What is WordPress?
People are always asking me, Derek what is WordPress? This is a question that can be briefly answered by saying that WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that is also a free blogging tool. It has become very popular since it was released into the market for public use in mid 2003, and currently it is being used by almost 19% of the leading 10 million websites.
What are the outstanding features of WordPress?
Theme
WordPress has a variety of themes. Whereas you can download some of them entirely free, you will have to pay some fee if you want any of the premium themes. Once you have selected the themes to apply on your site, it is possible to switch from one to the next without affecting the format of your content. Themes basically impact the way your website looks like. To install themes in WordPress, you can either use the administration tool for ‘appearance’ or upload theme folders via FTP. Another example of how themes can enhance the appearance of your website if the very theme your on right now from Thesis. This is a powerful theme that I used to create this website and highly recommend you to check it out also.
Plugins
The plugins in the WordPress database are in excess of 26,000. That great choice allows you customize your website to suit your needs. For example, you can set it in a manner to enhance your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or even to modify the way you display your content.
Multi-blogging
With WordPress, you are not confined to one blog at a time; you can host more than one blog community and control the blogs from one common dashboard.
Mobile gadgets
You can access WordPress from most of the mobile gadgets including Android; Blackberry; iOS, e.g. iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch; and such others.
There are many more advanced and user-friendly features in WordPress that you will find convenient to use. You will, for instance, be able to format your content and even tag articles and other posts with ease.
Security Measures
You need to ensure that you update all your plugins, themes and other WordPress installations regularly to avoid falling victim to SQL injection, XSS and other web attacks. These days, it is very easy to do that; it’s just by the click of a button.
Famous Institutions using WordPress
Very soon, I think, no-one will be asking What is WordPress. This is because there are very many famous and popular institutions publishing on the web using WordPress. They include CNN, e-Bay, GM, The Washington Post, MP3, Samsung, BuzzMachine, GOP, Political Ticker, Boing Boing, TechCrunch, and many more.
As a blogging tool, you will always like WordPress when you are creating and posting the blogs, and when you get to reading other people’s blogs and responding to them, you will still be at home with the features and tools. If you want to learn how to create your own WordPress blog, Click Here