WordPress is the most popular tool to create and manage any website, even a webshop. It is the base of over 15.5 million websites!

A more technical explanation of WordPress is that it is open source software, which is software developed by and for the user community (= users of WordPress). This means that there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it.

Everything you see, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. It also means you are free to use it for anything without paying anyone a license fee.

What can you use WordPress for?

WordPress started as just a blogging system, but has evolved to be used as a full Content Management System (CMS = an application used to create and manage digital content). With WordPress you can create and manage any website, blog or webshop. WordPress is an easy tool, so you don’t have to be technical to learn and use it.

How do you use WordPress?

To get your website on the internet, it has to be hosted. Hosting means storing your website on a server (= a computer that provides services to other computers) so that it can be accessed over the Internet.

You can host your WordPress website by using WordPress.com or WordPress.org. The difference between these two is as follows:

WordPress.com
  • This is the hosted version of WordPress. This means that your website runs on the official WordPress servers.
  • There are limitations when you’re using WordPress.com like not being able to use all available themes (= website design).
  • Also a small fee is asked if you want to use your own domain name.
WordPress.org
  • This is the self-hosted version which means that your website needs to run on the servers of a web host like www.bluehost.com (affiliate link). We use Bluehost (affiliate link) because they provide great support when needed. Another plus is that one domain name (= address on the internet where you will build your site) is included with their hosting.
  • Using WordPress.org gives you complete control over the design and functionality of your website.
  • No fee is asked when you’re using your own domain name.

WordPress.org is the version we will teach you in our upcoming course.

How do you get WordPress?

After you signed up at the web host Bluehost (affiliate link) you’ll be able to log on to their control panel (= the place where you can manage your hosting account). There you can select the ‘WordPress OneClick Install’ option and WordPress is installed. It’s that easy.

How do you learn WordPress?

We created a mini course as an introduction to help you learn the basics of WordPress so that you can create your own website.

Go to our Free Course page and register for access to “7 Quick steps to your own website.”