WordPress vs Website

[Lynn Terry]

Okay - good to hear & will wait to hear back from you on that

[kidino]

Lynn,

Thanks for asking. It is doing okay (one of those small passive income sites), just a few pages I put up and have not really done anything with it since.

Some weeks I get quite a few sales, some weeks nothing. I had 3 sales the other day. Not tremendous traffic but sometimes up to 100 per day, sometimes way less. http://www.doubleweddingringquilts.com/

I will leave it as it is, unless I decide to go that direction which right now I am not sure what direction I am headed in.

Believe me, I will ask for help when I need it. LOL and I am sure glad everyone is/has been there for me willing to help and advise.

Awesome. Way to go Monna. It's great to hear success stories like this.

[Monna Ellithorpe]

Thanks Kidino. Small success, but success, so that's good.

I remember you from way back in 2003/2004, I think it was. If I remember, you were just starting out then too (correct me if I am wrong).

I have seen your name around the internet on different things. I am glad to see you stuck with it. My personal life issues didn't afford me the time to continue back then as I should have but I wouldn't have traded that time with my husband for anything.

Bonita, I have learned a lot too. I always do when I come here for help.

[Lynn Terry]

Keep us posted, Monna I remember meeting you at the original forum, and looking over your product then. You have plenty of experience & ideas to make a great go of it this time around... and we're all here to help you if you want to brainstorm or have specific questions!

[retta719]

Hey Monna,

I just wanted to pop in and check with you and see how things are going now? If you're stuck on anything in particular this week? Just take it one thing at a time and you'll be there before you know it.

If you need additional help you can email Val or myself at anytime at EWW.

Side note, I didn't realize you had a quilting site. We'll have to figure out a way to blend that in with my craft blog later

[cjmo75]

Wordpress is free and is definitely the way to go over a static website. I have learned so much about using Wordpress that I use them for sales pages, squeeze pages, blogs, membership sites, etc. Once you learn what plugins you need and a littl ebit about how to customize Wordpress, there is almost nothing that you can't do with it.

[wade_watson]

I've been a WP user for several years and I've never read an overall guide or taken a course. I suppose you can, but since they release a modified version every couple of months, things will have changed by the time you get started, anyway. My approach has been to just use it and every time I have a problem, do a well worded Google search for an answer. If that fails, ask a question on a forum. That's pretty much how how I've done it and I've set up maybe a couple of dozen sites with it by now.

BTW, I've stopped looking for themes. There are too many faulty ones out there. I just take a robust basic theme and modify it to my needs. Lately, I've done fine with the new default themes, Twenty Ten and Twenty Eleven. One tip is to keep the WP plugin search page link handy. Often you can quickly find a plugin that solves a problem that would have taken hours of trial and error to fix yourself. For instance, I was inexplicably having trouble getting a child theme to show up. I found a plugin that automatically makes a child theme of whatever theme you're in at the moment (One-Click Child Theme). Here's some other problem-solving plugins I'm making use of right now: WP Easy Columns, Drop Cap Shortcode, and Fast Secure Contact Form. That last one's the most versatile contact form I've found and, with an additional plugin, you can export lists from it.

[mleejr]

Hey WildBlue

I think one of the best ones I have found was something called "WordPress Videos by Mercer."

If you Google that phrase it should take you to the correct place

The videos are sort of basic, but they are FREE, and continually being updated.

Hope this helps,
Martin

[seocrux]

It depends on quantity of content, how often the content is updated, and if there is a blog. If the site is going to grow and the content is updated fairly regularly, I think WP is the way to go.

I do not believe the search engines prefer one over another. If the same site was built in both structures, I would bet they would be ranked identically.

[1JeffT]

One of the best sources out there for not only learning WP, but also keeping up with it's ever changing and growing nature, is
Wordpress Classroom by Matt Wolfe out of San Diego. I actually run the support desk for Matt and can tell you first hand, that likeLynn, Matt is very genuine in his rather insane passion to help others get off the ground and find success with their online
businesses. Matt also just started doing free podcasts at his personal blog. I'm not leaving any links but it's called
businessandblogs and he's plenty easy to find if you Google "wordpress tutorials". Though WPC is a paid membership site, there is a free level designed to show even the newest of newbies and the worst of technophobes, how to install WP and get a decent looking blog up and live online in a matter of hours. He also has a YouTube channel he doen't pay much attention to, but it does have a few of his tutorials on it to at least give someone an idea of what it's like inside the classroom, which now has well over 170 video tutorials. Search Youtube for "LearnToBlog" He's the one with the "2 thumbs up" profile photo.
Hope this helps folks out a little,
~ Jeff