Decided to create a website, and settled on WordPress? No wonder – it powers over 40% of websites on the Internet. Its dominance as the most popular Content Management System (CMS) gets even more convincing when you realize that it powers over 64% of websites with a known CMS. The accessibility and affordability of varied types of web hosting certainly contributed, as did detailed guides on installing WordPress. The remaining obstacle is to just start, and work on beating the learning curve, which can be steep for beginners. To help with that, we’ll demonstrate how to master WordPress, or rather, where. Let’s begin.
1. Master WordPress from official written resources
Many first-time users start with what’s familiar to them: the content from WordPress.com and WordPress.org, both official websites. If you like that idea, consume content from these sections:
Glossary
Glossary, or “Get Lingo”, should be the starting point for any WordPress beginner. It explains the primary terms related to WordPress and being a webmaster. You’ll also learn some dos and don’ts, and recommended choices for implementation and use of elements that make up WordPress.
Quick Start Guide
Next up, you should visit the “Get Going Fast: A Checklist” guide. It lists the necessary steps to take you from an idea to having a full-fledged website that looks pretty, functions properly, and has neatly categorized content. It provides a great foundation and instant gratification since you’ll quickly see the product of your effort.
WordPress Codex
WordPress Codex is a constantly updated repository about the CMS, including guides, information, documentation, terms, API, coding language, theme design, taxonomies, and minute details WordPress consists of. It’s comprehensive, translated in 40+ languages, and serves as a user manual, making it one of the go-to resources for WordPress developers, too.
Support
While you’re learning about WordPress and running a website, you’ll inevitably have doubts or get confused. What better way to get past those than asking someone more experienced? Instead of paying a mentor, turn to WordPress Support. The page contains links to:
- Community Support Forums: A place where WordPress users converge to exchange knowledge: tips, tricks, guidance, recommendations, suggestions, and more.
- WordPress.org Support Forums: A knowledge base dedicated to WordPress websites from an external web hosting.
- WordPress Customer Support: WordPress.com website owners can contact Customer Service experts 24/7 for help.
2. Follow websites dedicated to WordPress
You’ve done this part already – you found us! We, and thousands of other webmasters, create websites dedicated to the CMS we use and love. We do our best to provide guidance and solutions, demonstrate various procedures from start to finish with text, images, and videos, and gradually cover everything you might wonder about or run into. Unsure where to start? We’d recommend visiting our Learn WordPress page, then proceeded to a section you need.
3. Sign up for online WordPress courses
WordPress lectures, lessons, courses, or whatever you’d like to call them, are a superb source of knowledge. They provide a structure, step-by-step instructions, a logical progression in your learning endeavor. Lessons are written for all knowledge levels and often limited to bite-sized chunks, making them suitable regardless of time constraints. Some are limited to text and images, but the majority are in video format. Here are ways to learn WordPress through courses:
Free resources
WordPress has these official resources available:
Workshops
WordPress Workshops is a page dedicated to volunteer-powered video lectures about a wide array of WordPress-related content. Its main focus is on how-to guides, and its best feature is filtering, allowing you to select the series, topic, language, and captions to find exactly what you need. There are also questionnaires at the end, helping you verify you’ve mastered the topic.
Courses
Although the number is limited at the moment, WordPress Courses combine multiple Workshops into a coherent collection that needs to be viewed in order. At the end of the training, you also get a chance to take a quiz on the course material, letting you know which Workshops require a rewatch.
Lesson Plans
Unlike Workshops and Courses, WordPress Lesson Plans are limited to text and images, although just as detailed. Their greatest advantage, besides acting as a cheatsheet while studying, is the filtering system. Each Lesson Plan is categorized according to the target audience (speaker, user, designer, developer), duration (between 15 minutes and 1 hour), experience level (beginner to intermediate), and type of instructions (tutorial, exercise, discussion, and more).
WordPress.tv
WordPress.tv is similar to Workshops as it provides access to a collection of videos made by contributors worldwide, in different languages and editing styles. The main difference is that more people contribute to Closed Captions (CC), there’s a larger moderator team that provides quality control. Also, its focus is on recordings of WordPress events, especially WordCamp.
Paid resources
If you’re willing to pay to master WordPress, the number of options rises significantly. So does the quality, type, and structure of the source material. You have two base options:
Choose a WordPress-only courses website
Pick a favorite website, check the sample, and sign up for subscription-based or one-time lectures. Although more comprehensive than the method below, the price is often higher. An example of this is WPCourses (https://wpcourses.com) an official blogging guide with 21 video lessons at $49 per year.
Browse the WordPress section at a general website
There are plenty of online learning and teaching marketplace websites, and nearly all have sections dedicated to WordPress. The benefit compared to the option above is that due to large competition, the prices are low. Also, you can check the reviews left by other students, and ask the creator to make new lectures.
4. Get an e-book about WordPress
Prefer to consume content in a written and illustrated form? Purchase an e-book. It covers a broad range of topics, edited carefully for clarity, consistency, and hierarchy. Also, unlike video courses, you download them once, and read them offline at any time, on any device. Furthermore, e-books can be affordable due to marketplace rivalry.
5. Learn WordPress from an online magazine
Fans of newsletters will love the ability to sign up for an online publication. This lets you receive continuous, concise updates daily, weekly, or monthly. Even better, after mastering the basics, an online magazine subscription lets you stay up-to-date on news and changes. In other words, you can avoid attending events, watching developer live streams, or read the official blog.