Learn WordPress and Launch Your Own Website (Why Choose WP?)
Are you building a site for a portfolio or business? Are you interested in learning the best tools in the business? Have you considered using Wix or Shopify or WordPress for your site? If you’ve been asking some of these questions about your website creation journey then hopefully this post can assist.
In this post I will cover:
- WordPress as the #1 choice for websites and blogs
- Themes and plugins to expand the capability of your site
- Difference between WordPress.org (self-hosted sites) and WordPress.com
- Alternatives and pros and cons of not using WP
Before we begin you should be aware we offer a kind of portfolio hosting and training program for people wanting to learn WordPress and build a site. Later in this post I link to our courses and talk about creating a site on this platform or using a host like Cloudways.
WordPress is to websites what Adobe is to design and media
Do you consider yourself a creative person or one who likes to customize things to your own taste? Are you a designer? Or perhaps an artist, educator, photographer or even a business person with products or services to sell? Would you prefer to work with a website platform that is the runaway market leader? (We do!).
It’s likely you can answer yes to some of almost all of the above. In a nutshell, when you learn and use WordPress (known as WP), you are using the best software in the business and one that can handle all use cases. WordPress handles more than 40+ percent of website traffic and more than 60+ percent of CMS traffic (the tech that makes WP, Wix, Drupal Joomla and other “content management systems” work).
In the same way that Lightroom and Photoshop absolutely rule the editing world, WordPress is the defacto standard for websites, blogs and online portfolios. We use it for all of our sites, and nothing beats its versatility.
Themes and Plugins let you do ANYTHING with a site
WordPress is the Swiss army knife of website technology. Through the use of different themes and plugins you can build any kind of site you like. Photographers and artists host portfolios, business people choose WordPress because of its power, and all kinds of people use it because of its extensibility and flexibility. Start small and simple and then you can build out different features later.
Here are some things we do with our sites on WP:
- manage and update our home page and about / contact pages (with forms)
- write and edit blogs with posts, featured images and media embeds
- build portfolio pages with images on various grids (galleries)
- customize layouts with page builder tools (like Kadence or Divi)
- create online communities with user registration and profile pages
- teach courses and offer training to customers and clients
- sell products with e-commerce tools such as WooCommerce
WordPress does not limit what you can do. But other platforms do limit you – they limit what you can build unless you pay for expensive upgrades, and they limit your ability to export to another platform if you change your mind.
WordPress.org aka “self-hosted” WP vs. WordPress.com (go DIY)
If you are like us then you like to shop around, find best prices and check out the reputation of service providers. We’ve been doing this for over twenty years and mostly in the website design, hosting and management space. Over that time, WordPress revealed itself to be often the most capable and desirable platform for our purposes.
Ready to learn some more basics? Let’s continue with the distinction between the free version and commercialized versions that the creators of WP provide.
This sections discusses the contrast between:\
- Free WordPress aka self-hosted or WordPress.org version
- Paid WP by the company in the form of hosting at WordPress.com
WordPress.org or “self hosted” is the free open source solution
If you are looking for the powerful yet inexpensive version of WP you are going to focus on the self-hosted version which implies you sign up for web hosting and connect your domain to your site. It’s a pretty simple process. Traditionally providers like the hosts known as GoDaddy, ruled but we currently recommend slightly higher end services by companies like Cloudways.
In short, when you get web hosting you pay a monthly or yearly fee and the provider uses a simple management tool like a cPanel to allow you to manage your hosting and things like email. The open-source version of WordPress is offered free of charge when you sign up for these services. You don’t pay for WordPress you pay for hosting.
WordPress.com is a commercial version by the founders of WP
In contrast to self-hosted, WordPress own their own service at the site WordPress.com. This is their for-profit, commercialized version. The basic hosting plan with them is similar to self-hosted in terms of pricing but is full of upsells. If you want to avoid excessive costs then go with self-hosted WordPress.
A plug for our version or the services of Cloudways
Heck you can even start off with a membership here on Tdot.co and get used to the platform before making the leap to your own hosting plan. Our membership is affordable and you can get one or two sites to play with (Plus or Pro), and learn the ropes before you dive in fully. We have a course called “Create Websites with WordPress,” for you to take to familiarize yourself with concepts such as domains and hosting, managing sites and creating posts and pages.
BTW, we have a referral code if you would like to sign up for web hosting (clicking the link uses our code). You save a little and we earn a commission for referring you. Cloudways is a very reliable host and we actually use them for this site!
For Web Designers or some cases you may explore alternatives
There are a few cases where you may not need or want WordPress. Some web developers may want to explore other platforms or code their sites themselves using HTML, CSS and code writing software.
In addition some artists may want to use tech like WebFlow to create some kind of site or a business person may have enough funds to hire developers to create a custom CMS with a wholly customized interface. Sometimes web developers use platforms like Drupal or Joomla for large complex projects.
Often we find that regular small business users or artists lacking confidence to learn about software will choose Squarespace, Wix or Shopify because they have heard it is a simpler experience and they just want “to sell” and not learn how to manage a website. This is interesting because there is no such platform that doesn’t require some kind of learning curve!
WordPress is not for everyone and every use case, but it is ideal for most people and works well for tons of different kinds of projects. We think you are best off learning this platform – if you don;’t like it later on go ahead and switch. Most of your site can be exported or transferred easily to somewhere else (that’s one of the amazing features of WP – you are not locked in and free to move or transfer elsewhere).
In summary WP is a great choice
No pressure but if you set up your own site using self-hosted WordPress you should have a smooth experience. And you can hire us (as Tdot.com) to help you with any issues that may arise when connecting domains or getting pages set up. We build and manage sites for a variety of clients.
From the “one click” install that most hosts offer to connecting your domain and setting up email, many people find WordPress is as easy as any other platform. We would be happy to help if you have any questions – please reach out!
Contact us for business inquiries through Tdot,com.
Good luck with your website project. 😀
Mike Simpson
Founder of Tdot.com and Tdot.co