A variety of easy to use yet powerful tools have been introduced over the years to make it feasible for people to create and publish their own websites. Some of these have disappeared as new and better applications have been released. Others have stood the test of time and have been constantly improved over time as new updates are released.

However, a new web creation powerhouse technology has been steadily gaining acceptance and loyal fans over the past several years. That product is WordPress. WordPress is a free application that comes in two basic flavors. One is a hosted version, which allows you to create your own website already built-in to an existing hosting account — that’s WordPress.com.

The other flavor allows you to take the same WordPress program and install it free on your own server or a server of your choice from outside, allowing you to host your own WordPress website. The downloadable version is available at WordPress.org.

Many people think of WordPress as only a “blogging platform”, but it is actually much more widely useful than that. With WordPress, you can publish any type of website, and it doesn’t need to look like a blog at all. WordPress can handle, organize and publish any type of date to the web with no problem.

Moreover, because WordPress sites are so well structured, Googld and other search engines love WordPress sites and tend to give them high rankings. The only caveat is that of course the content itself must be valuable.

Your WordPress website can be easily and inexpensively customized with a range of graphical themes, or templates which change the site’s look, as well as plugins, which add to it’s functionality, both of which are available at many sources on the web. This means that you no longer need to start from a blank page when creating a new website, but rather you can plug in different existing pieces which are already proven.

Plus, there are many independent experts in WordPress who are happy to help out on a paid or even non-paid basis on forums, etc., to help you get your website up and running.

You can create your own WordPress sites without hiring outside experts in most cases. Once you learn WordPress, which is not that hard, you will have the freedom and flexibility of being able to create your own websites anytime you want.

Learn how to use WordPress yourself and a world of opportunity will open up for you. You will no longer be at the mercy of outside vendors like webmasters, programmers and designers to make changes on your existing sites or to create new sites. You will be able to create an unlimited number of sites yourself at no additional cost. Learning WordPress is not that difficult if you get the right guidance.