WordPress 101
WordPress has been the most popular CMS (content management system) in modern web days. Both clients and designers use it to brand themselves and a lot of users learn so much about it. There are so many things you can do with WordPress, and I can say that from personal experience. WordPress has helped me understand both easy and effective ways to create a website for my brand, without the complications or headaches (like coding). Although that's not all WordPress has to offer for its users, there are so many features and control abilities that the user has provided to them. Big companies like CNN, CBS, Sony, and Volkswagen have worked with WordPress. If you want to blog, show off your portfolio work, connect with other designers, or make a website, WordPress offers it.
What exactly is WordPress? Why is it so glorified? Well, there are two WordPress platforms. One of them, wordpress.com, is primarily used for blogging and sharing information. WordPress alone is an open-source software that is used by bloggers but offers much more than that. The content within these platforms is great because no one is required to sign up to read or write content. WordPress is the most popular CMS in use today because of its easy and free features and optional paid benefits. Out of the top 10 million websites as of January 2018, almost 30% of them were used with WordPress! It supports more than 60 million websites and has many free templates and features. I can agree that WordPress is really easy to work with compared to websites that require coding.
WordPress came from its precursor, b2/cafelog, which was another type of CMS. Blogging was extremely prominent on b2/cafelog with about 20,000 bloggers. WordPress was pretty much a coding copy of it, but more successful and optimized. Within years, it became the successor and now has development members from its precursor working on it. WordPress was finally released in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Huge web, internet, and coding sources spread the word that this platform was special and enjoyable because of its open-source content and convenient management system. Almost 60% of CMS users’ websites are used by WordPress. It has won many official awards like “Overall Best Open Source CMS” and “Best CMS for Personal Websites.”
The available features and options you are offered by WordPress are almost overwhelming. If you’re looking for an easy and free way to either brand yourself or blog about stuff, the free version of WordPress allows you to do so while offering hundreds of template themes and customization options for your taste. However, if you’re looking to get the most out of this platform and spend a little extra money, you have the option to host your WordPress site. Added benefits like templates, maximized customization ability in themes, and SEO (search engine optimization) features are in your hands. This is personally what I am using currently to build my website. I purchased a nice-looking theme from a third-party source and a license for WordPress. I am completely thankful for these options because I can not only build a personal website for myself and learn new things about it along the way, but I can use it as a tool to show my work and allow others to have a website built by me. So many clients will want to choose you to design and build their website because there are so many options and a lot can get done within a short amount of time.
So many job options are available to WordPress-trained designers. The freedom of it is the best feature. You can have the option to work from home as a self-employed web developer or design hosted WordPress sites for a bigger company in an office. As I always do to find jobs in my area, I searched “WordPress” and numerous different job options became available. “WordPress Developer/Designer”, “Web Designer”, and “Entry-level Web Programmer” were just a few of the job options posted available. Some companies needing a WordPress developer usually require at least a year of experience using WordPress and its tools. Others can require up to five years of experience with not just WordPress, but web development. Doing your research on the best jobs for you and what you know how to do with WordPress is key. The salary for WordPress designers can range from $20,000-$50,000 depending on the level of experience and job type.
A lot of web designers today are working from home and delivering WordPress sites designed to their needs for a good price. A lot of people charge their clients anywhere from $2,000-$5,000 depending on what is included. I would probably start by charging clients hourly, and maybe have a “package” option that can include other design work.
WordPress is one of the best website tools on the internet and I recommend it to everyone that needs a website.
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