No other tool or software has been beneficial to me in my career than Wordpress. I was fortunate to fall into blogging right after graduating college and have been able to more or less keep up my personal blog ever since. I believe the blogging software that started it all for me was Radio Userland and since then I have dabbled around in just about every content management system out there.
About five years ago, I started using Wordpress. And I have never looked back. I have used it to build dozens of blogs, campaign landing pages and even sites like IdeaMensch. Wordpress has allowed someone like me (who is neither a designer nor a developer) to build a website in a matter of hours. I can have a website idea and then go live with a beta version shortly thereafter. Once I have reached my design and development limits, I can bring in a design expert to help me put on the finishing touches.
While this process probably sounds like any creative's ultimate nightmare, it works.
So, what is Wordpress?
Wordpress is an open source content management system that is used by a ton of different people and hence comes with tons of both design and development resources.
How do I use it?
Just ask your hosting company to install it on whatever sites you're planning to develop. It doesn't cost you anything, and is something that should be expected of any hosting company.
Once that is setup, you will be able to login and start playing around with Wordpress. It's very intuitive and if you can find your way around Microsoft Word, you can use Wordpress. You can start by creating some pages or posts which will push content live on the web for you. At this point your site probably looks pretty bad (or at least basic), but there are some quick fixes for such. All you have to do is search the web for some pre-designed themes which you can upload to make your site look nice. There are a ton of free themes out there, but I personally have grown to appreciate paid themes which tend to offer better support and some added functionality. I used to be a big fan of the Thesis theme ( How To Complain For Fun and Profit is built with that theme) and it's still a great theme. Also, check out WooThemes which are producing some really good looking themes. This site, by the way, is built on a WooTheme.
Anyways, here are six reasons why I think every online marketer needs to know how to use Wordpress:
1. It's easy to use, and allows even fairly novice users to build good looking and functional websites.
2. There are a ton of resources available, including tutorials, designs and a ton of extra functionality.
3. Wordpress is a content management system, which makes updating your site really easy. Both users and search engines like fresh content.
4. You can buy great themes/templates that are easy to customize rather than spending lots of money on professional help.
5. Wordpress sites are naturally search engine optimized. They tend to rank really well on search engines.
6. Lots of people use it. So if you need help, there's a big user base for you to learn from and or to hire.
To get started, go check out the Wordpress website. There is plenty of instruction, as well as a really neat showcase of sites that have been built with Wordpress.