Tom Jazwinski

What Is WordPress?

•WordPress is a free open-source content management system.

• Open-source means that the code can be modified by anyone if they would like to.

•WordPress started off in 2003 simply for blogging websites

• As of this year, WordPress is used in over 23% of the top 10 million websites

• It is also still used for its original purpose as it is still being used for over 60 million blogging websites

Features Within WordPress

• Themes are an essential feature in WordPress to change and customise the appearance of your site – around 10,000 available some free and some premium

• Plugins can be used to extend the functionality of your WordPress site – more than 39,000 available

• Other features include the availability of WordPress on mobiles which means you can access and update your site without having to sit at your computer

Pro’s Of Using WordPress:

• One of the main benefits of WordPress is that it is completely free for anyone to use.

• A second pro is that it is very easy to use and does not require any previous coding knowledge

• Being able to customise the themes on WordPress is also a pro because it allows you to make your portfolio be original and personal to yourself.

• If your site is public then people will be able to see your work and leave comments about it

• Another advantage of using WordPress for an online portfolio is that you can have pages for different projects you have done and have contact pages to allow people to contact you about your work if they want to.

• You can also update your site whilst away from your computer as it supports mobile access.

Pro’s Of Using WordPress:

Con’s Of Using WordPress

• One disadvantage of WordPress is that some of the more professional looking themes cost money – however there are 100’s of free ones

• Another possible downside to using WordPress is the security issue that can be caused by downloading a dodgy plug-in or theme.

• Another issue with WordPress is that it requires frequent updates which can affect plugins that are being used.

My Recommendations For WordPress

• Firstly, the most professional looking theme I have seen so far is Divi. However this is a premium theme so you need to pay to use it.

• The theme I have used is a free theme called Enigma. I chose this theme because it is very simple and comes with a slideshow on the home page and has links to popular social network sites.

My Recommendations For WordPress

• One plugin which is very good for linking social media to your WordPress site is Social Media Feather

• Simple and barely takes up any room on your site.

My Recommendations For WordPress

• Another popular plugin for WordPress sites is Akismet

• Free and protects your site from unwanted spam in your comments

• Over 1,000,000 downloads

My Recommendations For WordPress

• Another popular plugin is Yoast SEO

• This tool helps improve your sites Search Engine Optimisation

• 1,000,000+ downloads

My Recommendations For WordPress

Examples of Popular Sites Using WordPress

• BBC America

• MTV News

Examples of Popular Sites Using WordPress

• The New Yorker

• Tech Crunch

• I think that WordPress is very good for anyone to use whether it’s just for someone’s portfolio or a huge companies blogging site.

• This is because it is free and easy for anyone to use without any coding knowledge

• Also it can be good for a portfolio as you can use the customisation options to make your site more personal to you

Summary