What’s It All About, WordPress?

Though I try to avoid technical issues here, I feel that business owners in general, and web business owners in particular benefit from seeing the context of important technical tools.

The most important tool in my business is WordPress. I know that there are many other tools for developing websites, but experience tells me to consider WordPress first, and only consider other options if the planning stage reveals a level of complexity beyond the capabilities of WordPress.

Prompted by a message from a client today, I realized that the context of WordPress is important to business owners looking for new or improved websites. You can only get the best tools for your business if you are aware of their existence. Though you might direct those tools by hiring appropriate professionals, you need a broad understanding to avoid your technicians directing you. Of course, if you are a one man band, you have no choice about learning – but approach the project with your management hat on at this stage.

The message I received (from an email to my client) was:

I also wanted to ask you about your site and Shrewdies.net — what you use for WordPress. Are you able to use this yourself, or is this a developer tool? I’m looking to update my website and am searching for the best solution…

My answer is below. As this business owner already has a website, I’ve mentioned her domain specifically. In the de-personalised version below, you should change the ‘[shrewdies]‘ to whatever is appropriate to you.

I’m Keith, and I run shrewdies.net as a technical advice site for business owners who want to use the Internet wholly or partly to promote, or even run, their business. I also run shrewdies.com to focus more on business and marketing principles and best practice. I have to say that both these sites are under-developed at the moment as I am busy on other web business building projects. Eventually they will provide all the support that someone in your position needs to either build their own website, or understand the critical issues so they can direct other people to build websites that contribute to profits, not drain them.

WordPress can be used as a development tool, but it is primarily aimed at people with little, or no, technical skill. If you can use a word-processor, you can use WordPress. You can access it in two ways, both free.

1. Open a free account at WordPress.com. This is a great way to see if WordPress suits you, and it is very easy to use. You create a blog with any name that has not already been used, so you might be able to claim [shrewdies] which would give you an extra website at [shrewdies].wordpress.com. You can play around with the features to see if it suits you. The time will not be wasted if you generate a few clicks to your existing website. If it suits you, you can consider the next option …
2. Download the free software from WordPress.org, and install it on your own webserver at [shrewdies].com. Installation is a little technical, but very easy, though you will need a plan for migrating your existing pages to the new format.

The beauty of WordPress is the massive user base which generates loads of free help and support. If your time is tight, you can find many WordPress developers and installers and most of them charge reasonable rates because the software is easy to work with (though very powerful in the right hands).

You can certainly ask any questions you need at shrewdies.com, or shrewdies.net. Please do not worry too much about using the ‘right’ shrewdies site. Unfortunately, I’m busy with projects at least until the end of 2011, so I cannot offer private help in person, or by email, but I am more than happy to answer any questions you like on my websites. Please just add comments wherever you like – I will be adding proper discussion features soon.

I’m going to move the discussion to a new site early in 2011, as most of my visitors are sole traders who have to cover both management and technical issues when running websites (as I do). I still think though, even if you have to do everything, you should plan with a management hat on, and think strategically before you get stuck into the technicalities. This is particularly important where you have to service your customers as well. You must limit your time on technical issues to a reasonable amount, otherwise you end up with a great website, generating lots of new customers, but no time to deal with them .

Tags: WordPress