Creating a Custom WordPress Website: The first part of a series of possibilities

Creating a custom WordPress website is quite simple if you know how or what you are doing. WordPress works off a few basic principles; 1. It uses PHP coding 2. The themes associated with the WordPress CMS utilize CSS. What that means is with knowledge and experience you can put those two together to create just about any type of custom WordPress website you are after.

The first thing that you should know about creating a custom WordPress website is the idea that WordPress is no longer just a blog, but instead can be one of the most robust yet simplest websites that you or your company has ever had the chance to use. I was reading an article about how many users actually use the CMS WordPress and it mentioned that 30% of all websites online use the CMS. I assume each year this number will grow because of the potential of the CMS. The question then becomes what are they using them for? Are there that many blogs or are they turning into something better suited for any type of business?

The answer is anything, yes and yes. As seen in this example for a client friend of mine, he wanted something to mask the idea of a few other website designs that he wanted. Out of the box no WordPress themed website will have the logo in the center with navigation elements to the left and right of it unless you purchase one with this idea or create a custom theme yourself. However as you can see, it can be done. Using plugins, editing the CSS and PHP can make this type of navigation quite easy.  You can view further development of the theme by visiting: www.jasonjams.com

Sometimes people ask, can this functionality be accomplished with a WP website? The answer is yes. Now, going into the specifics of how I made this website appear this way would take too long, but the idea of understanding the possibilities of what you can do with the CMS is almost limitless.   As mentioned previously WordPress utilizes PHP, CSS, some javascripting but it also houses data through a servers Database (or DB). Data is especially useful in creating or importing information, selling stuff online or well… anything else really. If the information you have relies on data than you have the answer you are looking for. If you are not a database guru or a MySQL wiz, WP offers several plugins that help with data storage, input and rendering.

Creating a custom WordPress website is possible, but understanding what you specifically need can sometimes be the problem. What plugins can you edit, do you have to create a new plugin, where are my theme files located, how do I create this custom WordPress website and so much more will follow in the first series of creating a custom WordPress website. Stay tuned and I will show you examples of how to customize your WordPress website the way that you see fit, I will give you examples of what I did and how you could use the same ideas to do your own customization. That is, after of course you understand the fundamentals of WordPress.

See more on my latest blog…