In 2006, I started my first blog on WordPress.com. But after just a few weeks, I moved my content to a self-hosted WordPress website in a “free host”. In a couple of months, I began tampering with the PHP files of my theme, learning the basics of editing a WordPress theme by trial and error (mostly errors). There were so much to learn, yet so limited places to do that. Thus, learning WordPress was slow but steady, helping me get to the state I’m in right now.
After (almost) a full ten years, I’m still trying to learn about WordPress every day because learning never stops or you rust. Having said that, I envy the range of resources beginners now have to learn WordPress. And in this article, I’m going to show you around the places that you can improve your WordPress skills.
WordPress Codex
Don’t want to sound like a grumpy grandpa, but back in my day, the Codex wasn’t as awesome as it is now. Along with a gigantic code reference, the WordPress Codex also has guides like “New To WordPress – Where to Start” and “WordPress lessons” that will definitely help you get started with WordPress and WordPress development.
In addition to the Codex, you can also check out Make WordPress and WordPress Developer Resources that are both hosted on WordPress.org like the Codex.
WPBeginner
WPBeginner is one of the oldest blogs that teaches WordPress for, well, beginners. Founded by Syed Balkhi in 2008, WPBeginner has more than 1500 blog posts which include more than 300 tutorials and over 150 “Beginners Guide”s. In Syed’s own words, the goal of WPBeginner is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).
Also, check out the Glossary section of WPBeginner. It has–probably–everything you want to know about WordPress terminology.
Treehouse
Treehouse is one of the major players in the e-learning business. Even though I haven’t got a chance to try it yet, it seems to have a great set of features that makes learning stuff over the internet.
Treehouse features more than one way to learn about WordPress:
- The “Learn WordPRess” track is a simple set of courses to learn what WordPress is all about.
- The “WordPress Development Track” features intermediate level courses that teach you–almost–everything about creating WordPress websites, themes and plugins.
- If the two tracks above doesn’t cut it (which would be a surprise), there are more and more courses about WordPress on Treehouse.
The Tuts+ Network
Ah, the prettiest one of all… probably because I’m an author in the WordPress category. It’s a magical place full of great video courses and literally tens of thousands of tutorials. Including 600+ paid video courses and 20.000+ free tutorials about “code, illustration, photography, web design, and more” (in their own words), Tuts+ is one of the largest e-learning resources that you can find on the internet.
In the category pages of WordPress Tutorials and WordPress Courses, you’ll see that you can reach learning materials for almost every aspect of WordPress usage and development. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a newbie or a veteran–there are more than a few tutorials and courses for your level.
Conclusion
If there were a large variety of resources to learn WordPress back in my day, things would be a lot different for me. I’d probably be a WordPress guru by now. I’m not saying this to brag, I’m talking like this to tell you that you have the chance to get better faster and easier if you start today.
So go ahead and start browsing in the Codex, watching a video course on Tuts+, read a tutorial on WPBeginner, or start a track on Treehouse!