Why Wordpress?

[pyratas]

Seriously, this is frustrating me.

I've heard so much about using Wordpress, yet never really looked into the benefits vs complications....
I have just spent HOURS over the past couple nights getting the skeleton of a template to look merely "okay".....

I used a tutorial, but the whole setup of wordpress seems so archaic and painfully slow.

I started playing around with postings, and what a pain in the arse it all seems!

Again, why am I doing this?

For the amount of time I've spent on Wordpress over the last few days I could have developed a brand-spanking-new 3-column fluid blog by hand!
--But now I have a half-done skeleton of a blog site that's not even ready for content yet!

WHY WHY WHY? I'm very frustrated that I spent so much time that could've been used to complete a new site, ready to go with content, using good old fashioned hand-coded xHTML/CSS.

What are the benefits of Wordpress over writing my own pages from scratch?

[phuckbunny]

Good question and I hope more peeps chime in with responses to this thread. Here's my deal:

I'm far from an expert at coding so I think WP is great because IMO

1. It's super easy to install. Never had a problem.

2. The interface is super duper easy, ditto.

3. Oh yeah, it's free.

4. Gazillions of themes to choose from, most of which are pretty easy to tailor design with even a limited amount of coding knowledge.

5. Lots of plugins and widgets to automate th process even quicker.

Now here's the bad part:

I am seriously confused as to why certain themes are better for SEO than others, which seems to be the case. Furthermore, in my opinion it seems as some SE plugins cancel each other out and sometimes end up hurting you with the SEs. I could be wrong but I'm trying to analyze my stats and that is what I'm finding.

My main beef with WP is how good it is for SE's and I posted this on another thread about whether it's WP's architecture that screws you up in goog or whether it's just blogs or goog in general.

I have also brought up the idea of using joomla etc instead of WP just b/c of the SE issues.

If you are a coding whiz there's probably more benefit to do stuff by hand than using WP b/c you have more control. That also depends on how often you want to post. I started on a new blog where I'm trying to do 4-5 "quality" posts per day which would tax me if I were to do it by hand. For me, I got the WP interface in about 10 seconds and found it very intuitively easy to use. I even think thumblogger is more confusing. I'm planning on doing some hand coded sites soon but I think WP is cake - except for the SE issues.

[theviking]

Good question pyratas.
While wordpress is supereasy to set-up and to start blogging, you have to put quite some time in the template and the sidebars to make it look ok.

joomla (and other full cms systems) are way overkill if you just are after a blogging platform, but suits well if you are going to set up a full portal of any kind.

Have you tried serendepity yet?
Get loads of positive feedback.
http://www.s9y.org/

Can allso check out some more cms' here:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/

[porn punk]

Originally posted by phuckbunny
Good question and I hope more peeps chime in with responses to this thread. Here's my deal:

I'm far from an expert at coding so I think WP is great because IMO

1. It's super easy to install. Never had a problem.

2. The interface is super duper easy, ditto.

3. Oh yeah, it's free.

4. Gazillions of themes to choose from, most of which are pretty easy to tailor design with even a limited amount of coding knowledge.

5. Lots of plugins and widgets to automate th process even quicker.

Now here's the bad part:

I am seriously confused as to why certain themes are better for SEO than others, which seems to be the case. Furthermore, in my opinion it seems as some SE plugins cancel each other out and sometimes end up hurting you with the SEs. I could be wrong but I'm trying to analyze my stats and that is what I'm finding.

My main beef with WP is how good it is for SE's and I posted this on another thread about whether it's WP's architecture that screws you up in goog or whether it's just blogs or goog in general.

I have also brought up the idea of using joomla etc instead of WP just b/c of the SE issues.

If you are a coding whiz there's probably more benefit to do stuff by hand than using WP b/c you have more control. That also depends on how often you want to post. I started on a new blog where I'm trying to do 4-5 "quality" posts per day which would tax me if I were to do it by hand. For me, I got the WP interface in about 10 seconds and found it very intuitively easy to use. I even think thumblogger is more confusing. I'm planning on doing some hand coded sites soon but I think WP is cake - except for the SE issues.

Just to help confuse you a little more, phuckbunny. I'm in the same boat as you.

You might find a thread in here from last week where I mention being on the second page of google for a certain key phrase, a "two worder" even.

I'm like yee-ha! So I install a couple plug ins seo title, utw, add meta (suppose to be great plug-ins). I do all the seo stuff, and guess what. Lost my position and can't even find the blog on ten pages into google anymore.

[balls_deep]

Originally posted by pyratas
What are the benefits of Wordpress over writing my own pages from scratch?

It takes a good amount of time to tweak your wordpress theme where you want it. But once you do your site will almost run itself and all you will neede to do is post.

The fact that you can log into any computer anywhere in the world and edit your page in seconds is one of the best features, IMO.

[mynameisjim]

Like BD and Viking said, you need to tweak the themes to get them right and set up all the SEO tricks but once you do you can update 20 handwritten blogs before lunch without breaking a sweat and pretty much everything else about them is on autopilot.

Phuckbunny, it's true some themes index better than others. After some trial and error I can guess which ones will work and which ones won't. If you find one that gets indexed well, just keep using it but switch up the colors, header, etc. Like anything esle, if you find something that works, just keep doing it over and over again till it stops working.

Pornpunk, Google fluctuations are pretty normal these days so you can be up top one week, then down the next, then back up. I've heard some of this is on purpose so you can't connect the dots as far as certain changes helping or hurting you. The key is to do your research, come up with a solid SEO gameplan, then keep doing it regardless of what your day to day SERP changes are.

[mtskys]

Originally posted by mynameisjim
Like BD and Viking said, you need to tweak the themes to get them right and set up all the SEO tricks but once you do you can update 20 handwritten blogs before lunch without breaking a sweat and pretty much everything else about them is on autopilot.

Phuckbunny, it's true some themes index better than others. After some trial and error I can guess which ones will work and which ones won't. If you find one that gets indexed well, just keep using it but switch up the colors, header, etc. Like anything esle, if you find something that works, just keep doing it over and over again till it stops working.

Pornpunk, Google fluctuations are pretty normal these days so you can be up top one week, then down the next, then back up. I've heard some of this is on purpose so you can't connect the dots as far as certain changes helping or hurting you. The key is to do your research, come up with a solid SEO gameplan, then keep doing it regardless of what your day to day SERP changes are.

I must agree with what is said here about WP. I am not a coder, so it has been a great tool to get me started.

Mynameisjim, you mention some things I have been curious about. I am doing my homework and hoping I am finding all the "SEO Tricks", but am sure I have much to learn, anyone know if there is a good thread on those for WordPress blogs?

Also, how do check to see how well you are currently indexed or to see what your SERP is? Thanks in advance.

[whiskey]

I'm a coder and I love WP. Granted, I'm new to the SEO/Adult thing, but I can get a WP site up and running pretty quick. As to the customizations necessary for SEO ... well, I'm learning. For me, the advantages of having a full-blown blogging system in place and ready to customize in a few minutes far outweighs the many downsides. I had the structure of SexTumble.com in place within an hour. All I had to do was start plugging the content. Granted, I have miles to go on this website, but it's my first and I'm learning as I go, so that's the trade-off.

Is it quirky? Yes. Does it involve a lot of guesswork? Yes. Does it play nice with Google? Sometimes. Can I blow out a fully functional system in 2 minutes and then tweak it to my liking over the next few weeks? Hell yeah.

WP isn't perfect. But it's a way to get up and running really fast and gives you the ability to customize and tweak to your heart's content without fretting over the geeky details. There are better (i.e., more secure, etc.) systems out there but they don't offer the out-of-the-box-ready-to-go functionality of WP.

jmo. ymmv.

[Hyballs]

Hi Viking, I am glad you brought up Serendepity. I am looking for a blogging tool and had forgotten it!

Hi whiskey, Sextumble looks like an "off the shelf" template, can you delete some of the stuff thats showing? Like most of that shit should be way down the page or on another page!

[balls_deep]

Originally posted by mtskys
Also, how do check to see how well you are currently indexed or to see what your SERP is? Thanks in advance.

goto google

type in site:www.yoursite.com

it should bring back all your indexed pages.

also, google's webmaster stats give you some more info.