- Advantages of Wordpress
- Disadvantages of major platforms
- Using plug-ins
A blog platform determines templates and plug-ins you’ll need to use on your blog. There are many platforms out there. I eventually went with Wordpress.
The Advantages Of Wordpress
Easy to use
Of all the platforms I tried, Wordpress was the easiest to use. Posting and categorizing is simple. Wordpress also has a wide variety of templates to choose from.
Multiple choices
I initially began with the free Wordpress route. The free platform isn’t as easily customizable. You can’t change the CSS or template layouts. Eventually, I went for the paid platform, that is Wordpress powered, which was more of what I wanted.
Administrative privileges
The administrative component really drew me to Wordpress. If I needed someone to help with the blog, I could set up an author account. He or she wouldn’t have editing or administrative privileges, but could log on, type, post and be done. The person doesn’t even need to know that the account is set only to author level.
The Main Disadvantages Of 3 Major Blogging Platforms
No platform is perfect. I chose Wordpress after weighing the disadvantages of 3 major platforms:
1. Typepad
When I started looking for a platform, I asked a friend who used Typepad. She didn’t recommend it. Typepad is tedious to change and difficult to customize. I wanted something more flexible.
2. Blogger
I used Blogger for my personal blog because it was one of the first blogging platforms. Blogger is limiting in the way of templates and design.
It’s hard to bypass the linear form. If you post something today, yesterday’s post will immediately drop down below it. I didn’t want that look; I wanted something a little more customizable. Blogger recently has changed to make posts more customizable, but I did not like the way it handled multiple users for one account.
3. Wordpress
Even though it has many advantages, Wordpress has its limitations. Wordpress requires a lot of plug-ins to make it into a content management system.
If I wanted to post something to a particular category and wanted the navigation bar with only that category, I couldn’t do that if my template didn’t have it built in. In that case, I’d have to find a third-party plug-in compatible with Wordpress to compensate for that.
I have a section on Little Austinite called “restaurants.” The section used to be a pop out directory of places to eat, separated into restaurants that had playgrounds and those that didn’t.
I reviewed so many restaurants without playgrounds that the directory became impossibly long. Now the section is just called restaurant reviews.
I wanted people to be able to click on “restaurant reviews” and see all the posts. Wordpress organizes information so that posts are different from pages. In order to click within a page to go to a post or category of posts, I needed another plug in.
Unless you know how to code, you have to work with the limitations of Wordpress. Using plug-ins is one way to compensate for features that don’t exist.
Plug-ins
I found plug-ins as I needed them. Within Wordpress itself, it’s easy to search. There’s a plug-in for almost every issue that needs to be handled. Plug-ins can organize content, drive SEO, and even add links from a Facebook page.
People like the usability of Wordpress, but the power of a content management system. Plug-ins allow you to merge the two, so you still have the ease of use with the power of a content management system. Although there are disadvantage to each platform, it’s important to find the one that works best for use. Find one that’s easy to use and easily customizable. If certain features are missing, use plug-ins to remedy the situation.
