How to Learn WordPress for Free in a Week (or Less)
Are you looking to learn WordPress and build a website? One of the best parts about WordPress is it’s ease of use. Learning WordPress does not require a lot of time or money. In this article, we will show you how to learn WordPress for free in a week (or less).
Why Learn WordPress?
WordPress is the world’s most popular open source content management system. That’s a fancy of saying it allows you to build great websites.
About 22% of all websites are powered by WordPress. It generates thousands of job opportunities around the world, and there are millions of websites making money using WordPress.
Apart from the economic opportunities, WordPress enables people to share their stories, ideas, build communities and do awesome things.
What do I need to learn WordPress?
Learning WordPress is easy as long as you are willing to commit few hours each day for a week. You would need some very basic search skills (i.e know how to Google), and the ability to follow instructions.
No you don’t need to know HTML or other programming to build a website. Will it help to know those in the future? Ofcourse, but it’s not necessary in the beginning.
Many skilled WordPress users started from scratch just like you. In fact most WordPress users don’t know how to write code or design websites.
Now that you are committed to learn WordPress, we want to welcome you to the awesome WordPress community.
Let’s start…
Monday: Initial Setup
The first thing you need to do is install and setup WordPress. This starts with a decision that you have to make between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.
For most businesses and individuals who’re looking to harness the true power of WordPress, it makes more sense to start with WordPress.org.
Now that you have chosen the right platform, the next step is to choose your domain and hosting.
Your domain is the website address that users will type to visit you (example wpbeginner.com). We have a guide that will help you pick the perfect domain name for your website.
The next step is to choose web hosting. This allows your website to be seen by other people on the internet. We have a guide to help you choose the best WordPress hosting.
Once you have signed up with a hosting provider, you are ready to install WordPress. Head over to our step by step WordPress installation tutorial and follow the instructions.
We also have a step by step tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog (the right way).
Want to create a website other than blogs? Then check out our guide on how to make a website with WordPress.
Congrats, you have created a WordPress site. The next step is learning the basics.
Tuesday: Learning The WordPress Basics
After installing WordPress, it is time to get familiar with the system.
The best place to start is our free WordPress video series for beginners. These 23 videos will guide you through the WordPress dashboard, show you how to add images, videos, audio, etc.
If you come across a term that you don’t understand, then check out our WordPress dictionary which has a list of commonly used WordPress terminology along with detailed explanation of each word.
Next you should learn some key concepts such as differences between posts vs pages and categories vs tags.
If you still have some time left today, then you should explore our beginners guide section which is full of useful information.
Hopefully by this time, you have a good grasp of your WordPress admin area, and you’re probably eager to play with plugins.
Wednesday: Using WordPress Plugins
The real power of WordPress is in the plugins. WordPress plugins allow you to expand your website functionality such as adding contact forms, create a store, etc.
There are more than 32,000 free plugins available in the official WordPress plugin repository alone. This abundance of plugins can be overwhelming for beginners. That’s why you should look at our beginner’s guide on how to choose the best WordPress plugin.
We are often asked by beginners what plugins we use on our websites. You can checkout all the plugins and tools we use on WPBeginner in our Blueprint.
We recommend every user to install a WordPress backup plugin, WordPress SEO plugin, and WPForms for your contact form.
Also check out our WordPress Plugins category where you will find the best WordPress plugins to do anything you want on your WordPress website.
Exploring plugins will keep you entertained for most of the day. When you come back, the next thing we will cover is WordPress themes.
Thursday: Using WordPress Themes
WordPress themes control the look of your website. Themes are pre-made templates that you can install and customize for your site.
There are thousands of free and premium themes available for WordPress. You can download free themes from the WordPress Themes directory. For premium themes, you can go to theme shops like StudioPress, Elegant Themes, Themify, etc.
A perfect theme should be a balance of beautiful design and powerful features. Too many features are not always a good sign for Theme. Check out our guide on choosing the perfect WordPress theme for your website.
Refer back to our WordPress videos from Tuesday to see how you can change background, add header images, add menus, and more in your WordPress theme.
Friday: Customizing WordPress
Each website has different customization needs. Depending on what you want to do with your website, you will come across new questions. For example how to add a contact form, or create separate home page and new page for blog posts.
We recommend browsing through our WordPress Tutorials section which has some 200+ step by step tutorials for beginners.
You can also subscribe to WPBeginner’s YouTube Channel for free WordPress video tutorials.
We hope this article helped you learn WordPress in a week. Remember there is plenty of help available for WordPress, you just need to learn how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Google+.
