What Do You Need To Manage WordPress?

WordPress lives entirely online. The wp-admin portion of a WP site allows the admin to manage everything from one spot.

On the admin you can create posts and pages, add media (images, videos, audio and documents), add/manage plugins, change the menus and maintain almost everything else in WordPress.

Software and Internet

The first things you’ll need to manage WordPress is some internet and software programs.

• Internet Connection
  Of course you can’t manage a website without being connected to the internet, right? Your home/office connection, a shared connection at a cafe or restaurant, or even a hotspot will do as long as it’s secure and consistent.
• VPN
  Speaking of connecting to the internet. Make sure you are running a VPN if working on a public connection. You may be sending passwords, documents, and other private data from the site to your device, best to have all of that encrypted.
• Modern Web Browser
  Most WP sites are meant to work in the big four browsers, Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On mobile most use Chrome, Safari and Firefox. So long in to your website on one of those browsers and you should be fine.
• Image Program or Service
  You may run into an issue where you will need to create or edit an image for your website. Photoshop if you can afford it, GIMP is great if you want many PS features for zero dollars, but there is a learning curve, and Canva.co is a powerful online image creation platform.
• FTP Programs
  This is easy if you’re looking for a program to work on your site files. Filezilla. Next!
• Code Editor
  There may come a time where you have to get dirty and edit some code on the site in your wp-confg, htaccess, or robots.txt files and Notepad++, Brackets, Dreamweaver, or even the old reliable Notepad will do just the trick.

Hardware and Devices

Now you know what software you need to do the job. What do you need to run it?

• PC
  PC is the broad definition, as in personal computer. Windows, Mac or Linux. Desktop or laptop. Expensive or cheap. It really doesn’t matter as long as you can 1) connect to the internet, and 2) do so in a modestly efficient manner.
• Chromebooks
  Chromebooks are a great way to manage WordPress. They run a ton of programs and apps, are designed to work in an online environment, and are relatively cheap when compared to PCs.
• Tablets/iPads
  For small jobs, tablets and iPads work well when managing WordPress. Just need to run some updates, or insert an image? Fire up the iPad. While you can type long content on a tablet, I don’t recommend it. Use something with an actual keyboard.
• Smartphones
  I recommend using a smartphone to manage your site only in emergencies. Both Android and IOS can connect through browsers to your site, but it’s compressed, requires use of the hamburger menu, and not really friendly to editing lots of text.

Essentially you can manage WordPress with any internet connected computer. As long as it has a browser, can run the wp-admin part of the site, and has a screen with enough resolution to see what you’re doing, it should work. It’s all based on budget, what you have to do, and how comfortable you are doing it on that device.

How do you manage WordPress? Leave your thoughts below, or send them to me @BeBizzy on Twitter!