So, what is WordPress? In simple terms, WordPress is one of the most powerful and popular tools to create your own website or blog. It’s a CMS (content management system), which is basically a tool that makes it easy to manage your website’s content – without needing to know anything about programming. In more technical speak, WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP.

How common is WordPress?
WordPress powers about 35% of all the websites on the Internet. Yes – more than one in four websites that you visit are likely powered by WordPress. In fact, WordPress 5.3 has been downloaded over 7 million times and the platform is still growing today. Many famous blogs, news outlets, music sites, Fortune 500 companies and celebrities use WordPress to build and manage their websites. Want examples? To name a few, famous blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch are both on WordPress. News outlets like The New York Times’ blogs and CNN’s on-air personality blogs all use WordPress, too. If you’d like to see more people and companies who utilize WordPress, check out the WordPress site showcase. You may be impressed by the number of well-known sites and famous people using WordPress.

What can WordPress do?
WordPress is a fantastic website platform for a plethora of websites. From a blog to e-commerce to business and portfolio websites, WordPress is a versatile and powerful website builder.

The options are limitless, but here are a few examples of the types of sites you can build with WordPress:

• Blog
• Non-profit
• E-commerce
• Business
• News
• Photography
• Restaurant
• Fashion
• Music
• Membership

How do I start using WordPress?
Now you’re probably thinking, “Where do I get WordPress and how do I get started?”

Well, WordPress can be downloaded for self-hosted installations from WordPress.org, installed via your web host (if they offer the option in your dashboard), or it can also be used as a hosted service via WordPress.com.