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
Easy of installation is handy for me, but the main reason I like WordPress though is the size of its install base. Because it is so large, the ecosystem surrounding it is huge also. That means when I have a problem or requirement I have always managed to solve it very quickly.
And that I think has saved me even more time than the time saved at installation.
Though I’m a technie so don’t mind that too much 😉
For me, WordPress is a great content delivery mechanism with so many built-in functions and even more plugins – all available for free. There are also some really great paid plugins for those special purpose assignments. On top of that, WordPress has to be one of the most popular blogging platforms which makes my WordPress plugin business model viable.
Only in the past 18 months have I really become interested in WordPress. It always looked and sounded too complicated for words for me to give it a go. Finally I grabbed the bull by the horns and stumped up the courage to install and start using WordPress.
Although I have never really got the time to keep all my blogs updated on a regular basis, I have to say that I do love WordPress. I am pleased that I decided to use it as it is really easy to use once you get over the initial fear that one may mess up things as one does on new script installations etc. 🙂
I am in search of one of those auto blogging thingys to see if it would make life easier for me with regards to adding new content to my blogs on a regular basis…. (nudge, nudge – wink, wink – looking for a nickle sale of said product LOL!)
Also Frank I was just wondering if perhaps there would be a chance in the future for you and your developers to develop a plugin for WordPress to accomodate affiliate schemes etc. instead of trying to use a standalone script that cost a fortune and then try and implement it to work with wordpress.
Anyways I love wordpress and am looking forward to your next handy lil’ plugin to use on my blogs.
Take Care.
Valda
Since I discovered wordpress, it is like I “died and went to heaven”. I have always operated a number of sites. I self-taught myself .html, dreamweaver, etc. Now everything is sooo much easier and I am actually having fun PLUS making lots more money. The ONE thing I like about wordpress vs.a conventional site, when I make a post, often it appears in hours vs. days or weeks with a conventional website page. That interprets into almost instant traffic if the post is well positioned. Thanks Frank and keep up the good work and “don’t let the basxxxxx get you down!”
Hi John,
I think you’ve followed the same path as I did (and probably many others). I started by learning HTML and bought Dreamweaver when it was still part of the Macromedia Suite. That learning process has continually come in handy ever since, but it’s still a lot easier to use WordPress for most everything.
I totally agree with posts getting indexed quickly – that’s all thanks to the built in pinging system that notifies pingomatic etc about a new post being made.
The only downside I’ve found to WordPress is it’s a little restrictive in some cases, with a good example being with regards to creating pages that look differently to the rest of the site. I’ve addressed that first with WPAffiliatePages.com, and now I finally have a version of PageTemplatePlugin.com that I’m happy with, and I’ll be releasing some of these with the new version of the plugin in the new year when we’ve finished doing the conversion work for the templates.
It’s now a LOT easier to convert HTML templates to the WP Page Template format needed by the plugin. Even I can do it, and that was something I couldn’t do with earlier versions of the plugin we released in January and February. 😉
And that last sentence is good advice first given to me about 15 years ago by someone I respect a lot. 🙂
-Frank.