Personal blogs, company websites, e-commerce stores; WordPress has all the tools you need for building any site, especially for beginner Wordpress resources. It is the most popular Content Management System or CMS for creating professional-looking websites without writing a single line of code. However, you need more than just the built-in tools and themes to create a standout website.
Being the most popular content management system available, you can easily find online resources for WordPress that can help you craft a functional, beautiful, and unique site. For beginners, here are some of the best resource sites you should visit:
#1. Colorlib
One of the features that made WordPress so special is the availability of preconfigured themes. By choosing a theme, you can easily apply a site-wide look and layout for your site. Unfortunately, most themes in the WordPress library are either subpar or give a generic feel to your site.
Sure, you can customize these free themes through CSS and PHP to incorporate uniqueness and extended functionality. But as a beginner, you can opt for third-party resources such as Colorlib for a selection of great themes. You can find themes that are optimized for portfolio websites, business websites, blogs, and just about any site you can think of.
One advantage of using Colorlib is that all themes are 100% responsive, meaning they will automatically adjust to devices with smaller displays like smartphones and tablets. This is critical if you want to maintain a consistent user experience across all platforms.
Apart from the available free themes, Colorlib also offers premium themes that have extended design features and layouts. These are available in a variety of specific categories – from
#2. Tidy Repo
While themes enable you to customize your site’s appearance, plugins allow you to add bits of functionality to your WordPress site. You can easily choose from a wide selection of plugins found in the WordPress library. The most useful plugins are usually easy to find, but relying on them too much can make your site feel generic. This is why you need to dig deeper and look for plugins from other sources.
The number of available plugins in the WordPress library makes it difficult to find the best one you can use for your site. To make this process easier, you can utilize a platform like Tidy Repo to help you find reliable plugins along with credible reviews to make the best decision.
Tidy Repo covers different plugin types for various purposes – from navigation to additional visual features. For example, you can use the Popslide plugin to display a simple message or use WP-Sweep to clean and optimize your WordPress database.
Keep in mind that not all plugins work best when used in combination with others. Some plugins may cause slowdowns, crashes, and malfunctions when used simultaneously with other plugins. With Tidy Repo’s Find a Plugin service, you can eliminate the guesswork and avoid using conflicting plugins.
#3. WhatWPThemeIsThat.com
Designing a site competitively sometimes means borrowing design ideas from other websites. You can always visit any site and manually find the theme and necessary plugins to replicate its look. However, finding the right plugins and a matching theme will take a lot of time and effort.
You can simplify this process using WordPress Theme Search or WTS – a free online tool that automatically detects the theme and plugins being employed by a particular WordPress site. All you have to do is to input the site’s URL, and WTS will do the rest. This will save you a significant amount of time and enable you to focus more on developing your content.
Just remember that WTS will not show you any customizations done through code and theme editor (from the dashboard). It will only show you all the details on the surface, such as the theme’s name, creator, and a list of all detected plugins. Furthermore, it will not work when used with non-WordPress websites.
#4. WPHunt.com
One key advantage of WordPress as a CMS is the availability of free learning resources – from tutorial videos to how-to articles. A quick Google search can help you find all the answers you need for your WordPress website. However, you also need to keep up with the latest developments that may offer opportunities to gain a competitive edge, such as a new tool or the latest tips.
WPHunt.com is your one-stop site that can help you keep your WordPress knowledge updated. It covers all relevant news and information in the entire WordPress community, including new WordPress products, site building tips, plugins, and tutorials.
The visibility of articles in WPHunt.com is affected by the post date as well as the number of “upvotes”, which can help determine the value of any given information. You may also perform a quick search on the site if you’re looking for specific topics.
#5. Practical Ecommerce (21 Free Tools to Open a WordPress Shop)
Keep in mind that you need several tools such as an online shopping cart, payment gateways, and a product grid plugin to create a seamless online shopping experience. For a cash-strapped website, acquiring all these tools can be difficult. Without the right resources, you can be stuck with free trial versions of premium tools or free plugins that deliver suboptimal performance.
If you want to build a great e-commerce store on a tight budget, then you should check out Practical Ecommerce’s list of free tools that can help you get started. This includes resources for knowing your way around WordPress to complete e-commerce platforms that have everything you need to manage your online store.
With the tools featured in their post, you can have an online store up and running without spending more than just your maintenance costs. However, it is not ideal for an online store to run solely on free resources. This is why you should only depend on these tools temporarily and assess the areas you need to invest on first.
Conclusion
With WordPress, anyone can build a fully functional website without knowledge in web development. You simply need access to the right resources that will point you in the right direction. However, a WordPress site will not build itself even with the right tools. Remember that crafting a great site requires your time and dedication. Good luck!
Images: ”Author’s Own“
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