5 reasons why I choose to use WordPress

If you’re reading and researching Why WordPress - you’ll probably see many articles focus on three words - Free, Simple & Easy. These words tell you nothing about WordPress and so I started writing this to help you decide to choose WordPress.

I started using WordPress in 2003 and I still have my hosted account London.WordPress.com. I switched to self-hosted in 2009.

For me, I’ve chosen WordPress because

1. WordPress is something I use everyday
2. I recommend WordPress to clients and friends
3. WordPress integrates in a social media marketing strategy
4. WordPress can morph from a blog to a website or a CMS
5. Getting started is hassle-free

WordPress is right to use everyday

WordPress, it’s mobile app, plugins and 3rd party tools are improving - this makes WordPress something I enjoy using every day. I do mean every day of the week. If you’re current solution is more like an albatross around your neck. Then its time for a change.

I recommend WordPress

In considering any number of web content management systems and web-builder tools, the one I use everyday has to also be the one I’d recommend to friends. I know what it’s like to buy a product and realise that you got the Beta and not the VHS brand.

I can honestly recommend WordPress as I installed and tested a number of CMS solutions from Drupal to Dolphin - before I stuck with WordPress. I recommend WordPress because

• It scales from a blog to website
• It integrates into any social media marketing strategy
• It has a large number of extensions, plugins & themes
• I use it everyday 🙂

WordPress integrates into a social media marketing strategy

Actually, for me, WordPress can be the heart of your social media marketing strategy. It is easy to find plugins or extension which allow you to

• Post articles direct to Facebook, Twitter
• Enable sign-up for an email marketing lists
• Share content to 100’s of social networks
• Easily subscribe to RSS Feeds
• Turn WordPress into your own community and social network.
• Ingest or import content from other social media sites like Flickr, Delicious, YouTube and Slideshare
• Track and analyse your social media marketing

WordPress can morph from a Blog to Website to CMS

WordPress has evolved from just another blogging tool … out of the box you have can create static pages and sticky articles - you can also categorise and tag articles any which way you like.

Newer WordPress features (and WooThemes like I use) also have something called custom post types - these are additional content types which can be used to create new categories and content management options.

Getting Started is Hassle Free

You can get started with WordPress right now - incredibly. Using WordPress.com you can have your own WordPress blog or website up and running in about 5 mins. This is sometimes called WordPress hosted

This gives you a hassle free approach to trying out WordPress … if you’re looking to install and use the self-hosted WordPress solution — then many Hosting Providers like Evohosting have free tools to install WordPress.

While many web tools and content management systems can also claim to be easy or hassle free — you’d struggle to demo or trial many of them without first having to learn to install them.

Have you started to use WordPress — or still deciding? Need more help? Then get in contact.

Meet the author

Damien Saunders
An experienced management consultant and business leader interested in digital transformation, product centred design and scaled agile. If I'm not writing about living with UCTD (an autoimmune disease), I'm probably listening to music, reading a book or learning more about wine.