|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +layout: post |
| 3 | +title: "Blogging platform spotlight: Wordpress" |
| 4 | +categories: platform-spotlight |
| 5 | +author: mtimofiiv |
| 6 | +tags: wordpress |
| 7 | +excerpt: Wordpress is ubiquitous, it's everywhere and it is being used by a lot of different people and companies. And so could you! |
| 8 | +masthead: woman-working-on-computer.jpg |
| 9 | +--- |
| 10 | +{% |
| 11 | + include |
| 12 | + platform_rubik.html |
| 13 | + name="Wordpress" |
| 14 | + logo="/assets/images/post-content/wp-logo.svg" |
| 15 | + target_user="Everyone" |
| 16 | + target_user_blurb="Simple to use for anyone, has enough complexity for those seeking more features of cusomisation, all the way to advanced developer level." |
| 17 | + overall_score=9 |
| 18 | + overall_blurb="Wordpress is the perfect platform to launch a blog on, especially when you're a non-technical user. With managed Wordpress hosting (such as from Wordpress.com), the technical aspect of running the blog can be entirely hands-off." |
| 19 | + cost="$0-25/month*" |
| 20 | + cost_blurb="In a managed hosting scenario, pricing differentiation comes down to customisation and storage capacity. In a self-hosted scenario (more technical), the cost is essentially to run the server, which could be as low as $5 a month." |
| 21 | + popularity="75+ million websites" |
| 22 | + popularity_blurb="De facto standard on the web for small (and even some large) websites. The LARGEST content management system in the world, judged by audience." |
| 23 | + ease_score=7 |
| 24 | + ease_blurb="For basic, fundamental things, Wordpress is very easy. When it comes to customising, the difficulty ramps up sharply. Editing themes or plugins depend on the grace of the author of those pieces of 3rd party software, so many lack any kind of flexibility." |
| 25 | + customise_score=7 |
| 26 | + customise_blurb="Wordpress itself is fairly easy to customise, and many quality themes and plugins exist with a broad range of customisation options. The drawback is that a non-technical user will find their options limited to what is made available by theme or plugin authors, unless they choose to hire a developer to help." |
| 27 | + integrate_score=10 |
| 28 | + integrate_blurb="Many services are point-and-click. Many other ones only require a basic authorisation step (done once on setup). The sheer amount of selection warrants a high score!" |
| 29 | +%} |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +<a name="overall"></a> |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +## All about Wordpress |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +Wordpress is the undisputed king of blogging content management systems at the moment. It does this by having the user experience to attract a broad audience, being battle tested in real websites, and a massive and robust community ecosystem working on both improving Wordpress itself but also contributing plugins and themes for it. |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +If you are unsure what you need, chances are Wordpress has you covered. |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +<a name="target-user"></a> |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +## Who is Wordpress' target user? |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +Wordpress really has a nice interface for beginners, and more complex features and customisations are possible for people wanting something a bit more to tinker with. The bottom line is pretty much anyone can use it, especially by taking advantage of managed hosting. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +<a name="cost"></a> |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +## How much will it cost me? |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +Before figuring out your cost, you will need to pick a path: __self hosting__ or __managed hosting__. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +__Unless you are technically inclined, I would highly recommend not going for self hosting__. This will involve you getting a server, setting up a database, setting up PHP, setting up your Wordpress codebase, not to mention customising. If you choose to do this, then cheap options for a server can be found on <a href="https://digitalocean.com">Digital Ocean</a> or <a href="https://linode.com">Linode</a>, and you could get away with paying just $5 a month! |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +__Managed hosting is a perfect solution for non-technical people (or people who don't want to bother).__ There are actually quite a few hosts out there that offer great solutions, one being by [Automattic](https://automattic.com), the company that makes Wordpress. It's called [Wordpress.com](https://wordpress.com). You can actually get started there for free with minimal customisation options. |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +If you're just starting out, you're not sure you will even have readers, or if you have much of an audience. Using the free or $5 a month tier on Wordpress.com lets you test the waters by exposing the world to your content while also not overdoing the time you will spend on customising. |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +Also factor in if you want your own a domain name (ie. a dot com for your site), there's an added cost for that. Domain costs vary depending on what the top-level domain is (TLD – the ".com" or ".org" part of the domain name), but you could get a dot com for about $15 a year. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +So, with a dot com domain name ($15 yearly) and a $5/month ($60 yearly) subscription at Wordpress.com, you're looking at a cost of just $75 a year to operate your blog!. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +<a name="popularity"></a> |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +## How popular is it? And does that help or hinder me? |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | +There are a few considerations here: |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | + * **Sheer amount of 3rd party content** – Wordpress has the largest collection of themes and plugins out there for any comparable platform. You're just not going to find anything that extensive out there for any of the alternatives. |
| 68 | + * **Support** – if you're ever stuck and don't know how to fix/change something, a massive following of people is out there on the internet that can help. You can ask a question on a question-and-answer site popular with developers like [StackExchange](https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/), use the [Wordpress.com forums](https://en.forums.wordpress.com/), or contact your host in the case of managed hosting. |
| 69 | + * **Security** – this is a drawback of being everywhere, and it's simple math that with that many websites using Wordpress, malicious hackers or data thieves are going to be that much more active trying to exploit vulnurabilities. This is another reason to do managed hosting, as the teams at those companies are actively engaged in security so that you don't have to be. If you're self-hosting, prepare to do that on your own. Or, you might fall prey to things like the [Blackhole Exploit Kit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhole_exploit_kit). |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +On the whole, popularity is a plus for Wordpress, as the only real drawback can be mitigated. |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +<a name="ease-of-use"></a> |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +## How easy is it to use? |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +Users who have never used any kind of blogging or content management platform should have a pretty simple time using it. Experienced users will find no trouble. |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | +The toughest thing is, as with a lot of things with Wordpress (and some of the other platforms as well) is that the 3rd party tools built by various developers that integrate in are often a little less streamlined. Plugins and themes are not always high quality and are not guaranteed to work or to work properly. |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +<a name="customise"></a> |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +## Now let's talk customisability |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +There are literally thousands of themes out there for Wordpress. Tens of thousands probably. Maybe even hundreds of thousansds – it's yuuuuuuge 😉. |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +Building your own themes though is a bit of a process. While it seems easy to use and premium themes JustWork™, creating a theme for yourself is not really beginner's work. You'll likely need a PHP developer (PHP is the programming language Wordpress is written in) with some experience with Wordpress' internals to write it for you. |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +So if you can't use an off-the-shelf design, you're going to fork out some money to a developer to do it for you. |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +Customising an existing theme is possible as well, but should be done carefully, and with some working knowledge of what you're doing. Modifying theme files will mean that it potentially might revert its changes if you update the theme to the newest version. That being said, if you stick to editing the CSS (styling information), you could do some quick and dirty edits. |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +<a name="integration"></a> |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +## Can I integrate it into other services? |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +Chances are, there's a plugin for it! Many, many services like <a href="https://maps.google.com">Google Maps</a>, <a href="https://cloudflare.com">Cloudflare</a>, <a href="https://shopify.com">Shopify</a> (not to mention social media ones) offer a plethora of different plugins. |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +Others, like <a href="https://blogsend.io?ref=blog">Blogsend.io</a> or <a href="https://analytics.google.com">Google Analytics</a> integrate via a small code snippet you can insert by copying and pasting it into your template or theme editor. |
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