cms

Sep

2010

Why Do You Like WordPress?

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you can’t have failed to notice how many WordPress based products I’ve been putting out recently, and that’s simply because…

I really like WordPress.

In the last 12 months, WordPress has really come on in leaps and bounds. In fact 12 months ago I certainly wouldn’t have described it as a CMS, but I would now even though it’s lacking a good implementation of one important feature that all good Content Management Systems should have – journaling. (The WordPress dev team have sort of paid it a little lip service by introducing multiple draft copies, but I don’t think that really counts.)

But in spite of that, like I said I really like it.

And the main reason for that is it’s dead easy to install.

If you have cPanel hosting, then you’ve probably also got Fantastico too. And if you have that, it takes 2 minutes or less to install WordPress.

Once WordPress is installed, then apart from all the usual stuff people will swoon over it for (extensibility and free stuff), there’s one very important aspect which gets overlooked by just about everybody:-

It reveals another layer of ease of use with regards to installing scripts.

If you’ve ever installed a standalone PHP script with a MySQL database, then you’ve probably found it can be a little tricky sometimes. Especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.

You have to upload files, you sometimes have to CHMOD stuff, you have to create the database and add a user with the correct permissions to it, then run the installer and enter the database details, and that’s even before you get to any of the real configuration stuff in the scripts admin panel.

A standalone script installation can take anything from 15 minutes to an hour, which is why some people pay others to do it for them.

But with WordPress…

You just upload the plugin using either FTP or the built in WordPress file browser and activate it.

Again, a 2 minute job.

No messing with config files, creating databases etc, you just upload and activate. The plugins will use the existing WordPress database, and you don’t have to be really technically minded to do it either.

So in under 5 minutes you can install WordPress and have a script running on it. Another 5-10 minutes depending on the complexity and you’ve amended all the settings in the admin panel.

I feel it’s important at this point to say that I’m not talking about plugins that do stuff that’s unique to WordPress, I mean plugins that will do vital stuff for your business like run a sales script or affiliate scheme or autoresponder.

Tasks that would traditionally be done by either a service or a standalone script.

And THAT is why I like WordPress so much.

It makes things so much easier and simpler to do.

Why do you like WordPress?

-Frank Haywood

Jun

2008

Other Scripts Coming In 2008

Going on from my post yesterday about AdSpurt, I thought I’d mention a couple of other things we’re working on for your internet business.

I don’t want to give the game away entirely, but one is a script that will turn affiliate marketing on its head. I am totally convinced that this product will shake the entire marketing world to its core, and the whole landscape of blog and forum marketing will change forever.

Good or bad? I don’t know. I’ll just be making the gun, other people will be firing it.Â (Okay, I’ll fire it a bit too.Â More than a bit in fact.)

Here’s a double warning though, just for you, a (hopefully loyal) reader of this blog.

#1 – If you haven’t created your first product yet, just GO and get your act together and get yourself sorted okay?

I don’t care if you don’t know where to start with creating your first product or what it will be about, just get your thinking cap on right now and remember there’s nothing new under the sun.Â Just because someone else has already done it doesn’t mean you can’t do it too.

Otherwise we’d have one kind of car, one kind of pen, one kind of shirt and so on… It’s all the different flavours of the world that makes things interesting, so add your own flavour and style to the mix.

#2 – And if you don’t yet have a blog like this one that you post to regularly, GO and sort that out too.

Do NOT be tempted to use Blogger or BlogSpot or any other free blogging service, you WILL regret it. It should be a self-hosted blog (ideally WordPress), and if you don’t know where to start, post a comment here and I’ll put something together for you to show you how to do it, what plugins to use etc.

You’ll see that script in use here on this site within the next month or so.

The second script has been in the making since 2001, and is a full blown Content Management System (CMS) with a difference.

Instead of having loads of crappy little features that no-one but a geek would be interested in, this is written with YOU in mind. It’s been designed for online business owners to run their internet business through.

It’s already in use on several different WORKING sites in test (the site owners don’t realise what they’ve got because they haven’t been told), and I’ll soon be adding it to the Vendiva.com site and using it as the platform to run my own internet business.

So I guarantee you it will be kick-ass when we release it towards the end of the year.

As well as those two major scripts, there are some other nice little projects and products that I’ll be releasing soon too, so keep your eyes peeled.

-Frank Haywood

(The next script released after AdSpurt will likely be the Instant Survey Script.)