WordPress is Great!

So, about two years ago my daughter-in-law opened a yarn store (where you buy yarn to knit www.lbyarnco.com), and she hired some web developers to build a site for her.  They used WordPress.  I didn’t get it, but since I was her main tech support, I started working on it and was able to easily make some updates.  Started to get it.  Last summer, I need to set up some web sites for a friend who is an author (www.richardtrout.com) and some non-profit organizations (www.lighthousemedicalclinic.org).  So, I used WordPress to do it.  Now I get it.  WordPress is great!

Why is WordPress great? It solved the problem I had.  I needed to quickly set up web sites that didn’t cost anything and that were easy to maintain.  Lets take those one at a time.

WordPress is easy to set up.  OK, I do have a pretty technical background and have managed projects to build web sites and web-based applications for almost 10 years, but this was way too easy.  I was amazed.  It can’t be this easy to install, add features (plug-ins), and make it look the way you want (themes) without hiring a big staff.  I had my first site up in one evening and a little part-time work over then next few weeks.  Now these were not huge websites, but still… In one night?  You’ve got to be kidding.  I would not have believed it unless I had done it.

WordPress is free.  Free software, free themes, free add-on modules, free support and almost free hosting ($6 bucks a month for all the disk space and websites I can host- seems like free to me).  When I was consulting full time, companies paid me tens and hundreds of thousand of dollars to build websites and web application that you can now get for practically free.  I can remember when people used to ask me, “How much will it cost do set up a web site to do X?”,  I would cringe and respond with a number that I knew they could not afford.  Now I tell them they should be able to get it for free (ok, if the are my friends they get it for free, but even paying someone to help with WordPress doesn’t compare to the old “build it from scratch.”)

WordPress is easy to maintain.  I don’t want to have to maintain a website.  I don’t want to have to change text, post new information, etc.  That is the real cost of a good web site – adding and maintain content over time.  But that is what those that want a web site can do for themselves (ok, I have built a few sites where they don’t do it like they should, but the point is they could if it was important to them).  Of course, the users still have questions and problems, but they can do the day-to-day work without much training.  I set up a blog for my daughter (www.michellecookseveryday.com)  and sent her the user name and password and off she went with no training from me.  She is not that technical.

So for me, WordPress is great because it was the solution to a problem I had – helping friends and non-profits with websites.  Now lets see if it will solve a problem for my business too!

Related posts:

1. Seven Reasons I Like WordPress
2. Part 2: Using WordPress and Artisteer on a new Business website
3. Problem: Friend needs a website – Solution: WordPress
4. Problem: Need a place to host web sites Solution: BlueHost
5. Best Plug-ins for a WordPress Blog
6. Starting a new WordPress Users Group in OKC
7. Making Your Own WordPress Themes with Artisteer