Blog

What do Beyonce, CNN and NASA have in common?

October 12, 2014 By Jen Kehl

Lately I’ve been asked a lot of WordPress is the right choice for building a website. I realized that I had the information under my finger tips as part of my very first WordPress project, you decide:

As usual, the whole world is doing what Beyonce is doing. The Rolling Stones. Usain Bolt. TechCrunch. charity:water.?Even Harvard Law School counts as a Bey follower!

What trend is Queen Bey setting now, my friends?

Using WordPress to build her website.?

Today, nearly 1 in 4 websites are built on WordPress. Over 409 million people view more than 15.8 billion pages on WordPress each month, and WordPress users produce about 43.7 million new posts and 58.8 million new comments every single month!?Estimates show?that there are currently more than 60 million distinct websites that are using WordPress active on the web today.

WordPress is a big deal. As big of a deal (dare I say it?) as Mrs. Carter.

In case you?re not familiar (don?t worry, that?s why we?re here!), WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows users to create and manage blogs and websites. Okay, okay, so you know that a lot of bloggers start out using?WordPress? But you might not know that some of the biggest names out there, including brand and websites you visit every day, trust and love WordPress to keep their sites up and running and looking stellar.

Behold this amazing list of 103 websites built using WordPress.

Brands

1. IZOD

2. COURVOISIER

3. UPS?BLOG

4. BOINGO WIRELESS

5.CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES NEWS

6. BATA

7. VAN HEUSEN

8. THE KNOT BLOG

9. GET UNREAL

10. WOLVERINE WORLDWIDE

11. COCA COLA FRANCE

12. EDDIE BAUER: BLOG

Humanitarian & Non-Profit

13. CHARITY WATER

14. ACUMEN

15. CURE INTERNATIONAL

16. OPEN.NASA

17. ROTARY CLUB: ROTARY MEANS BUSINESS

18. GLOBAL VOICES

19. SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

20. THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR EQUAL RIGHTS

21. AMERICAN RED CROSS ONLINE DISASTER NEWS PORTAL

22. OVARIAN CANCER NATIONAL ALLIANCE

23. CHILDREN?S RIGHTS

24. INTERFAITH HOUSING ALLIANCE

25. KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION

26. 90 DAYS OF ART

27. COOPER HEWITT SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM

28. OFFICIAL CANADIAN OLYMPIC TEAM

Media & News

29. FORTUNE

30. DOW JONES

31. BUZZ MACHINE

32. LA TIMES: FRAMEWORK

33. IN STYLE

34. CNN

35. BOING BOING

36. TED

37. NEW YORK POST

38. USA TODAY: FOR THE WIN

39. TIME

40. THE NEW YORKER

41. BBC AMERICA

42. VARIETY

43. QUARTZ

44. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: BLOGS

45. WALL STREET JOURNAL LAW BLOG

46. SAP NEWS CENTER

47. REUTERS BLOGS

48. CNN POLITICAL TICKER

49. NEW YORK TIMES

50. FORBES

51. MACLEANS

Music, Sports, and Entertainment

52. MTV NEWS

53. LOLLAPALOOZA

54. USAIN BOLT

55. CHICAGO BULLS

56. BEYONCE

57. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

58. PLAYSTATION BLOG

59. CHANNING TATUM

60. IFC

61. THE ROLLING STONES

62. STAR WARS BLOG

63. SONY MUSIC

64. NBC SPORTS

65. ESPN PRODUCT BLOG

66. LARRY KING LIVE BLOG

67. KATY PERRY

68. THE WALKING DEAD

69. ANDERSON COOPER 360*

70. ARIANA GRANDE

71. THE MEREDITH VIERA SHOW

72. LL COOL J

73. KYLIE MINOGUE

Technology

74. EBAY

75. BEST BUY

76. THE OFFICIAL RACKSPACE BLOG

77. TECHCRUNCH

78. FACEBOOK NEWSROOM

79. GOOGLE VENTURES

80. MASHABLE

81. PROBLOGGER

82. RE/CODE

83. LAUGHING SQUID

84. LINKEDIN OFFICIAL BLOG

Universities & Colleges

85. BATES COLLEGE

86. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY OF ST. LOUIS SCHOOL OF LAW

87. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ? ROSSIER SCHOOL

88. DUKE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

89. UNIVERSITY OF MAINE

90. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK

91. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: MBA@UNC

92. LAFAYETTE COLLEGE

93. GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

94. HARVARD LAW

Lifestlye and Bloggers

95. CUTE OVERLOAD

96. MARIE FORLEO

97. HELLO GIGGLES

98. THE SARTORIALIST

99. LAUREN CONRAD

100. MAN REPELLER

101. BLOGILATES

102. SMITTEN KITCHEN

103. POSITIVELY POSITIVE

Do you use WordPress for your website too? Show us your site in the comments ? we?d love to see what you?re building!

WordPress.com or WordPress.org? How to choose the right one for your blog

October 12, 2014 By Jen Kehl

When I launched my blog?in 2012, I went about it like this: I Googled ?WordPress blog,? clicked a button?that said, ?get a free blog,? and I started rolling.

A year later, I realized I should have done more research. I wanted to change my site layout and add functions (like a hovering Pinterest button), and I realized (oh nooos!) I needed a ?WordPress.org blog? for that.

Getting a ?WordPress.org blog,? it turns out, really means downloading the free, open-source WordPress web software?and using a third-party hosting service?to get your site online.

WordPress.com, on the other hand, takes care of all that legwork for you. You don?t worry about hosting or serving up files, and your blog comes with a free domain that looks something like this: www.mynewblog.wordpress.com.

But when you hand over responsibility, you also lose control: your WordPress.com site will show ads unless you pay a yearly fee, and many upgrades, like hosting videos or buying a custom domain name for example, can get costly.

To add to the new-blogger confusion, when you?re working on your blog, the Dashboard (the place where you edit your blog from the back end) looks almost exactly the same no matter which avenue you take. Because WordPress.com runs on the same WordPress software as a self-hosted site, the user experience after setting up your blog isn?t that different.

Deciding between starting a free WordPress.com blog and self-hosted WordPress site is as simple as deciding how much freedom you want over your site?s look and feel, how much behind-the-scenes work you?re willing to do, and whether you want to monetize your blog.

1. How much control do you want over your site?s look and feel?

If you?re okay with an ?out of the box? theme [http://theme.wordpress.com/], WordPress.com might work for you. For an extra charge, you can customize some features, like fonts and background colors. Overall, though, you are limited when it comes to changing the design of your site.

If you?re looking at those themes and thinking, ?but I want my Instagram feed up higher and I?d like social media buttons above the top navigation,? you?ll want to go with a self-hosted WordPress blog so you can access your site?s layout and HTML.

2. What extra functionality do you want on your site?

Remember that anecdote about the Pinterest hover button I wanted? WordPress.com is always updating and adding new features, but you will have more control on a self-hosted site. Through WordPress.org, you?ll have access to libraries of plugins [https://wordpress.org/plugins/] that can add features like interactive calendars, social media sharing options, and RSS feeds?not to mention, Google Analytics?to your site. And by accessing your site?s code, your opportunities to add to and embellish features are unlimited.

3. Do you want to monetize your site?

?Oh wow, I have so many page views! Maybe I can make a little cash with ads!? Nope. Not if you?re on a WordPress.com site. They?re giving you a lot for free; it?s no surprise that you can only sell ads in WordPress-approved ways. On a self-hosted site, however, the world is your oyster?or, you know, your sales floor.

In addition, while, WordPress.com recently introduced new ways to sell on your site, eCommerce is more established and flexible with a self-hosted site.

4. How much can you spend?

Self-hosting is an upfront cost that ranges from a few dollars a month to closer to hundreds per year. But using a free WordPress.com blog and adding a lot of additional features can get pricey. Infographic cost comparison:http://howtomakemyblog.com/wordpress-com-org/

When it comes down to it, WordPress.com is a valuable tool for users looking for a free option, who don?t need to customize or make money off of their site. But getting a self-hosted site through WordPress.org provides the most flexibility, freedom, and opportunity for growth. And let?s face it, you?re going to want to use this site to become a moneybags, and WordPress.org allows more freedom for turning your hard work into cold hard cash.

What do you think? WordPress.com or WordPress.org?

This has been a guest post by the wonderful Randall of Crandlecakes and one of the awesome instructors at Skillcrush![bctt tweet=”To self host or to WordPress.com, check out these 4 reasons you might want to jump in! #WordPress”]

Tech Term: PHP

October 12, 2014 By Jen Kehl

When you ask a web server for a page, it?s PHP?s job to create it. When you browse a WordPress blog or make a post on Facebook, PHP is putting it all together.

If you wanted a very simple PHP page to greet you every time you looked at it, it might look something like this:

php echo ?Hi there stranger!?; ?>

That would make a web page that looked like this:

Hi there stranger!

One of the reasons many people learn PHP instead of Ruby or Python is that it comes installed on pretty much every web server out there. If you happen to have a bit of web space to your name, chances are you?re able to run PHP.

A pretty typical way you?ll see people working with PHP is along with Linux (an operating system), Apache (a web server), MySQL (a database), and PHP. This kind of setup is called LAMP.

Cocktail Party Fact

PHP supposedly stands for ?PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.? If you said ?Hey, but that doesn?t say what PHP means!? then you get the point ;).

To learn all about tech you need to?visit Skillcrush, you can learn some mad skills and that cocktail party joke will actually make sense to you!

4 Tech Games You Will Want Your Kids to Play

October 12, 2014 By Jen Kehl

Tech Games For Kids

It?s back to school season parents! Are you excited? Frantic? Both? You have a lot on your plate ? starting hectic morning routines anew, helping with homework, packing healthy lunches, managing after school activities, WHEW. ?And of-course during all this you?re probably wondering if your kids are learning the right things at school and how you can supplement their education at home.

You?ve no doubt heard about the importance of computer literacy and getting your kids into programming and coding. But with the abundance of apps, toys, and books available, it?s hard to know where to start. Here are my top 4 choices for parents looking for tech games for kids:

1.?Hopscotch

This iPad app lets kids drag and drop functioning blocks of code to build their own programs. The app teaches kids programming fundamentals as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills in a creative environment. The app fosters a ?learn by experimenting? attitude and encourages kids to play and try things and see what works. Hopscotch was actually inspired by Scratch, # 3 on this list. Hopscotch cofounders Jocelyn Leavitt?and Samantha John hope to get girls into programming earlier and help fill the void of women in tech.

2.?Hello Ruby

We love everything about Linda Liukas and her upcoming children?s book Hello Ruby. The book raised $100k in 24 hours on Kickstarter and more than exceeded its initial goal of $10k by raising just over $380k at the end of its campaign. The book aims to teach 4-7 year olds about programming and open source culture through a smart, mischievous female protagonist and her whimsical adventures. Parents get a workbook so they can learn and help their kids solve problems in the accompanying activity book. We interviewed Liukas at the completion of her Kickstarter project ? you can read that interview here.

3.?Scratch

Scratch is a brainchild of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT?s Media Lab. It?s a programming language and comes with an extensive online community of it?s own. It?s designed for kids aged 8-16 and is totally free to use. Scratch allows students to create their own animations, interactive stories and much more. It uses drag and drop blocks of code similar to Hopscotch.

4.?Tynker

I learned about Tynker from my old boss, who?s wife Tanya homeschools their 3 kids. Tynker provides self-paced courses with tutoring baked right in. Their tutorials are interactive and fun for kids, allowing them to unlock achievements and badges, create customized projects and characters and build video games while they learn programming concepts. Sharing projects on the web with others is a big focus of Tynker?s and they hold summer camps to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing. They occasionally run workshops exclusively for girls as well.

Are you an old hat at?getting kids into tech? Know all the cool, fun, hip new programming and tech apps, toys and tools out there? Share your top picks in the comments below!

This has been a guest post by the folks at Skillcrush, head on over – and while your kids are learning tech, why don’t you dive in too!

« Previous Page