DO YOU WANT YOUR SITE TO LOOK LIKE THIS?

This site exists for testing and demonstration purposes. You may have found it through my blog. You can keep reading if you want to see how it has evolved.

Updates

WordPress is a content management system which means that it’s designed with an awareness that you will update the site, so you should expect to see some changes to this site every once in a while. If you want to see how the original site was set up then read the original site section below. Since I’ve built the original site, I’ve made some updates:

On December 1, 2020, I set the background image on all pages so it would be consistent across mobile platforms.

First Set of Updates

• I’ve removed the back to top plugin and the menu plugin.
• I changed the theme to the Big Bob theme.
• I’ve added a caching plugin to help the site load faster on browsers
• I changed the header video and moved the psychedelic background so that it is only on the Learn More page.

Original Site

Before you allow yourself to get sucked into the vortex that is WordPress, you may want to take some time to create a plan of attack for how to best build your site before you do too much of the actual building. You may have heard that WordPress is a great way to build a solid and slick DIY website even if you have little or no coding skills. That’s true. WordPress is a great way to save on development costs the same way Home Depot can be a great way to save on construction costs. You may not need a plumber to replace your toilet, but if you you have to replace some of the pipes in your basement, you may want to give your plumber a call. Developing a WordPress site has similar considerations.

This site was designed to help you decide whether or not you have everything you need to create the WordPress site that you’re looking for. It doesn’t cover every contingency. That would be impossible. But what it does is it provides a template to help you figure out whether or not the site that you’re trying to build will likely be simple enough that you can do the whole thing yourself, or if you might need to hire a professional developer to help you with some of it.

This site also explains how you can set up a division of labor so that you can set up most of your site yourself so that you can save yourself as much money as possible while at the same time establishing quality communication with your developer so that your developer can solve the problems that you don’t feel comfortable solving on your own.

Before we go any further there are three terms that you will need to know:

Theme: This is the basic layout you pick to decide how WordPress looks.

Plugin: This is an add on that adds a feature to your website.

CMS: Content Management System. This is the thing that allows you to make changes to your WordPress site without coding.

The example site that you’re currently reading is pretty simple. I created it with the intent of starting with a very basic theme (some might argue it’s even less than a theme) then adding basic features that are common to today’s website culture using as little coding as possible. It was built using a theme known as underscores that usually isn’t used by non-developers because it is so stripped down and basic. But I chose it anyway because it has so few features, so it would provide the maximum opportunity to use plugins.

The following features have been updated and will behave differently than their descriptions.

The first feature I’ll discuss is my psychedelic looking fixed background image (see updates at top). I had to provide the image, but setting it up was all WordPress. I used zero coding to add and place that image. Note that the psychedelic portion of the background may appear less visible (the background might even appear completely black) on IOS Safari devices because IOS Safari devices turn off fixed background images so fitting the image to the page can default to showing only the blackest parts of the image. You have to consider browser variables such as this when building your site.

The second feature I’ll discuss is that navigation bar at the top of the screen that’s been following you down. I coded that myself. Although there are plugins you can use to create that feature, the reason I didn’t use one is I tried one of the most popular and highly rated plugins for a sticky navbar, and it was buggier than an ant farm. I could have debugged it, or I could have tried a different brand of that kind of plugin, but I decided it was easier to just code a navbar myself rather than risk running into more problems. Admittedly, I ended up coding a few more features into the navbar than I would have settled for with a plugin (if you are using a desktop or laptop, then you can see the text on the left resizes when you leave the top or when you’re at the top and shrink the window), but one of the benefits of coding something yourself is you can get it just the way you want it.

The third feature I’ll talk about is that hamburger menu (that three bar icon) within the navbar. If you’re not using a mobile device to read this, then you can just shrink the width of the screen until you see it. That’s a plugin called Responsive Menu. It was really easy to install. I added a little CSS coding to change the way it looked and acted and balanced with the rest of the text in the navbar, but even if I hadn’t, it still would have looked pretty good the way it came. Also, it’s very common for themes to come with a hamburger menu installed, so this is a plugin you might not even need.

The fourth feature I’ll discuss is that red “back to top” button off in the lower right hand corner. That’s a plugin called WPFront Scroll Top. It was also real easy to install and use, and a “back to top” feature is also something that often comes packed with many themes, but if you did need to add it, you wouldn’t be likely to have much difficulty using this plugin. After I installed it, I didn’t have to change any of the code to get it to work the way I wanted it to.

The fifth feature I’ll discuss is the video at the top of this page.. Although video is supported by WordPress, this did require some coding for me to set it up. However, if you have a developer set this up for you, you can update your video using your CMS (Content Management Service).

The sixth set of features that I’ll mention is the fonts and the layout of the print. I added this myself with coding, although most themes are set up so that you don’t have to worry about this unless you want to deviate from the theme’s original package.

The final feature that I’ll mention is the absence of the blog posts. At their core, all WordPress sites are designed to support blogging, but if you want to set up your site without a blog and not have any problems, then a little coding is necessary if you want it set up right.

Alright! At this point, you probably realize that there’s some stuff you’ll need help with and some stuff you won’t. Click the button below to figure out how to create a plan of attack.