No Preview When Sharing Website Link – WordPress
There is one thing all good webmasters must have and that is the ability to share content with their audience. It is very frustrating to check out a cool blog post or an exciting news article and then not be able to share it with your friends and family. Especially when you have that perfect photo or graphic you want to use and you can’t because of copyright issues. Or maybe you even considered taking photos of your food for blogging purposes but then decided against it because you felt it wasn’t professional.
WordPress is a wonderful content sharing platform that was built with exactly this scenario in mind. It was designed to be user-friendly while also being flexible enough to allow people with minimal design knowledge to build functional websites.
The best part is you don’t need a designer to build a functional WordPress site. In fact, if you know HTML and CSS you can actually build your own site and manage the content yourself. The fact is, WordPress is so easy to use that even your grandparents can handle it (yes, they can).
What Is WordPress?
If you’re reading this you probably know what WordPress is, but for those that don’t, let me briefly explain. WordPress is a content management system (CMS), which allows you to easily publish and manage any kind of content on the web. Essentially it is a platform that allows anyone to put content out there and engage with their audience. In case you’re wondering, a CMS is different from a blogging platform like Blogger or SquareSpace. While these platforms allow you to publish content and engage with your audience, the actual content you’re dealing with is still stored on a remote server somewhere. In other words, you’re still relying on someone else to provide the actual content you’re using.
WordPress is extremely versatile and can be used for a variety of purposes. It can be used to create a simple blog, a corporate website, a newspaper website, a e-commerce store and so much more. This is made possible thanks to its flexible “plug and play” functionality. This allows you to take any kind of content you have and easily repurpose it into a functioning web presence. If you’re unfamiliar, the WordPress.com Stats for 2017 reveal that there are currently 150.1 million active users on the platform across the globe. This makes it the second most used CMS on the web after Drupal.
Getting Started With WordPress
One of the amazing things about WordPress is its incredibly friendly interface. To get started with the CMS you first need to have a WordPress account. You can create one here for free: https://wordpress.com/signup/. Once you’ve created your account you can head over to Dashboard>Settings>Reading and click on the “Let People Know What You’re Reading” button. Doing this will cause a small card with the titles of your recently read posts to appear below your blog’s navigation header.
From there you can see what other options are available and decide which one you want to use. There is also the “Add New Post” button that you can use to quickly add a new blog post to your website.
Publishing Content On Your Website
Once you’ve made your selection you’ll be presented with a screen that looks a little like this:
On this screen you can enter the title of your post, some basic content and select a category to place it under. You can also add a featured image (like a logo or graphic header) to the post to give it some visual appeal. Once you’re done adding content click on the “Publish” button to make your post live on the internet.
From there you can click on the “Edit” button next to the post to make some last-minute changes to the text or add another photo.
As you can see, WordPress makes it easy to add content to your site. However, this doesn’t mean it’s only suitable for bloggers. It can be used to create a variety of different websites with varying content. For example, Say you have a restaurant and you want to create a food blog. You can use WordPress to easily set up a website around that content. You can use the “Food” category to publish content about food, recipes or dining at your restaurant. To add a splash of color add a featured image (like a flower or graphic) and some header graphics.
Taking Your Website Offline
If you’ve ever tried to publish a blog post and discover that none of your friends or family members could actually see it because it was only published online, you’ll understand the frustration that comes with relying on a third party to provide content.
Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to take your site offline and publish it to a local server so that it can be accessed by those who live in your area. This is possible by clicking on the “Publish” button and then selecting either “Local Server” or “None” from the dropdown menu that appears. Doing this will give you the option of having your site accessible offline or not. If you’ve ever tried to publish a blog post and discover that none of your friends or family members could actually see it because it was only published online, you’ll understand the frustration that comes with relying on a third party to provide content.
Sharing Content On Social Media
Another great thing about WordPress is that it makes it easy to add a social media share button directly on your site. All you need is a free Twitter account and you can add a share button for Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and even Instagram using the WordPress social media plugin.
These buttons act like smaller, more specialized versions of the “Publish” button, allowing you to quickly and easily spread your content across different social platforms.
Just click on the button to bring up the share dialog and then click on the platform you want to use.
From there, you can either enter your social media username and password or click on the “Connect With Your Social Media Accounts” button to automatically log you into your accounts.
And that’s it! You now have a fully functioning WordPress blog (or website or magazine) that you can update and share content from directly from your dashboard.
I hope this article has helped you see why WordPress is a great option for people looking to create a blog or website. It really is that simple to get started with. And if you know HTML and CSS you can even build your own custom themes for free using the platform. Thanks for reading! I hope this article has helped you see why WordPress is a great option for people looking to create a blog or website. It really is that simple to get started with. Thanks for reading!