If you’re thinking about starting your own blog or website, then you’ve probably heard about WordPress, which is one of the most popular blogging platforms to use. However, whilst WordPress may have started out aimed at personal and small business bloggers who wanted to attract more visitors to their site with awesome content, it has now grown into one of the biggest blogging platforms and content management systems worldwide, offering much more than simply blog hosting. So, if you’re eager to learn more about WordPress, here are five facts about the software that you may not have known.
#1. Create an Online Store without coding
Today, business owners with all hopes and dreams can use WordPress as a base for their growing online presence. If you’re hoping to focus on selling products online rather than creating regular content, then WordPress website builder can help you out with online store capabilities provided through WooCommerce, a plugin which is available on the premium and business plans. You can create an attractive online storefront, upload attractive product photographs, videos, and descriptions, turn on reviews, and ensure a secure, user-friendly online payment system in just a few simple clicks. Many Premium themes are compatible with WooCommerce, allowing you to create a custom, unique site for selling your gear.
#2. Members-Only area
Many successful sites are membership sites or communities where people get together to discuss thoughts on a certain topic online. You might think about social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter where anything goes, or community forums that focus on a particular niche, such as parenting, gaming, or student life. If you’ve got a good idea that you think people will want to come together and talk about, you can use WordPress to put together a members-only website using BuddyPress, which ensures secure sign-ups and logins, organizes forums, and gives users the ability to personalize profiles. Using this feature to turn part of your site into a forum or chat room allows for optimal customer engagement and can help with market research.
#3. Get Paid on Time
If you’re considering setting up a business as a freelancer, then you’ll know that one of the most important things for you is making sure that you are paid in full and on time every time you do a job for a client. Using WordPress, you can set up your own secure invoicing system, which is much easier than creating invoices yourself, and cheaper than paying for a third-party invoicing service. Using a plugin called ApproveMe, you can manage all your invoices and sales, create and send digital invoices, and take online payments directly from your site. Even better, it is fully integrated with the most popular WordPress form building tools and online storage services such as Dropbox.
#4. Build a Mobile App
For business owners today, having a website alone is often not enough since most of the big names in business have already produced a mobile app. No matter what you are selling online, chances are that the same or similar product is available via an app somewhere. Thankfully, developing an Android or iOS app for your business is no longer an expensive and lengthy process with an app developer. Using WordPress, you can create simple mobile apps using your website as the backend with the help of AppPresser. This plugin includes a visual app builder that’s suitable for all experience and skill levels, and integrates well with other popular plugins such as WooCommerce and BuddyPress.
#5. Create Micro-Sites
Lastly, WordPress supports a large network of sites under one main install, allowing users to create a network of micro-sites. An example of this would be colleges and universities, which often use micro-sites for each department or campus whilst under the same college branding. WordPress Multisite is included in all free and paid WordPress installs but is deactivated by default. Multisite is also a useful tool for directory sites.
As you can see, WordPress is no longer a simple tool for creating engaging written content! No matter what type of business you are considering starting, WordPress is the ideal tool for creating attractive online stores, engaging online communities, and managing your business payments and income. If your brand continues to grow, you may even find the use of WordPress multi-site useful, and there’s no need to find an additional tool for app-building.
Do you know anything about WordPress that you think is worthy of a mention? Which features do you find the most useful for your business? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
