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How to learn to set up a WordPress website fast.
The best way to learn how to set up a WordPress site fast is by doing. I know what you might be thinking, “Easier said than done.” But, it’s true. In fact, you could set up a WordPress website and get it live on the internet in just a few hours, most likely less.
However, learning the entire WordPress ecosystem along with all it’s changes, evolutions etc can be never ending.
In this post, I’m going to show you what you need to do in order to learn how to get a WordPress site up fast on the internet.
I will also go over some frequently asked questions in regards to learning WordPress and the best ways to do so as well as some other common questions.
What do I need to learn and do to get a WordPress website up on the internet fast?
You need to learn the following items below in order to get a WordPress site up on the internet fast. Your first WordPress website might not be its prettiest and most functional iteration, but it will be functional and pretty enough. The rest is up to you.
You can and may want to make changes later as you learn more. The good news is you can get a WordPress site up on the internet in just a few hours. Most likely less.
So here are the steps you need to get a WordPress site up on the internet fast:
- Buy a Domain Name.
- Get a Self Hosted Web Hosting Plan. Start out with a good Shared Hosting Plan, many allow you to host an “unlimited” amount of websites.
- Get your Web Provider’s “name servers” and change your Domain Name from your Domain Name Registrars name servers to your Web Hosting Provider’s name servers.
- In your Web Hosting Provider’s Control Panel, many use “cPanel”, go to “software”, then click “WordPress”.
- Use the “One-Click Installation” and go through the steps provided.
- Once WordPress is installed you should get an “email verification”, so verify your WordPress website’s installation.
- Log into your WordPress website with the login details you had submitted during the installation process, then in your Dashboard, go to themes.
- Either choose any free theme just to get you started or upload a previously bought theme or one you had chosen on WordPress.org. If you’re uploading a theme from your computer, it comes in a .zip file format. Don’t unpack the .zip file, simply upload the .zip file. WordPress will do all the unpacking for you.
- Go over to the plugin section and choose any recommended plugins you feel you may need. Use the search bar and search by plugin name.
- Upload, install and activate the plugins. They all come with instructions and settings for you to follow. If you are having a little trouble with any plugin, look it up on WordPress.org/plugins for documentation and/or visit its forum. If you need more help visit the plugin developer’s website for more information and check their FAQ sections as well.
That’s it, you’re pretty much done. Now all you need to do is go to the themes “Customization” section which is under “Appearance” in the right column of your WordPress dashboard and fiddle around with the theme.
Get to know it, the widgets, etc. You should also check out the premium or paid version of the theme to see if there are additional child themes and other addons you may want to use in the styling and functioning of your website. It may be more than worth it to upgrade.
Besides, you would also get full support as well as theme updates, etc.
Personally, I’ve found the paid version of GeneratePress well worth the upgrade.
Not only in the extra features, widgets, updates and access to their support forums (where you’ll find the developer Tom Usborne participating in himself) but a learning experience that I’ve received for free many courses actually charge for.
How many days will it take to learn WordPress?
Learning WordPress can be a lifelong endeavor. The WordPress ecosystem has been around for over 17 years.
WordPress is a constantly evolving and improving CMS (Content Management System).
In fact, WordPress has evolved so much since I first started using it over 10 years ago that you could set up a website with no previous knowledge much faster than I could have 10 years ago.
WordPress has also become much more beginner friendly. After all, it was first created to give bloggers and anyone else who wanted to have a voice on the internet a way to create their own websites without having to rely on some proprietary and closed source CMS. WordPress is open source and free for anyone to use.
Is WordPress better than coding?
If you want to be a Coder or Programmer, perhaps even a Website Developer, then you’re better off learning a core coding language.
WordPress’s coding language is called PHP.
However, if you are simply interested in developing a website or several websites. Getting them up and running on the internet. Managing them, whether it’s a simple blog, corporate website, portfolio website, a small business website, a website or blog about an interest or hobby of yours or even a full fledged ecommerce store, then learning WordPress is much better than learning about coding.
Is a WordPress theme worth the money?
Although WordPress has thousands of free themes available for download, buying a WordPress theme is definitely worth the money. Why?
Simply because you could do so much more with a paid or premium version of a theme than you ever could with the free version of a theme.
In addition to more available functions and widgets, you also have more styling options too.
These are crucial if you really want to customize the look and functionality of your WordPress website without the need to hard code these extra functions and aesthetics into your WordPress theme.
It will also save you tons of money if you don’t know how to code from hiring a coder or programmer to do this for you.
Furthermore, most paid themes usually have not only a support forum but many even have a support call center that you can call or email with questions or issues you may be having when working on that paid theme.
Finally, one of the best ways to learn about WordPress is through your own, paid for premium version of your WordPress theme and the access to its support form.
By asking questions along with trial and error, you will learn valuable skills needed to be able to customize your WordPress website and feel much more comfortable working with WordPress in general.
Are WordPress developers in demand?
WordPress powers more than 40% of all websites on the internet today. So you can imagine the amount of WordPress developers there are out there.
However, your basic run of the mill WordPress developer with limited coding skills are unfortunately, a dime a dozen and can even be a hazard if you’re looking to make some changes to your WordPress website and pick the wrong “developer”.
Therefore, although there are many WordPress developers, great WordPress developers are few and far between as well as being in high demand.
So if you’re interested in becoming a WordPress developer do it right. Learn everything you can, then, under promise and over deliver.
The good news for aspiring WordPress developers is because WordPress is so popular, it has a huge library of resources and coding solutions.
In fact, WordPress has the largest resource library of any CMS on the internet today. This is excluding all the forums and other communities where WordPress professionals congregate and openly share and help others.
So if you want to be a highly paid WordPress developer, there are certainly more resources at your disposal than you could ever learn and use in a lifetime.
That’s why WordPress has been made open source from the very beginning. WordPress’s goal has always been a free and open internet.
How can I practice WordPress for free?
There are a couple places where you can practice WordPress for free. In fact, the first place is none other than WordPress.com.
On WordPress.com you can actually get a free hosted WordPress blog or website.
This is a great opportunity for you to not only get a free and live website on the internet, but to also learn WordPress as well.
You can also download WordPress for free onto your local computer and set up a full blown site even before you get a domain name or hosting. Here’s a post where we go into more detail on how to do just that, “Does WordPress need hosting? Hosting and No Hosting options.”
How to learn WordPress fast, conclusions.
There you have it. How to learn WordPress fast.
I have gone through the general steps in what you need to do in order to get a WordPress website live on the internet in no time.
In addition, you can even get a WordPress blog or website live on the internet and hosted for free with WordPress.com.
However, if you just want to learn WordPress without the need for buying a domain name, hosting or any other financial obligations, you can do that as well. How?
By simply downloading any WordPress theme as well as plugins from WordPress.org onto your local computer. I’ve linked to a post that you can read in order to do just that.
Learning WordPress fast is much easier than ever before. WordPress keeps evolving and getting easier with each evolution.
Best of all not only is WordPress open source, allowing you to buy and create themes that are yours to keep, but you can also self-host them anywhere you like.
So you have no more excuses. There’s no better time to own your own WordPress website live on the internet than right now.
