Building Your Professional Online Presence Workshop Series

Start the Presses!:WordPress Website Builder

Instructor: Kelsey Bates, TA/GA ITD & Help Desk

Overview of WordPress Website Builder

1. Non-Blogging Possibilities of WordPress2. Content Management Systems3. Levels of WordPress’ Flexibility4. Fighting with the Interface

• Free WordPress sites• Freemium WordPress sites• Full Domain Management of a WordPress site

What Do You Want to Do With WordPress?

Non-Blogging Examples

Content Management Systems (CMSs)

• Manages pictures, video, audio, page layouts, etc. for easy collaboration with other users

• Uses PHP, MySQL, CSS, HTML, etc. without you having to know about them

• Other examples of CMSs:• Drupal• Omeka• Joomla!

Why choose WordPress as a CMS?

• Ease of Collaboration• Rich community of users

& documentation• Ease of setup• Flexible!• Commonly used by

employers• Stepping stone to more

a complex CMS

Why choose WordPress as a CMS?

• Ease of Collaboration• Rich community of users

& documentation• Ease of setup• Flexible!• Commonly used by

employers• Stepping stone to more

a complex CMS

• It can get complicated• It is limited

Publish Illinois

• www.publish.illinois.edu• Expires after graduating

Modifying Your Site

What you can do depends on where the site lives– WordPress.com (free)

– WordPress.com (paid)

– WordPress.org (free*with your own hosting space)

WordPress.com (free)

• Quick and Easy!– Never goes down– Always backed up– Potential for extra

traffic from tied-in WordPress community

• It gets you started!• No $$$ Commitment

WordPress.com (free)

• Quick and Easy!– Never goes down– Always backed up– Potential for extra

traffic from tied-in WordPress community

• It gets you started!• No $$$ Commitment

• No plug-ins• No PHP customization• No customized themes• Less professional web

addressyourblogname.wordpress.com

vsyourblogname.org or .com

WordPress.com (paid)• Quick and Easy!

– Never goes down– Always backed up– Potential for extra

traffic from tied-in WordPress community

• It gets you started!• CSS customization• Pro web address

WordPress.com (paid)• Quick and Easy!

– Never goes down– Always backed up– Potential for extra

traffic from tied-in WordPress community

• It gets you started!• CSS customization• Pro web address

• No plug-ins• No PHP customization

• Some customized themes• Moderate $$$ investment

WordPress.org (paid)

• Infinity customization• Fully customizable

themes• Fantastic for building

technical experience

WordPress.org (paid)

• Infinity customization• Fully customizable

themes• Fantastic for building

technical experience

• Infinity customization• $$$ investment for

managing your own domain

• No tech support• No automatic backups

Modifying Your Site

• Themes• Content• Menus & Pages• Widgets• Plug-ins• Mobile

Questions?