Allow me to tell my own WordPress story. Of course, WordPress is not for every website, but in my case it was the perfect fit. WordPress took my website to the next level and it also taught me a skill to open new markets and clients for my marketing consulting business.
In June of 2008, my website went live. The designer I selected was located from a referral and the site was based on a website platform called Joomla. Joomla is a popular content management (CMS) website platform. It’s robust and can handle larger websites. However, Joomla is more difficult to use than WordPress. Ultimately, WordPress gives the site user more control and ease of use.
The Joomla site worked fine for two years, but I was limited when I wanted to update content. Sometimes I had to pay my designer to update content. Frustrating. I’m not a programmer and thus I found Joomla a bit complex and cumbersome, especially from a natural SEO standpoint. To implement my own SEO best practices in Joomla, it was a chore. In WordPress, it was much easier due to the vast availability of plug-ins to help me along the SEO trail. Also, my site did not have a blog. My traffic grew some, but nothing to write Bill Gates about. The site was more static then dynamic. Traffic grew a little, but nothing substantial. My site needed attention and it was getting lonely, as I noted in the preface.
Then I switched to WordPress. The same Joomla designer and a bunch of newly converted WordPress users convinced me. Both the simplicity and the responsive mobile design impressed me. Since I’m a writer and communicator, I loved the integrated blog page and just how easy it was to create, revise, and update content and videos on either a page or a post. I was in love.
Once the blog kicked in, I noticed a big increase in traffic. I was elated. I was also writing more and blogging my heart out. I was WordPress hooked and addicted. Best of all, WordPress started to generate revenue through increased book sales, speaking gigs, and client accounts. Over time, once I learned WordPress well enough, I created another revenue stream by training clients how to use it. It also taught me tons about SEO, SEM, content generation, video marketing, page design, usability, and security. It also taught me vast amounts of practical lessons that I bring to both my undergraduate and MBA classes. I benefited, my students benefited, my business benefited, my retirement (if I ever do) benefited, and the list goes on. In fact, it was probably the best decision I made since I started my company.
Need some WordPress marketing consultation? Write me, I can help.
By Stuart Atkins
Leave a Reply