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Using Wordpress for commercial business? (No coding experience)

JahvonCreamCone

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THIS

Some plugins will even hardcode absolute URLs into their datastores. Think about the absolute lack of experience with professional software development that implies, as it makes it impossible to have development and production servers - you have to either do everything live, or try to munge the data on-the-fly as it's being copied from dev to production. Then consider what that says about the quality of the plugin code. Dealing with wordpress-based sites often feels like working on a site created by the infamous "brilliant nephew", except now you have to deal with the accreted output of thousands of brilliant nephews.

I apply the "20 minute" rule. If you expect to ever spend more than 20 minutes on the internals of the site, then wordpress is likely a bad choice. I don't doubt it's great for throwing up a landing page in 5 minutes, the problem is when people inexperienced in how software works decide that it's a great tool for everything and anything.
Your recomendation then?
 
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mt_myke

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Since you asked me directly for a recommendation...

You see I have a bunch of pretty simple website ideas. One of which would be a website that displays pictures and descriptions of people's websites. An online directory basically.

So it has to get pics of the websites. How does that work? Are you manually uploading them, or will the site do it by itself if you give it the website name? Are you uploading/creating all the entries, or do people put in their own sites? How are they being charged? How much are they being charged? What are you using for payment processing? Will the charges be one-time or recurring? How often do you update the pic of the web site? What do you do if it's a content-heavy site that changes all the time?

Maybe not so simple after all...

I have no coding experience, but I hear that WordPress can be used to make most sites. But then I also hear that even though you use WordPress, I should hire a dev to build the Wordpress site for me. I simply cannot afford this.

My plan would be to learn WordPress, and create the site using pre-existing plug-ins and themes. All I want the site to basically do is show pictures of customer websites, give brief descriptions and take you to the site when the picture is clicked on. the site would require categories, and sign ups. It would also be a membership site.

To me this doesn't seem very difficult. Concerning the visual design most themes can cover that, but then again I'm not a programmer so I have no clue what this would require on the backend. My budget is honestly around $200 dollars. If I did this by myself, is it reasonable to expect to learn how to build a website within a month, and create the site in one month?

It sounds like you have no experience at all. If that's the case I'd get any kind of site up at this point, and see how it goes. There are already recommendations for site builders on there, wordpress.com does commercial wordpress hosting (there are many others as well). Look at them and pick a point to dive in. Give yourself two weeks and see how far you get. Adjust course from there. From what you've said, to me it looks like you have two main options: Learn how to do most of it yourself (this will take a lot longer than a month) or get additional money to hire people to do it.

Whether or not a website directory even makes any sense as a business is another topic but I won't get into that here.
 

LightHouse

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The three of you and anyone else considering a hosted SAAS platform like webs.com, weebly, wix, squarespace, etc... need to consider something very very important.

OWNERSHIP

The problem with these services is you do not own what you create. You are at the mercy of the parent company.

I do a lot of website migrations where folks get fed up with support or their fees get jacked sky high and owners want to move their sites, only to be told they can not and they have to re-invest to get a new site built on a platform they can own.

Sure it is fast and easy to get something up, but just as fast as you put it up, and invested time and money on it, things will change and you are shackled to their service whether you like it or not.

I would NOT recommend building a commercial or production site on any host like this if you plan to keep it long term. If you are just testing an idea or service and need something quick. good. If not, or if you move forward, get on your own software as soon as possible.


I use squarespace.com I built several sites: Building a new one at www.robotnik.com right now.
I found using Squarespace way easier than WP.


I had zero web building experience and researched the best builders for people like myself.

Weebly is what I ended up using. I created a fully functional eCommerce site in a few days of work.

Cost was minimal, if it's not an eCommerce site, then a basic business site with unlimited pages was ~$20 a month.

wordpress and wix were two other top choices.
If you do not have webdesign experience I would suggest 2 options

1) Use www.Weebly.com I have created a website over a weekend that looks real slick and I have no programming experience and its FREE (can upgrade to paid subscription if you need more advance features) Use drag & drop system, with hundreds of templates etc... They received PC MAGAZINE Editors Choice Award
 

Lex DeVille

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He didn't say using WordPress = not a business. He said, if you can download WordPress and you're in business, then it's probably not a very good idea. Right before that he said, "The harder it is to solve whatever problem you're seeking to solve, the better the opportunity."

The problem isn't with using WordPress. The issue is figuring out how to differentiate and solve hard problems for your customer. WordPress, just like money, is a tool for achieving a goal.

The value in a product/service doesn't come from how hard it was for you to build it. It comes in the form of the problem it solves for the customer. Usually that means hard work for the entrepreneur, which is why most people won't do it, but it doesn't mean the one who is willing to try shouldn't use useful tools when they're available.

Just my two cents.
 

Bossopolis

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I agree with "LightHouse" you probably will have scalability challenges IF you eventually grow to a high level with many business models,
but I think the BIGGER challenges for new entrepreneurs are :

1) They are on a tight budget and may not have the financial resources to setup a high level website
2) If they over-ANALyze everything and wait until the planets line-up they will never start their business

Another option for creating an eCommerce site that is more scalable and flexible is www.shopify.com

I think its for more important to JUST START then WHEN you grow to a high level you can transition everything accordingly.
Keep it lean and keep it mean at the beginning... I have started several businesses this way and would not do it any other way.

If you try to plan for every future problem / eventuality you will be stuck in "paralysis analysis".

JUST DO IT !


Peace.
 
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Bossopolis

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He didn't say using WordPress = not a business. He said, if you can download WordPress and you're in business, then it's probably not a very good idea. Right before that he said, "The harder it is to solve whatever problem you're seeking to solve, the better the opportunity."

The problem isn't with using WordPress. The issue is figuring out how to differentiate and solve hard problems for your customer. WordPress, just like money, is a tool for achieving a goal.

The value in a product/service doesn't come from how hard it was for you to build it. It comes in the form of the problem it solves for the customer. Usually that means hard work for the entrepreneur, which is why most people won't do it, but it doesn't mean the one who is willing to try shouldn't use useful tools when they're available.

Just my two cents.

Yes, Its in the value you provide. I know some people using Wordpress and are making 6 figures... But you should be prepared to work VERY hard, not give up, create a mastermind group, learn, grow, etc...

If a tool helps you add value and helps you sell more product then use it.

Peace
 
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LightHouse

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I should clarify, I was speaking only on hosted solutions. If wordpress serves your buisness need, then it is an excellent tool.
 

mt_myke

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I know some people using Wordpress and are making 6 figures

It also depends on the nature of your business. If you're using wordpress as only a landing page and focusing your efforts on marketing and having an awesome unique product then your web site is a small part of your business and could, worst case, even be re-created from scratch if need be. If you have a business where the web site IS your product/service then you have an entirely different scenario on your hands.
 
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