I want a WordPress Website – now what?

You’ve heard all the great things about having a WordPress website, being able to manage your own content and blogging.  You’re ready to take the plunge – now what?

I can tell you from experience that it may seem a little intimidating to start, but there is a wealth of free information and help.  All you need is a quick web search and you’re on your way.  I’d highly recommend starting out in the most logical of places – http://www.wordpress.org.

There you will find some very helpful step by step information to get you started.  Of course the “where to start” page itself – http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start covers the things to consider from the starting gate.

1. What is WordPress, features and things to know BEFORE you install it on your hosting server.
2. Planning for what your hosting server offers for PHP and MySQL (both necessary for WordPress) and using ftp (file transfer protocol) or rather, the program for moving files to your website.  This planning stage also gets you thinking about what you want your website to do which is always good practice BEFORE you are knee deep in.
3. Installing – loads of help here on the site.  This is easier than you might imagine.
4. Setting up the users, the way the site is presented, if and how discussions can take place on your site, the look and feel, etc.
5. Advanced WordPress is many times where an expert like NeoNexus comes in handy, but again there’s much documentation out there to get you through it.
6. More help?  Don’t worry, Google and most importantly, the WordPress forums cover just about anything you could imagine.

NeoNexus has been helping clients with WordPress since version 2.0 in December of 2005.  We’ve grown in our skills along side each version as they’ve been released.  We find WordPress to be one of the most versatile, user-friendly and easy to work with open source softwares for producing a website.  Clients can appreciate being able to take their website and “run with it”.  No more requesting an update from the “website expert” only to be hostage to their schedule and fees.  With the additional plugins your website can do just about anything you can imagine. Almost 50% of the sites we now manage with our clients have been done with WordPress, including our own.

This is a great start to understanding just what WordPress can do for you.  When you’re ready to take the plunge – we can help.