Why do I use the WordPress blogging platform?

Is the WordPress blogging platform right for you?

There are many blogging platforms that you can use. Here are ten of the most popular ones on the market.

1. Tumblr
2. Blogger
3. Posterous
4. LiveJournal
5. Penzu
6. ExpressionEngine (EE)
7. Joomla
8. Drupal
9. WordPress
10. MovableType

Follow this link to appstorm’s blog post – The 10 Best Blogging Platform. They have done a great job of quickly and succinctly giving the lowdown for each one plus there are lots of posts from others giving useful advice and suggestions.

So why do I use the WordPress blogging platform?

WordPress has become a favourite amongst many web developers to produce small to medium sized blogs and websites for their clients. I know many technical people who, although they may use other blogging platforms, see WordPress as the de facto solution.

What are the arguments for using the WordPress blogging platform?

SEO friendly – Google loves the way that a WordPress site is put together so as long as your coding is clean and the structure is tight the search robots are going to find you. It also means they will manage to crawl through and collect all the information they need to list your blog because it has a clean and clear pathway to all your content.

Content Management System (CMS) – I still know people who are unable to update their site easily due the lack of CMS or a very poor CMS. The issue here is that the Google search algorithm is looking for 3 major criteria within your site – relevant content, good quality links and activity. You can end up paying someone a lot of money to update your site properly, which is fine if you are making lots of money from your site, but unsustainable if you are not. WordPress makes it pretty easy to update your site as long as you are willing to learn a few fundementals about adding content to your blog or website. Oh and there is a bit of technical jargon to get your head around. (There will be a post about this later)

Help and assistance – because WordPress has become so popular there is tons of information on the WordPress website and forums and as my nephew would say if I have a problem ‘Have you ‘YouTubed’ it?’ There are thousands of tutorials on how to do stuff on WordPress. Warning: Sometimes people can advise you to do things that could damage your site – do some research rather than taking action on a random comment on a forum.

Linking to Social Media – many themes have this built in or there are plug-ins (Mini applications which allow you to add functionality to your blog) which will help. I will be talking about social media in other posts. It is a must have if you wish to gain visibility and credibility and be seen as outstanding in your field!

Easy to use – easy to install, easy to upgrade. easy to manage & easy to import a blog from another blogging platform.

I could go on but I think you already get the picture. I suppose you could say I am a raving fan of WordPress and until I hear otherwise that is where I will stay for the moment.

Please fill in any gaps – I am only going on my experience so your comments on why you like WordPress, or another blogging platform, are important.

Note: I use both www.wordpress.com and www.wordpress.org for blogging and websites. WordPress.com will host your blog and WordPress.org is self hosted. If you want to earn income from your blog then WordPress.org self hosted is a must. Many people start with WordPress.com as a blogging platform to learn the ropes and then migrate.

If you have a question please leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it.