I was planning on writing an overview of various plug-ins I use, as well as two of the tools I use to create my niche blogs as described in the Authority Site Case Study (as well as this blog). But before I do that, I felt it was important to convey the reasons why I think you MUST use WordPress as your content management system for your virtual real estate empire.
For the longest time I used to use Dreamweaver and Xsite Pro for my niche sites, and Blogger (of all things) for my own personal blog.Now don’t get me wrong, all of these tools are great, but I started to find them limiting and too time consuming when trying to add new pages and elements to grow my network. In other words, there are some serious advantages of going with a WordPress platform (over other blogging platforms or static sites built with an html editor):
1. With a WordPress installation on your own host you "own" your blog, as opposed to a blog that is hosted by a blog service such as blogger.com, typepad.com, wordpress.com (which is a hosted WordPress blog with zero features compared to your self-hosted blog).
2. Since WordPress is open-source, it’s free and you can install it on as many servers as you want. PLUS, the setup is extremely simple. If you didn’t want to customize your blog, you could literally be up and running in less than 5 minutes using their "1-Click Install".
3. Easy publishing – no need to build your sites on your desktop. No more need for web design software, saving to your hard drive etc. All you have to do is just login, write and publish; and the best part of all, you don’t have to be on your own computer to post new content.
4. WordPress is highly customizable. Since they are open source software, they have a very strong user base (that are extremely loyal and helpful). With many of them being extremely talented developers who create various work arounds and "plug-ins", which are modules built to enhance the performance of your websites. Best thing of all, most of these WordPress plugins are free!
5. Easy to make Search Engine friendly, without the need to learn code (html / php / css, unless you want to) via the use of plugins. And WordPress blogs are well liked by the search engines…
6. It is Web 2.0 friendly. Allows you to ping your blog (notify various blog services that your blog has been updated), and allows you for easy social bookmarking, rss subscription features and tagging by adding a few plug-ins.
7. They are interactive, with built in comment function where visitors can comment on your posts. You can also add WordPress plug-ins that allow you to poll your readers, allow your users to vote on content and even allow "guest writers" on your blogs by allowing them limited access to your admin panel.
8. Easy to add multimedia, via a few choice plug-ins that allow you to add your own flash videos or mp3s. You can also easily insert youtube videos, flickr images and more.
9. You can future post content. It allows you to pre-write posts / articles and schedule them to be posted at a later date. A very handy feature if you plan to take some time off yet have an active blog that "requires" you to post on a regular basis.
I’m sure there are more things that I could add to the list… but at least you can start to see why using WordPress as your content management is so important.
So, now that you know why I like it so much… you are ready for my posts on plug-ins and other products I use to enhance my sites.
By the way, if you are new to WordPress, or would like to get a more in-depth education on how WordPress works, I highly recommend Sherman Hu’s WordPress Tutorials.
[tags]wordpress, blogging, what is a blog, blog marketing, affiliate marketing, authority sites, social bookmarking, web 2.0[/tags]
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Good post Steven! How right you are! I love WordPress; it has a ton of uses. Even as just a CMS for regular websites.
Take care,
-Matt
Ive never realy been able to get into the whole web log web 2.0 thing. I tried, back in the early blogger.com days but just couldn’t stick with it! I know im missing out, I you have convinced me to re-visit blogs! Ive heard you can get some great plug ins for wordpress too!
Yes, WordPress has some phenomenal plug-ins available. I will be discussing some of these in a future post. I’m glad to hear I have convinced you to take a second look at blogs. :)
I keep thinking I want to “graduate” to a CMS, but then I look at what Drupal, phpNuke, Mambo and Joomla offer, and I always think I’d be a fool to migrate. WP is perfect, especially for a one man site. Big community, lots of ways to extend functionality, and active development of the platform, ala linux. WP is only going to get better.
Thanks for your comment.
I tend to agree with you. Although I am considering the use of Joomla on a site that I plan to launch in the new year.
But, I love WP so perhaps I’ll just keep using it as the front end for the new site as well.
And I agree, WP is going to be better. P
/Steven
I run a popular travel web site for California – that is packed full of 20 yrs worth of ever-changing outdoor data. Shopped for CMS package – for years, as web 2.0 surfaced; Ended up rebuilding half of my site in WordPress & couldn’t be happier. 3000 post, pages & pictures strong!