An Example of a WordPress Website: How to Make It Look Amazing

WordPress is one of the most popular and most used Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world. For all intents and purposes, it can be considered the Swiss Army Knife of the web. With almost every aspect of a website’s functionality covered by the free and open-source software (FOSS), WordPress is a fantastic choice for anyone who’s looking to create a blog or website.

While WordPress’s huge popularity in part comes from its ease of use, anyone can use it and make a decent-looking website with only a few hours of learning or training. This tutorial will walk you through the steps to make an example WordPress website so you can get a better idea of what a typical WordPress website looks like and how to style it to look unique and amazing.

Why WordPress?

If you’re reading this, I assume you already know what WordPress is and why you should use it. If not, here’s a short overview.

WordPress is one of the biggest and most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, and it’s been around for a very long time. WordPress started as a blogging platform in 2004 and since then it’s gone from strength to strength, largely because of its incredibly flexible and extendable content management system (CMS).

Because WordPress is such a versatile tool, it can be used to create pretty much any website or blog you could imagine. Its robust and active community also makes it a great destination for learning and development. And finally, the open source nature of WordPress means you have access to the source code if you ever run into a problem. This could potentially save you a great deal of time and money.

The Most Popular Blogs and Websites Using WordPress

Now, let’s take a quick look at some of the most popular blogs and websites that are currently running on WordPress.

Trulia is a real estate resource that was started in 2005 and is currently one of the largest real estate blogs in the world. With over 1.7 million monthly active visitors and 16.7 million pageviews per month, it’s clear that this popular blog is making the most of its popularity on WordPress.

You can actually find a lot of popular blogs and websites using WordPress, but the truth is you can easily create a similar-looking blog or website with just about any CMS. The beauty of WordPress is its incredible flexibility and robust feature set, which means it can be used to create almost any website you could think of.

Install WordPress

With that in mind, let’s get started with installing WordPress on your computer. To do this, you’ll need to have a blank WordPress website. You can download the WordPress software from the official website, or you can use the WordPress App that you can find in your app store. Once you’ve downloaded the software or app, open it up and click on the Create a new site button.

This will open up a WordPress administration panel. Here, you’ll have to pick a site title and a short description of your site. You can also register your blog or website with the same panel if you’re using the free version of WordPress. Once you’ve done this, click on the Create new site button to continue.

On this next screen, you’ll have to pick a hosting service that you want to use for your WordPress site. If you’re just getting started, it’s best to go with the free hosting that comes with WordPress. As you may have guessed, the free version of WordPress allows you to run the software on WordPress.com. You’ll also need to install a plugin to activate WordPress’s features. This will enable you to add, edit, and remove sections from your blog or website. Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll need to create a user account with WordPress and log in. You can do this from the WordPress dashboard.

Add Blog

Let’s add a blog to our new WordPress website. To do this, we’ll click on the Add new item button at the top of the WordPress administration panel. This will open up a form where we can enter the details of our new blog.

For blog name, we’ll use The Weekly Wrap. We’ll use The Daily Mail as our example hyperlink since everyone knows what the Daily Mail is and it’s a great fit for this tutorial. As we’ve already discussed, WordPress is a versatile tool that can be used to create almost any website or blog you could imagine. With that in mind, the name The Daily Mail is very generic and could potentially be used to create a very different website or blog. Once you’ve entered a blog name, you’ll have to select a publishing format, which will determine the way your blog content is displayed.

The most popular publishing formats on WordPress are:

• Post to schedule (i.e. Every Saturday at 12 p.m.): Once you’ve selected this option, you’ll have to enter a time when your blog posts will be published. You can also enter a description of when you will publish your posts. Once you’ve done this, click on the Publish button to confirm.
• On click (i.e. When someone clicks on a post link): With this option, the blogger has the choice of whether or not to have the posts displayed on a blog post schedule. The advantage of this option is that it’s very flexible and fits perfectly with a blog or website that doesn’t necessarily have a set schedule for its posts.
• Flexible (i.e. The blogger sets the schedule): With this option, the blogger has full control over when their posts will be published. They can choose to have the posts published at set times or at any time they want.
• Full Blog (i.e. The posts are displayed along with the entire blog, including the header and footer): With this option, the posts are displayed with the entire blog, including the header and footer. Sometimes, this option is referred to as a “rich blog layout” or a “Full website with posts” option.
• Minimal Blog (i.e. No headers, footers, or sidebars): With this option, the posts are displayed without the header, footer, or any kind of sidebars. While this may seem like a bold move, the truth is it’s one of the most popular options on WordPress because it looks clean and simple.
• RSS Feed (i.e. The posts are displayed along with an RSS feed icon): With this option, the posts are displayed with an RSS icon next to them. If you’re new to RSS, this is the option for you since you can find many free and open-source RSS readers that you can install on your phone, tablet, or computer. Once you’ve installed an RSS reader on your device, you’ll be able to display your blog’s posts via an RSS feed.
• Static Front Page: This option is only available if you’ve purchased a premium theme from WordPress.com. With this option, you can create a fully functioning front page that doesn’t require visitors to click on a link to access the blog’s content.
• Blog archive (i.e. The posts are displayed along with an archive selection button): With this option, visitors are presented with an archive selection button for the blog. When an archive is selected, the content is displayed in a list format. This is a great option for people who want to keep their blog content organized and accessible via an archive.

Once you’ve finished entering the details for your blog, click on the Save draft button at the top of the form. This will save your changes and take you back to the WordPress administration panel.

Style Blog

Now, let’s style our new blog by selecting the CSS option from the left navigation. This will open up a box where we can enter style customization options for our blog.

First, let’s change the color of our blog’s header and footer. To do this, we’ll click on the color icon in the style customization box and select a color from the palette that appears.

Next, let’s add some additional styles to our site. To do this, we’ll click on the plus icon in the style customization box as well as choose an option from the list that appears. If you’re a beginner, it’s best to start with a clean slate and add only one or two styles at first. Once you’ve added a few more, you can go back and add additional styles via the plus icon. Remember, WordPress’s flexible and extensible nature means that you can add or remove styles at any time and the software will automatically update your site.