I’m New to WordPress Where is the Best Place to Start? | EP 828

I’m New to WordPress Where is the Best Place to Start?

Read the full episode transcript below:

00:28 David Blackmon: Welcome to another episode of WP The Podcast, my name is David Blackmon.

00:35 Tim Strifler: And i’m Tim Strifler

00:38 David Blackmon: And I apologize in advance for the next 10 episodes, because i’m recording with my Airpods and not my Shure SM7B. So hopefully the audio is not too bad, the good news is we’ve got 10 amazing topics that we’re going to cover with this questionable audio. So the first one is today’s i’m new to WordPress, where’s the best place to start? So yeah, i was gonna say something else but i had no idea what i was going to say. So Tim’s got to jump in there and save me, get stuck.

01:20 Tim Strifler: So i think it depends on what your learning style is. Right, you know if you’re someone who likes to jump in and get your hands dirty? Okay, well we can talk about that, or if you’re someone that’s like i need to be shown what to do i need to be walked through what to do, then we can talk about that as well. We actually have an awesome course that we can recommend. A little bit biased, but it’s our own course. And the reason why i say depends on what your learning style, is some people need to flounder a little bit maybe struggle a little bit, and then realize how much they don’t need or how much they don’t know. And then circle back to something like a course or whatnot, and then some people like “no no i want to go the course route and just learn the right way the first time” type of thing. And so, um I was kind of a basically the first option because i struggled for a while before i went back and like did courses and tutorials and everything. And so yeah. So David, you want to talk about the first option, the best place to start if you want to just get your hands dirty and break stuff? Or do you want to do that one?

02:34 David Blackmon: No, no. I think that this is fine. I think for me, you know my experience stepping back in time. And i honestly don’t think it would change much today, because my learning style today is very much the same as it was back when i started with WordPress, and that was the university of YouTube. You know, watch a ton of youtube videos tutorials, you know walk me through. And then you know, when i had questions that i wanted answers that i couldn’t really get on YouTube, I um joined Facebook groups and stuff like that. Which uh you know were some insanely talented people. So you know, breaking stuff is like not a bad thing because you learn pretty quickly and stuff. I think, i’m i’m kind of like Tim in the case, that i’m not sure that i would start with the course right off the bat with the proper way but hindsight being 2020, 10 years down the road, i probably might start with a course this time. You know just to try to do it the right way instead of uh learning as i go and stuff.

03:21 Tim Strifler: Yeah for sure. Yeah and i’m a big proponent of like learning things from YouTube, the school of YouTube. You can learn so many different things and you can learn a lot about WordPress. The problem is, is the way that youtube is structured is, here’s how to do this one thing and when you’re starting out you don’t know what you don’t know. So you don’t know where you need to start and what you need to do next and everything and so. Um and so that’s why a course could be a good option. Now obviously i mentioned Dave and i have a course, so we’re biased and everything. So i’m gonna tell you how you can get that course. You can go to wpgears.com and you’ll see under the the main navigation menu courses. We have The Beginner Course listed and so it’s designed for people that have never built a website, but also people that maybe have been flounding floundering around. Maybe you’ve built a few websites but you’re there’s a lot you have a lot of learning gaps. We call them a lot of things that like maybe you managed to finally figure out but you’re not even sure if it’s the right way. And so we fill in those learning gaps for you in the course. It’s very extensive, it’s on our mind because we’re in the process of finishing recording all the lessons and everything. And so we have a bunch of students in there that have already gone through the the lessons, that we’ve that already completed. And so um it’s something that is on our mind.

05:20  David Blackmon: Absolutely. All right well there you go where you know i’m new to WordPress best place to start? The answer is wherever you feel most comfortable. I know you were probably saying go here and we kind of did you know, but uh but the real answer is is based on you know whatever your learning style is. And you know, how you like to learn and stuff. But i guess the the main point is don’t be afraid to start, because it’s not as scary as you think. It is tomorrow we’ve got another great topic, the difference between a theme and a child theme. Until tomorrow we’ll see you then 

06:02 Tim Strifler: Take care, bye.