Hello gorgeous!
How was last week for you? Reply and let me know what you’ve been up to!
I spent the last week flip-flopping between Squarespace and WordPress, this seems to be something I do at least twice a year. And I don’t know why I do it. But it keeps happening, even though…
I hate WordPress.
But I still keep wasting time looking at whether I can get my head around it or not! (Note to self: you can’t, you don’t like it, you’ll never be able to learn something if you can’t even stand opening the bloody thing!)
Choosing a website provider as an entrepreneur is bloody hard, moving provider, once you’re all set up, is harder, especially if you love the one you have. Your website is the face of your brand as an entrepreneur or solopreneur, so it’s vital that it does what you want it to do, is accessible to everyone, and that you can update it when you need to.
What’s in This Edition for You?
Everything that was suggested to me on Twitter when I asked “how to learn WordPress” is included below.
Likewise, I did some sleuthing about Squarespace, and all the juicy plugins and stuff that I found I’ve listed below too.
I’ve written an article entitled I Hate WordPress, about the behind-the-scenes of this week where I don’t know any more than I did at the start!
All the WordPress Resources
A lot of the conversation on Twitter/X was around using WordPress with Elementor, so some of these resources are focused on Elementor as well.
Here’s the original post for those of you who frequent X and want to see the conversation in context.
Here are all the suggested resources:
- Stacy-Ann Hayes shared a YouTube video; “How to Make A WordPress Website – 2023” and also suggested a plugin called Advanced Custom Fields
- Rene Morozowich suggested the WPTuts YouTube Channel
- Courtney Robertson suggested Learn WordPress
- Ben Borowoski suggested a post from Elementor on How to create custom post types (because I have articles and newsletter editions on Squarespace)
- Thomas Frank suggested using the Astra Theme in his reply
- Elementor Academy
All the Squarespace Resources
After ending up in a rabbit hole of Squarespace plugins, these are resources that I found:
- SE Web Design’s YouTube channel, including a wonderful video on how to create a pricing table, and another on how to set up a style guide. Side note, if you have Squarespace, this is going to change your life! It takes about an hour to set up, but by fuck it’s amazing!
- A list curated by SQSP Themes of 50 plugins, both paid and free. Some require code injections (where a Business Plan of Squarespace is required), and some don’t. They also have an extensive list of their own.
- Elfsight has loads of widgets for Squarespace. A free account is required to get these widgets.
- Ghost Plugins have paid, free, and free legacy plugins that can do everything from giving you a gradient button to vertical sections. They also have a monthly membership for $49.
Bonus – Carrd Plugins
If you’re using Carrd for your one-pagers or landing pages, I came across this resource https://plugins.carrd.co/ – there are loads of extras!
My Note To You:
It’s okay to re-evaluate things when new information comes up and opportunities present themselves that you might want to take advantage of.
But for the love of [insert chosen deity here], do your research before you jump into something new.
Don’t just look at the price difference of the base tool, look at what you might spend on add-ons, bundles, and plug-ins, as well as the time cost that it would take you to learn something new or what someone will charge to help you set it up, and troubleshoot if/when things go wrong.
