I am learning WordPress. It is a program that allows people like me to write and maintain a website. Along the way, I’ve found the process challenging, to say the least. Version 6.8.3 is said to be used in 43.7% of websites worldwide. Websites using a content management system (CMS), like WordPress, are 60.7% in total.
That gave me the impression that learning it would be easy. This is the reason for using WordPress over other hosting sites that are pricier but easier to work with. I now realize how people make a living building websites and charge for their services. I, being a simple retiree looking for something to do and wishing to write, can only afford just the necessary expenses, like a hosting service and a yearly domain subscription.
What comes next are the zillions of programmers who offer plugins or other trick tools to supposedly make writing easier. They make it easy to get sidetracked from the original task of creating a simple personal blog-type website. Even my new trusted best friend, Microsoft Copilot, seems to guide me to useful distractions like writing HTML, CSS, or other CODE that I do not understand. These out-of-route excursions, while seeming like the easy way out, have major unintended consequences. Those edits can pile up and become unmanageable if you wish to retract them later.
I have learned to ask Copilot to help me using only native WordPress language, so any errors or troubleshooting involves only one language. As a consequence of my being cheap and diving into the deep end, I find that my learning curve is two steps forward and one step back. That is to say, slow. Snail-like, slow. The beauty is, what I’ve learned is stuck in my head till death do us part. It’s like Thomas Edison. “I know a thousand and one ways to do it wrong, and one way to do it right.” What cracks me up is that after I learn something, I wonder why I didn’t know it all along.
I have a site up and running, and it’s the most basic of the basic, prehistoric basic. “Me Tarzan, you Jane,” basic. I planned to learn just what I needed to start and accomplish something. I believe I have done that, and I now see the need to build some categories into my menu system and maybe add icons or small images to my index for visual appeal.
I decided early in this project that the concepts and ideas would be totally mine. In other words, it would be my creation, and I wouldn’t follow other sites’ scripts or formats. Turns out, I’m not that clever. I need to peruse other blogs to generate ideas on how to use my space to entice and entertain visitors. I won’t copy any content, but I will get ideas and then reverse engineer their format to further my learning experience. Furthermore, I may, along the line, learn enough to envision and create my own formats and layout strategies. At least, that is my thought on the subject.
The Gutenberg block concept is cool, and while I have been using only basic building blocks, I’ve discovered hundreds more. Some are relevant to marketing or sales, and the ones that interest me are the blog-type blocks. I’m not going to get in the weeds on this because, frankly, I don’t know enough and would bore you to death. I would like to mention that I have a great deal to learn, and incremental improvements are coming to my posts. Well, that’s a brief update on my progress and on what’s coming next.
It’s an interesting thing I’ve gotten myself into. There is no need for divorce papers, no easy monthly payments, or the need to stand before a judge wearing an all-black bed sheet. I had over ten years of preparation before jumping into this WordPress business. I’m a V-8 firing on three cylinders, burning gasoline rather than alcohol. All three are 100%, and the other five need a ring job. I’ve rebuilt engines in my living room before and had some real success doing it. Here goes nothing!
