20 Reasons Why I Choose WordPress

They say ‘owning a blog is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity‘. How true indeed! A blog is born every half second which means two blogs are created every second.

In the past few months, I’ve helped a few newbies setup a proper blog and there is one blogging question that I’ve been asked numerous times,

“Why did I choose WordPress?”

To address the question once and for all, please allow me to share with you my 20 reasons why I choose WordPress over the other readily-available blogging platforms.

Yes, I love my WordPress and will continue to use it. It has been – and will always be - my primary choice of blogging platform simply for its ease of use. If you are still on blogspot, this article might just give you a bit of food for thought.

20 Reasons Why I Choose WordPress

1. WordPress is Free

Whether you are using a hosted WordPress.com or opt to install the script on your own web server, WordPress is made available gratis. It costs you nothing to use. Who says “There is no free lunch in this world?

2. Easy to Setup

Installing WordPress is super fast and super easy. In fact, the process is much simpler if you’re using Fantastico autoinstaller that comes pre-installed with your hosting package. It doesn’t get any easier than that. If you need help with WordPress setup, ask and thou shall receive.

3. Themes Availability

You don’t like the look of your default theme? There are plenty of great design themes available for you to choose from. It doesn’t matter what your preference is, there is always one for you that suits your taste and personality.

If budget isn’t an issue, do yourself a favor and differentiate your blog with a premium theme.

4. Plug-ins Do Wonder

Without any doubt, the primary reason I choose WordPress over any other blogging platforms is the limitless possibility I could extend its functionality using a wide array of plug-ins which are continually built to make WordPress the best it can be for the blogging community at large. Best of all, all these plug-ins are free to use.

5. No-Fuss Maintenance

With WordPress Automatic Upgrade plug-in, I can always be sure of running the latest software in case of any upgrade. The process has been simplified and automated without the need to go through the individual upgrade steps.

6. No Programming Skill

WordPress can be used out-of-the-box without any programming skill that even the greenest of newbies couldn’t screw it up! Though a little knowledge in HTML or PHP might be an advantage, albeit not a necessity.

7. User-Friendly

WordPress Admin dashboard is one of the most user-friendly interface you can find. Whether you need to write a post or manage your settings, navigation hasn’t been that simpler, hasn’t it? As if that’s already good enough, the upcoming WordPress Version 2.7 gets even better and sleeker.

8. Open Source

Being an open source platform, in theory WordPress will have a better software development model which is good from users’ perspective. There will always be a continual improvement to its platform.

9. Customizable

Since WordPress platform function in a template-based structure, customization has never been easier. A typical blog  structure consists of header, content, sidebar and footer. Any change to its template can be conveniently done right from the Admin Dashboard. I was pretty much impressed with it in the beginning.

10. Hassle-free Integration

If you do have an existing static website, now is the time you should consider WordPress to power your site. I can’t think of any other Content Management System (CMS) that is comparable to WordPress.

Do you know you can easily integrate WordPress pages seamlessly into your existing website? I’ve done it on numerous occasions for my clients.

11. Ease of Migration

The process of migration is as easy as telling WordPress which blogging platform to access and import from. All your posts and comments in another platform will be migrated in a relatively easy process. Go to ‘Import ‘ under ‘Manage’ on your Admin Dashboard.

12. SEO-Friendly

With the built-in auto-ping feature in WordPress and coupled with the use of Google XML Sitemaps plug-in, it takes minimal efforts to get indexed by search engines. In fact, Google loves blogs powered by WordPress. In case you aren’t aware, here’s 15 SEO Tips for Beginners.

13. Good Community Support

Due to its popularity, the solution to any WordPress problem is just by googling the question. Well, at least that’s what I usually do. There are just too many discussions on WordPress-related issues on various forums and discussion groups that a typical answer to any question can be readily available at the click of a mouse.

14. Monetize

For a long time, Google Adsense has been the preferred choice for blog monetization. With the availability of WordPress plug-ins, monetizing a blog is just as simple as pie.

Though I believe blogspot manages and integrates Google Adsense better than WordPress.

15. Statisticize

Checking my stats is easy with Google Analytic. All I need is to create an account and place the code conveniently at the footer.php. As a matter of practice, it is one of the first things I do on my post-install checklist.

16. Multi-Lingual

By default WordPress is in English, however the software has built-in capability that supports localization in any other languages. Learn how To Install WordPress in Your Language.

17. More Dofollow on WordPress

Probably it is much easier to remove the nofollow tag on WordPress than other blogging platforms. I could be wrong but more often than not, more and more blogs powered by WordPress are adopting the dofollow concept if you ask me.

18. Better Time Management

What I love about WordPress is the fact I could easily schedule my post to be published at a later date with post-time stamp. As such, I could manage my time better and more efficiently. Write today, post tomorrow.

19. Multi-User Environment

WordPress is not limited to just one user. It works in a multi-user environment where two or more people could collaborate on a single project using WordPress. How ’bout that?

20. If You Can Beat Them, You Join Them

If the majority of probloggers like Darren from Problogger, John Chow, Jeremy, to name a few, are using WordPress, it’s much safer to place your bet on WordPress than any other blogging platforms. If you can’t beat them, you’re better off joining them. Unless, you are as famous as Seth Godin.

Final Thought

So folks, that’s my take on WordPress. I hope I’m able to help you make a more informed decision and form reasonable opinion when comes to choosing your next blogging platform.

I’m in no way against the use of blogspot. In fact I use blogspot for most of micro niche sites but if you are in for the long haul, WordPress is the way to go. It gets my vote hands down.

On a side note, Yongfook shared his perspective and wrote an interesting article on the 10 reasons why he ditched WordPress for us to look at WordPress from the other side of the fence.

Happy Thanksgiving

PS: This article is re-written and re-juvenated from the old archive way back in May 2008 for the benefit of my readers today.

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