Re: How Does a WordPress Powered Blog Work?

[Derek Wood]

If you just want a simple no frills blog on a webpage, you can just embed a tumblr.

@tomrogers123(This website is built with WordPress and I do not consider it a small blog. )

I think of WP as a PHP frame work with a friendly backend user interface that stores(through user input) and pulls information from a mySQL database to display your content. This information is often presented by loops that call a list of posts by type and/or various other taxonomies. . The data is then wrapped in html tags and styled with CSS. This can be blog posts, photo galleries, or just static stuff on pages like an essay “about” page etc. You can make everything on your site editable from the backend. Employing custom post types and custom fields, (I have really been loving “Advanced Custom Fields, ” it can be anything you want it to be. It is getting better and better and there is a huge community to learn from and share with. The downfalls are that there are a lot of poorly designed templates and plugins that are buggy and just made to make money. Also – there is a lot of talk about whether or not mySQL is rad or not. Static sites do not have to loop, so in effect they are faster… but It is hardly perceivable. I fought WordPress for years. I wanted to do everything myself, but It turns out I just didn’t know what I was doing. After watching our good friend Chris Coyier’s tutorial on lynda.com 2 years ago, a ton of searching on the codex, and a lot of practice, the php all makes sense and I just think WordPress is super rad. I mean, it is free. That is insane. You have a team of super talented groundbreaking developers working for you for free. If you don’t think that WordPress can be a full featured CMS, then you just haven’t experienced it yet.

But honestly… if you just want a blog on a page – and you don’t want to learn all this stuff – grab a tumblr. Search google for how to embed it. Styling it is a bit whacky the first time, but you’ll figure it out.