Just Another WordPress Confession

Posted by admin on Nov 16, 2011 in Blog | 3 comments

I came up through the media and advertising business believing that technical people did technical stuff and creative people did creative stuff. For example, when I was in radio, the engineers fixed things and the on air “personalities” (like me) did all the things that people could actually hear on the radio.  When I made the transition to the world of advertising, the same principle, I felt, was true. Typically, the video guys were “technical” and the film people were “creative.” I confess to you that that line of thinking carried over into this modern era of website construction.

I have preached that all websites have three major (and separate) components: 1) Content, 2) Design and 3) Technical. A good site needs all three to be done well. However, keeping fresh and relevant content on a site is so important these days, that content management became a necessity. No longer could we wait for the “web guy” to update our site. But content management systems allowing non-web people to make changes were pricey and out of the reach of many small businesses.

I’m not sure of the history, but somewhere along the line, people decided that WordPress, although designed for bloggers, would make a suitable content management system. In other words, if you sold widgets and weren’t interested in a blog, you could build your site using WordPress and just not use the blog feature. Eventually, web designers started picking up on this and WordPress has become an industry standard for web construction.

Nevertheless, WordPress still seemed rather “techie” for me, at least in the beginning. Just downloading it seemed liked more than I wanted to tackle. Remember, I’m the creative type and the tech side of things has never been a strength or an interest.

But I’m here to tell you, WordPress is absolutely awesome. They have made many changes just in the past few years, and now it is relatively “user friendly.” It isn’t as easy as drag and drop, and it isn’t “idiot proof,” but it is very doable for the average non-techie creative person like me if you are willing to invest some time in learning how to work with it.

Like all software of all time, my abilities just scratch the surface of what can actually be done. Even Word, which I’ve used since the beginning, I only have a limited knowledge base…just enough to do what I need to do. It is way more powerful of a program than I have ever experienced. The same with WordPress.

It wasn’t long ago that I firmly believed that the technical part of building a website had to be left to the technical gurus. And although, believe me, we still need the tech wizards, WordPress allows those of us who are more into content and branding to actually build websites without knowing (or caring about) HTML code. Yes, there is still some coding that one needs to know to do highly customized designs, even on WordPress, and there are many people out there who can do it…but now… now we (the creatives and branders) can at least get in the game. Instead of the tech people having to do everything, we can build it, brand it, and get their help as needed.

There are thousands of premium WordPress themes available… the only way to go unless you are one of those tech people. You can find one that will accommodate almost anything you want to do. And don’t listen to those who will tell you that to use a WordPress “template” or “theme” looks cheesy. That is absolutely not true anymore.

WordPress and a premium theme are somewhat analogous to the foundation and structure of a new house. You get to pick the flooring and paint and decorate it the way you want, but you can’t change the floor plan. If you want something extraordinary in your house, you will have to custom build it. Same with a website. If you need an extremely custom site for some reason, you will have to have it custom built. And, like the house, you will pay for it. But there are very few small businesses that need that much customization. In fact, a lot of very sophisticated web developers are using WordPress.

I’m referring, of course, to WordPress.org not WordPress.com. If you want a blog  without any commercial interest at all, WordPress.com is probably the way to go. I have a personal blog on a WordPress.com site… it really is virtually idiot proof. However, there are many commercial limitations, so if you are going to build a site for a business, then I strongly recommend WordPress.org. It is FREE software. It will be very helpful  if you use a web host that is WordPress friendly (Bluehost, HostGator are two examples).

For now, just let me say that I am a former skeptic who now really, really endorses WordPress. In a future post, I’ll talk about my choice of themes.