Amy!

WordPress is a wonderful platform, but it’s not the end all be all. And if it didn’t exist this site would undoubtedly still be here, just built on another platform.

WordPress does have it’s limitations, and isn’t right for every project, client or developer.  I’ve built sites using WordPress, but my preferred platform is Expression Engine.

I find EE to be a lot more flexible and because it’s commercial and not open source I know when I submit a question to their forum that I’m going to get help resolving the issue. It’s not hit or miss or relying on the good intentions of others. As a freelancer this is important to me.

For most business owners and bloggers WordPress is great because they don’t have to know a lot of code to get up and running, and it doesn’t include a lot of expenses, AND there is a robust community that they can turn to for support.

“A web designer just told me that WordPress is “too confusing” and doesn’t give you custom options.” 

There is some truth to this. You either need to know php and have an understanding of how wordpress file structure works, OR rely on plugins to incorporate custom options. Web Designer skillsets vary, some are more proficient in the deisgn vs the developer aspect and for them I’m sure Wordpress can be confusing.

Just illuminating you to another possible perspective…
Cheers!
Jules

@amyhallbiz @juleswebb

Great debate! Personally I lurve WordPress, but I haven’t used expression engine.

I believe that almost any platform can be made to sing and dance once you understand it. I believe most webshops should focus on one or two platforms at most.

Sometimes commercial is the way to go for support, but there are plenty of times I’ve bought a product and the support is non-existent.

Other times I’ve used an open-source product and there’s so much love for it that the userbase overflows with helpful people.

Coke. Pepsi. Apple. Microsoft. 

Whatever gets you there.

@juleswebb   @rich-brooks  @amyhallbiz okay girls and guys, here is my take on WordPress as a platform for websites.

For most newbies out there the first thing that grabs their attention is the themes that WordPress offers. With so many the thought is okay i just pick a theme put my content in and hey presto. What often happens as the process wears on is that they find that they content lay their content out like the theme shows. Often something is not the right color or their is a feature in the theme that they don’t know how to disable. and so the list goes on…..

After trying so many different themes they finally turn to a website designer for help. Now i know that WordPress and many platforms exist out there that are cms driven. But i have learned by repetitive experience the client comes back to you again and again.

Why ? Lets face it, not everyone can run and manage their own website, its an illusion. Sure some parts can be easy updated, but unless you have some knowledge in html and css you are going to come up short eventually.  I think the best use of a persons time in their business is to focus on what they are good at and outsource what they are not.

Sorry i know i went off on a tangent there… 

Personally I feel WordPress is great, if you struggle to customize it , then you lack the skills, its as simple as that. I do find that using the thesis theme makes it real easy if you are a website design to create a custom website for your clients.

Hit me with the your critics… but go easy.

Hi Jules.  @juleswebb

I might give Expression Engine a trip on my carousel and see what spins out. Can’t hurt – nothing wrong with giving it a once over, eh?

Thanks!

Eileen

@supereb I know what you mean, you tend to find plugins to supplement things you cannot do in WordPress. Although i have found the thesis theme very helpful in overcoming php pitfalls if you are good with css and html. Its extremely flexible and has good support for the things you fall short on. I also use codecayon.net to solve many problems as well.

I do occasionally play with wordpress to try and figure out what I am missing. Things that seems to come naturally with html and css to me are a struggle with wordpress.

Hi Jules  @juleswebb

I may just try out EE2 with a trial site and see how I manage to get on with this platform.  I’ve bookmarked you as an advisor, just in case!  Thanks for the suggestion. Don’t hold your breath tho’!  I’m swamped right now but always looking at new platforms.

Eileen

Hi Amy [ that's my daughters name too ] @amyhallbiz

Wordpress is certainly a great platform.  If you started out with WP you probably know all there is to know and how to change anything that needs changing.  Good for you!

For plenty of other folks though, it can be corn-fusing.  Not the admin area or the themes per se.  But when something becomes corrupted within the core (why does that happen, by the way?) there is absolutely no recourse for about a ga-zillion people out there who trust WP to be stable. Even a WP pro can spend a lot of time finding WP errors. 

I like WP and of all the platforms out there it IS probably the easiest for a novice. You might also want to remember that the internet and the web are not the same thing.  WP may be king of the WEB (not the internet) for you, and that’s great. But for many of us, it is a blogging platform that can be unstable at times, like all CMS platforms can be.

Maybe I should have called you when one of my blogs went down a couple of months ago!  Heh.

Eileen

@supereb I am a Thesis User love it to bits, Genesis is great as well. The truth be told they are both world class but I think  thesis is just a nose in front when it comes to customization.

@geoffrey-gordon We’re on the Genesis bus!

@amyhallbiz Thanks for the info, I do keep gong back to Wordpress fairly often and experimenting trying to learn. I also have been watching a video on Lynda.com to help. I certainly see lots of benefits to using it. I certainly will check out that theme.

@amyhallbiz  @geoffrey-gordon   @juleswebb  @shemric  @rich-brooks
Great conversation here folks and I think Rich hit it on the head:
Rich:  ”I believe that almost any platform can be made to sing and dance once you understand it. I believe most webshops should focus on one or two platforms at most.”
Good advice.
Eileen

@rebecca-craig Since I’m on the WordPress bus, of course that is what I sUggest. Because you don’t have a prior background in WP it probably will be fairly easy for you to pick up. (I’ve never used any other website building software so I didn’t have any expectations about how WP “should” behave.) Starting with the software that a quarter of the worlds websites are being built in, you can’t go wrong. WordPress 101 is an excellent tutorial video series which I’ve used.It sounds like you could do a multi-press install which allows you to run several WP site on a single WP install That way you would be able to manage all of your sites from a single dashboard.Also my husband does WP mentoring. He always has a couple of people that he is teaching how to use WordPress and get the most out of their websites.