When You Want To Learn Wordpress

Wordpress is the website building tool of choice for many business owners these days.  It’s a great option.  No software needed on your computer, great functionality and flexibility – and you can update your site content from any computer, netbook or smart phone.  It’s no wonder that it’s become so popular.

You’ve probably heard that Wordpress is incredibly user friendly – and it is!  Still, most first time users find it overwhelming at first.  If you ever tried to tackle Wordpress on your own and felt like giving up, you’re not at all alone.  There’s a lot to take in at first.

I was lucky though. I had several patient friends available to help me over the learning curve. Still, I wouldn’t say that I felt truly comfortable for months after. The more I got to know it, the more I realized that Wordpress is both simple and complex all at the same time. 

If you only want to use Wordpress to publish content, it’s pretty darned simple.  The visual editor operates like any basic word processor.  You enter content, press publish and you’re finished. 

Think of Wordpress as being three things at once.

1. It’s a Content Management Script that runs on your web server, letting you enter content as easily as writing an email. 
2. Your content is stored in a Database on your web server. 
3. Finally, it wears a Theme, a set of template files, that determines how the content is displayed online.

Entering content is easy.  The database takes care of itself.  Customization, want to alter your design and manipulate the database for special needs, you have to tap a whole other area of knowledge and that’s where many get stuck.

There’s good news and bad news for those who want to learn more about managing their Wordpress site.  The good news is that there’s a huge resource of documents and a large community of developers and users who are willing to answer your questions.  The bad news is that there’s a huge resource of documents and a large community of developers and users… ;) 

The trouble for newcomers is usually that they don’t know how to ask the right questions to produce the answers they really need.  The documents and forums seem to be written in a foreign language and newbie questions are often answered with links to more foreign explanations that just add to their feelings of overwhelm.

My advice?  Don’t give up.  Keep asking questions.  To get the best answers, provide as much information about your problem as you can.  If you’re persistent, you’ll find that things come easier over time.

About the Author:

Kelly McCausey and Lynette Chandler invite you to WP Live Support, your all access pass to exclusive Wordpress learning.  We demonstrate answers to your questions during our live web conference sessions.  If you’re goal is to do it yourself WP Live Support is your pathway to learning how.