How would you build an authority site if you didn't know HTML?

Hi Sara,

I am just curious as to why you don't think Wordpress is suitable to use to build an authority site. In my opinion Wordpress is great for this purpose. I have a lot of sites with masses of content built with Wordpress. Just wondering what your reasons for saying this are?

Thanks
Lynette

From what I have been reading, WP is one of the most search engine friendly CMS out there. I switched a lot of my sites over to it, but when I need something more versatile, I use Joomla. With Joomla, I can have fresh articles show up on the front page, or not. I can have 6 categories which get new articles each day and only the ones I choose show up on the front page. With the add-ons, I can ping the blog-pingging sites, and do most, if not anything else WP does and more.

WP is by far an easier learning curve, but Joomla can do almost anything.

I have toyed with Droople back in its earlier days, but I hear it is quite a product today with a similar learning curve to WP. Easy and it has multiple blogs already setup.

The key to an 'authority' site is not the CMS but how you structure the content, the quality of it, and the backlinking. Its position in the SERPS is dependant on these plus the usual SEO factors (domain name & age, frequency of update, title tags, etc etc).

I've used both Drupal and WP and I find WP to be easier, with far more readily available plugins than Drupal and an easier learning curve.

However, for anyone with either the technical capability (or the funds to outsource), Drupal or Joomla are very robust solutions.

Kind Regards

Steve

Hi sarah,

Why not write a how to with the knowledge you have that will walk people through the process
-WD

Sara, here is the site I am working on that I built with Wordpress. I didn't put too much effort into design/graphic (yet) but gives you an idea you can create something official looking with Wordpress and the right plugins / themes installed.

One of my blogs

What Stevie B. said!

Take it from someone who learned the hard way. I know HTML and other languages and while I'm glad I learned them, my time would've been better spent creating content and marketing and promoting that content. It's real easy to get caught up trying to handle everything and you end up being much less productive that way. WordPress provides you with a quick, solution and with so many themes, and flexible structural options, you should have no problem creating an authority site. My .02 cents.

Tim

P.S. - and speaking of money, WP is free. Learning HTML, while a valuable skill, will cost you in terms of your time spent.

try WP_009. It's a great theme, totally customizable. Changing the color is a bit tricky, but it is a really good theme to build an authority site.

Just knowing HTML wont be enough to build an authority site. You will need to know CSS and javascript on top of that. Its definitely easy to learn but can be quite time consuming.

Moving onto Wordpress, it can be said that with the right theme, plugin, colors and some modifications an authority site can be built. It would require a bit of testing to see what works the best.

By the way Joomla and Drupal can also be very handy. Even they have developed quite well over time and can be considered an option.

HTML is not all that hard. If you can post on a forum, you can learn HTML in a ...flash... no pun intended. Lol.
These two resources for learning it are the best I know of:
Webmonkey: the Web Developers Resource
HTML Tutorial
and a good CSS forum when you run into problems you need a quick answer to:
Killersites.com Web Design Forums

With that said... nothing wrong with WP except the continual updates and security holes in plug-ins. To me, WP is NOT a set and forget CMS. There are ways to secure WP. James from richjerk.net has a hand coded security tool that is probably as secure as any. WP is much easier to update content on a regular basis and even has plug-ins that you can 'fill up' that will drip content for you at set intervals so vacation isn't a problem. Google is said to 'love' WP (though I don't think they 'love' anything/one) but a quick check of the 1st page results in most places shows they have nothing against HTML sites.

(Learning HTML & CSS will never hurt you and will allow you to do things in WP others that do not know these things cannot do, as well.) It is sort of like learning how to change a tire... you don't need to know to drive, but there are times it helps.

If you go WP, PM Avenue girl for her affiliate link to Headway, a theme much like Thesis in SEO capability and a little easier to figure out. (And much easier to put a header on).

Hey you can always check out BoogieJack.com HTML and CSS Tutorials that is where I learned some 10 yrs ago
-WD

Wordpress is entirely scaleable and has a ton of free plugins for every conceivable use.

Anyone can make a huge site using it, and then build up authority, without knowing anything about html.

Showing them how to build an authority site is nothing to do with the platform for me, it is about time and knowledge.

Sara,
My take on this is that you should use WP. Since anybody can learn/master WP real fast, then that is the best way to go.

If you are teaching others to use it, all you have to do is take snapshots of the different stages it will take from setup to running with it. I teach people how to use WP and it doesn't take more than few hours to get going. I just trained a newbie two days ago and he was very excited about the possibilities WP offer.

I don't know if Caroline Middlesbrook , (did I get that?) is it offering her Niche Wordpress Ebook, if she is, you should take a look at it and see how simple it will be to teach anybody WP. if you can't get it, maybe you should PM me and I will forward it to you.

I also use Joomla and though it looks very easy to use, a beginner may not be able to figure it out pretty soon.

All the best Sara

Hi Sara,

I agree with most of the answers above.
WordPress IS the way to go. Not only is the
WP back office easy to use, but WP also
offers good SEO when setup properly. You
can make it look like a static HTML website if
your trainees don't like the idea of their sites
looking like a blog.

Like you, I know HTML, PHP, Javascript etc...
Heck, I even have my own private code to
slowly build HTML sites automatically, but I
still use WP for much of my work. Why make
life complicated?

HTH

Glenn

Yes Glenn. All things being equal, I can create 10 WP blogs in a day, maybe even more with enough time on my hands

Just finsih creating one for a niche I just discovered.

About.com uses Wordpress (or they did when I was writing a user blog a couple of years ago). I'd say they're a good authority site.

Suzanne

Ok. I think I see a pattern here...

Sara,

Wordpress Users Club you mean?

Wordpress is definitely a great solution for creating different sites for different purposes. Even if you can't find a particular theme to fit your needs, you can still outsource the creation of a custom theme rather inexpensively on here.

As for wanting to create an authority site, you will need to spend a great deal of time building deep links to your site's inner pages as well as posting unique quality content to other relevant sites.

There are a few resources available that walk through the process of creating an authority site and actually show you which sites you should be networking with to build up your authority. If you want to do the work yourself, pm me and I'll send you the links... otherwise I would suggest outsourcing the workload.

i think you are wrong.

You might also want to look into a CMS like drupal, but honestly, WP is easier and way more flexible...and i have not seen ONE use where WP couldn't do it. I can make "simple" sales pages with WP or a ultra-complex CMS and i dont see any limits whatsoever doing this with WP.

Hey Sara ,
I just wanted to let you know that I have sent you a PM. I look forward to your reply when you have a few minutes.

Thanks,
Jason