WordPress 24-Hour Trainer, 3rd Edition

Introduction

IN THE FEW SHORT YEARS since the first edition of this book, WordPress has grown to power about 20% of all the websites in the world. This success is not due to some massive marketing campaign; it was mostly viral, as web site owners, designers, developers, and marketers spread the word. And I think they told others because WordPress is:

• Easy to set up
• Easy to maintain
• Easy to grow and adapt

It's this last quality—ease of growing and adapting—which I think is particularly important. WordPress helps make your website future-proof, meaning no matter what happens on the web—new social media platforms, new technologies, new requirements—it allows you to respond pretty easily to those changes.

Since I began building websites exclusively with WordPress, I've noticed an important change in my clients: they look forward to updating and expanding their sites. When changing some text, let alone adding a new page, is like pulling teeth, you're less likely to do it. With WordPress, not only are my clients making their own changes, but they're excited about it and that's also made them more involved in their sites. Instead of having a site built and then sitting back, my clients are actively thinking about what they can change or add to make their sites better, because they can go in and do it themselves when the thought strikes.

That's the real power of WordPress: putting more control in the hands of the website owner.

But WordPress won't magically build a great site for you. ...