![]() ![]() WordPress is relatively easy.Īt the beginning of this article I said that I often use the statement “WordPress is easy” myself. Now that these myths have been dispelled, let’s look at how we can change the way we talk about WordPress so we can avoid these misconceptions moving forward. (3) While WordPress is free and open source, the time and skill spent on building content for WordPress has a monetary value in much the same way air is free but being able to fly in the air has a monetary value. A web developer or designer has the ability to build the application that makes that publishing possible. (2) Being able to publish content using WordPress makes you a web publisher or content manager. *I say “some” here though in reality these are commonly held beliefs.Īnyone working with WordPress on a professional level will have encountered each of these myths and knows they are not true: (1) While you can build a professional website with WordPress, doing so requires a lot of work. Some* people conclude that based on 1 and 2 (and because WordPress itself is free), WordPress services should be free or cheap.Some* people believe their ability to publish content with WordPress makes them web developers.Some* people think WordPress enables them to build a professional grade website with little to no effort.Statements like “WordPress is easy” have created three common misconceptions, or myths if you will, about WordPress: What the three examples above and many others like them show is that we have a communication problem when it comes to WordPress. When I asked them why they would hire someone who only charged $200 for this kind of work I got the deadpan response “Well, WordPress is free and it’s so easy anyone can do it so why should it cost more?” WordPress is not easy Bewildered I asked where they got this theme from and they told me they paid a “WordPress developer” $200 and that they were “having some issues”. A quick look told me the person who built it had only a fleeting understanding of XHTML (yep, XHTML) and CSS, was firmly stuck in the coding practices of the early 2000s, and had zero understanding of WordPress. ![]() And then to top it off they start selling their services!” “We paid a WordPress developer $200 to build us a new theme and we’re having some issues”ĭuring one of my client consultations in 2013 I was presented with what I can honestly say is the worst WordPress theme I have ever seen. And they start doing very dangerous things. So you get people with the ability to do things on the web that have no idea if what they are doing is right or wrong. It’s too easy to create something and the power you feel from being able to do things you don’t really understand convinces you you actually know what you’re doing. “What WordPress does is make people think they know what they are doing when they don’t. I can’t quote him word for word so let me instead summarize his argument as I remember it: In December I took a stroll with my developer accomplice Mark and we drifted onto the topic most people default to when talking to me: WordPress – and in particular the topic of why he hates it. Now they feel either lied to or like failures or often both. But the end result is dismal and they know it. They want a website, they’ve been told it is easy to build one, and they’ve invested a substantial volume of time trying to make it perfect. I hear statements like this all the time – from small business owners and event organizers and community groups and non-profits and pretty much any person or business with a small budget and big dreams. Then he went on to talk about his web strategy and voiced his frustration: “I spent the last 4 months building my website and it’s still not ready”. He was lamenting the challenges of recruiting new party members, the hours spent campaigning, the usual stuff. On New Year’s Eve I found myself at a party with a prospective political candidate. “I spent the last 4 months building my website and it’s still not ready” To illustrate my point let me give you three examples of conversations I’ve had around WordPress in the last several months and then I’ll go through what problems they unearth, and what we as a community can do about them. We need to change the way we present WordPress to the people. I encounter this sentiment all the time and you’ll even find me saying these exact same things, but I’m realizing this idea – that WordPress is easy – is becoming an issue because it is an ill defined statement: What WordPress experts mean when they say “WordPress is easy” does not correspond to what new and prospective users understand when they hear it. If you pick a random WordPress user and ask her why she uses WordPress there is a good chance her answer will be “because it’s easy” followed by something about how you can get up and running in 5 minutes and “everyone can do it”.
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