04 Sep How to Learn WordPress for Free in Less than a Week

WordPress is a great platform, and we all know how useful it is to learn the platform. Learning WordPress will enable you to be ready for the future.

With 24.2% of the websites powered by WordPress, it is only time when WordPress will reach 25%. According to some reports, WordPress has the potential to reach even 50% in the near future.

This leads to only one place…learn WordPress.

Also learning WordPress has its advantages. It can help you to handle projects yourself, and you don’t have to rely on anyone else.

Once learned, you will be able to be more focused on your business rather than CMS complexities.

Is learning WordPress free?

WordPress is open source which means that you can have access to all the resources put up by the community. There are still a lot of online resources where learning can be done by accessing paid content, but let’s put it an option for now.

Today, I will focus on a 5-day learning path for WordPress. We start from Monday and end on Friday. The learning path is divided by days, and I would urge you to follow the path for maximum returns.

Also, learning is subjective. If you find it hard to go through the content, it is wise to stick with your own pace — learning is subjective, and one should take sufficient time to learn concepts rather than rushing through them.

So, why the wait? Let’s get started.

How to Learn WordPress for Free in a Week (or Less)

Monday: Getting the basic setup running

Mondays are infamous, but let’s put it behind and focus on learning WordPress for now.

On the very first day, we should focus on getting your WordPress installation up(if you haven’t already).

The first day should be more focused on WordPress jargon. You can start by learning the difference of WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

If you are done by understanding the difference, you now know the difference between a self-hosted WordPress website and a website under WordPress.com.

To make the full use of WordPress, you should know how to install WordPress. You can use this nifty guide to installing WordPress locally written by me or check the detailed installation guide at WPBeginner.

By any chance, if you are looking to get a hosting first, don’t forget to go through the Bluehost and Hostgator.

And, this will easily lead you to choose a hostname for your blog/website. You can check the best blog and domain name generators.

That’s all for today. Now we can move to the next day, Tuesday.

Tuesday: Learning WordPress basics

Tuesday’s is all about being more creative and getting more done.

After the initial setup is done, it is now the right time to learn WordPress basics.

WordPress basics can be learned from the official WordPress Codex. It contains all the information you will ever need to learn WordPress.

Furthermore, you can dive deep into WordPress by visiting our beginner’s guide page. We have covered all the fundamental concepts, and they are customized according to the need of the beginners.

For example, we have covered the WordPress dashboard guide for beginners. You can easily understand the dashboard with the help of the guide.

You can also jump to the WordPress Tutorial section at 85Ideas and become more awesome. As there are tons of WordPress related article on 85Ideas, I would urge you to use the search functionality and find the appropriate article for a better learning experience.

Wednesday: Learning About WordPress Plugins

Wednesday is the day where we learn about WordPress plugins. WordPress, for me, and hundreds of other users offer the perfect ecosystem. The ecosystem is powered by the WordPress core, plugins, and themes.

At first, you will be confused on which plugin to use. The reason being there are plenty of plugins for a single task. Currently, the number of WordPress plugin in the repository is nearing 40,000, and you can guess how paralyzing is that number.

At 85Ideas, we have a special category for WordPress plugin. You can catch all the WordPress plugin related posts here.

To get started, you should understand how important it is to learn how plugins work. You can go through some of the handpicked plugin related articles on 85Ideas.

10 Must have WordPress Plugins for 2015 — This will help you get started with the important plugins.

8 Amazingly Good SEO plugins for WordPress –SEO is important and in this post we discuss the different options for SEO.

Backup plugins for WordPress — Backup is important for any WordPress website, and we have covered the important backup plugins in the post.

And much more.

I would also recommend reading the guide to choose the best plugin from WPBeginner.

Don’t forget to check our plugins section for daily awesome plugins updates.

Thursday: Themes provide you the eye candy

With plugins done, we can now move on to the Themes part. Themes provide the necessary visual effect to the website. Choosing the right theme is important for your success. The reason is simple; good looking themes provides the necessary trust and builds credibility among the visitors.

You can check the WordPress Theme directory for collection of free themes. If you are interested in buying premium themes, you can choose many online theme vendors. We have covered them in the deal section. You will get a good deal for getting the premium themes. The price of premium themes ranges anywhere from $20 to $100.

We also have free themes developed in-house at 85ideas. You can check them here.

We also update on themes on regular intervals. Do check back from time to time to get the latest from the WordPress theme section.

Friday: Customizing WordPress

WordPress is known for its customization features. It is all about getting things done. We have a special section covering WordPress tutorials, and we are planning on opening a WordPress YouTube channel for video tutorials, so stay tuned for future references.

You can read following tutorials for improving your knowledge.

How to Hide The Fact That Your Website Runs on WordPress

How to Translate Any WordPress Theme — Step by Step Guide

and much more in WordPress Tutorials section.

Over To You

I love WordPress, but it does come with a slight learning curve. For me, learning WordPress was one of the best experiences in my life, and I bet you will also love WordPress after you know what it has to offer.

This simple guide will help you get started with WordPress in a week or less. If you feel overwhelmed with the information presented in the article, don’t forget to relax and take sufficient time to learn. After all, learning is a slow process and should not be hurried upon.

Love the article? Do, you think I should have added more pointers? Can the guide be more simpler? Comment below and let us know.