and you can download their free software
.org
Here are the benefits of wordpress.org that you can’t access on wordpress.com and may be the reasons why you are choosing this one.
- You will use your own domain name. because you will have to but that
- You have access to thousands of plugins
- Unlike from the .com, here you can monetize our website with ads
- You can create an online store
- And you have customization control over your website
How to create a website with WordPress.com?
How to create a website with WordPress.org?
Why Choose WordPress?
There are a lot of options aside from WordPress such as Squarespace, Drupal, and Joomla. And each of them is different in its own way. But here are the reasons why WordPress is so famous and why you should choose it
Requires Zero Experience!
This is definitely one of the best and biggest reasons why WordPress is famous and makes up a big percentage of internet websites. You do not have to be a programmer or en web developer to be able to make a website using it If anything, it makes the website’s creation life easier! You do not have to deal with coding for hours and hours or pay a huge amount of money just to get a very basic website.
The fact that you do not have to be someone who has tried coding, knew about tech terms and etc but you can still make a website fast and easy using WP is insane!
So if you are someone who is thinking about starting a blog or simply someone who wants to try and make a website, do not hesitate to use WordPress. It makes your life, well, not your life but your website starting phase so much easier!
There is literally no excuse for why you can’t start right now. If you haven’t tried even the step to creating your website using WP, then the problem is in you. There are tons of materials to help you learn the things that are not under the scope of common sense in terms of making a website in WP. So many communities that you can join where there are knowledgeable people about WP. Endless tutorials on YouTube, and step-by-step How To blog posts are all scattered around social media.
All you need is a little desire to actually learn the tools which are very easy to use, some determination even when it gets hard, and a lot of tutorials and asking of knowledgeable people and you should be good. Exert a little effort and then one day you will be shocked you have to expand the bandwidth of your site because of too much traffic. But of course, you have to work your way there!
Not having an experience in web development or programming is not an excuse today to not have a website that is created by you!
FREE FREE FREE
Well, technically speaking WP is free. Imagine you can start building a website and hosting it without paying anything. ( Though you will need to pay for everything a website needs when you choose to self-host your own website )
Imagine, the free features of WP allow you to do more than just blogging. Aside from that, adding content is extremely easy and not rocket science. You have access to plugins that will help you improve the performance of your business. NO CODING! YOu can make a website within thirty minutes to one hour and it does not require experience at all. The hard work is done for you by WP.
These are just some of the numerous benefits of using WP and imagine all of that, you can access for free! Isn’t that insane?
Behind WP are millions of developers and programmers that work hard to make it better day by day. Big thanks to all those silent heroes out there, wherever you are!
Use it for Whatever Type of Website you Desire
You can use the website for any type of project you need. You can use it for commercial purposes, you can use it for personal projects, business, blogs and etc. Any type of website is allowed and WordPress helps you publish it.
Customization of the Appearance of your Webpage
Another good thing about WordPress is that you can customize the way your website looks. Whatever colors, fonts, themes, or buttons you want, you can decide.
Easy updates in security, features, in versions
Most of the time, when we hear the word “update” it almost means negative until it is done and the new things are seen, used, and applied. But WordPress is proof that updates don’t always have to be time-consuming, slow, and load for so long. And you do not have to worry about backing up documents or data on your website.
In just seconds, you can update everything. From plugins, fonts, themes, and even WordPress. You won’t lose any images or blog posts when you install security upgrades or switch your template. And it didn’t take your web designer a minute of their time to do.
When you log in to your WP site, go to your dashboard, and look at the upper left sidebar. You will see the “Updates” and it is where WP will tell you what things need to be updated. But this is only for self-hosted websites, when you choose the .com, this is done for you already.
58,000 Plugins to Help Optimize the Performance of your Website
If you want to be able to do a lot of things on your website, plugins are the key. You can receive payments, sell goods and services, establish an internet forum, reserve a section of your website for customers and users, display tweets from various Twitter feeds, and even show the rankings of several international sports leagues. YOu can do all of these through plugins.
And in WordPress, there are so many of them! Plugins will help you do the things you can’t do and it will benefit your business.
Here are a few examples of types of plugins on WordPress for your website:
- e-Commerce plugins
- Security plugins
- SEO plugins
- Contact form plugins
- Page builder plugins
But, you do not want to put too many plugins on your website for it will cause to slow down the speed of your website and compromise quality and customer experience. Because it will take up a huge space on your website. So it will be best if you will only install the plugins that you are using. Get the help you need without compromising your website’s performance!
Hosting will not stress you out! ( or maybe just a little )
Self-hosting of your website can be overwhelming and stressful sometimes. Since it basically means that you are claiming a lot of work for yourself. Well, the benefits and pros of self-hosting are worth it after all.
But, in WP, hosting will not be painful, ( or at least, not very painful ). Why do I put disclaimers? It’s because there is no guarantee that you will not have a hard tie hosting your own website. But WP will make your self-hosting life a little easier. You will get a ton of tools and services designed especially for WordPress blogs if you select a WordPress host.
WordPress sites interact well with WP hosting, which will enhance your site’s functionality, safety, and availability of automated updates.
Help is one message away!
WordPress is a free platform that receives improvements from users all over the globe.
Additionally, there are millions of informed individuals who can assist you in finding solutions to issues and providing information. WordPress is used by approximately one-third of all sites on the web because it is so strong and capable, and a virtual army of individuals is constantly working to improve it.
Join communities in Quora, Reddit, Facebook Groups, Telegram and etc. So many places where you can join a community about WP and you can ask them and they will help you!
All online, just the internet!
Everything is done online! Imagine, there are a lot of people that get a lot of dollaaa bills without even going out? You can make an affiliate website, you can start a blog, do drop servicing, also you can build an e-commerce store and etc. And do it all online!
Literally, on WP, the possibilities are endless!