Is Wordpress the best platform to build a blog / site?

[fastlanedoll]

I want to use a blog as part of my marketing strategy, and then sell products directly on the site complete with checkout etc. space for collecting emails etc.

Is it best to use Wordpress for this purpose?

Given that I don't know any code, I will hire someone to code it for me.

Thank you!

 

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[TheKingOfMadrid]

With WordPress you get a highly tuned platform that is as hands-off as possible whilst still supplying you with a wealth of plugins for payment, translation (if/when you expand into new markets), customer relations etc.

But the best thing about it is that you can easily hire writers to create posts for you and upload them to your website quickly and efficiently allowing you to focus on the areas you shine best. You can also pass these easy-to-run platforms off to community managers/brand owners later on if you choose to start another business.

Unsolicited advice;

Do you have a marketing strategy? Have you ever written a blog for 6+ months? Are you aware of the digital marketing needs for getting traffic, keeping engagement and then ultimately converting your reader base into sales? Do you know how long it takes before you start indexing and gaining traction?

Are you a good writer? Do you like to write? Can you do copy? Can you build a community?

These are the questions that are useful to ask yourself when you start this route as it will shape the rest of your journey. Really this part of the planning is the difference between the blogs that now lie dead online and those that thrived.

 

[Kid]

I want to use a blog as part of my marketing strategy, and then sell products directly on the site complete with checkout etc. space for collecting emails etc.

Is it best to use Wordpress for this purpose?

Given that I don't know any code, I will hire someone to code it for me.

Thank you!

Its best for your scenario.

Also i would restrain from paying someone to do it (unless its $100 or so).
Most of things on wordpress boil down to 1) searching for theme or plugin 2) clicking Install. Done.

 

[SEBASTlAN]

Yes.

 

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[alexkuzmov]

I want to use a blog as part of my marketing strategy, and then sell products directly on the site complete with checkout etc. space for collecting emails etc.

Is it best to use Wordpress for this purpose?

Given that I don't know any code, I will hire someone to code it for me.

Thank you!

Yup, since you will be starting out, wordpress is best.

 

[Johnny boy]

A blog should be like number 5 or lower down on the list of your marketing channels. It's not 2005 anymore.

Who is your audience and niche and what is your long term goal?

 

[Deleted78083]

Its best for your scenario.

Also i would restrain from paying someone to do it (unless its $100 or so).
Most of things on wordpress boil down to 1) searching for theme or plugin 2) clicking Install. Done.

You also need to click on "activate" : P

Yes, wordpress is the perfect platform for blogging. It is easy to learn and cheap to run.

 

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[fastlanedoll]

With WordPress you get a highly tuned platform that is as hands-off as possible whilst still supplying you with a wealth of plugins for payment, translation (if/when you expand into new markets), customer relations etc.

But the best thing about it is that you can easily hire writers to create posts for you and upload them to your website quickly and efficiently allowing you to focus on the areas you shine best. You can also pass these easy-to-run platforms off to community managers/brand owners later on if you choose to start another business.

Unsolicited advice;

Do you have a marketing strategy? Have you ever written a blog for 6+ months? Are you aware of the digital marketing needs for getting traffic, keeping engagement and then ultimately converting your reader base into sales? Do you know how long it takes before you start indexing and gaining traction?

Are you a good writer? Do you like to write? Can you do copy? Can you build a community?

These are the questions that are useful to ask yourself when you start this route as it will shape the rest of your journey. Really this part of the planning is the difference between the blogs that now lie dead online and those that thrived.

Regarding the unsolicited part, it is mostly.'no'

But I guess it is part of the learning process. I will need to do it to learn.

Though I would really appreciate some tips!

 

[fastlanedoll]

A blog should be like number 5 or lower down on the list of your marketing channels. It's not 2005 anymore.

Who is your audience and niche and what is your long term goal?

Health / beauty

I will also market through a Youtube channel.

I want to build an audience / consumer confidence first through providing free information, then sell.

 

[Deleted78083]

Health / beauty

I will also market through a Youtube channel.

I want to build an audience / consumer confidence first through providing free information, then sell.

Among bloggers and people that wish making a living writing online, a lot of them say to expand the platforms where you produce free content. As such, many go on Quora to answer questions people have, others publish on Linkedin (the future of social media according to me), others publish on Fb, Twitter, etc.

If you write a blog, try to republish on as many platforms as possible (Quora, Linkedin, Medium, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc) and then see which one works best, and focus on it.

I would guess Instagram would be a good start for your niche, but don't just take my advice, test it.

 

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[Martin.G]

I use WordPress in all of my projects. It's easy, free, and you have tons of plugins to do almost everything you want. Also, if you need something special you can program it by yourself or hire someone.

For example, in the case you want to sell something WordPress has a rally good plugin to create an e-commerce in seconds with WooCommerce. Maybe if it is a big store with thousands of product are betters CMS like Magento or Prestashop, but according to what you write you should be fine with WordPress.

 

[Johnny boy]

Health / beauty

I will also market through a Youtube channel.

I want to build an audience / consumer confidence first through providing free information, then sell.

You think women that buy beauty products are out reading blog posts? Post to tik tok and pay influencers for sponsored posts.

 

[Mutant]

Health / beauty

That is an insanely big niche. Even ignoring the health side (which is the bigger category) and just looking at beauty, there's a world of difference between building an audience of (for example):

a) Teens and MUA community who want a cheap & fun way to try out new make-up trends for whom cross-posting your tik toks to instagram, & using youtube influencers would far outweigh any blog posts.

b) The hyper-educated consumer/skintellectual community who would absolutely read a lengthy blog post about a particular aspect of skin care, but would probably find you through youtube, insta, tik tok or even reddit first. Or yes, through google, but it will take time for your views on niacinamide to rank highly. You probably shouldn't think of it as your first line of attack.

c) The affluent middle-aged & older crowd that spend on injectables & status labels. Yes you need a high-end website, & some (less in-depth than the prior niche) articles to rank for key words. But you need instagram even more, & quite possibly a more traditional pr campaign to lend credibility. Also podcasts (believe it or not!) - you can make guest appearances to build profile.

Basically you need to know who - very specifically - you want to market to, to know what they want & how to reach them.

So. Let's try that question again:

Who is your audience and niche and what is your long term goal?

 

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[Tom H.]

For simplicity's sake, I understand everyone saying "yes".

In reality, WordPress is not that simple and is kind of a mess, but since you can hire $5/hr devs to wade into the dumpster, then who cares?

I like Hugo, it is a million times simpler in theory, but there is definitely less support and more demand for technical ability when setting it up.

With a static site generator, like Hugo, you will never worry about a server crashing, backing up a database, crashing your site or bringing it to a crawl with a bad plugin, updating WordPress versions, updating Apache/PHP/MySQL, etc. You can host the entire site extremely cheaply on a CDN for speed and security.

Just offering a different perspective so you know what's out there. Of course, it's easier for newbies and especially non technical people to just use the standard solution, even if the standard solution is terrible from a developer perspective.

 

[Xeon]

You think women that buy beauty products are out reading blog posts? Post to tik tok and pay influencers for sponsored posts.

She better have a big money war chest ready if she wants to go down this route. The content approach is a safer way without throwing $$$ in the dark on products which no one will buy due to no one hearing of your brand (especially with ultra-saturated makeup niche). TT influencers are probably not gonna work well unless they can demonstrate in their 25 second TT video how the product removes pimples instantly for good once applied (aka "cure for cancer" metaphor), in which case, that will go viral and she'll make bank.
This approach will also give her time to "feel out" her eventual audience while building traction, and then sell products to that audience.

Private/white label makeup products is already not cheap + TT influencers fees. Also, many of those TT popular folks with more than 100K followers won't even reply.

With the content approach, she can do:

Content/blog-post/generate steady traffic monthly -> get email subscribers -> subtly sell products through email. Probably budget $250 - $350 monthly for content writing for her niche and another $200 - $400+ every 2 - 3 months for SEO work to be done for the site. Assuming content is good and niche, eventually sites like PopSugar or Buzzfeed will mention it on their site which will drive even more traffic, authority and social proof.

All these while building an audience on social media (TT/IG/Pinterest) as secondary additional streams of traffic. TT will eventually go the way of IG : dead organic reach. Shitty algorithm that always ends up with "run ads on our platforms to even get any reach".

For simplicity's sake, I understand everyone saying "yes".

In reality, WordPress is not that simple and is kind of a mess, but since you can hire $5/hr devs to wade into the dumpster, then who cares?

I like Hugo, it is a million times simpler in theory, but there is definitely less support and more demand for technical ability when setting it up.

With a static site generator, like Hugo, you will never worry about a server crashing, backing up a database, crashing your site or bringing it to a crawl with a bad plugin, updating WordPress versions, updating Apache/PHP/MySQL, etc. You can host the entire site extremely cheaply on a CDN for speed and security.

Just offering a different perspective so you know what's out there. Of course, it's easier for newbies and especially non technical people to just use the standard solution, even if the standard solution is terrible from a developer perspective.

I checked out Hugo official website, I see this:

Quick start

Learn to create a Hugo site in minutes.

gohugo.io

and I close the browser window......

Might be easier to program Linux kernel from scratch.....

 

[fastlanedoll]

She better have a big money war chest ready if she wants to go down this route. The content approach is a safer way without throwing $$$ in the dark on products which no one will buy due to no one hearing of your brand (especially with ultra-saturated makeup niche). TT influencers are probably not gonna work well unless they can demonstrate in their 25 second TT video how the product removes pimples instantly for good once applied (aka "cure for cancer" metaphor), in which case, that will go viral and she'll make bank.
This approach will also give her time to "feel out" her eventual audience while building traction, and then sell products to that audience.

Private/white label makeup products is already not cheap + TT influencers fees. Also, many of those TT popular folks with more than 100K followers won't even reply.

With the content approach, she can do:

Content/blog-post/generate steady traffic monthly -> get email subscribers -> subtly sell products through email. Probably budget $250 - $350 monthly for content writing for her niche and another $200 - $400+ every 2 - 3 months for SEO work to be done for the site. Assuming content is good and niche, eventually sites like PopSugar or Buzzfeed will mention it on their site which will drive even more traffic, authority and social proof.

All these while building an audience on social media (TT/IG/Pinterest) as secondary additional streams of traffic. TT will eventually go the way of IG : dead organic reach. Shitty algorithm that always ends up with "run ads on our platforms to even get any reach".




I checked out Hugo official website, I see this:

Quick start

Learn to create a Hugo site in minutes.

gohugo.io

and I close the browser window......

Might be easier to program Linux kernel from scratch.....

You def have good points and what I was thinking is very similar to what you wrote.
I never even thought of the influencer route, at least at first, exactly because I don't wanna spend $$$$$ on something that may not even sell.

I was thinking, if I have good content on my blog + youtube, I would make money off that anyway, even if the product doesn't sell.

Any way to 'get' PopSugar or Buzzfeed to notice?

I've seen gigs on fiverr where people claim they have 'connections' that can get your name into big magazines.

 

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[Raja]

Hey @fastlanedoll ,

Ignore the product for a while, build audience now which will enable future you to sell the product without breaking the bank.

Atleast it will be a good testing ground for your products.


If you want quick buck you could always do affiliates and sponsored posts.

 

[Tourmaline]

Best? idk

Wordpress is designed for blogs.

Are there plenty of other platforms? Sure.

If you have capital, I'd look elsewhere. If you want something easy, WP is a fine choice.

I am not a fan of Wordpress due to its massive insecurity. Getting hacked is not uncommon.

 

[Xeon]

Any way to 'get' PopSugar or Buzzfeed to notice?

I've seen gigs on fiverr where people claim they have 'connections' that can get your name into big magazines.

If I know, I wouldn't be posting here lol

I don't trust the fiverr crap, but I believe once you have a decent site with lots of quality content, eventually PopSugar or Buzzfeed will include you in one of their articles.
They sometimes do articles like "15 up and coming makeup kits" etc and if you're lucky, you might be one of those included. I've seen them do list type articles of small etsy shops.

You can also try submitting your site to them. I remember seeing some folks on Upwork who are guest writers for these sites so you can probably try that direction. But all these are a bit too early IMO. Get the site up first fast with WordPress (ready fire aim), get steady traffic, then adjust and optimize the rest later.

Install wordpress and use a theme like Astra free Starter Themes where the site is entirely built for you. Then if you need any customization, you can find a developer on Upwork to do that. Way cheaper and faster than building the whole site from scratch.

 

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[sfarieri]

I want to use a blog as part of my marketing strategy, and then sell products directly on the site complete with checkout etc. space for collecting emails etc.

Is it best to use Wordpress for this purpose?

Given that I don't know any code, I will hire someone to code it for me.

Thank you!

I like WordPress using Elementor plugin or WIX. It allows me to build the site myself.

 

[Tom H.]

I checked out Hugo official website, I see this:

Quick start

Learn to create a Hugo site in minutes.

gohugo.io

and I close the browser window......

Might be easier to program Linux kernel from scratch.....

In reality it's much simpler than installing Apache, modPHP, MySQL, WordPress and configuring it all.

Of course, hosting providers install WP for you. Likewise, you can hire any halfway intelligent programmer to setup Hugo and a user friendly admin like NetlifyCMS.

But yes, @Xeon you're point is absolutely correct, WordPress, as outdated and riddled with problems as it is, has a lot of support and years and years of people working to make it friendly for beginners.

 

[Johnny boy]

She better have a big money war chest ready if she wants to go down this route. The content approach is a safer way without throwing $$$ in the dark on products which no one will buy due to no one hearing of your brand (especially with ultra-saturated makeup niche). TT influencers are probably not gonna work well unless they can demonstrate in their 25 second TT video how the product removes pimples instantly for good once applied (aka "cure for cancer" metaphor), in which case, that will go viral and she'll make bank.
This approach will also give her time to "feel out" her eventual audience while building traction, and then sell products to that audience.

Private/white label makeup products is already not cheap + TT influencers fees. Also, many of those TT popular folks with more than 100K followers won't even reply.

With the content approach, she can do:

Content/blog-post/generate steady traffic monthly -> get email subscribers -> subtly sell products through email. Probably budget $250 - $350 monthly for content writing for her niche and another $200 - $400+ every 2 - 3 months for SEO work to be done for the site. Assuming content is good and niche, eventually sites like PopSugar or Buzzfeed will mention it on their site which will drive even more traffic, authority and social proof.

All these while building an audience on social media (TT/IG/Pinterest) as secondary additional streams of traffic. TT will eventually go the way of IG : dead organic reach. Shitty algorithm that always ends up with "run ads on our platforms to even get any reach".




I checked out Hugo official website, I see this:

Quick start

Learn to create a Hugo site in minutes.

gohugo.io

and I close the browser window......

Might be easier to program Linux kernel from scratch.....

Every platform will "go dead" but it's about getting in front of people when the attention is underpriced.

I haven't read a blog article in forever. Everyone is spending their time looking at tik toks, IG reels, etc.

You can't sell shit without eyeballs.

My advice is to do everything and then triple down on what actually brings you results.

And right now, paying small-ish accounts $20 a post is what I would bet my money on. You don't need a lot of cash, have you even paid for sponsored posts because I have experience with that and so do my friends, it works. The real "best answer" is "make awesome content everyone engages with and build a massive audience" but the variable is the content. I say do everything.

 

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[Xeon]

Every platform will "go dead" but it's about getting in front of people when the attention is underpriced.

I haven't read a blog article in forever. Everyone is spending their time looking at tik toks, IG reels, etc.

You can't sell shit without eyeballs.

My advice is to do everything and then triple down on what actually brings you results.

And right now, paying small-ish accounts $20 a post is what I would bet my money on. You don't need a lot of cash, have you even paid for sponsored posts because I have experience with that and so do my friends, it works. The real "best answer" is "make awesome content everyone engages with and build a massive audience" but the variable is the content. I say do everything.

So your idea is to pay smaller TT accounts and get them to do a shoutout/link in bio to drive traffic to the site?
I've done it with IG niche pages, but not TT. On TT, everyone is furiously consuming addictive content one vid after the other, it seems kinda hard for viewers to stop, then click onto some link to go to the external site.

How much did you spend on TT influencers when releasing new products to get it out in front of the viewers? I'm curious to know what's the conversion rate like.