WordPressfor Windows

Hosting a blog is a great way to show your knowledge in a subject. Whether you love food, fashion, the entertainment business and more, having a well kept, user-friendly, streamlined blog with engaging content can really put you on the map. Not only is a blog good for business, but it's great even if you're looking to just have a place to put your child's baby pictures that family can look at on the other side of the world.

There are a ton of blog and website hosting platforms that are popping up all the time, but one of the oldest and arguably most reliable websites is WordPress. WordPress has boomed over the years, with millions of websites using its content management system daily.

Share your stories and pictures with the world or sell merchandise

With Wordpress, there's more than what meets the eye.

When you think of WordPress, the first thing that comes to mind is probably that it's a place for blogs. This is true, but now WordPress has expanded and hosting and website building. Depending on what you want to do, the service could be completely free.

Opening an account with WordPress is easy. On the website, choose a username and create an account. This next part is important - choose what exactly you'll be using the site for. You have four options: blog, business, professional, or online store. For your blog, you'll then choose what the main topic will be, whether it's food, photography, travel, or another category of that sort. Choose the name of your blog, and you're presented with a basic layout that you can customize later. Select a theme, and pick a domain. At this point, you'll be asked to select which plan based off of which extension you'd like (.com, .org, etc). You'll be billed annually, but if you decide that you'd like to just try WordPress for a while before committing, you can still with the free option. Now, your site has been created and you're free to start customizing.

There are truly tons of options when it comes to making your website your own. There's a setup list to start with if you're feeling overwhelmed, and it lists the amount of time that it'll take to complete each step which is very handy if you're just poking around. On the left side of the page you'll see a panel with all of the sections of your website that you can edit. The stats tab will let you know all of the activity that your site has generated, with views and visitors, search terms, and more. 'Site' lets you manage all of your posts, and in 'Design' you can customize the aesthetic and theme of your page. There are many different themes to choose from and you can use keywords to find a design that will fit what you're looking for. 'Tools' are where you'll handle your marketing and get down to the nitty gritty of website traffic, SEO, and advertising. 'Publicize' tools can connect your social media accounts to your page for easy networking.

Creating a post is as simple as clicking the 'Write' button. Enter your post's title, and start typing away. While writing, tapping the slash key opens up a menu called a block where you can access all of your paragraph tools, like adding heading fonts, lists, and block quotes. On the right panel, you can view your permalink, add categories and tags, upload the featured image, and prepare your post for the world of the internet.

A great resource that WordPress offers is their partnership with UpWork. If you're feeling overwhelmed, or have an idea of where you want your website to be and are having a hard time getting there, you can hire a freelancer. These individuals are masters at their craft and can help you whip your blog, online store, or business website into shape.

Where can you run this program?

You can use WordPress on computers running Windows, macOS, Linux WebOS, Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets, and Windows mobile devices.

Is there a better alternative?

There are more blogging and hosting websites on the internet than we can count, so it's really up to you. Are you looking for a website that's mostly aimed toward bloggers? How about one that is all about hosting online stores? Or maybe one that's best at creating professional websites for your business?

One of the alternatives for blogging or creating an online store is Wix. Wix is an all in one website that has a lot of the same features of WordPress. While WordPress does require some coding knowledge if you really get into altering your theme, Wix does all of that for you. It's a little bit more user-friendly and colorful with a simpler interface that isn't quite as overwhelming. Anyone can use it and no prior coding knowledge is needed. WordPress is more advanced and you'll get the most out of it if you're willing to put a lot of time and some outside research into learning the inner workings of the design.

Our take

No matter how many new website building programs arise, WordPress will always be there. Even though there's a small learning curve if you'd like to really customize your website, it has been around so long that there's an abundance of resources and information on the internet that will help you create your ideal site.

Should you download it?

The SEO options make it super easy to increase traffic to your website and being able to see which of your posts that are the most popular with your audience is an incredibly helpful tool. All in all, the results that you get from hosting your website on WordPress is definitely worth the time it takes to make it.