Building a WordPress ‘tastic’ website

WordPress is something Harrison I.T Services have been chatting about and mentioned  in our presentations, so we thought we’d put together a little more information for you so maybe you can see why we love it so much.

WordPress was developed as a blogging tool and made as easy as possible so you can be on-line as quickly as possible. Basically, if you can use MS Word, you can use WordPress.  It was designed to be a powerful Content Management System( CMS ), which means you don’t need any programming skills to maintain and improve your website.

When you control your website it really becomes a valuable asset to the business.

So, some of the reasons I like it:

• Very easy to use, you can be up and running in about an hour. Honest.
• Used globally and growing everyday.
• Very customizable. There are thousands of plugins you can add to your website.
• It comes with good SEO as standard, but can easily be improved on. Those plugins again!
• There are many hosting packages that include W.P as standard.
• I think it has far greater flexibility than other template systems, including the free Google one.
• A massive selection of exciting designs and styles ( also known as ‘Themes’ )
• Build an on-line shop – free
• The biggie; its free!

I could keep going but I think you’re getting the idea.

There are a couple of points you need to remember.

1) You need to have a hosting package that supports it. Having said that, you can get a good hosting package from about £ 5.00 pcm. It’s not going to break the bank.

2) W.P can be customised to look exactly the way you want it. There is a huge range of free or low cost templates available. You could use a free one to get going, I’d strongly suggest that you pay for a professional template to be designed for you. A good design really helps your business.

Shop around, there are loads of people who can offer W.P themes and templates. Including us !

If you want to try W.P for free then you can head over to :www.dreamhostapps.com and open a basic account. Just follow the instructions, and Bob’s your Grandma! We use our free account quite a bit to test and develop new solutions.  It’s good practice to test your ideas, just in case you damage your main website.

If you would like to talk to us to see how you  can help you build your perfect W.P website for your business, contact us today for a free no obligation quotation.

Make More of Your I.T for Free

In the present economic climate everyone is watching what they spend, small businesses are no different.

We have put together a list ( in no particular order ) of free software packages that we think think are ideal for any business but best of all will keep your accountant happy.

Note: H.I.T.S provide this information ‘as is’ and accept no liability for any damaged caused by third party software.  This list is aimed at MS Windows only.

Open Office: Open Office is a very powerful office suite that includes typing and spreadsheet functions.  Not quite the same but it does give Microsoft Office an excellent run for its money.  Great package if you are just starting out.

GIMP:  A title that often rises a smile.  It is an an excellent free graphics and drawing tool.  In fact, we think it comes close to Adobe Photo shop.  It might not be the easiest tool to pick up, but if you stick with it you can produce some amazing results.  We also suggest that you search on-line for tutorials ( there are thousands ) for more amazing free advice.

Paint.Net: An alternative Paint / photo editing software.  Once again another very powerful tool, but you need to spend a bit of time with it and read some tutorials.  Well worth it.

Defraggler: A handy useful tool that defrags your hard drive.  We think it’s much better than the one included in Windows.

ToDo Backup: An excellent backup tool.  No more excuses for not backing up your data.

CutePDF: A brilliant little tool that allows you to convert just about any document into PDF files.  A must. 

TweetDeck:  Keep all of your social media in once place with Tweetdeck.

MailChimp: We absolutly love this !  A great way of staying in touch with your customesrs