WordPress lets you create a highly professional and absolutely beautiful Website in no time. Period!
That can be any kind of website – ranging from a blog to the most stunning online Portfolio. It is by far the #1 and most popular application to run a website today, while it is still continuing to grow in popularity. But what is WordPress exactly and what is so special about it? Why the heck is it so popular?
We will cover all the facts you need to know to get you behind the wheel.
Let’s get started.
What is WordPress?
Put simply, WordPress is a powerful yet easy to use application that lets you create and then change the content and design of your website at any time with a very straightforward and intuitive user interface. The best part is that the whole process requires no coding or any technical knowledge at all.
WordPress makes it truly possible for everyone to create a professional website without the need to have any technical background. In that regard, WordPress makes the web accessible to millions of people by simply offering the tool to manage and maintain a website.
Nevertheless, no one will notice that you use WordPress just by looking at your site. All that power and flexibility lies underneath the hood.
Set up & create content
WordPress provides the tool to become a digital publisher. You are in full control to create and modify digital content on your website.
First, you are able to set up a fully functional Website in just a few minutes. (The WordPress founder themselves say that it will take no longer than 5 minutes – and they are right.) Next, you are able to create, change and modify the content and design of your website at any given time.
That leads finally to the more technical but accurate term for WordPress of being a content management system (short: CMS), since WordPress gives you the power over your content and lets you create new content from any device on the go.
You are the content manager. Sounds great right? WordPress gives you the full power of being a digital publisher and hooks you up with powerful features and limitless possibilities. You are in full control.
Beginner to professional
WordPress is equally used by beginner and professionals. The application remains the same to everybody. It is in your hands how far you want to go. You can start small and grow on the way. That is why WordPress is always the right choice since it allows you to grow with your website. You will never feel that something is missing. But, you will never feel overwhelmed neither.
If you need some evidence that WordPress is equally used by personal Web sites, Architecture Studios up to the official Website of Sweden, the Harvard Business Review and the Forbes Magazine, you can check our collection of Awesome Websites powered by WordPress and get a glimpse of what is possible.
You’ll find that WordPress is everywhere.
What has WordPress that others don’t?
What is in it for you? Well, in case you need more convincing reasons to start conquering the web with WordPress, we put some serious efforts into creating a comprehensive guide that covers all the good reasons why to use WordPress and why you will love it doing so. There are so many amazing reasons to base your digital future on WordPress.
The Guide contains 11 reasons covered in great depth and a short summary at the end, for the impatient doer.
Growing need
The web is crowded with services that seem to offer a quick fix, easy to set up website solution. The Problem: The more services that try to compete for your attention, the more confusion typically arises concerning which one is the best and which one to choose.
If there is one thing to notice, then it is a strong and growing need for people to build their own digital appearance. That is even more relevant for Architects and Creatives who benefit in many ways by sharing their creations with the world. Doing so has many good reasons that might accelerate your career in surprisingly new ways.
Is WordPress the best choice?
WordPress is in that regard, the most popular service that already has been around for many years. It is used for approximately 18 million sites in 2018, according to estimates from 1&1 Internet Inc. In total, WordPress is thought to be behind around 40% of the whole web – used from hobby blogs to the biggest news sites online. (Source: Forbes.com)
The WordPress Community is vibrant and constantly evolving, what brings you always to the cutting-edge of the web without any hassle.
If you take your digital aspirations serious, I would always recommend starting with WordPress.
We compiled the reasons why to use WordPress and many different examples of Websites that are powered by WordPress. There is also a comprehensive guide on how to find the perfect WordPress Theme. The whole idea is to give you the power of becoming a digital publisher without any compromises.
WordPress = Free
On top WordPress is an open-source application that cost you nothing at all.
Yep, you got that right. WordPress is absolutely free. You might think: How is that possible? Why the heck should anyone provide a software for everyone on the whole web, that is so amazing and powerful for free?
Usually, what we learn by going through life is that free things always come with a catch?! Not WordPress.
Well, most certainly one main reason why the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, created WordPress as an open-source application is: That it creates an incomparable dynamic of growth and development that could never be achieved by a single company.
The open source idea led to a vibrant and strong community circulating around WordPress. Hundreds of thousands of developers, content creators, and site owners gather at monthly meetups in 436 cities worldwide.
Many people create services and products for WordPress that everyone can use. That creates awesome benefits for the user, hence for you.
Why is it free?
Imagine for just a moment, that WordPress would be held privately by a single company and that they would keep the application as a secret to themselves. How fast could they advance and progress? Only the employees of the company would be able to accelerate the development progress. Hence, progress would be relatively slow in comparison to an open-source approach. How long would it take to create the same amount of designs, plugins, and services that are available for WordPress?
To give you some numbers, themeforest.com, as the biggest marketplace for WordPress Themes alone holds already 11.501 designs. There are over 55.000 plugins to extend the basic functionality of your website. On top, there are tons of services that can interact and can be integrated within WordPress. The community creates amazingly diverse and powerful products that are spread all over the web.
Powered by the world
Now, imagine the opposite situation. That the application could be used by the whole world in the sense of the open-source approach. Equally open to everybody and everyone. As soon as the software code is open to the public, every developer can jump upon WordPress and can create services and products around the application. Can you imagine what kind of progress that accelerates in comparison to the first scenario?
That explains the incomparable growth and popularity of WordPress. Of course, that wouldn’t be possible without the great quality that WordPress is offering through its application in the first place.
It is simply the idea that the whole world is faster than a single company.
The main benefit, you are always on the cutting edge of things.
Don’t be intimidated
In a fast-changing world, like we live in today, it is amazing to be able to benefit from that dynamics. However, there is no need to be intimidated by the numbers.
Honestly, you can create a fully functional, professional Website without any plugin and without any additional service. All you need is a Theme and a few minutes of time.
But as you may grow, you can benefit from the strong WordPress community. Creating your digital appearance is an investment that should be established on a strong and reliable foundation. A foundation that will be around in the years to come and that will advance together with the dynamics of a fast-changing world like the one we live in today.
Well then, how does WordPress make money?
The company behind WordPress is called Automattic. They basically make money through a WordPress Plugin called Jetpack and other great services they provide to support your Website.
Jetpack offers additional services like efficient Spam-Blocking, Security and Backup options. You can use their plugin, but you don’t have to. You can also use a free version that has already many great features.
The brilliant minds behind Automattic make money with various things that happen around WordPress, while contributing to many non-profit and open-source projects at the same time. In addition, they are constantly developing and updating the application.
Their mission statement says that they are passionate about making the web a better place. “We don’t make software for free, we make it for freedom.” That idea is sensible.
What the heck?
As a beginner, you don’t need to get confused or concerned. All you need to know is, that you are part of a great community and that you have all the flexibility to grow and advance your Website in the upcoming years. As you grow you can draw back on plugins and services.
For now, as a beginner, you start with minimum effort and maximum outcome. For example, this Website uses maybe 5 plugins. But it would also work without a single one. What we use for instance, is a plugin to improve search engine results, integrate Google Analytics to see how well people find us and whether they enjoy the content. Again, those are just examples.
Believe what the WordPress founders had in mind while creating WordPress: „Great software should work with little configuration and setup. WordPress is designed to get you up and running and fully functional in no longer than five minutes. You shouldn’t have to battle to use the standard functionality of WordPress.” (Source: www.wordpress.org)
What costs a WordPress Website?
It has never been cheaper to create your own website and it has never been easier at the same time. You only pay for the services or products you need to run WordPress. As mentioned, the application itself is completely free.
At first, you need a Web Hosting Service like the one I highly recommend (and that archiitect.io is based upon): Siteground. The service stores your website data and charges around 3,95$ per month, including a free backup service and 1-click installation for WordPress.
Second, you need a domain, your web address, where people can find you. Like www.archiitect.io or www.yourname.com. The cost for a domain registration usually lies around 10-12$ per year but prices already start with a few cents, depending on the domain-ending you’d like to use.
Third, you would want to buy a professional WordPress Theme which is basically responsible for the design of your website and costs around 60$ as a single investment.
Everything can easily be managed within WordPress, your personal command center.
Assuming you pay 3,95$ for the Web Hosting and 12$ for your domain, you can expect monthly recurring costs of around 4,95$ to run your website.
5 bucks per month for a mind-blowing website that everyone can access from any device? Pretty reasonable, right. A couple of years ago you’d have to spend 80-times that much.
ORG and COM
Finally, to avoid confusion in the first place – there is a fine difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
Sounds like a marginal difference in a domain ending but reveals two different services. For now, though, it is important to keep in mind, that we are talking solely about WordPress as self-hosted. WordPress.org only represents the application. The content management system itself comes together with many Web Hosting Services like the one mentioned earlier: Siteground. You pay for the web hosting and install WordPress for free with one-click. That is why it is called self-hosted. It gives you the greatest freedom and greatest scope of action.
WordPress.com offers something like a soft entry solution to WordPress where everything is taken care of by WordPress. They provide an all-in-one solution for those who don’t want to set up everything by themselves. Later, if you feel more comfortable using WordPress you can migrate to the self-hosted version.
However, where you start is up to you. As with everything that is worth attaining in life, it takes at least some effort and curiosity to get there. But it is worth it.
In an upcoming Guide, we will lead you to the few simple steps to create your own Online Portfolio (Step by Step).
Summary
First, it has never been easier to run a fully functional website, for basically no money, no coding, in no time. You don’t need to know anything about coding since everything is translated into a straightforward user interface. You can launch a professional website within minutes and then manage everything intuitively on the go. With WordPress, you become the creator of content and the manager of your website.
Second, besides being the most popular content management system online, used by approximately 18 million websites, it offers the same application evenly to beginner and professionals for free. Easy to set up and easy to manage without any unnecessary traps and options. With WordPress, you can create websites that look beautifully by publishing effortlessly.
WordPress is in that respect only one possible option out of many surfacing alternatives – but it is the most popular and best choice for many good reasons. Offering beautiful designs, powerful features, and the freedom to build anything you want. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. It is the engine behind your website and puts you behind the wheel of your digital future.
Third, you’ll get all the great benefits of a vibrant community. In that way, you remain on the cutting edge of the web. Whereas a single company would have limited capacity to improve and advance, WordPress profits from a strong worldwide community that makes sure that you are always able to draw back on the newest designs, plugins and everything that your website needs.
In the end, WordPress simply makes the web a more beautiful place.
Besides…
Apart from anything else, it is just fun to create your digital future with WordPress. We hope that your idea of “What is WordPress anyway” got much clearer by now. If you are ready to start creating your own website or online portfolio we compiled the most beautiful Portfolio and Architecture WordPress Themes that can be found online.
Enjoy creating.
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