This being my third post about WordPress, you’d think I would have already gotten the following question answered.  But no, the actual technical explanations don’t come to the top of my mind as my favorite to write about.  So I asked my assistant, Susan Fleming of Electronic Marketing Success, to answer the following question – the answer is hers.

What is WordPress anyway?

Let me try to explain it with an analogy.

When I first started working with computers, there was no Windows interface. No slick iOS from Apple. There was DOS. And no mouse. You booted up your computer and saw a black screen (or green, depending on your machine) with a flashing white cursor. That was it. And nothing happened until you type a command.

But now, you turn your computer on and you’re greeted with a pleasant chime, a pretty screen, and all you have to do is click the mouse, and things begin to happen. That’s called a Graphical User Interface (or GUI), and it is rather like a program that lets you accomplish things without having to use any programming languages.

WordPress is like that. It’s the program, or engine, or platform that allows you to build a website without having to get your hand dirty in all the code.

For example, I’m typing this into a nice box that seems very much like an email – no muss, no fuss, no HTML, no PHP. But if you right-click your mouse on this page and choose “View source,” you’ll see all the code that created the page. Go ahead and look at it now. I’ll wait…

With WordPress you can add your content and never have to see any code like that. It truly is a wonderful thing.

Yes, there’s a learning curve, but there is with every new skill. And it is so worth doing!

Susan was the guest speaker today at the Christian Coaching Resources free tele-seminar – Getting Started with a WordPress Website:  What You Need to Know – and she did a fantastic job!  Those who signed up for the event received an excellent hand out, access to the recording and also a very special offer (that expires Friday, April 8th). If you missed out, email Susan and she’ll get you the handout, recording and special offer!

My first two posts on WordPress which explain why you need to know about WordPress can be found here:

Why I Love WordPress – Part One

Why I Love WordPress – Part Two

Christian Coaching Resources