How to Make an Event Website with WordPress
WordPress is the number one self-hosted blogging platform, currently boasting over 10 million downloads and a 4.9-star rating on Google’s App Store. With such a wide audience, it’s little wonder why people are turning to WordPress to power their event websites.
Launching a WordPress site means having a ready-to-go platform that can be customised to suit your needs. You don’t have to worry about hosting or upgrading – everything’s taken care of. And, if you’ve ever tried to set up a blog or website on a whim, you’ll know how daunting a task it can be. But with WordPress, the setup is actually quite simple.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of creating a WordPress event website template so you can get started quickly and easily.
Choosing the Right Theme
Before you begin building your site, you’ll need to decide what theme you want to use. There are hundreds of free and premium WordPress themes available, with the majority of themes being extremely versatile and suitable for a wide range of uses. But if you’re looking for a completely customised solution, you might have to pay a little more.
When choosing a theme, be sure to consider the look and feel of your overall site. Do you want your site to look like a typical blogging platform or more of a news organisation? What are your inspiration sources? While you might want to keep some aspects of a traditional blogging platform, you probably don’t want to go overboard and look like a boring website. With WordPress, you have the freedom to build the most unique and engaging website possible.
Setting Up Your Database
One of the first steps to setting up a WordPress website is to create a database to store your content in. Although you can start with a free hosted WordPress database through Google’s Cloud Platform, you’ll need to purchase a domain and set up a local database on your computer before you can begin editing. To set up your database, you’ll need to visit your host’s website and click on the Cloud Platform button.
You’ll then be directed to a page showing you all the different plans that are available to you. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll choose the Classic Plan. As you can see in the image below, this plan provides you with a free website built on the WordPress platform.
On this page, you can also choose to install additional plugins that will further enhance your site’s functionality. Depending on your needs, you can select from a range of different plans, all of which are extremely affordable. If you run a small business that doesn’t need the additional features provided by the Business plan, you can opt for the Standard plan for as little as $4.95 per month.
Installing WordPress
Installing WordPress is extremely simple. You can either do this manually or use a WordPress installation tool. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll use the latter. Once you’ve downloaded the tool, you’ll need to click on the Install button to begin the installation process. This will take you through a wizard-like interface that will guide you through the setup process. You can either choose to do this manually or follow the tool’s instructions to the letter.
Once the installation is complete, you’ll see a screen prompting you to select a theme for your site. Since you’ve already set up your database with the Classic Plan, WordPress will use this to automatically create a default sample site for you with a navigation menu, login page, and profile page. You can click on the Appearance button to access the site’s settings or the Classic Theme Options to change the look and feel of your site.
As you can see in the image below, this is what your default WordPress sample site will look like.
Making Your Event Website Functional
Once you’ve chosen a theme for your site and installed WordPress, you can begin customising it to suit your needs. You have complete control over the website’s appearance and functionality with WordPress, which means you can build an entirely new site from the ground up without having to worry about browser compatibility or older devices. (Unless you decide to go for a completely custom design, of course).
To get started, simply navigate to your sample site’s Appearance page and make any necessary changes to the theme’s settings. You can then head back to the Overview page to check out your newly-designed site.
To learn more, we recommend reading this in-depth guide to WordPress website design or checking out WordPress’ own quick-start guide for beginners.
Creating Your Blog
If you’ve been following along so far, you’ll know that you’ve built a functional website with WordPress. But now you have to turn your attention to creating content for your site. To do this, you’ll need to click on the gear icon on the Overview page and select the option to Create a new blog post.
This will take you to the WordPress dashboard, which is where you can write and publish your content. To get started, simply click on the Add New Blog button and enter a blog name for your new site.
WordPress will then take you through the setup process for you new blog. First, you’ll need to choose a Blog name and make sure you’ve entered a meaningful description. Next, click on the next button to continue into the blogging settings.
In the next section, you can choose to make your blog public or private and decide what type of content you want to allow readers to see (i.e. what categories you want to include in your blog). You can also pick a topic for your blog posts in the same section.
As you can see in the image below, you have the freedom to make your blog as fancy or as simple as you like. You can add a header, feature image, and text to your blog posts in the same section. But by keeping the design of your site simple, you’ll give your blog more credibility.
Editing Your Blog
Once you’ve created a blog post for your site, you can begin editing it to make it perfect. To do this, simply navigate to the blog post in question and click on the Edit button in the top right corner of the screen.
From here, you can make changes to the post’s text, add or remove images, and change the header and footer of the post. When you’re happy with the outcome, save your post and you’re done!
If you need further help, you can also take a look at WordPress’ dedicated support forum or browse through the website’s built-in help section.
With WordPress, setting up a website is easy and accessible for everyone. Even if you’re a complete beginner, you shouldn’t have any trouble following along with this tutorial to create a functional event website in no time at all.