Chances are that if you’ve done any research on building a website, you’ve heard of WordPress.
WordPress began as simple blogging software and gained popularity for “online journals” and hobby bloggers. Many people, especially business owners didn’t take it seriously.
But then it began to grow. Entrepreneurs realized they could easily launch a new website and edit the content, add images, and maintain the site themselves – something they had never been able to do before.
As WordPress grew, so did the features and content management system capabilities. Soon business owners began turning to WordPress as their first choice for software to power their websites.
Unfortunately, WordPress often has a hard time shaking the “just for hobby bloggers” stigma it became known for several years ago.
If fact, even with its quick rise to popularity and adoption by media companies and business around the world, you still hear things like:
All of these statements are false. If your WordPress consultant or web designer has said any of these things, I encourage you to do homework yourself.
If you can imagine it, it can be done with WordPress. Existing WordPress themes (templates) can be altered and changed in almost any way you want. With a custom theme, like those we build at Bourn Creative, you start from scratch so there are no design limitations. WordPress doesn’t limit the possibilities of design and code. If anything, it adds to the possibilities.
You can design, create, and build any type of site you want with WordPress – it all boils down to how much you want to invest in your website.
You can get started for free at WordPress.com and for only $18 per year, use your own domain name (All-in-one solution, no hosting needed, limited control.)
You can purchase a premium off-the-shelf theme for about $25-$75 and get started with WordPress.org. These themes can be customized to fit your needs. (WordPress is installed in your hosting account and you maintain total control.)
You can hire a professional to design and build a custom one-off WordPress theme specific for your brand and business. The investment varies based on experience and project specifications. (WordPress is installed in your hosting account and you maintain total control.)
WordPress gained popularity because website owners no longer had to rely on designers, programmers, and webmasters to make changes and updates to their website – and because designers, programmers, and webmasters no longer had to be bothered with requests for minor content changes.
It also caught the eye of those in the search engine optimization (SEO) industries because blog posts were beginning to outrank traditional websites pages, small businesses and entrepreneurs were able to compete on equal ground with the “big guys,” and content marketing was on the rise.
With WordPress, businesses can:
Many content management system elitists look down their nose at WordPress because it is open source, but as for the claim that WordPress is only for basic sites — here are just a few of the high-profile, not-so-basic sites that are powered by WordPress:
As the fastest growing content management system on the web and the most popular blogging software, there is a huge community of amazingly talented designers and developers who are improving WordPress each day.
If you want to learn more about how a custom WordPress website can benefit your business and build your brand online, please contact me at www.bourncreative.com.
If you want to meet and network with other WordPress users and learn more about WordPress, check out the Sacramento WordPress Meetup Group. Meetings at the third Tuesday of every month at HackerLab.
© 2022 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated January 1, 2021) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated July 1, 2022). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American City Business Journals.
