Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Whenever questions about blogging come up, everyone is quick to recommend Wordpress. I`m curious to know, why does everyone like it so much?

Ages ago I used to use the predecessor to Wordpress, called B2. Then Wordpress split and went in its own direction, and I didn`t much care for it because I found it to be rather limited; I followed the B2 line, renamed B2Evolution, because I felt it had much more flexibility. Eventually I left B2 altogether and now use Textpattern, which is by far the most flexible blogging tool I`ve ever seen. It`s not even a blogging tool so much as it is a build-it-yourself CMS with a far shallower learning curve than other CMSs I`ve tried (except for possibly Plone, but Plone is like using a cannon to kill a gnat if your site is fairly simple.) The only thing Textpattern might have against it is that the "back office" is not super pretty.

And so, I haven`t used Wordpress in some time. I`m wondering why everyone is so loyal to it? I`m really just curious... I seem to be one of not many Textpattern developers out there, it`s kind of a nice niche I`m not anxious to abandon.

Thanks,
—paula

They throw that out there first because it`s easy to install and ro redesign, especially with the Dreaweaver Extension it makes any novice look like a pro.
I`ve tried Blogger, B2Evolution, and to me they are all  the same some have more features than others but in the end they just blog. Thanks for the tip on Textpatterns, Im always up for new software...

But yeah, people around here will call out word-press without even trying the others. Blogger is by far the coolest, but that is my preference..


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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Wordpress seems to be one of the industry standards. It is easy to use, and best of all, it is FREE!

Well, there are actually hundreds (if not thousands) of free blogging/content-management tools out there. Anything "open source" is free. So I guess for me that is not really a factor; it would take an awful lot to convince me a for-fee blogging/CM tool is worth the money.

—paula

I suspect that what you`re seeing with WordPress is excellent branding. How come everyone calls facial tissues "Kleenex?"

The product is fast, easy to manage, easy to setup, easy to upgrade, and yes easy.

It is stable and very feature rich with add-in modules from third-party developers.


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I looked into TextPattern, but I don`t use it because of the fact that it doesn`t support trackbacks/pingbacks.

I am really liking this new WordPress, v2.3.

I have used MT/TypePad as well ... but sometimes find it to be a bit slow and I can`t actually go in and hack the code like I can with WP.

The benefit for most people of using the most popular software is that it comes with the most peer support, the most template options, and the most plugins built for it. I don`t use most of these features, but they are good if you need them.

Nikole — out of curiosity, what do you use when you need something more than just a blog?

Txp`s lack of support for pingbacks & trackbacks is occasionally disappointing, but I think their reasoning for leaving it out is sound. Personally, it is not enough to deter me from using it because it has so much else going for it.

—p

Why do people use it?  Because for some sites it gives people the chance to insert fresh keyword rich content on a daily basis.  Google picks up Wordpress sites and if it`s written correctly can help your site in Google/Yahoo/MSN/etc rankings. 

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Aaron Wood
CEO
San Diego Dream Weavers
http://www.sddreamweavers.com
awood@sddreamweavers.com

New and improved! Now with blogging goodness!
http://www.sddreamweavers.com/san-diego-seo-marketing-blog/

Paula, what do I need more than a blog?

I`ve hacked WordPress into so many incarnations as a CMS now ... it`s kind of funny when I think about it.

Is there some specific examples you are thinking of?