Open Source Content Management

Hi Nick

Forgive my ignorance, but what is Wordpress Blog and how can it benefit my business/website?

Cheers
Denese
uNopopi Handmade Dolls

Hi Denese,

People usually choose between a static website, a forum or a blog when deciding to set up an online web property for their business.

A static site is a normal website. While this is very customizable from a layout point of view, it can be expensive to get a professional website designed. It is also a nuisance to update a static website with new information or articles, as you need to edit the HTML file or template and then upload it to your server with FTP software. Unless of course you're using a CMS (content management system) like Joomla, but then there is quite a steep learning curve to use it effectively.

A forum like this one is good if you want to engage your website's visitors in discussions. I'm sure Dylan will agree though, that maintaining a forum is hard work as you want your forum to look busy - its hard to get a forum going initially. You also need moderators, rules etc.

A blog is somewhat a mixture of both. You can update it anytime you wish with articles and new pages, and you can also allow your visitors to comment on what you've published to your blog. The nice thing about blogs is that it is really easy to update it and add new stuff, as you get a "dashboard" where you can easily manage your content. This is commonly referred to as a CMS, or content management system.

Wordpress is a type of blog. Blogger is another example of a type of blog.

The reason Wordpress is the popular choice for a blog platform, is because it is much more customizable, and there are countless themes and plugins that you can install on it to boost its performance and overall look.

Google also LOVES Wordpress blogs - the Search Engine Optimization of Wordpress blogs is set up just the way Google likes it, and of course Google also ranks sites higher if they are regularly updated with new info so a blog is good for that reason too - you want your site to appear high in the Google search results.

You can see an example of a professional-looking Wordpress blog here.

This blog is a Wordpress blog with a theme installed and various plugins which add functionality, performance, adverts, etc.

You can also have a look at my company website here, which is a more simple Wordpress blog with a simple theme and a few plugins installed. This is an example of what a simple company blog can look like, and it is easy and quick to update it and add content.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Nick Lotter

Thanks for the detailed explanation there.

To summarize:

Wordpress is a good option for a basic company website - a basic 5 page site. It's also great if you're publishing articles on your niche.

If you need a website with a diverse range of functionality I'd go for Joomla or Drupal.

If you're focusing only on ecommerce and want a robust solution, then Magento will be a good option.