If you\'ve looked into website platforms at all, you\'ll know that there are several you can start a website with and WordPress is at the top of most lists. Today, we\'re going to cover what is WordPress and how it works. As always, we have a video guide for this available on our YouTube Channel and below: What is WordPress? At its core, WordPress is open source software you can use to build your website or blog and publish it on the internet. It’s a particular kind of software called a Content Management System (CMS), which is basically a tool that makes it easy to manage important parts of your website – like content, colors, and contact forms – without needing to know any programming. Created all the way back in 2003 as a collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, over the years it’s gained a huge following and now has an amazing community behind it. That community of software engineers and designers from around the world contributes not only to the core WordPress code, but they also help the platform by making plugins that let you extend the functionality of your website and themes that let you quickly and easily change its look and feel. With the help and support of all those people, WordPress has become one of the most popular website publishing programs in the world – 30% of the internet is powered by WordPress; that’s a lot of freakin’ websites! Best of all, it’s completely FREE to use! For all these reasons and more (see below), WordPress is a fantastic platform for beginners looking to build their first website – or experts building their 100th. How does WordPress work? Since the earliest days of the internet, websites have been built using programming languages like HTML, PHP, and […]
What’s up, Internet!? Today we’re going to be answering the question of what is web hosting and going over a little bit about how it works. As always, we have a video guide for this available on our YouTube Channel and below: We’ll let you know about some great places to sign up for web hosting in case you’re looking to start a website for your blog, portfolio, business, or whatever else you’re dreaming up. Let\'s hop into the article… What is Web Hosting? To help you understand what web hosting is, let’s walk through an example. Imagine you just came up with a new business idea, say to sell blue widgets, and you want to open up a store somewhere in your town. You can register store’s name, get a logo, even make a few widgets. But none of that will matter unless you rent a physical space to set up your shop, and that’s what web hosting is all about. Web hosting is just a service where you’re able to rent space on the internet, fill it with all your files and media (your digital “goods”), then open your doors by publishing your website live to the world. When you start a website, all your text, videos, photos, buttons, etc. have to be stored physically somewhere on a web server – basically a commercial grade computer that’s connected to the internet 99.9% of the time (unlike your laptop, for example). Web hosting companies have buildings filled with these servers and people to keep them running, They’ll even provide you with design platforms, customer support, security, and all sorts of useful tools to make creating and sharing your website easy. When learning about what it takes to start a website, be careful not to confuse buying web hosting with buying a […]
What’s up, Internet! Thinking about creating your own website?If so, you\'ve probably wondered “what is a domain name?” at some point during this journey. As always, we have a video guide for this available on our YouTube Channel and below: Many beginner users confuse domain names with URLs, websites, hosting, and other services. So today, we’ve got a beginner’s guide to help you figure out what a domain name is, how domain names work, how to choose the right domain name for your website, and how to buy a domain name once you’ve found one. Let\'s get into the content… What is a Domain Name? Domain names are (ideally) easy to remember words that are used to find and go to websites. In simple terms, a domain name is like an address for your website. You can think of the internet as a series of intersecting streets that go all around the world. On this world map, your website is your house. In order for anyone to find their way to your house, they’ll need an address. That address is your domain name – the thing people type in their web browser’s URL bar to find you on the streets of the internet. How Do Domain Names Work? To get a little more technical (not too much we promise), the computers on the internet, from that laptop your reader is using to the servers that host your website has an IP address, which is a series of 4-12 numbers separated by dots (.) that let’s computers identify and find each other. For example, here’s the IP address for Create a Pro Website: 192.185.226.162 And if you’re looking for a few seconds of amusement, you can find your computer’s IP address by going to Google here. While these numbers are great for machines, […]
