About a quarter of all the websites on the Internet run on WordPress. This drives home the point that WordPress is by far the most popular content management system. The general preference for WordPress is majorly due to its versatility—it can be used for blogs, business sites, personal sites, forums, and many other purposes. Another reason why WordPress is widely favored is that it’s far easier to use than most other content management systems.
Examples of the world’s most colossal brands that rely on WordPress for their online operations include CNN, TED, New York Times, TechCrunch, Mashable, and so on. Although WordPress is generally adjudged easy to use, many people are still skeptical about migrating to the platform. Their reasons? Some say you will need some knowledge of coding to get certain things done.
Some say you will have to constantly battle with spammers. Some say it’s still not as easy to use some other platforms like Blogger. And many other reasons. But the truth is that anyone can master how to use WordPress. Even you. It’s just a matter of taking your time to learn how to use it—although you will grab some things by merely looking at the WordPress user interface.
Whether you want to start your own blog on WordPress or you want to become familiar with the platform for other reasons, you will find many helpful resources online that can teach you how to use WordPress for any purpose it can serve. And the good thing is that most of these resources are free. Here are five free online resources that will teach you how to install, setup, and use a WordPress blog.
5 Free Online Resources That Will Teach You How to Install and Setup a WordPress Blog
1. WPBeginner.com
As its name implies, this website is for absolute beginners who know next to nothing about WordPress. If you have never been exposed to WordPress and are trying to learn how to set things up on your own without hiring someone else to do it for you, this website is a good starting point.
The great thing is that WPBeginner.com is a free resource with several types of content – articles, videos, guides, and so on. They also openly disclose the tools they use to run their own website, many of which are freely available plugins that you too can use.
To access the video tutorials on the website, you need to sign up with your email address. This isn’t a big sacrifice, considering the quality of free information and training you will be getting in return.
2. Plan, Build, and Launch a WordPress Website—Udemy
https://www.udemy.com/plan-build-and-launch-a-wordpress-website/
If you are a beginner looking for a holistic approach to learning WordPress, this free course is for you. It will take you through a step-by-step learning process that will help you understand everything from domain name registration and hosting plan purchase down to finally launching your own WordPress site. With the series of short videos available, you can learn the whole process at your own pace.
3. WordPress Tutorial Library—WP101.com
http://www.wp101.com/tutorials/
If you know what “something101” means, then you already know what to expect from this free online tutorial on WordPress. It’s actually a library of WordPress tutorials that has seven free videos covering different elements and steps of learning WordPress. There’s an introduction to WordPress aspect to start with if you are an absolute beginner. And there are much more for you, depending on how much you are willing to learn about WordPress.
4. How to Learn WordPress in One Week (Without Spending a Cent)—WPMUdev
http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/learn-wordpress-in-a-week/
This page literally takes you through a series of daily lessons that teach how to become proficient at using WordPress. Each section teaches a different element or step of WordPress.
While you have the option of proceeding at your own pace, you will be invited to read a section per day of the week. For example, Monday invites you to read the Codex and Tuesday teaches you the themes. By Sunday—that is, after 7 days—you will be celebrating your accomplishments. If you want to proceed a bit into advanced topics like SEO, this resource will also help you with that.