The Editorial Engine is built on the hugely popular WordPress blogging platform, although I don’t think of this place as a conventional blog . I don’t have an axe to grind and I’m not interested in monetizing this site, which partly explains why I turned off WP’s comments feature.
I set up this corner on Web Avenue to hawk my writing, editing and SEO services. You can’t claim to be in that line of work without something to show for it, right?
I’d like to talk a bit about WordPress and the differences I see between free and premium, paid themes. Today, I give you a quick run down on WordPress and why I like it so much. Tomorrow, I talk about themes in more detail.
I chose WordPress because it’s easily one of the best Web content management platforms going–not only for blogs but also for Web sites. I recommend it to everyone who wants to set up a basic Web site, especially if they lack the technical skills or time to design good-looking Web pages, optimize their sites for search engines, handle orders online and other critical facets of Web work.
I’m going to use “site,” from here on, but what I’m about to say applies to blogs and Web sites of every kind.
Here are four other reasons you’ll find using WordPress compelling:
- It’s free.
- It’s easy to customize.
- It’s easy to set up.
- It’s free if you want someone else to host it.
How can you easily customize WordPress without knowing much about Web work
One, you have the option of using free or paid themes. Think of a theme as the cover of a book and WordPress as book’s text, written in a language you may or may not understand. The two comprise the look and feel of your site, in other words. There are well over 1,000 free and paid themes available. Choose a theme to fit your site’s purpose whether it’s a straight-up blog, news or magazine, small business retail or an artistic portfolio site. Two column, three column. Pink and purple. Yellow and gold. Whatever.
Two, you can extend the functionality of WordPress using plug-ins–also free. WP has plug-ins to embed YouTube videos; plug-ins for SEO and Web metrics, plug-ins to block spam, plug-ins to create forms, plug-ins to build shopping carts–the list goes on.
You can also extend WP using widgets, which are snippets of text or code that you can use to add nearly anything you would like to a column. On my site, I wrote copy about the work I do in one widget; I compiled a list of some of my favorite sites in another widget (I’m way behind in updating that list). You can test your bandwidth with another widget. Whatever you see in the two column on the right were done using widgets. I could have just as easily added Google AdSense ads , navigation links, rotating images, calendar, Google custom search and many other useful widgets (I’m also way behind in updating my widgets).
You can approach WordPress from two angles: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Here are some essential differences between the two but I recommend you go to WordPress.com for a complete run down of the goods and bads.
- WordPress.org: You must do all the work: Acquire a domain name (usually $8-$10 a year), find a service to host your site (about $8-$10 per month), upload themes and plug-ins and more. The benefit is that you’re in control.
- WordPress.com: You don’t have to do much. WordPress.com takes care of the Web hosting and several related services free. However, you don’t have as much control compared to running your own site. You can’t use you own themes, for example.
Okay, that’s the basics. Tomorrow, more about themes.
