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WordPress is USELESS...

jpanarra

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If you don't know what you're doing!

Hey, JP here!

Let's talk about Wordpress, I've done a number of things with Wordpress and it can be a formidable marketing weapon if used properly!

We have Fox’s Thread here about the benefits of HTML/CSS pages and making it into a viable business by selling them to other people. Also, there is the major pro for having a single theme that can’t be tracked down and you can use it again and again. Which is a fantastic read and gets you a good insight on how to SELL a website.

Another input from one of Andy Black's brilliant insight buried somewhere in this forum about why a website sucks. You shouldn’t be thinking about a website if you don’t have a business or some sort of success that you can really reflect on and put on the web. I’m a former victim of this, I’ve built a number of WordPress sites just to make a ‘business’ or attempt to have a ‘blog’ that just falls through because I didn’t maintain it or keep a close eye on it. Thankfully, this led to my skills on WordPress being useful and marketable.

So my suggestion is if you already have a business and it doesn’t rely on a digital presence, you should go ahead with a static HTML/CSS site by grabbing a theme off Themeforest and going with a solid google Adwords campaign. You'll get much more out of it than trying to pay those website builder sites that rob your bank at like 50$ a month. From my experience building, a website with HTML/CSS is much easier than to do it with those buildrs and wordpress given some time to learn the languages.

However, there are many things that WordPress can do that basic HTML/CSS websites can’t do. And that’s what I plan on going into with this thread.

Building a website on WordPress might be much more time consuming than an HTML/CSS, but it’ll be dynamic and updatable. Wordpress should be high up on your list if you're thinking about e-commerce, portfolios, blogs, multi-user applications, security, and so much more.

And what can make all of those things happen is the MASSIVE NUMBER OF PLUGINS! They will help your business in the long run if you know what you’re looking for and how to use them. Since Wordpress is an open source software, there are a HUGE number of plugins and support systems to boot that can help you market your website. I’ll go over a few big ones that I tend to use on the sites I've sold.

Jetpack – One of the default plugins that is directly linked with WordPress, and it’ll prompt you to download and activate it. It’s a massive asset and it's an all-in-one system that includes a number of tools ranging from analytics, tools and different themes.


Google XML Sitemap – Awesome tool that will let Google and other search engine crawl around and see how the site is set up allowing the search engine find your stuff easier which will give you a better chance of grabbing spots on the search engines.

Lead In – Want to know who's looking at your website, the plugin will track people that are coming back to the site and you’ll be able to see what they are clicking on and maybe understand what they’re trying to find. So you can rearrange or make the system easier for them allowing for more conversions


Wordpress SEO by Yoast – One of my number 1 go to’s, SEO is still viable today and this tool will make sure that you’re paying attention to the right keywords before you start writing to hit better spots on the search engine.

Google Analytics by Yoast- These people are awesome, I know we already have Jetpack for analytical data but nothing beats the king (google). You can track the performance and how it’s doing on google directly from the dashboard to interpret the data you’re seeing and trying to convert it to clients.


OptinMonster- Trying to build an email list, this is the plugin you need. It’ll help you make an easy form for visitors to sign up and directly send it to a list on Aweber, mail chimp, and I’m sure much more. (also can have pop-up templates to force people to sign up)

Monster Insights – Another traffic monitoring plugin that can help you understand where most of your traffic is coming from. Nice and easy to use, highly recommended for WordPress beginners.


There are tons more that I’ve used in the past, but I think those are the most critical ones that can be applied instantly for results. I'll dig through more of my notes and update as i go along if I find other tools or systems that help me and my clients!

Keep in mind, a perfect website without a good marketing campaign is like a dull knife. I would still suggest you polish up on Google AdWords and SEO to make sure that you’re putting yourselves in the best position. There are tons of threads on here about those stuff from @Andy Black
 
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mjamesrich

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Thanks, @jpanarra, for starting this thread! I (usually) love working in WordPress.

One thing to realize about WordPress sites vs straight HTML/CSS/Javascript is that WordPress sites have a larger attack area for would-be site crackers.

Fortunately, this *is* WordPress we're talking about, so there's a great security plug-in you can use to help with this. And it's free, too!

It's called Wordfence and it's extremely easy to use and easy to setup. And, unlike several other plug-ins I've used, Wordfence has never broken one of my WordPress sites. After you've used WordPress for a while, you'll know how amazing that really is.

I had no idea how often my sites were targets of someone's attack until I started using Wordfence. Truly eye opening.

The other thing you'll want to do when setting up WordPress is to name your admin account something other than 'admin'. That's one of the first things most attackers try when trying to hack into your site.

I actually have my Wordfence setup to immediately block any IP address that tries to log in with a user name of 'admin'. Very handy.

Anyway, WordPress is great, I use it on all my websites (and my wife's sites). There are a ton of plug-ins available to make your life easier that can be installed with the click of your mouse. But I would never run any of my sites without Wordfence. It's a total life saver!

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
 

Loffinds

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Wordpress gets a bad rep online, and it is understandably so in some cases --- but it's almost 100% dependent on the developer / site creator whether or not it turns into a slow, unsecure website which many turn out to be.

I personally don't build Wordpress sites but I've worked on many before and I think a key is sticking with a minimal amount of plugins and straying away from random third party plugins/themes without good reviews or social proof of other people using it. The plugins you list are perfect and I honestly wouldn't suggest anyone to install any others unless you had a unique use case for it (eg, Advanced Custom Fields or something).

The one thing is, Wordpress tends to attract 'web developers' that don't know the inner workings of what they are doing. So drag and drop theme builders tend to get fat and slow, and security holes open up because the developer doesn't really know why he would block brute force attempts or change his 'admin' name.

Anyways, Wordpress is fantastic. It's opened the web up for so many people, and we have a lot of great websites because of it. Just be smart, as with any public facing product/business - you are always vulnerable to being attacked , just be prepared!
 

InspireHD

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Beginner question - how do you go from a free template to creating your own Wordpress theme that is integrated with Wordpress? How do you go from nothing to an HTML/CSS design in Wordpress?

I have a blog that I've been barely doing anything on, but have been wanting to redesign it on my own.
 
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TonyStark

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I for one, am switching to creating my own HTML/CSS website because they look and feel better. Wordpress has always loaded slow and felt clunky.
 

ReubenA

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Understand what WordPress is good for and you'll be fine. If you're building a brochure site, blog, or small eCommerce site (WooCommerce) you'll be okay

The problems happen when people start trying to twist WP into something it's not. Don't build a SaaS on it. Don't build anything that requires much custom coding on it.. the more you try to deviate from a blog/brochure site the more friction you'll feel and the bigger the chance of your business failing for tech reasons. The reason WooCommerce works okay is they've totally sidestepped most of the way WP is built, just for the sake of having it integrated

Genesis themes tend to be pretty decent. A lot of what's on Themeforest is a load of shit from a coding standpoint. As mentioned above, WordPress tends to attract developers who don't know much of what they're doing
 

jpanarra

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It's called Wordfence and it's extremely easy to use and easy to setup. And, unlike several other plug-ins I've used, Wordfence has never broken one of my WordPress sites. After you've used WordPress for a while, you'll know how amazing that really is.

Yeah, wordfence isn't the only security plugin out there but its a good one for sure especially with its caching capabilities which helps your website speed up. The one I tend to use is Bulletproof security, its quicker to set up and I feel like covers more bases but both are really good and if you're comfortable with wordfence stick with it.

Wordpress gets a bad rep online, and it is understandably so in some cases --- but it's almost 100% dependent on the developer / site creator whether or not it turns into a slow, insecure website which many turn out to be.

100% this, WordPress is so flexible and especially if you know PHP and how to build websites with PHP. You should be using WordPress and utilizing all of the things that come with it.

Beginner question - how do you go from a free template to creating your own Wordpress theme that is integrated with Wordpress? How do you go from nothing to an HTML/CSS design in Wordpress?

I have a blog that I've been barely doing anything on but have been wanting to redesign it on my own.

Anything that's worthwhile is not free. I usually pay up to 60 dollars per WordPress theme that i feel like that will save my time and edit it. WordPress and HTML/CSS are two completely different animals. WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System) which is written out of mostly PHP and is incredibly easy to install if you're using a good hosting provider. My advice to you would be to go to ThemeForest and find a theme that suits your vision.
I for one, am switching to creating my own HTML/CSS website because they look and feel better. Wordpress has always loaded slow and felt clunky.

Depends on what theme you've used in the past also, you probably didn't cache the site, which stores data temporarily, including all of your javascript and PHP files and really cuts down on the load of the website on the server when the browser is trying to recall the site. I've also had other issues with the server end of things and it doesn't have to be the site itself.

Here's a good free plugin for caching a WordPress site- WP super cache which is easy to install and adjust ( great for beginners) and good for small to medium websites.

Understand what WordPress is good for and you'll be fine. If you're building a brochure site, blog, or small eCommerce site (WooCommerce) you'll be okay

The problems happen when people start trying to twist WP into something it's not. Don't build a SaaS on it. Don't build anything that requires much custom coding on it.. the more you try to deviate from a blog/brochure site the more friction you'll feel and the bigger the chance of your business failing for tech reasons. The reason WooCommerce works okay is they've totally sidestepped most of the way WP is built, just for the sake of having it integrated

@ReubenA I'm going to disagree with you here. Wordpress is a Content Management System, you have to understand how the system works and program it accordingly so all of the pieces fit so it can run smoothly just like any other OS or program. There are some MASSIVE websites that run WordPress, but the difference has they had good developers build the websites and optimize it to their needs. They range from big box retail stores like Best Buy and large companies like Xerox. Your comment about SaaS doesn't make sense. Only because WordPress THRIVES on Saas... all of the plugins I'm speaking of they're all different forms of SaaS, some of them free some of them paid. Once again, its just a content management system some people pay for a custom written content management system to run their SAAS which is not cost effective because WordPress is FREE and very flexible.
 
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ReubenA

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@ReubenA I'm going to disagree with you here. Wordpress is a Content Management System, you have to understand how the system works and program it accordingly so all of the pieces fit so it can run smoothly just like any other OS or program. There are some MASSIVE websites that run WordPress, but the difference has they had good developers build the websites and optimize it to their needs. They range from big box retail stores like Best Buy and large companies like Xerox. Your comment about SaaS doesn't make sense. Only because WordPress THRIVES on Saas... all of the plugins I'm speaking of they're all different forms of SaaS, some of them free some of them paid. Once again, its just a content management system some people pay for a custom written content management system to run their SAAS which is not cost effective because WordPress is FREE and very flexible.

BestBuy uses WordPress to power their blog and basic content sites (brochure-type sites, which is what I meant). Xerox uses WordPress to power their blog.

Target also uses it (for their b log)
UPS uses it (for their blog)
Sony uses it (for their blog)

If you tried to build Quora, Yahoo Answers, Reddit, OptinMonster, TheFastLaneForum, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram on WP you're setting yourself up for failure and/or huge headaches.

It's great for blogs and simpler content sites, bad choice for anything more custom.
 

jpanarra

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If you tried to build Quora, Yahoo Answers, Reddit, OptinMonster, TheFastLaneForum, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram on WP you're setting yourself up for failure and/or huge headaches.

It's great for blogs and simpler content sites, bad choice for anything more custom.

I would agree with you to a certain extent, I would say it the easiest way to do a blog and something that can be easily updated on a regular basis. It can be put under a heavy load if you know how to dig around and rewrite some of the PHP code if needed.

The some of the examples you put forth are HUGE websites that need people constantly maintaining them. Yahoo has been around for so long that they have their own query language that they use. Yet they still use a PHP format paired with a SQL Database. Some of them use Python, Java, C and even C++ all paired with some sort of SQL database. I know FLF uses XenForo which I've worked with in the past which is another packed box of PHP code established to be a content management system paired with an SQL. Which is similar to how WordPress operates, as a prepackaged PHP file with a SQL database. It's a GREAT place to start understanding how the documents are managed and are well powerful enough to handle a number of issues. Along with a community all around it and if you want to get your hands dirty, there will be a good amount of support and people that understand the system.

Most of the business ventures I've seen on here don't even need a website outside of WordPress's capabilities. I'm not trying to sell Wordpress as a Silicon Valley Treasure Trove because it's not. My point is, WordPress should be the first choice if you're doing a business and expanding to be successful on the digital marketing front.

Only if you're expecting something MASSIVE and expecting traffic well above 1 million views daily with multiuser features you should consider hiring a team of programmers even if you are a programmer yourself to build a standalone website that can handle that kind of load and meet your client's needs but at the same time you would need a fully staffed tech team to monitor and take care of tons of things in the back end as the website is running. Which is not what I'm trying to share about on here.
 
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truesouth

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Good post.

If you need to have a WP website running soon, do yourself the favor of using GeneratePress theme with Elementor. You will not regret.
 

KSR

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Just be careful when installing plugins, don't clutter your site with ones you don't use (it'll slow your site -- more to load) and the same goes for themes. For those who want to run an e-Commerce WP site, the best and most used plugin is called WooCommerce and is actively used by millions of businesses globally.
 

jpanarra

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I know I gave a lot of praise to plugins and things that can enhance your website. However, you have to make sure to research and validate that the plugin going in is a solid and proven plugin.

I’ve seen people upload a number of plugins and not thinking about it until one of the plugins break, they can take your entire site down. Make sure that you check the ratings, go on the wordpress.org plugin page and review all the different types of plugins and read the comments and be prepared for which problems that might come along with it.

Another way to validate the plugin is to check on who made it, if they have a deep history of other plugins and uploaded with positive reviews, the higher chance that their plugin will work as advertised and wont break your website.
 

Napoolion

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I have built over 80 wordpress sites at least.

So, some takeaways:
- Don't go the easiest way of downloading a plugin for everything, try to make it work without plugin first if it is possible.
- Elegant Themes Divi theme is a life saver and you can create a lot of landing pages / websites fast and easy.
- You still need to learn HTML/CSS and some jquery to customize your site. I have used the CSS the most.
- Speed can be an issue (especially with woocommerce). Cache the shit out of your server and site. WpRocket is one of the best caching plugins out there and you can easily get loading speed under 1 second. I also use cloudflare and maxcdn to load assets/scripts from the nearest server to visitors.
- Use a backup system (Backupbuddy has served me well)
- Premium plugins and themes are usually worth their money. If you can't afford, there might be people in fiverr who have a developer license and are okay to install some themes and software to your site. Otherwise do not ever download a plugin or theme from torrent site. Never!
 

Martinv678

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Wordpress does suck if you don't know what you're doing. I look at coding like playing Piano, anyone can play chopsticks but it takes years to be a concert pianist. Same with coding it takes years and years to get really great and understand what works / what doesn't. I've created hundreds of Wordpress sites and majority of the time the client says they want a back end but then asks you when they want changes.

Unless you're going to stick with one theme your whole life, you're going to spend a lot of time learning how to use the theme.

One great thing which is mentioned above is the great plugins which save time but that's the only reason you'd ever use it. HTML/CSS/Javascript sites are more secure because they are only the front end... there's nothing really to hack. So hence why Wordpress sites would be hacked because they hold valuable data.

Wordpress is okay, but more and more people are moving away. I would use it for small clients but for big companies would create my own backend as an update in plugin or Wordpress can bring your whole site down for no reason. This can also expose security issues which you may not know about. The plugin's listed above are some of the better ones... I just think if you're installing other peoples code all the time, who really knows what they are taking.
 
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Imgal

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I've built multiple sites on Wordpress and can agree with both sides of the argument for and against (talk about sitting on the fence...). I actually started out selling static sites, but teaching people how to update them made me want to stab myself in the eyes. Wordpress was a blessing in that it made that a lot easier (I'm so old I adopted it when it first started) to let people make changes themselves.

The downside is that as many people have said it can be slow and clunky... and while I totally agree with keeping things low in numbers of plugins, often the reality is with budgets and their level of expertise that it can often be the easier, most cost effective option for them so you end up spending as much time getting them sorted with caching plugins, hosting upgrades etc to get it running effectively.
 

Shahadar Hussain

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Top Advantages of Using WordPress
  • WP is Cost Effective.
  • Update Your Site Anywhere You Are.
  • Search Engine Optimization Ready.
  • Convenient Syndication. ...
  • Responsive Web Design. ...
  • Upgrade Your Site's Capabilities Easily.
  • Ideal for Aggressive Content Marketing.
  • Ultimate Social Media Integration.
 
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