"Hi Lynn, I found you quite by accident. I am a TOTAL beginner and I'm debating on how to build a website. I see many recommend doing a blog while others doing the traditional way. What's you take on that ? Thanks, Martin"
Hi, Martin 😀 Welcome to ClickNewz!
I started out creating traditional HTML websites, but that was way before WordPress ever hit the scene.
Now I use WordPress to create ALL of my websites - whether they are blogs, or have more of a traditional website look & feel. I recommend this to everyone asking how to build a website, simply because it's very simple and very inexpensive.
But there are other great reasons to use WordPress as well...
Why WordPress
- WordPress is FREE
- There are many free themes/designs available
- It's heavily supported so you can find free help & tutorials easily
- WordPress is very simple to install and customize
- It comes with an RSS Feed, making it easy for readers to subscribe
- You can use it to create a blog (Posts), or a website (using Pages)
By the way, I'm referring to WordPress.org - or using the self hosted version of WordPress on your own web hosting account. This is not to be confused with WordPress.com, which is a free hosted blogging solution (more for personal or hobby bloggers), with many limitations for someone starting an online business.
How To Build A Website With WordPress
I have a 7-Step Checklist for How to Start a WordPress Blog, which is where you'll want to start. It will walk you through everything from registering your domain name to customizing the details of your blog or website.
If you don't yet know what type of website you want to create, or what kind of business you want to start, read How to Make Money Online for Beginners.
For a live example you can view the Case Study for my new niche affiliate site, which will walk you through how to build a website from start to finish.
That should get you started. 😉 If you have any questions you are welcome to leave a comment below, or you can join us at the ClickNewz Forum. It's a fun community and a great place for brainstorming, technical questions, feedback, resources, and more. We would love to see you there!
Best,
p.s. Be sure to subscribe below to continue to get free tips & tutorials from ClickNewz on starting & promoting a business online:
About Lynn Terry
I agree about using WordPress. It's not that bad a learning curve, certainly easier than learning to create a website from scratch, and once you know how to pick a good template and make basic changes, you don't have to worry about all your sites looking the same.
Hi Lynn,
This is a topic dear to my heart. Like you, I heartily recommend WordPress.
However, I acknowledge that WordPress isn't for everyone and not always the best solution. I wrote up a website template comparison chart which compares the different types of website building platforms and types of templates one can use. I set out pros and cons of each.
It's a popular resource page on my site for people researching this very issue.
@Peter Lawlor
I had a look at your review site but was missing details with regard to website security. I am still holding back from doing the switch to a CMS because of the many security gaps.
Definitely a thumbs up for wordpress :), it gives everyone the opportunity to get online. I use it all the time to build websites for all types of businesses. It does take a bit of time to get proficient at it but even a novice can have a basic site up in no time at all.
I have always created my sites from scratch, but I did so mainly because I was interested in learning HTML, CSS...those days are over. My next site will be done via WordPress. I read through your 7-step checklist and thought I would mention that, although Host Gator is a great host, nearly all hosts have the simple click and auto-install WordPress option - just like Host Gator.
Just a word of caution on using those one-click installers- Fantastico will take shortcuts in order to install quicker and easier and can leave your site vulnerable. I always install mine just by uploading the zip file. It's a couple extra steps than the one-click install, but not much longer and your site will be more secure.
That's true. I prefer HostGator for a number of reasons. Cost is the most important to many starting out, but I love them for their support. I've been on the phone or on live chat with them several times over the years and have been VERY pleased with how they answer my (sometimes silly) questions -lol. They've been good to me. And after a few bad hosting experiences, I stay where things are good! 😉
Great article.
POWERFUL is the word I use to describe WordPress.
I recently installed a plugin that pre-processes hypertext right in the blog post giving you the ability to add PHP coding to your posts and make them come completely alive with whatever functionality you can dream up. It totally rocks!
...and so does WordPress...:)
Mark
While WordPress still has a lot of bugs yet to be fixed, it's considered the best content management platform available for the same reasons you've mentioned. If you're also concerned about security, then WordPress might be for you (you need to update frequently) a
While WordPress still has a lot of bugs yet to be fixed, it's considered the best content management platform available for the same reasons you've mentioned. If you're also concerned about security, then WordPress might be for you (you need to update frequently) as you don't want to build a vulnerable website yourself. For people saying that you don't have a lot of control when it comes to using WordPress, i say that this is completely wrong as i create different websites for different purposes everyday using WordPress (whether blogs or static pages).
I agree, Edgar! WP does have many plugins to help secure your site. As a reminder, you should always use a secure FTP connection, which is how many hackers access your site regardless of the site's format. If your host won't or can't provide one- then change hosts and never never use admin as the username- anywhere! passwords should be no less than 12 characters long. That provides hackers w/ half your login. There are plenty of ways to crack passwords out there and scripts that make it easy to get in.
I learned alot when my sites were hacked about 4 years ago- and learned just how easy it is to gain access to sites- scarey easy!
+1 for WordPress. I am amazed with all the available plug-ins that can be used with WP. If you are looking for a cool feature, someone probably created a plug-in for it. There is another good thing that about using WordPress and that is using it for affiliate marketing.
WP! YES! definitely! esp for a beginner. I have played with many many online sitebuilders and WordPress is much more flexible and is more SEO friendly. Many sitebuilders use flash which is not read by the search engines and takes longer to load.
There are themes that let you easily customize the look of your site such as the Flexibility Theme which is free. I now pretty much us WP for most sites, landing, sales, & download pages. For a very complex site I might use Joomla ( which is also open source & free).
I can't imagine anyone not wanting to use WordPress these days. I work with so many people who have been dependent on a webmaster every time they want to make the slightest edit, to help them change their sites over to WordPress. Once their blog is up all they have to do is login and post content, or make changes themselves. Plus WordPress allows for so much interaction between your blog and social media sites.
Great post! those who would like to start their very first blogs will find WordPress easy to use with lots of customization's that they can personalize.
I am thinking of second job at home. Your advice is really helpful. I am going to try WordPress.
There are many softwares available in the market for website creation but what I prefer custom website design and development so that I can add my opinion with something creative.
There used to be HTML, which used to kill people by the massive coding they were required to do. And then came WordPress to the rescue of amateur website enthusiast. The number of websites has compounded ever since.
Interesting - I had thought WordPress was just for blogs, I had no idea you could make an actual website out of it! Thanks for the tips, I'll keep these in mind when I go to make my own some day. 🙂
I have been using WordPress for some years now - I´m quite pleased
WordPress can be turned into so many things it is probably the CMS I use the most. From squeeze pages to login getaways, its the matter of a few clicks with Fantastico and a plugin or two.