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WordPress

Wordpress videos question

I just started the Wordpress track,and I'm on the second video. Do I need to purchase a domain name and such to even do this track?

8 Answers

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
9,767 Points

Hi Keith Jackson Jr.

No of course you don't need to buy a domain and hosting. Charles Sells has unfortunately misinformed you.

You can install WordPress in a local development environment using Xampp. It creates a web server environment on your computer so you can build your sites without the need to buy domains and hosting etc.

There's videos at the start of the HTML courses. It's best to start there and work through all the courses to end up at WordPress. It's not just something you can jump into. To really be expert with WordPress, you need to master PHP and mySQL. Something that, after just over 7 months, I'm nowhere near doing.

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
9,767 Points

Don't know if I watched those videos. Question was, does hosting and domain name need to be bought to do the track. No it doesn't, you don't need to buy hosting to complete the WordPress course on Treehouse.

The cPanel learning is irrelevant as all hosts offer different cPanels, so what you see here, is unlikely to be seen elsewhere.

That's kind of the idea. It's a very popular way of going about using Wordpress for a website. There are other ways including easy installs via GoDaddy, but you still need to purchase your domain, web hosting etc.

I see, thanks for the reply.

I am looking to build a website, just not now. I guess I assumed there would be a way to study this with "learning materials" like some of the other tracks. However it's no big deal, I will just start this track when I am setting up my website with wordpress.

Glad to have helped. :-)

In order to follow the instructions, Matthew Campbell YES of course you have to purchase web hosting and a domain name, so that you can fully understand using cpanel etc like it is instructed in the Wordpress tutorials.

I see your point Matthew, and I have used Xampp before so it shouldn't be that hard.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

To do the track - no. You'd be just fine doing the whole video series on a local server environment such as Xampp.

To have a WP site others can visit - Yes, you'd need a domain and hosting. I think if you can learn how to set up and develop a WP site locally, you can figure out how to set up your WP on a host and buy a domain, when/if that time comes. If you just want to learn to be a theme developer and sell on other sites, don't worry about it.