I started blogging with WordPress almost 7 years ago. At the time, WordPress (WP) was a fairly new blogging platform that was really beginning to take off. Prior to using WP, I’d blogged on the Blogger platform and the Joomla platform as well as at places like LiveJournal and TypePad. None of them were “it” for me.
Until WordPress.
And it’s not just because it’s very easy to install, very easy to setup and simple to use, it’s also because it’s very, very versatile. Not only can you blog with it, you can use it as a full-fledged website with all manner of additions like forums, landing pages, membership sites – there’s even a multi-site platform that can be used to build multiple blogs with multiple writers and editors! You can even make the entire site private so only folks you allow can see or read anything!
A Versatile Platform for Every Industry
Plus, you’ll find it’s adaptable to pretty much any industry – Real Estate, medical fields, parenting, social media sites, marketing, portfolio sites, writing, music, news, schools – and the list goes on. Literally anything can work with WP.
Even so, I didn’t really see the full value of using WP for mainstream, regular websites – even those WITHOUT blogs – until about a year ago. And now, I build almost everything on the WP platform.
The BIGGEST reason is that it makes it incredibly easy for my clients to update their own sites without breaking anything. They can add new content, delete old content, create new pages, remove pages, install other options – all without having to call me or rely on my to do it for them. And when they want to change the theme their site uses, it’s simple for me to go in and create a new look for them without having to rework the entire site to fit the new design.
Major Advantages to WordPress
- Very good built-in SEO handling – customizable head tags, keywords, permalink structure, etc
- Easily customizable – add sidebars, remove sidebars, add your own header and more
- Thousands of plugins available to further customize – help eliminate spam, contact forms, ad widgets – the list goes on and on
- Simple, easy to use back-end interface and write panel makes writing posts and adding pages a breeze
- One click upgradable – that means you can have the latest WordPress installed and active in less than 5 minutes
- WordPress itself is totally free and open-source which means anybody can use it for anything – personal or commercial
The Advantages of Premium Themes & Frameworks
Over the past few years, many designers and developers have created what are called Premium Themes. And while there are many wonderful free themes available for WordPress, in my opinion, premium themes have some very compelling differences that make them worthwhile.
Many premium themes and frameworks have custom options panels that allow you to change things like fonts, colors, headers, favicons and all kinds of things with just a few simple clicks. And without messing with code! This makes it even MORE simple for my clients to update their sites on the fly, very easily without the worry of breaking something in the process.
Additionally, a lot of them include tools for things that generally take some knowledge of PHP and WP’s loop, etc to figure out. With a premium theme or theme framework, some of these things are built right in so there’s no need to go try to figure out the WP codex just do something that SHOULD be simple and quick.
If you’re developer or designer, there are other advantages to building your client’s sites on WP as well. For example, many of the theme developers have support forums where you can go to ask questions and get help when needed. I know for me, that’s a huge advantage! Although I’m good at figuring things out most of the time, as a beginner to WP theme development, sometimes an extra set of eyes is just what’s needed to figure out a solution or help create the right components. It’s also a great place to get feedback and even to showcase your work.
Are You Ready to Use WordPress?
Now, I am far from a WP expert but I’m learning as I go and am finding it very rewarding. This fall, I’ll be taking some additional continuing education classes at the local community college to bring me up to speed even faster on the newest web design and development techniques and tools, including WP. I’m really looking forward to it!
And yes, I believe you should be using WP for your sites. Especially if you’re looking for a platform that can allow you to have total control over every aspect of your site – even if you’re not a designer or developer. They offer a free site to anyone on their network or you can install WP on your own domain. If you just want to check it out and see what it has to offer, go sign up for a free account at wordpress.com, click the big orange button that says “Get started” and start blogging!
And finally, when you’re ready for your own domain, come talk to me and I’ll help you get setup on a hosting account, buy a domain name, install WordPress on it for you and design you a beautiful site that works the way you expect!
Until next time . . .
About Annie
