If you are just starting to either look at the possibility of getting your own website or starting your business with a new website then you don’t have to shoot in the dark. There is an entire universe of support that you can avail yourself of in these days. When it comes to WordPress websites – don’t shoot in the dark!
Local Meetup
A great place to start is your local Meetup group. If you are not currently involved in a WordPress meetup group then you are missing out on a big part of what WordPress is. Yes, WordPress is a technology that you use to build your website and manage your content but WordPress is far more than simply a content management system. When you begin to build your website on WordPress whether you realize it or not you are actually using a piece of software that has been built by an entire community. This worldwide community is one that is comprised of expert developers, designers, administrators and regular everyday users. This worldwide community also gives you a huge leg up and advantage in your business. If you were to use another type of software then that software itself would more than likely be proprietary software & owned by a single company. WordPress is open source and in that sense the stakeholder community for this software is humongous. The popularity of WordPress is grown overtime and at this moment there are thousands of local meetups that you can find and get plugged into. Here in Southern California alone there are 19 Plus WordPress Meetups. I am the primary organizer for the Inland Empire WordPress meetup group if you are ever in Riverside or the Inland Empire on the first Tuesday of the month please stop by Riverside.io and give our meetup a visit. We start at 7pm and end at 9pm
WordPress Codex
Another way to avoid shooting in the dark as you are building your WordPress website and one of the primary ways that I have learned to use WordPress and developed sites with it is the WordPress codex. This valuable documentation can be found at codex.wordpress.org and will go in-depth to teach you all things WordPress. You must have a bit of patience when going through the Codex or you really won’t learn much. In the WordPress codex you will find everything from building your theme, building plugins, modifying custom functions, to basic administration of WordPress. If you’ve got a question about WordPress then you will likely find the answer in the WordPress codex.
WordPress forums
Since WordPress is an open source community there are lots of volunteers. These volunteers are all small business owners or engineers at companies who give their time selflessly to help the entire community. You can actually find Interactive help on the WordPress forums. The help may not always be immediate but you will likely get an answer. The WordPress forums are located on the wordpress.org website as well.
WordPress Facebook groups
As I’ve gotten involved in WordPress community more and more I began to notice WordPress Facebook groups. These groups are small clusters of community support distributed through Facebook. In these groups you are likely to get some type of support as well. Most of the time the questions in the group are answered faster. These Facebook are usually composed of members who regularly attend a local meet up. The Inland Empire Facebook meetup group is a group that I began for the purposes of providing support to those who come to our Meetup Group.
There are a few other Facebook groups that you can check out: Intermediate WordPress, OC WordPress, Advanced WordPress and the list goes on…
Just the beginning
The resources previously listed can be found with relative ease. The point of this article is to let you know that when you are developing your WordPress website you are not alone. There is a variety of a way that you can receive in person or personal help on your WordPress website ask you build and you never have to shoot in the dark!
Chris Hammond
Awesome post, bro! Thanks for the insight!
Duke Vukadinovic
I believe that the biggest benefit of WordPress meetups is that such events help us connect with folks who know their work well. By connecting with WordPress developers and designers from far and wide, not only we can make new friends but also acquire a whole spectrum of knowledge about WordPress. Such interactive knowledge is based on experiences and can thus hardly, if at all, be substituted by textbooks and classrooms.