Wow…what a whirlwind of information. I’ve just gone through the process of picking new website template and hosting companies. So, what I thought would be a week-long process took quite a bit longer. I had been using Network Solutions for my consulting website and I liked their product, but I thought I could get a better deal by looking around. With Network Solutions, I used a website template which was very easy to use, and they provided the hosting so the set-up was very quick and painless. When I asked other business people which vendor they used for their websites, a number of people had mentioned WordPress.
Now I had only thought of WordPress for blogs. What I didn’t realize was that they actually have 2 sides to their business. One side (www.wordpress.com ) provides free blogs and blog templates, and the other side (www.wordpress.org ) provides free website templates, blog templates and a content management system. You do have to find your own hosting vendor, but they partner with a number of good, affordable vendors and the process is well integrated into their website deployment process.
The more people I talked to about WordPress, the more fanatics I saw. It was really something. Everytime I talked to someone who uses WordPress it was like I was talking to the person who created it….that’s how much loyalty they had. So, I jumped in and gave it a shot. It was a whole new world of terminology, capabilities, etc and I very quickly was over my head. But, the fanatics talked me into staying and here I am — a person who has created a website and blog on WordPress and has lived to tell about it.
Now that I’ve gone through the process, I’m glad to be on the other side, but I feel like there’s still a mountain to climb if I want to learn about more advanced capabilities (more plug-ins, widgets….see, I’m getting the lingo down pretty well!). What makes me feel OK about all this is that there is a huge user community out there that’s willing to help. I got a lot of help from a Meet Up group on WordPress (thanks Sallie, Noel, and Anca) and someone tipped me off that I could google most any question (the more specific the better) and see how other people have handled the same issue.
So there, I’m not alone in this WordPress journey and I can now focus on the content of my blog….creating a forum for fellow marketers to discuss new trends, emerging technology and great case studies. More to follow on these topics in my next entry.