When I first started getting into the world of web development my first introduction was through the platform WordPress. Now when I first started with WordPress I was not familiar with anything coding related, all I knew was that in order to build a site you needed to know some code. But if you were to ask me which coding languages I used I was completely lost.
When your new to the game and you hear all the terms of what programming languages are out there, a person can be whelmed by the amount of choices. Especially when it sounds like there are a million of them smh.
Fortunately WordPress made a way for many to learn how to create a website, and even stunning ones, without the need to necessarily code.
This was amazing.
Now the only thing was where do I begin. Fortunately I was in college where I met someone who created his own branding agency and guided me into web design. I was hooked. When I was able to see what he could create and seeing he had a background in graphic design. I knew I wanted to do something with this.
This was an opportunity for me especially when your in college and you really don’t know what career path you want to be on. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn a new discipline and from my observation was a pretty lucrative route apart from my drawings, which I still like to do by the way.
So WordPress was a way for me to do web design and open the door to an online world that could help many individuals and businesses.
Unfortunately I began learning it but not seriously. What could I say I was young and didn’t have a focus or goal to stick with it. Nevertheless I dabbled with it here and there got a few clients but not enough to sustain my lifestyle off of freelance work.
Fast forward a few years I decided to pick it back up and put my all eggs in this one basket and even learn the language of creating these sites: HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and with WordPress it uses PHP, which I’m not fully adverse in but I can get around it.
Ok moving on to why I think wordpress is a great platform for anyone to use to build a website.
The Benefits
So the first benefit is that WordPress is open source. What does this mean? Well to find out more you can read this article I wrote HERE on what open source is, but what it simply means is that it was created by network of developers and was made freely for anyone who wants to build using their platform or even contribute to the code.
WordPress in itself changed the online web game when it came to creating websites. See back in the day in order to create a website it meant you were either a company who could afford to cash out the thousands of dollars to build one, or you were a serious developer who learned the language because you were considered some super genius and because of the nerd in you building online interfaces excited the “bijeebes” out of you. I don’t even know if “bijeebes” is a real world or if that’s even how you spell it. In translation it excited the mess out of you if you don’t know what it means.
Now with WordPress as an open source platform or what it is known as CMS, or content management system, this allowed many people to be on the web with no hassle. All you needed was hosting and a domain name. Install WordPress on your server and begin creating.
The beauty of it all… NO CODE.
WordPress has a conglomerate of developers who create themes compatible for WordPress so once you download the theme and activate it its almost a drag and drop approach.
The interface, from my perspective is a simple layout where you are able to navigate through each of the pages and settings with easy to read nav links. Now to the new user of WordPress I will say it may require some tutorials just to get through the basics. Trust me even today I still have to google something or youtube a specific thing because every theme can be different.
Which brings me to my next point. If your new to the WordPress theme game, a theme setup can be complex or simple and navigating through one theme can lead to deep holes. This can have you get lost like alice in wonderland. But no fret take your time and slowly play around to see how you can get a handle on this platform.
Developers have done a great job as well to even create documentation on the theme to help give designers a head start on how to properly use the theme. I have to say through my experience though some documentation is not written to the best quality and some of the things your trying to implement my cause you to have a stand still.
But if your determined to build this website yourself you need to be like a child again and begin that exploration phase through the platform. You will be surprised how much you can accomplish and figure out with just exploring the features.
Oh and don’t forget google is your friend so if you get stuck google it.
For developers, man where can I start.
Well for one if you are a developer and you know how to code in php then hey there is a market for you. You can create a theme and post on sites such as themeforest.net and sell your developed projects.
Another point is that knowing code gives you more range in flexibility to customize a specific thing. I found this out when I just started to learn how to code. I used to see tabs in certain sections that said add your own HTML or CSS and I was like “what the heck is that” but nooooow….I know. Knowledge is power my friends especially applied. When I found this out I was more in awe , but I was excited too because now I have the ability to manipulate a theme the way I may like.
Third. Lets say your a developer and you need a portfolio site to present your work. Yes I know you know how to code, but don’t use your abilities against you. WordPress is there to help. They built the framework already why not use it and if there is something you may not like fully then customize it. Why waste 3-4 weeks building your portfolio to promote yourself when you can crank out that bad boy in 2 weeks and save time, energy, and missed opportunities. The goal is to present your skills why not get some help getting to your goal.
Also lets say you have a lot of content your trying to post on the site, WordPress makes content management, hence the name, fairly simple, especially if your trying to create a blog. WordPress is the first thing I think of and come to think of it was built around blogging.
Of course lastly there are many opportunities out there as well because everybody doesn’t know how to work with WordPress so you can now come in and fill that space and be considered the expert.
As you can see there are many benefits to using WordPress. Even though there are many other CMS out there my first go to would be with WordPress. Why just because I know what there capable of and that the try to keep their website support up date.