Lots of questions

First off good gravy is there a lot you can do with wordpress, it looks more like a full website creator than a blog creator, which is fine by me, I like the flexibility but creating my own special place on the internet is going to take some time, I want it to look a certain way. Although I do look at guides in some of my downtime, the majority of my learning is done through forums like this one because I can ask the questions I need to know directly without reading pages of information that might not be relevant to what I want to do. I hope the members here will be patient, I’ll have so many questions. I’m using youtube and google searches to help as well so I don’t make anyones eyes bleed here from too many questions.

Now that I got that out the way I’ll start by asking these ?? ….

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Most important one….

Given I want to customize my site would it be smart to go with a premade theme done by others?

I like the idea that much of the work is done in these themes but I’ll likely want to change some things around. The location of links to other sections of my site are the big thing. Im wanting a simple (but not bland) homepage, likely with three tabs at the top, but I want to be able to center them at the top of the page, and adjust the size and font. Most of the themes have sub links ofset to the left or right. I’ll likely want to make other layout changes as well.

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Is it really necessary to upgrade to a paid version of wordpress? On a tight budget I just dropped almost 200 dollars to have a domian for a year. I like extra options but it seems wordpress has many without paying.

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With pictures and videos being so widely distributed and used thoughout the internet should I worry about copyright issues? I don’t plan to host music or pictures on my website from others but will probably want to provide links to them. Although I may want to use very simple images to customize a layout.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Is it really necessary to upgrade to a paid version of wordpress? On a tight budget I just dropped almost 200 dollars to have a domian for a year. I like extra options but it seems wordpress has many without paying.

Stop! ??

There is no paid version of WordPress software. However, your questions indicate that you may be talking about WordPress.COM.

If that is correct then you’re posting in the wrong place and need to ask in the right forum.

https://en.forums.wordpress.com/forum/support

This forum here is for self-hosted WordPress.ORG software installations. The software is completely free and there is no “paid version”.

There are different paid options on WordPress.COM but this place is not that. This link explains the differences.

https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

It’s a common misunderstanding. ??

I should probably phrase that a bit differently, should I pay for a wordpress upgrade? I’m not using wordpress.com, I like the extra options of the .org ??

.ORG doesn’t have anything to sell. ??

There are no upgrades here, paid or otherwise.

Ahh, okay I got confused. Looking at the page again, wordpress is free, the upgrades were actually options for them creating your website for you.

It was though Bluehost that I saw this…

https://www.mojomarketplace.com/install/wordpress?utm_source=www.bluehost.com

WordPress starter
wordpress pro
wordpress all-in-one

The titles threw me off a bit, I thought you got all kinds of new features or something. ??

For the editing theme question, I’m hoping to have many options to change a an exsisting theme around at this point, adding or removing apps that offer new features to the exsisting layout if I want. One of my fears with using a theme for ease is getting started with something I have limited options with, but id really love to have some things I can start out with that’ll help cut out some steps for me, I just want to make it expandable. ??

WordPress (.org) itself has zero paid upgrades. The only place you’ll see anything to buy is from a theme or plugin that has a commercial version. Those are unrelated to www.ads-software.com though and are third party.

What specific upgrade are you referring to?

It should bring you to it at the link above, although you may need to be logged into Bluehost to see it. Upon installation of WordPress you’ll see this….

“Let us do it for you (Paid)”

The purchases range from 99$ – 399$

I don’t know if these should be classified as “upgrades” or not, but they can come off that way.

For example one of the plans has “WordPress Site Security” as a feature. Perhaps they mean they’ll install this feature for you, rather than it being an additional feature not availble with the (do it yourself) install of WordPress, I’m not sure.

The install page on Bluehost as a whole actually had me thinking a WordPress install was a free to try, or upgradable site development program. Even the section for the free install says “Talk to a WordPress Expert for 10% off your order” This is the same version 4.4.2 install of WordPress available here.

It’s probably 3rd party purchaces like your saying, I wouldn’t know.

As I think you’ve figured out, those are packages sold by 3rd parties related to your hosting plan.

The software is free but different hosts may charge you for different levels of their service. Generally speaking, unless you pay a host for WordPress specific support they will only support the fact that WordPress does run on their host. They will not troubleshoot WordPress problems you may have.

If you have questions about Bluehost’s different plans then you really need to ask them and not here.

Host related topics get shutdown here due to the fact that they get spammy. I’m not going to close this topic yet, but please restrict your questions here to WordPress software and not hosting plan options.

Ask Bluehost or Mojomarketplace your questions directly, I am sure they will want to have a conversation with you.

The thing is I believed that was a wordpress software issue due to the phrasing when I installed it. I believe this has been cleared up, thanks for not closing the post. The majority of the questions I’ve had are wordpress related, or concerns with whether or not early decisions I was making would effect a website created with wordpress. I’ll need help with a lot of these things.

Id like to focus on this one really…

When adding a new theme, do I lose customization options? Im scrolling through and adding themes I like to my list, but im not sure if they’ll let me do things like move around the location of page links, or add a app that I like.

If they don’t all have this, id love to know about some that alow for full customization. My homepage will connect to two seperate blogs that are linked to the hompage directly, they don’t lead to other websites, they’re just page links.

I want it to be fairly simple with a large image that makes up the majority of the page, and 4 page links that are in the header 3 of which will be in the center.

The middle link will describe the purpose of these blogs and how they’re related, the links to the left and right of that will be the sperate blogs.

The fouth link I want on the far right of the header, it will be an (about me) page. I may at some point add things to the image area or add a side panal, so I need flexibility.

I havent decided how the acutual pages will look but I’ll likely need flexibility with those as well.

Customization can involve many things, if you backup your files regularly changing themes till you find one you like is of no issue!

Im thinking the most important thing will be customization of the layout and page links. I tend to be a bit of a nut with visual appeal and find that many websites are too scattered. confusing, or dont have things that are in an ideal spot.

I just tried to edit the width of the side panel in one theme and it wouldn’t let me, it was an okay theme but the side panel was way too thick and cut into the main picture too much. The thickness of the header and location of the page links are all something I’ll want to change as well.

Im thinking I wont find a theme which matches what I want to do exactly, but if I can find one that is close and has a customizable layout Id love it. The addition of apps will be something id like to have as well, I don’t plan to go crazy with them but I do have a few in mind, perhaps a more advanced reply feature app, and a couple others that tweek small things.

I noticed that once you install a theme, it brings you to a seperate editor conrtol panel for the theme, which is confusing me some because Im not sure if the default wordpress control panel will have the same effect if I have two editors, one included with the theme and the default one.

Most of what I want to do is fairly simple, but very particular.

You’ve been particuarly helpful by the way.

Above i meant add ons, not apps. I’m still getting used to a lot of these terms ??