Own site vs wordpress

35 replies
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What are the biggest advantages with wordpress?

Everyone seems to use it so it must be good but when I checked it out a while ago it just annoyed me. I always build websites from scratch, and that's okay for my personal site and if I'm making someone a custom solution. But I want to try some new things, affiliate marketing or adsense sites. For these I would probably use wordpress as it will be a lot quicker. But why do you lot enjoy using it?
#site #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
    Yes WP can be most annoying. I too would rather build em from scratch and in fact I still do all my markup in Visual Studio then just cut & paste it to the WP pages. The main advantages for me is that WP has a world of functionality that I don't have to code and debug. Plus plugins and themes that I don't have to create. There also a ton of SEO features that WP and some of it's plugins such as Headspace 2 just handles almost automatically if you are planning on driving traffic from Google.
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    • Profile picture of the author burton247
      Yeah, the SEO plugins you can get do seem great. I will take time to learn wordpress soon I think. I just get annoyed when I want to do something but have to jump through hoops to do it. Once I get used to it hopefully it will all be quite simple.
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      • Profile picture of the author sylviad
        WP does have limitations for those of us who have built our own sites from scratch. I've used FrontPage for over 10 years and tried to apply certain design elements to WP, only to discover that you can't. Not without paying someone to design a theme for you. That's what I was told, anyway.

        Other than those limitations, I've come to really like WP. You can set up a site quickly and have content displayed in half a day. With the click of a button, you can announce it to the bookmarking sites and ping sites.

        I like that when I post something, it's automatically pinged. Any marketing beyond that is at my own discretion. At least it's not sitting there until I get around to it because of the pinging capability.

        And as time passes increasingly better plug-ins are being created which make so many SEO issues a snap.

        In comparison to WP, building from scratch can take significantly more time that I can best be using to add content and market the site. The more sites you have, the more you come to appreciate this speed and simplicity.

        Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author waitstate
    It's awesome at getting indexed. You can build and handover a site to a client and they are then able to make small changes/updates without having to resort to expensive help (and from my point of view those fiddly little changes aren't really cost-effective anyway...particularly with custom sites...most of the time expended goes into trying to remember what the hell you did; and it's MUCH worse if you weren't the original programmer). Content; the wordpress 'engine'; and look are all separated (if built right). If you want a totally different look, just throw a new theme in there.
    (have a play with the 'View Different Themes' dropdown at my test site Codeimplode to see what I mean).
    Finally, there's a free plugin for almost any normal site extension you can think of. Forum; survey; mailing list; forms; member site; whatever. Just throw a plugin at it.

    It's mass-producing sites really. But it works.
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  • Profile picture of the author magnexor
    I personally love Wordpress. It is quick and easy to set up, and the plugins are excellent. It takes away the hassle of creating your own blogging system or even content management system (with some plugins).

    I also like to code my own websites from scratch, so I learned to develop Wordpress themes. I learned from a tutorial (I'm not sure where) how to make the barebones of a Wordpress theme, and now I just fill in all my HTML and CSS around the Wordpress sections. If any of you like I will share my "template" for that (just a few code files required for a Wordpress theme).
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    • Profile picture of the author burton247
      This is why I will give it a proper go, everyone loves it, even those who are used to developing sites themselves.

      @magnexor
      That sounds like a good idea, if you are willing to share that would be great. Is your tech blog done in this way? I was just looking for an example of what you have done with wordpress.

      Also, as for the auto pinging - is this a built in wordpress feature or a plugin?

      Cheers for sharing your experiences people
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      • Profile picture of the author magnexor
        @burton247
        Ok, I attached the template in a zipped file. I put quick comments in each file to tell what it did, but I would be happy to provide more detailed explanations if anyone needs them.
        It is just a bunch of PHP files with the necessary Wordpress codes already there. And yes, it is what I used for my tech blog. I know it's not the best - I haven't yet figured out how to make valid Wordpress code, nor am I a very good designer for the appearance.
        I hope this helps!
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        • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
          Originally Posted by magnexor View Post

          Ok, I attached the template in a zipped file. [...]
          It is just a bunch of PHP files with the necessary Wordpress codes already there.
          Probably, useful for a lot of people... however, I'd update that code in the PHP files to something closer to the WP 3.x.x. version/theme.

          The code snippets are from the pre-3 default theme (aka Kubrick) - WP has changed a lot since then.
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          • Profile picture of the author burton247
            Thanks a lot! I'll take a look at it.

            @Istvan
            I will take a look and see if I can update it if magnexor doesn't have time. If I manage to do it I'll post it back up if that's okay with magnexor, of course I'll say you were the original writer and I only updated it. If you have time to update then that would be good too

            Thanks for your help once again.
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            • Profile picture of the author magnexor
              Thanks! It didn't even occur to me that it may be out of date...I've been using it more than a year. If I get time I'll look at it but anyone else is free to modify it.
              I'm not sure whether I can take credit for it since I learned it from a tutorial and then adapted and embellished it to template-form. If I could find the tutorial I would credit the author but I can't. I'll probably work on creating an entirely new (up-to-date) template with valid Wordpress code in the near future though, and I'll upload that one too unless someone beats me to it.
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          • Profile picture of the author magnexor
            @burton247

            In case you're still interested, I rebuilt the Wordpress template entirely with up-to-date code and completely valid HTML5. Sorry it took me so long - I didn't really have any time until today. I've attached it. I hope it helps somebody...
            Feel free to edit and modify it any way you please - this time it's all by me so I don't have to credit any unknown bloggers
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  • Profile picture of the author Revolves
    I use WordPress for a lot of things, and I like it. However, it's not good in every case. WordPress' SEO features are exaggerated almost every time. WordPress' output is, after all, an HTML document. Of course, WordPress plugins can make SEO convenient, but it can be an overkill if you're just creating a niche site having 5 pages. You can easily optimize by hand.

    Let's say you're creating a bunch of Adsense or other niche sites. You could create sites from a custom HTML niche template. Having a lot of sites in one hosting account won't put much of a load compared to the PHP driven WordPress sites. Also, it's easier to create a clean HTML template from scratch than hack another WordPress theme. Also, it's a hell lot easier to transfer a static site than a database driven site.

    Now, the main problem with the traditional HTML approach is that you have to do a lot of manual work. Adding your articles to the HTML pages, updating the navigation on each page etc. However, a lot of static site generators have popped up on the internet. They're useful for circumstances where a full blown CMS is an overkill.

    So, even though WordPress is great, static HTML can still be a great option. It depends on the situation.

    -Revolves
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    • Profile picture of the author burton247
      Cheers for your input. My site is actually dynamic at the moment and all hand coded (except for the fancy effects) I have a backend I log into and can create, edit and move blog posts as well as edit other content on my site. At the moment I have to write it all in HTML, need to get tinyMCE integrated but at the moment it is fine. I have a PHP paging script I wrote to do the blog navigation and each blog post automatically creates a link to a separate page with just that post on (so I can rank each page I want to); this includes individual meta data for each post. Want to set up an autoping feature now. Still need some nice permalinks or something as all the URLs are ugly.

      So basically I built/building myself a CMS. Overkill? yes, but it's just a tech blog + portfolio so I thought I'd do the hard work myself

      But as everyone rates WP so much I thought I should learn it
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    • Profile picture of the author jamesg3
      Wordpress is an awesome base CMS system. It does super with SEO and GA results. It is very easy to use and does not rely upon your knowledge of html to use it properly. It has a easy to use UI and is very straight forward. Html and css rely upon you using an ftp client and a editor like notepadd++ to make changes and if you accidentally delete a bracket or something else you can mess up the site and have to spend anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours trying to find your mistakes. With worpress you dont have that. Alos, I beg to differ with anyone who says wordpress is limited. I would ask them to go to my site and see all of the wonderful things wordpress can do very easily. it serious website design dot com. I can show you that anything you ccan do with html and css I can do with wordpress easier and quicker.
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  • Profile picture of the author BobLanchastero
    Now, the main issue with the traditional HTML approach is that you need to do plenty of manual work. Adding your articles to the HTML pages, updating the navigation on each page etc. However, plenty of static site generators have popped up on the world wide web. They are useful for circumstances where a full blown CMS is an overkill.
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  • Profile picture of the author BobLanchastero
    I will take time to learn wordpress soon I think. I get irritated when I need to do something but must jump through hoops to do it. Two times I get used to it hopefully it will all be simple.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daave
    I used Wordpress as I was creating a site for the first time and I had heard that it is easier to do it in Wordpress. Rest I think there are many other good option then the Wordpress.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shirlyn
    The features and function of working with Wordiness is just simply awesome and easy to build and run with any application.
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  • Profile picture of the author rauff007
    Banned
    Wordpress is the greatest blogging platform till date. This statement is admitted by the top bloggers of the world
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  • Profile picture of the author puedall
    To be honest I love both.So I build my site with wordpress blog.
    It is good to own your blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anithaseo
    wordpress is the best and easy accessible one
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  • Profile picture of the author Vincent1988
    Wordpress because it's SERP optimized
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    • Profile picture of the author awebforyou
      As a programmer who makes custom sites I also prefer to have full control and not use wordpress

      but I do wish I could use the seo plugins
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      • Profile picture of the author h0ms
        I use both WP and a custom built website builder.

        I only use WP to get a site up an running in a few moments and as soon as i find the time, I redo it with our own site builder.

        I also wonder why a WP install with about 5 plugins is around 20Mb.
        I prefer our own site builder as I find WP slugish to work with and often find myself frustrated having to do 7 steps in WP while I can do the same in 2 with our own software.

        Updating WP sometimes has it's drawbacks aswell.

        Getting help for anything WP related is easy though.
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      • Profile picture of the author h0ms
        I use both WP and a custom built website builder.

        I only use WP to get a site up an running in a few moments and as soon as i find the time, I redo it with our own site builder.

        I also wonder why a WP install with about 5 plugins is around 20Mb.
        I prefer our own site builder as I find WP slugish to work with and often find myself frustrated having to do 7 steps in WP while I can do the same in 2 with our own software.

        Updating WP sometimes has it's drawbacks aswell.

        Getting help for anything WP related is easy though.
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  • Profile picture of the author darkhugs
    WordPress is useful.
    comfortable, more up to date, provides a wide area, treatyed with Bing, offended with google, there are good agents bla bla bla ) but very good wordpress. I recommend...
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  • Profile picture of the author ehsan6sha
    Wordpress has a pool of plug-ins. You can almost any plugin you want and you can do anything you want without knowing any programming just by installing a plug-in!
    SEO, auto content generating, auto blog submission and .... !! Isn't it cool enough?
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  • Profile picture of the author johnsander1
    As far as blogging is concerned Word Press is the best platform because it is seo friendly its all plug ins are good for seo point of view.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daave
      Wordpress is used to create blogs whereas the other one is of different nature...........
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  • Profile picture of the author beck13
    - wp is great for beginners and advanced experts
    - massive amount of free quality plugins designed by users
    - very open source
    - huge community, which is great when you need help
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewKlyO
    I have come to really like WP. You can create your site quickly and have the content that appears in half a day. With the click of a button you can announce to the bookmarking sites and sites of ping. I like that when I publish something, it will automatically ping. Any marketing beyond what is at my discretion. At least not sitting there until I have time because of the ability to ping.
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  • Profile picture of the author GaryVan
    I love to build my sites from scratch and add a wp for content as a page link, this seems to work for me. When I build my site from scratch I use graphics from my own graphic membership site imdoodlebee.com , and a free web software called BlueVoda. I created the graphic library just for the IM who love to build their own pages but have neither the time or skill to do it. check it out if you like, I give warriors a special rate. contact me on liquidmoon21@gmail.com
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  • Profile picture of the author jasjotbains
    Wordpress is a boon for people like me who have zero knowledge of coding,yet i have managed to create 2 websites for myself The best thing about wordpress is:
    1.You can select the theme to your choice,and change them too
    2.Even if you dont know much coding,you can still create a good website.
    3.The ease of use and availability of different plug-ins is a real boon.
    4.A vast network of people to guide you if something goes wrong !!
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Barrett
    If you are not keen on Wordpress and want to try out try some new things such as affiliate marketing or adsense sites then I would suggest using website design software. XSitePro as it has features built in for monetizing your site especially through these methods so I think its the kind of thing you are looking for!
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  • Profile picture of the author mr141wp
    The biggest advantage of using WordPress is that It is fast to set up a website using the WordPress and there are thousands of available extension that you can use to achieve different functionality.

    You can create a simple blog to complex and high visitors website on WordPress. It can be easily backed up and transferred to a new host without much pain as long as you are little technical.

    In brief, a good blogging and web experience with WordPress
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