WordPress - A Love Affair and more
Software Version
wordpress.org
Overall Satisfaction with WordPress
I run a boutique web development and marketing agency, New Tricks. We only build websites using WordPress. Although this open source platform was created just over ten years ago, WordPress currently powers over 26% of all the websites in the world. One of the reasons it is so popular is that it was built to be easy for end users to add fresh content to their websites without having to call a developer. Being able to use your website agility as the hub of your marketing activities is essential for small businesses. WordPress started as a blogging software but in just a few years was extended to be a full content management program and is currently used by small businesses and also by enterprise organizations, museums, universities, retail companies for their bricks and mortar locations and for online sales. The possibilities are endless.
WordPress has Open Source licensing which means no one owns the code/program. It and it is free and available for all to use. A community of volunteers works to keep it going and growing. There are many ways for people to volunteer. Many of us who make our living using WordPress get involved with the WordPress community doing a variety of things. Some people work developing new code, some fix bugs or create plugins or themes. Others who are not coders, write documentation or work in their cities to help people learn more about WordPress and how to use it by running local WordPress Meetup groups or by organizing WordCamps (WordPress conferences).
- WordPress is easy for end users to add content to keep their sites fresh and attract search engines and readers to their websites.
- Because of the widespread use of this free open source software, there is a huge development community helping it to grow. There are over 2,600 plugins which add extra functionality to WordPress out of the box, and thousands of free and premium themes to help people get started with their websites.
- The WordPress community is helpful and gives away lots of free information on the web and in person. Local WordPress users have WordPress Meetups. all over the country where we put on trainings. Our community organizes WordCamps in major cities all over the world, with tickets priced around 20.00 a day, with tracks geared to WordPress beginners, users, designers and developers
- WordPress is not easy for end users to fully customize. So if they have very particular needs they should have someone experienced set up the website.
- It is so easy to use that people who don't know how to do web marketing create sites that are not very effective.
- Programmers who don't take enough time to get to know the WordPress built in capabilities, end up hardcoding everything which then leaves their clients with a site that cannot be used effectively.
- My whole business is WordPress and I employ five people.
- I have grown my business using my website, doing content marketing. I write a blog post and send it out to my list each week in a newsletter. The entire opt-in conversion process is on my site.