The pros to hosting a blog on WordPress are clear, but lest you forget, here’s a quick reminder:
– WordPress is free
– its ubiquity means that there are thousands of developers out there creating a near endless supply of plug-in tools and skins that you can use to tweak your blog
– you can even use a smartphone to update a page
But is it easy to use? While many people may be familiar with WordPress since its launch in 2003 – and therefore think it is easy and intuitive – newcomers probably don’t agree that the process of adding pages, resizing pictures and creating guest author accounts is quite so straightforward.
Luckily, due mainly to those reasons listed above, there are some free guides to help you out.
Learn WordPress.com
The horse’s mouth, so to speak – and arguably the only resource you need. The advice is listed in 12 chapters, starting with the basics like the case for using WordPress, a checklist of things you will need and configuring basic settings. While this is a comprehensive introduction, each chapter forms a great long screed of text that, somewhat ironically, seems so alien in this age of short blog pages. Perhaps this is mostly a good thing, but there are no comments sections in the guide.
WPmadesimple.org
The virtue of WordPress Made Simple is that it doesn’t flummox you with the finer details that only a technician would appreciate. Let’s face it, the creators of business blog posts are rarely the webmaster, so there really is no need for everyone to be familiar, for instance, with how to tweak your blog’s theme. This site excels at teaching content creators how to do the fundamentals, like page creation, editing text and getting to grips with the WordPress toolbar. As the French most probably don’t say: Est ce qu’il dit sur l’étain (Does what it says on the tin).
WPBeginner
Does your company have a dedicated resource to setting up a blog? If not – and understandably these things can be overlooked in a small business – then you’ll need some hands-on, discerning advice about the techie stuff. That’s where WPBeginner comes into its own, and it isn’t afraid to review hosting services and recommend the plug-ins you simply must have. At the very least, it offers a panoramic view of what you can achieve with WordPress, so even if you do have a fully WP-friendly IT team to help you out, the site is still worth a good read. Updated frequently.
