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Ten Things A Beginner Has Learned From Wordpress

Not too long ago, I decided that WordPress was the way to go to make a constantly refreshed website; I knew Drupal and Joomla seemed more fucntional, but for dead simple ease of use and speed, Wordpress felt right. I haven’t looked back. I have earned money because of my website.

1.) Presume what you want to do can be done. If you start with that bias–that you’re not attempting something so novel that nobody has wanted to do it, a Google or wordpress.org serach will come up with solutions, even if they are workarounds. I’ve found great plug ins because of this bias; from subscribe2, to slashdiglicious.

2.) Push the content out, then edit. Friday, my first post took off; it was a little riff about Starbucks. The initial iteration had some mistakes and flaws, but it was published. It was imperfect, to be sure, but then people I love to read, like Scott, Seth, Athol (ooh, a real link Athol), and Darren. (Oh, by the way, Darren’s post today is absolute required reading.) Be “on the clock,” and don’t spend too much time per post, get it done, don’t get it perfect.

3.) Messing with the code isn’t that horrible. One of WP’s greatest features is the code editors that it has; you can modify plugins, and you can modify themes. I’m using a slightly modified version of wrath, by Small Potato. I didn’t like the picture and the nav bar that the original had, so I changed it. I changed a query to a couple of static links. It wasn’t horribly difficult.
4.) EVERYTHING is customizable–but content is king. There’s a point where “good enough,” is all that matters. I don’t know where it is, but the thing that will keep people coming back is content. In a world of RSS Feeds, content can overcome everything. At the margins, pay attention to what you’re saying.

5.) FTP & Plugins makes things (much) easier. The modular and intuitive way that WP was designed means that the learning curve is negligible; you can instantly produce meaningful content, and then surround it with context.

6.) Maiahost rules the world (honest referral, no affiliate bonus). I saw an ad for maiahost, and read a blog post about them. And they are great. They do EVERYTHING for you, have tech support that offered to do such basic things, and they have fast enough servers. They are doing a fabulous job.

7.) People WANT to help you make lots of money. In the couple of months since I ditched Livejournal for the world of feeds, tons of people have pushed out fabulous content that has given me the confidence to join the conversation.

8.) Sharing in the discussion–authentically–gains traffic and more. I have seen people I’ve enjoyed; from Green Apron Stories, to Ryan Holiday; both of these people have shared information with me, and

9.) You learn a lot via periphiral vision. (OH, By the way). By searching for specific functionality enhancements, I’ve learned that other functionality exists in WP. From Google Analytics, to FeedBurner, I’ve learned, baby. And learning

10.) Absolutely every small business should be on WP–it’s going to power more, not less, of the web, as time passes. Or Joomla or Drupal, or whatever. But you need to have a CMS system that works correctly, and easily.

There’s more that I’m going to share. Check back every monday for Channel Monday, the ten things I’ve learned each week. Hopefully, I’ll have a major epiphany. If not, I’ll post on things I’ve learned about project management.

• what I’ve learned this week: 11-25-07
• Your Periphrial Vision.
• It’s time for a new theme.