For many business owners the decision to go with WordPress for building their online presence is: Cost. Since WordPress is an open source software and they have a very generous licensing agreement with few restrictions, it is free to use for any purpose whether privately or business. Not to confusion the issue the WordPress I’m talking about is the self-hosted version found at WordPress.org, not the free blogging platform found at WordPress.com.
Whether as a business owner you decide to do the setup and building of your site yourself or whether you choose to have someone manage the technical aspect of your site, you’ll discover that you can build a fully functional, dynamic and beautiful website and not have the need to be in regular contact with your web site designer for every little thing, they stick with it. Business owners know that operating a lean business can lead to more profits in their pocket. Starting with WordPress to create a website is an excellent start as well as a smart way to finish. WordPress creates beautiful, useful, search engine friendly websites that can be as simple as a blog, to as complicated as a full-fledged online ecommerce membership based community website. It’s completely up to you.
Once you learn the basics of using WordPress as a website building platform the sky is truly the limit. If you don’t consider yourself the techie type you can hire someone to build the initial site for you, and then either maintain it yourself or hire a service provider, like a Virtual Assistant to assist with keeping the website up-to-date . It’s truly up to you but here are a couple of terms to help you get started.
Theme — A theme is the look and feel of your site. When looking at a theme to choose read the description carefully because it will tell you what can be easily changed without adding code. Also, it will tell you how many column choices you have, whether or not you can change the logo in the header easily, and many other important facts. (Keep in mind that once you learn more about WordPress, anything can be changed via the code.) Themes can be both free and fee based and you can have them especially made for you too. My personal favorite is a theme framework called Headway.
Plugins — These are essentially little fun programs that you insert into your site by following th directions that add functionality to your site such as a shopping cart, article directory, membership functions, social media and much, much more. Just take a look at the plugins offered free on the WordPress.org website and you’ll get a feel for how much is out there. You can use free plugins, as well as premium plug ins. Additionally, you can have plugins created for you by a developer if you can’t find what you need already.
Not only is WordPress a budget saver for a business, but it is also a winning application to be used for the most simple to the most complex websites you have ever seen. How you use it depends on your skill level, your budget and your needs. As you see, WordPress is much more than a budget saver for any business.
Want to Learn More?
Want to learn a bit more about WordPress? Sign up for my Publishing with WordPress eCourse. It’s free and will give you the basics you need to get going with WordPress. You can sign up here.