How to Host a File WordPress Site
The most popular content management system (CMS) in the world is beyond doubt WordPress. In fact, it is now officially the second most popular CMS after Joomla! It is extremely flexible and easy to use, which makes it a perfect fit for professional writers and photographers who need a content platform for their work.
WordPress powers over a million websites, and it is currently installed on over 300 million websites around the world. This makes it the perfect basis for any content-focused business, blog or website.
What’s more is that WordPress is completely free to download and use, which means that you don’t have to worry about paying for web hosting or a licence. This makes it probably the best CMS for beginners who want to set up a blog or website but lack the budget to purchase a premium theme or plugin. For these reasons, and so much more, we consider WordPress to be a perfect fit for any business or personal website or blog.
Why Use WordPress?
Just like any other content management system (CMS) that you might use, such as Joomla! or Drupal, WordPress has a few features that make it stand out. Let’s take a quick look at each of these reasons.
Easiest To Use
One of the great things about WordPress is that it is incredibly easy to use. Almost any computer user can download and install it in less than five minutes. This makes it ideal for people who are looking to set up a quick blog or website to host their content. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Word, you will have no problem using WordPress. From creating and publishing content to editing and viewing stats, the entire process is made simple and easy to understand.
Cross-Platform
The most popular content management systems in the world, including WordPress, are built on a series of open source projects, which are freely available to download and use. This means that developers can create applications or plugins that work on any device and any platform. This makes WordPress extremely flexible. Not only can you use the CMS to create a beautiful blog or website, but you can also develop an application for mobile devices using the same code.
Fully Customizable
WordPress is designed to be completely customisable through the use of themes and plugins. This simply means that, as the name would suggest, you can change the appearance of your site through the use of templates and styling. While this might sound daunting, WordPress makes it very easy to do. If you are looking to create a simple yet functional website, using a premium theme is the perfect choice. Alternatively, you could choose to use a free theme from WordPress.org, which will give you a head start on your personal project.
Extensible
Another excellent feature of WordPress is that it is very extensible. This simply means that, as modern technology would have it, you can add extra functionality to your site through the use of extensions, apps, and widgets. While this might sound like overkill, especially if you’re new to the platform, it can really come in handy. For example, you might decide that you need a way for readers to engage with your content. You could choose to develop an app using WordPress as the basis, which then connects to your content through a series of shortcodes.
Free
Last but not least, we have the completely free aspect of WordPress. As we mentioned above, WordPress is completely free to download and use. This means that you don’t have to worry about paying for web hosting or a licence, which is great if you’re tight on budget. It also means that you are not held to any particular development standards, as you would be with a commercial product. Just remember that the more popular a product or service, the more expensive it usually becomes. This is certainly not the case with WordPress as it is completely free.
How To Host A File WordPress Site
WordPress is so popular that it has its own dedicated communities that can guide you through the process of getting started. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned pro, there is always someone available to help you.
If you’re looking to host a blog or website, you’re going to want to take a few things into consideration before you get started. We’re going to cover three different ways that you can go about doing this, all of which have their perks and quirks. Let’s get started.
Self-Hosted
If you’re looking to host a blog or website on your own computer, using WordPress as your blogging platform makes a lot of sense. This is probably the simplest and most basic way to go about hosting a blog or website, as you don’t need to worry about any technical details. Of course, this also means that you’re on your own if something goes wrong. Fortunately, WordPress makes fixing basic mistakes easy to do.
Go-Anywhere Hosting
One of the attractive aspects of WordPress is that it is a fully open source project, which means that you can download it and use it wherever you would like. This is especially useful if you’re looking for a platform on which to run a blog or website. The only restriction is that you need to have a fast and stable internet connection. Otherwise, you might end up with text-only pages due to dropped connections that cause WordPress to malfunction.
Cloud Hosting
Another great option for those looking to host a blog or website is to use the cloud. This is especially useful for those who want to do this on a mobile device as it allows them to upload content directly from the site to their Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter accounts, as well as other social media platforms, without having to export each post individually.
The two options above, self-hosted and cloud hosting, are great if you’re looking to host a blog or website for personal use. However, if your blog or website is going to be more professional in nature, using a CMS such as WordPress makes less sense. The reason being that the look and feel of a professional blog or website is mostly controlled by the theme that you use, and the theme that you use is mostly controlled by the plugins that you install. Changing any of these on a whim is not advised, as it can break whatever functionality you have built. Instead, it is recommended that you install WordPress to a live site and then make all the necessary custom changes there.
Things To Keep In Mind
Just like any other CMS that you might use, you will need to keep a few things in mind when you start your WordPress journey. First of all, make sure that you have a secure and stable internet connection. This is especially important if you’re using a public WiFi hotspot, as attackers might try to steal your personal information. If this happens, you will have to start over from scratch, as you won’t be able to recover the blog or website.
Secondly, make sure that you’ve backed up your data. This is important not just for security purposes, but also so that you can easily restore everything if something goes wrong. We can’t stress this enough. Last but not least, make sure that you update your plugins and theme regularly. This is especially important if you’re using WordPress as a blogging platform. The reason being that, as we mentioned above, WordPress is entirely open source, which means that it is always evolving. If you don’t update your plugins and theme, you will find that newer and potentially more insecure versions are being released all the time, leaving your website vulnerable to attacks. This is not good for your security or the security of your content.
Choose A Suitable Domain Name
If you are going to use WordPress to host a blog or website, one of the first things that you will need to do is choose a suitable domain name. For some reason, WordPress refuses to work with expired domain names, so make sure that you purchase the domain name that you want. If you are using a free domain name, make sure that you check with the provider that it is still active before you start using it. Otherwise, you might find that one day, you will wake up and discover that the site is no longer accessible.