Website-Setup Week Series
Why Today’s Beginners Struggle With WordPress
(Introduction to the Website-Setup Week Series)
Inspired by JDGresham’s post here: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/jdgresham/blog/the-hardest-part-shouldnt-be-the-theme-why-wa-needs-a-real-website-setup-tutorial/
Many new Wealthy Affiliate members arrive ready to build their online business, only to get stuck far earlier than expected. The challenge rarely begins with niche selection or content creation. It begins with something much more basic: building the actual website.
Modern WordPress has changed dramatically. Blocks, containers, rows, global styling, responsive layouts, and theme-specific controls now shape every part of a site. Yet most beginners still expect the older experience; activate a theme, start writing, and everything works. That older world no longer exists.
Because of this shift, the original WA training unintentionally assumes that the website is already built correctly. For a beginner, it is not. This gap causes confusion long before the first post is written. That is why this Website-Setup Week series exists: to guide new members through the modern website-building steps in the right order, using a simple and stable theme (GeneratePress) as the foundation.
Each post in this series focuses on one clear, practical step. By the end, any beginner will have a clean, functional website and the confidence to continue into content creation, branding, and SEO without feeling lost.
Below is the full list of posts in this series.
Website-Setup Week: Complete Post List
- Why Today’s Beginners Struggle With WordPress (this post)
- Choosing a Beginner-Friendly Theme
- Installing GeneratePress and Cleaning Up the Starter Site
- Setting Global Colors and Fonts
- Understanding Modern WordPress Blocks
- Building the Homepage Step-by-Step
- Header and Footer Setup
- Creating the First Essential Pages
- Preparing for Content Creation With Confidence
- Troubleshooting Beginner Roadblocks
- When and How to Switch Themes Later
- Inviting Member Experiences and Building Community Support
Readers can return to this list at any time to follow the series in sequence. Each post builds on the previous one and solves the challenges most beginners face in their first week of building a website.
Let me know what you think about this series in the comments below before I post the first step-by-step guide in the series.
Let’s move on!
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Recent Comments
34
I'll be honest. I stumbled on the blocks. I still don't know what I'm doing and I'm not working on my first website! Thank you for putting this information together.
Yes, and that's what JD saw and asked the WA to create a training on this to fix the problem.
I'd love to share videos for each topic, but maybe someone else could do that, if they're good with showing people around while talking at the same time.
I'm not good with that, so I'll write these guides instead.
Great post John.
You are setting a great example of exactly what we should be doing here and on the websites we are building.
Identifying a problem and providing a solution!
Thanks a lot. Let's read and study the source post as well while we wait for the next post, a guide.
Excellent idea, this is more like a road map and more especially as beginners we start from different departure points.
Glad you like it, please read the source post as well because that's where the credit should go. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the series.
Hi John,
Thank you for putting this together. This introduction lays out the situation clearly and gives new members a path they can actually follow. I appreciate that you kept it practical and focused on the beginner’s real experience with modern WordPress. That matters.
You built a solid framework here. I’ll follow along with the series as you post each part.
JD
Thanks, JD for this encouraging comment, and for the inspiration for this series. I hope it'll help all of us keep things in order.
My laptop is off, but my phone is alive and well.
I'll post the first post tomorrow if the power comes or if I charge it somewhere else.
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Build a Logo + Website That Attracts Customers
400 Credits
Discover Hot Niches with AI Market Research
100 Credits
Create SEO Content That Ranks & Converts
800 Credits
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Hi John. Not sure if I have missed some of the steps as my emails have gone down.
This is what I have seen so far.
Why Today’s Beginners Struggle With WordPress (this post)
Choosing a Beginner-Friendly Theme
Installing GeneratePress and Cleaning Up the Starter Site
Setting Global Colors and Fonts
Building the Homepage Step-by-Step
Header and Footer Setup
Creating the First Essential Pages
These are what I haven't seen. Maybe you haven't done them yet and that's fine. Just wanted to check because of my email problem.
Understanding Modern WordPress Blocks
Preparing for Content Creation With Confidence
Troubleshooting Beginner Roadblocks
When and How to Switch Themes Later
Inviting Member Experiences and Building Community Support
Peter
I see, but if you read this post again, most articles are linked to it. Let me know if you still can't find/see them for some reason.
And for some reason, I can't edit this post to add links. It gives me an error.
Thanks John. I have got them all now.
Have a great day
Welcome, Peter. I'm glad you have got them all. I will try to link the last two posts to this article/post body. I was not able to edit it a few days back for some reason.
Hopefully you will be able to. I think this information is important for people starting with WA. It can save a lot of problems later on
Yes, if you scroll into the article, you'll be able to see all the posts linked now. I was able to link them today, or rather yesterday. It's 7th December, 2025 on my end now.
Good work John. Have a great Sunday
Thanks, Peter. You too!