I have worked for clients with a wide variety of content management software and strategies — WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, ColdFusion, publishing through programs like Dreamweaver and FrontPage, proprietary systems, using PHP includes, no system at all (using flat HTML files) — and WordPress is by far the easiest for the web developer, the marketing/content person, and the site owner to all use. What does this mean? WordPress allows small businesses to get up their sites faster and more cost-efficiently than ever before. If you need more reasons to try WordPress for your content management, consider these:
WordPress is made for writing.
WordPress allows the user to write in the browser window effortlessly, just like using a traditional word processor. The writer doesn’t have to worry about code or formatting while writing — the code writes itself in Visual Mode and formatting can be added to an article with a few easy clicks later on. When combined with my browser’s built-in spellchecking, I have no need to open a word processing program. WordPress has revision capabilities built right in — it autosaves my work as I type, and it lets me revert back to or compare my writing to earlier versions with a couple of clicks.
WordPress makes drafts simple.
With several save modes on posts — Draft, Pending Review, and Published — writers can work on several articles at once, save them for editorial review, and publish them when they are ready to go. Want to publish your articles according to an editorial calendar but write them in advance? WordPress makes it easy for content makers to write and preview articles before scheduling them for publication. (This article, for example, was written directly into WordPress hours before the publication time!)
WordPress won’t embarrass you with its code.
If you have ever had to look at code generated by most WYSIWYG editors (such as FrontPage), you would know how terrible it is. The code is often several years outdated, bloated with unnecessary tags, and impossible to edit without breaking the rest of the page. WordPress-generated code, however, is not. It doesn’t add anything you didn’t ask it to add, and it doesn’t break any of the premium designs that people pay for!
WordPress is very flexible.
A self-hosted install of WordPress (that’s wordpress.org not wordpress.com) can really be molded into whatever kind of site you want, driven by the powerful WordPress engine. With hosted solutions (Blogger, Blogspot, Homestead), you are limited by the constraints of the system and how it is organized. With DIY builders like GoDaddy’s Website Tonight, you are limited by the design of the software. With WordPress, I have yet to find something I couldn’t build.
WordPress has the backing of a strong community.
Discussion forms, sites dedicated to WordPress hacks, and a strong developer community mean that you will probably be able to find the answer for whatever problem you may come across. A strong user base also means a wide variety of available add-ons and plugins to make your WordPress installation even more useful. If you happen to need something you can’t find already available in a plugin, widespread support also means that you can easily find a web developer capable of writing a plugin or added functionality for you!
WordPress offers thousands of themes and theme frameworks
Years ago, the only way to get a nice site was to build the whole thing from scratch. Now with themes and theme frameworks, you can customize and deploy a ready-to-sell site in a matter of hours. Premium theme sites such as WooThemes, Elegant Themes, StudioPress, and Theme Forest dramatically slash your development costs and deployment times, saving you thousands on your web launch. If you’re just looking for something simple (and cheap!) for a personal blog, there are also many free themes available.
If you want more than six reasons to use WordPress, sign up for the Small Business Essentials free newsletter in the top right. I will be working on an expanded list of WordPress features, and other goodies, to release monthly to my newsletter list. Join today so you don’t miss out!
Flickr photo by Team StickerGiant.
January 12, 2011
Technology and Websites