WordPress is a content management system (CMS) platform that is free to use with continuous version upgrades provided by a worldwide community of contributors. The WordPress platform consists of a package of files that are designed to provide continuous dynamic updating of content added to the front end of the website by visitors. These content additions could simply be posted comments on a web journal or log. This was the primary, original purpose of creator Matt Mullenweg when he published the first version of WordPress, v.1.5, in 2005. Since 2005 the functions which WordPress supports have multiplied as a worldwide community contributes small programs which control various functions. Themes control the stylistic look and structural layout of the WP site. Plugins add functions as varied as slide shows, font additions, site security, store, chat, forum, and website backup. Widgets are smaller programs which are designed to reside in the secondary page locations; sidebars, footer, and header. They display information in these locations such as secondary menus, links to news feeds (RSS) and to photo galleries like Flikr, Youtube, Instagram, as well as social media links, Login-Logout, and dozens of other actions. (*updated Jan. 15, 2017)
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Primary Resources, Mega Sites
WordPress.com (Basic, introductory functions of the WordPress platform are available at this site. Pros: Free hosting and a limited number of free themes and plugins are provided. Cons; Advanced themes or additional plugin functions have a fee which can quickly make a site here more expensive than one you self-host with a hosting account and personal installation of WordPress.
*WordPress.org (Main site for the open source content management platform WordPress. Free themes, plugins, widgets, user forum, and users manual codex. The option to choose if you need anything more than the most basic WP site.
*Smashing Magazine (For the advanced designer who prefers to include coding control over site design and function.)
WordPress Media Link Resources
Portal • Instagram Help Center
How to post iReports – CNN iReport Blog
WordPress Tutorials
WordPress Codex (The mega-users manual for WordPress)
*Lynda.com (Excellent video tutorials for WordPress and 100’s other software programs!! Sometimes offers a free 30 day trial!, ($25/mth.)
Color and Graphics
*DeGraeve Color Palette Creator (After you upload a header photo, it extracts the primary colors and lists them as a color palette for your site)
*Paletton Color Scheme Designer
*Gravatar (Register your image gravatar with your preferred email address for posting recognition across the Internet)
*Gimp (free slim version of Photoshop)
WP Themes
There are hundreds of WP themes listed at WP.org and online. Many are free but they are also not coded well, are not well supported or updated regularly. What at first seems like a cost saving can waste your time when you have problems or have to rebuild your site with a second theme. Often just paying a minimal $30 fee for a theme can insure that the producer keeps it updated for the 3X per year that WordPress upgrades its versions, and provides Q&A support. The Generate theme listed below gets updated often and offers a logical dashboard layout and a helpful variety of layout blocks. You can build a lot with the free version, and for $30 you can increase its functionality by moving to the Premium version.
( ♥ For the money and functions, my favorite themes and framework-themes are marked with a ♥ )
TK (By Themekraft. $0 for basic theme, or $39/for Premium with extra options and 1yr updates,) Have not used the current version. Many custom plugins for Buddypress, the community forum/blog.
♥Generate ($0-30/a 1x cost) Extensive design control options in dashboard settings. Almost a framework.
Alora and Evolve ($49-39/1x cost)
Magazine ($49)
Flexibility ($0- )
WooThemes Storefront (Free ! An excellent place to start if you want to build a simple store. The Storefront theme and WooCommerce plugin are both free and will be updated by WooThemes.)
♥Newspaper ($59) An excellent theme from Themeforest that supports bbPress forum, Buddypress, Adsense and Google Adwords advertising. Designed to support the need for category management needed for e-magazines and e-newpapers. The installed version comes with a variety of demo front pages pre-installed with different layout and graphics. This makes for easy customization to match your sites needs. Also includes Visual Composer which provides building block layout control. One year support included.
WP Theme and Plugin Collections
Themeforest (A mega WP theme site. Many good, inexpensive themes with support)
iThemes Created the award winning backup plugin BackupBuddy and many well-design supporting plugins for security, site construction and management.
WooCommerce As mentioned, WooThemes has evolved into WooCommerce with its primary focus on development and support of the e-commerce functions of its plugin WooCommerce. Plugins include WooSlider, WooSidebar.
Elegant Themes ($69) One price provides access to 87 themes which are well supported. A proactive user forum with regular informational posts on web design tips and tools. The Divi theme is a customizable ‘almost framework’ that uses block construction to allow visual design of the layout. It’s strengths are more for portfolio, full-width type sites, rather than info intensive news blogs.
WP Theme ‘Frameworks’
*♥Canvas ( $99, one year support) By Woothemes.com, this is my primary framework for web design but takes a little time to become familiar with its tweaks. My course tutorial sites are built using this theme; The Fine Cuisine of Kyivska Rus )
♥Headway ($89/1 yr updates, ideal for the advanced designer concerned to have granular control over the custom building blocks used to build page layouts. Related resources found at Headwayhub.com,HeadwayBeginner.com,HeadwayTips.com, HeadwayVideos.com)
Builder ($80/yr.,But Educator discounts at iThemes. Excellent company, uses building blocks for page layout and includes child themes.)
Themify ($89) Has a drag and drop page layout builder, many child themes and good support.
Genesis ($60+, From Studio Press. Well respected theme with a large user community and many child themes and add-ons available)
♥Hybrid ( $0-15-29, a powerful framework and for low cost supported add-on themes. Check it out! )
Gantry (the basic framework plus theme are free, but have a unique workflow which requires some extra time to setup properly. So not for the beginner)
WP Plugins I Use
(All free except those with a *. Those not included in a theme can be loaded via Search in the WP dashboard plugins page. These draw from the WordPress.org updated archive. ♥ My favorites.)
Akismet
Antivirus (Sergei Mueller)
*♥iThemes BackUp Buddy ( $89/ 1 yr., but excellent for backup, migrating and cloning sites.)
BuddyPress
Floating Social Media Icon (Acurax), or Social Media Widget (Brian Frytag)
Login Logout (by webvitalay)
Forum wpForo
Updraft Plus (*free-$75-$145, rated best among the free backup plugins)
♥Wasp Themes-Yellow Pencil Lite (Provides amazing WYSIWYG control of CSS; indispensible!)
WP Smush (compresses the size of images used on your site to speed page loading)
W3 Total Cache (This speeds up the page display of your site. Test its result using GTMetrix )
♥WooCommerce (free amazing e-store plugin. updates supported by WooThemes)
Web Site Security
♥WordFence Security (Free plugin-**excellent, byMark Mauder)
♥CloudFlare.com ( free & paid service, the free service is excellent and re-routes your site traffic in order to kill black hat spammer links)
♥ Stop Spammer Spam Control
♥ Simple Firewall
Antivirus
Shield (Has many functions including the option to turn off auto-update for WordPress. This allows you to backup the site before manually accepting the newest version update. A benefit as occassionally new WP versions may crash some site functions.)
Widgets I use on this site
Widgets are available in the WP dashboard at ‘Appearance/Widgets’, after you’ve installed the related plugin.
BuddyPress Sidebar Login (2nd best is from the LoginLogout by (webvitaly)
BuddyPress Groups
Text (use to insert advert code from Amazon Associates)
WooDojo Tabs (Free at Woothemes.com)
RSS ( for feed from related news sources. *Caution; RSS feeds can be a back door for hackers)
Social Media Widget (Brian Frytag)
Slide Show Plugins
♥ Slider Revolution (Lite is free, $25 full version) Very powerful slider with many format options. Full version comes with a large variety of format temples.
Slide Deck ($27)
Giga Slider (Free)
oQey Gallery (Free, $30 for premium template skins)
WOW Slider:jQuery Image Slider ($69 for unbranded version, 1 site)
Web Hosting
Inexpensive Domain Registration
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