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WordPress is free.
I saw an article recently listing 10 free web site building tools.
Most of them take a while to figure out.
They won’t all let you do what you want to do.
None were expandable to your own site if you ever wanted to take the next step, from “free” to “owning your own”.
The biggest cost is time.
The biggest cost is time.
How long does it take you to learn how to work it and make it do what you want it to do?
How much is it going to frustrate you and make you figure out how to do something simple?
In my experience with WordPress, and I’m coming at this from a developer point of view, it’s much easier and intuitive to learn to use WordPress than with any other platform out there.
When I build a site for a client using WordPress, it’s much easier to train them and get them up to speed on WordPress than other systems that I’ve tried.
The Real, Hard Costs
Let’s look at the cost it would take to put a WordPress site on your own server and run it for a year.
Domain name is $10. Don’t pay more than that for a domain name.
Hosting packages can be had for less than $80 a year.
Call the whole thing $100 for a year of hosting your own site.
If you use a good host, they would have an auto install version of WordPress. Click, click, bang. It’s set up.
Play with a theme. Spend too much time looking on line for a theme. Download, install.
Play with plug ins. Download, install.
Write a few posts. Create a few pages. Change the layout a bit.
Call it 8 hours total, from start to having your own blog on line, working, with your own theme and content.
You have added the plug-ins that you wanted, the theme that you wanted, the layout, the content, the menu.
All of it is exactly what you want.
The Price Of Choice
The cost in time is really because you have TOO MANY options.
If you can be satisfied with what comes out of the box, then a WordPress site can be set up in 20 minutes.
Other Free Hosting Options
Compare that to another free host.
Set up is quick and easy. Pick a theme. There are only 20.
Write a post. Change the layout? No. Can’t do that.
Put the menu on the other side? No. Can’t do that.
You want to post video? No. Can’t do that either.
Podcast? Special functionality? Nope. None of that.
The Cost Of Free
You’ve spent the same 8 hours trying to do stuff and not being able to that you would have on WordPress.
The other free host is $100 cheaper and maybe that’s the difference for you.
It doesn’t look quite like you want it to and it doesn’t have quite the right functionality.
It’s harder to use and takes longer to post than WordPress.
If it takes 3 minutes longer and you make 20 posts, that’s an hour.
How many posts in a year?
Time Is Money
This reminds me of the difference between Windows and a Mac.
The Mac costs a bit more to start, but lasts twice a long, lets you work twice as fast, and makes it easier to do anything you want.
Which is a better deal?
How much is your time worth?
How much money do you have?
It’s all up to you, but if you have $100 to spend on a web site for a year, spend it on building a WordPress site.
You’ll thank me at the end of the year.
Special Offer
This page has gotten so much traffic that I’ve just added this offer.
Want Me To Set Up WordPress For You?
FOR FREE?
Doing the WordPress installation and set up can be a bit tricky, especially for people who are not technically inclined.
I get an affiliate fee from my web hosting company for every person I refer to them.
If you use the special link I provide below, which contains my affiliate code so they can pay me, I’m willing to do the complete WordPress installation for you, for free.
Get Web Hosting
They are charging $3.88 a month for hosting as I write this.
(That price could change, so check it out yourself.)
They have a 30 day money back guarantee.
I’ll Set It Up For You
I’ll install whatever theme and plugins that you want.
I have a list of plugins that I always install for my clients.
I’ll walk you through any configuration settings that you want and show you how to make it do what you want it to do.
I’ve done so many WordPress installations, it’s fast and easy for me.
I make a few bucks from PowWeb and I make another WordPress fan.
You get good, cheap web hosting for your own web site, with none of the technical hassle.
How cool is that?
NO OBLIGATION NOW
CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE INFO:
http://www.powweb.com/?AffID=577083
After you click on that link and set up your hosting account, send me an email using my normal “contact us” page, and tell me that you want me to install WordPress for you.
As long as you use that link, you can buy the web hosting any time within the next 6 months and I’ll get the commission.
If you have any questions, please drop me an email and ask.
Looking forward to helping you get your web site set up.
I stumbled this way, and you offer some insightful info, thanks, just what I needed. I’m a digital artist and definitely not foreign to code but I haven’t the foggiest idea on creating my own website. I’ve wanted to build one for some time, not sure even how to go about it but I’ll eventually figure it out.
can’t believe you deleted my comment?
Great article, it reminded me of one I wrote a while back called Can You Put Up a Web Site for Less Than $100?. I’ll definitely be pointing people to this piece. Thanks. Chris
@Genevieve – It took me a while to approve your comment. I didn’t delete it. As a token of my appreciation for your comment, I linked to your new site in a later post. Thanks!
@Chris – It looks like you and I have similar interests. I’ll be checking out your site.
Mr. Walton,
It is true, what you say. I have tried Drupal, Joomla, and a couple of “Site Builder” scripts, but by far the easiest and most powerful, single point platform for web development is WordPress.
I started over at WordPress.com, but I found their security measures too limiting. I signed up with Bluehost.com ($71.00 a year with domain registration and unlimited space and bandwidth — highly recommended), and I fired up six different WordPress blogs.
I would, however recommend fiddling with WordPress-MU if you’re thinking of hosting several blogs on multiple subdomains. I wish I had tried it beforehand. I may still migrate to WordPress-MU, but the learning curve is a little steeper.
All in all, I would have to agree with you. WordPress is powerful, flexible, expandable, and a cinch to use once you figure out its quirks.
Consider yourself linked.
Scott E. LeeÄôs last blog post..FLASH: Vicki Schneider has dropped out of the Mayoral Race
@ Scott – Thanks for the kind words. I haven’t looked at WP-MU yet, but perhaps I shall.
What are you running for over at http://vote.scottelee.com/ ? Local politics is always fun. I also own and run http://www.elsegundo.net
Sorry it took me so long to respond, I had a meltdown over at my site. A “friend” of mine thought he was playing with my local copy of my blog, when in fact he was hot online through an FTP.
He wiped my local directories AND the server directories. I lost EVERYTHING. Luckily, there’s a WP plugin WP-DBManager that can be configured to email a copy of the MySQL DB in a .gz file. Saved my life! I’m in the process of rebuilding at the moment.
But to answer your question, I am running regular WP 2.7.1 (Update just came out today) on seven subdomains. Seven almost identical installs. I would have used the WP-MU, but I still don’t know it well enough to go live with it. It looks awesome though.
As for plugins, I run the usual: Akismet, Expanding Text, Extended Options, Google XML Sitemaps, Smart Youtube, Statpress, WordPress.com Stats, WP-Ban, WP-DBManager, and WP-UserOnline. Those are the always active ones. I also have the Maintenance Mode plugin on hot standby for those times I want to tinker with the theme. Oh, my fave theme right now is googlechrome. Clean, easy to tinker with, and it’s really quite good right out of the box.
Scott E. LeeÄôs last blog post..Oh yes, weÄôre back Ķ sort of
Several of us recommend WordPress to build ALL business websites, not just those people are thinking of using as blogs (though I DO recommend blogging from each of them). I have 47 URLs but only TWO real web addresses… the others are “parked” on the top two and I use subdirectories for the others, each with a different installation of WordPress. That way I don’t have to worry about ONE database handling everything, or themes that aren’t compatible, or WMU, etc. Takes a bit longer to backup each site because of the redundant WP code, but when I want to spin off one of my sites, all the code is self-sufficient. But long-live WordPress… great product and Google loves it too!
Best,
Charles Seymour Jr
http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads
Success-Marketing Work At HomeÄôs last blog post..Marketing Lessons From American Idol – Adam Lambert vs Kris Allen
Dude, it’s hard to take you seriously about web design when your text rolls over your background image.
Normally, I’d say Each to his own, but in this case, it makes for a seriously annoying read.
Just because you *can* do it doesn’t mean you *should.*
Please reconsider.
Ouch! You are exactly right. I got carried away with what I could do and not what I should do, which I’ve been arguing with other designers about for literally years.
I changed it to a solid background for now. I’ve been thinking about a redesign, but have been busy with clients. Maybe now is the time.
Thank you for pointing out my obvious hypocrisy and stupidity. I hang my head.
I am totally new to this. I have just purchased a domain name. Is my next steps to find a host, get a wordpress account, then download a theme? Will that get me going or am I missing something?
Your help is highly appreciated!
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How can anyone take advice from anyone that thinks that Macs last longer or are faster than PCs?????
If you use a Mac, you paid $1000 too much for a computer. You’re probably using Adobe’s Suite which is the same app on both machines. Although a cheap PC is faster than the best Mac.
You Mac fan boys are just sheep.
haha exactly what i thought, anyone with computer knowledge knows that statements is false. However, ive heard good things about wordpress which is what bought me to this article, thanks for the correct info.
I’m no fan of Apple in general but even I have to admit that Macs generally provide a better environment for coding. It’s much easier to get things like Ruby, Node.js, etc set up on a Mac than it is on a Windows machine. I don’t know about Linux but Macs have better code editors available too. So I’d only ever buy a Macbook (not the Mac Pros – too overpriced) for coding. My Windows machine is my go-to machine for everything else including general stuff, design and gaming.
Thanks, Conrad.
Re multi site set up, remember that to run MS (was MU) i.e Multi site, hosting costs would go up to at least $30/ mnth as the ‘entry’ level shared hosting packages that go for about $8 /mnth won’t effectively support WordPress multi site (or any large scale CMS deployment for that matter)
WordPress is an awesome CMS with a massive user support system. Joomla and Drupal, done them both and they have an incredibly steep learning curve. And you have to keep doing it all the time or relearn it all over.
Margaret recently posted..Make Your WordPress Website Search Engine Friendly
I’ve done everything bass/ ackwards. Constructed 2 websites on my IMAC 10.7.6…then found out i will lose stuff transfering ftp to another host besides Mobile Me.( From reading your blog i suspect you are a MAC fan) Bought Elegant Themes on wordpress and Registered On Gator HOst. Wish i had caught you on line before, because i am now wondering how to get his whole thing up on WordPress. I’m not a “techie”. Obvious i’ll bet. So i feel like i’ve been playing ” SNakes and Ladders” and i’m on the skids. Any ideas??????
Good post.
After doing website development for 10 years in the traditional way, I switched about 4 years ago to developing only WordPress websites for my clients. They love it because they have the power to make additions or changes on their own, without having to pay a developer extra.
I’ve even written an ebook guide for small businesses wanting to create or redesign a business website in WordPress.
If any of you are thinking about building a website, I highly recommend WordPress.
Patrick recently posted..What Is WordPress?
Hi Conrad….I still get people from your site, ALL the time, thanks to this article. lol
So you will design the website too? Or will u just help install and give an analysis of word press
I do design and build websites, except I’m taking a break right now. Sorry.
Just thought I’d say that I definitely agree with your assessment of WordPress. I spent years on FreeWebs (now Webs.com), and their layouts were annoying and impossible to alter. Now I design my own websites, but when it comes to offering my services to others, WordPress is a great asset. It’s the most straightforward CMS I’ve found. I can easily see how it will work for a variety of customers and I know that the great number of options keeps it from going stale. I also love that I can use their own PHP system (“The Loop”) to run blog posts in an existing non-WP layout.