Over the last few years, so much has changed when it comes to getting your own website up and running. No longer do you have to spend thousands …. of hours learning coding … or dollars/pounds/your currency of choice getting someone else to set up your site.
The “king of the heap” in this revolution has been WordPress (not just the freebie sites you get at WordPress.com, but the self-hosted ones you create using the software at WordPress.ORG). WordPress isn’t just a platform for creating easy websites : it’s a bit like an electronic “magic toolbox” that you can add things to, and customise site exactly as you want.
Using WordPress.com, you can have a great looking site (at no cost) that can be edited from any computer without special software. Google and the other search engines love these sites and quickly rank them high for your chosen search terms. The downside is that there are quite a few limitations about what you can & can’t do on these hosted sites… but they’re a good way to try things out on WordPress.
But if you’re really serious about making a site uniquely yours, adding in plugins (tools for WordPress) and customising the look and feel, the self-hosted option (WordPress.ORG) is the only way to go. It’s now pretty common for hosting providers to provide quite simple “point and click” solutions to get a basic site going, and if you have a domain and hosting, you can have a simple site up and ready to be populated within about 5 minutes…. seriously!
Once you have your new site in place…
Don’t like the way your site looks? You can totally change the appearance in a few minutes… yes, YOU! All on your own. There are thousands of free “themes” or “templates” to choose from, either from WordPress or a host of pther providers, that you can add on to the website to create a new “skin” to your website – a total change with the click of a mouse.
Do you need a photo gallery, ecommerce or membership site, or just a blog – WordPress can do them all. And then are the thousands of add-on features (plugins) available at the click of a mouse – most of them completely free.
You can do just about anything you want to with your online business using WordPress – quickly, easily, and cheaply. And what if you don’t like the look of something, or a new feature doesn’t work quote the way you expected? Just remove it and try something else!
Sounds too good to be true?! It’s not. Almost all Linux-based hosting companies now host WordPress, and many provide scripts to add a new WordPress installation in just a few clicks. If you’re the kind of person who wants to jump in and learn things yourself, you can simply purchase a domain and a hosting account and jump in!
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