WordPress has the reputation of being a simple and easy way to get an online presence. Proclaimers of its ease often spout that you can have a website done in a short amount of time, even a “killer” site.
Just go to WordPress.com and bam, you have a site before you know it.
NOT!
Okay, let’s back up. Yes, you can create a pretty simple website or blog on WordPress. Adding standard widgets is fairly easy, and creating posts, pages, inserting images…whoa, wait, did someone I know just send me an email and frantically ask, “How do I get my images to look good on my WordPress site? I’ve been working on it for two hours now!”
Okay, maybe it’s not the answer to our prayers.
We use WordPress as a content management system, which means we create a dynamic, customized website for you, and once we are done, you can go in and make simple edits without waiting for us to do them. Sure, learning some of the editing on WordPress can be done with some practice and it does give our clients more control over their own site.
But unless you have some marketing background, website development and copywriting skills, an understanding of some html and CSS, well, a “killer” website is not at your fingertips.
There are presenters of workshops out there who get people to flock to their event because they promise that even a complete novice can build that “killer” website. So they run through things, very quickly doing this and that and saying, “You can do this, too!” And, bam, they send you on your way.
You are excited! Amazed at what you will be able to do! Getting back in your office, you sit down, login to your account and anticipate the newfound energy that will escape from your fingertips. But whoa, you just tried to do something that the “WordPress expert” showed you, and it just doesn’t work. But it looked so damn easy!
Okay, in fairness, I will say that WordPress does allow you to create a pretty nice blog by yourself, no matter what your skills are. And of course, we know that blogs are driven more by content then by looks. But if your blog is a huge part of your marketing, then maybe you do need to take it beyond just “simple”.
So what are your experiences or thoughts on the ease of WordPress?
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