So you’re ready to make a change. You have decided to run a blog and share your brilliant ideas with everyone in the world.
Good for you!
Naturally, starting a blog requires much more considerations than content topics. You probably have hundreds of possible topics in mind, so no problem with that.
What could be challenging is the choice of the platform to power your site. However, after reading a few articles on the Internet you found that popular sites like Mashable and other widely-known ones use WordPress.
We agree, after reading the statistics that say WordPress powers 27 percent of the entire Internet it seems unreasonable to go with anything else. Moreover, you read that WordPress has thousands of free themes and plugins here on D5 creation to make your site look stunning and keep it functional.
While deciding to go with WordPress is perfectly fine, you should know about some things you can’t do there to make sure you made the right choice.
You Can’t Really Customize It
One of the main reasons why so many people choose WordPress to power their blogs is the abundance of themes. Indeed, there are thousands of themes that could be found on the official website of the developer and third-party websites. They are pretty good looking and have a decent functionality, which could be perfect for meeting your needs.
The web designers at Assignmenthelper claim that their clients are more interested in custom themes that could fit their project. In other words, they prefer to build their own theme by bringing layout, styles, and even functionality together. WordPress may not be the best choice in this case.
The first reason why is that most of the themes offered on the websites are already used by others (forget about the uniqueness of your site). Is it really worth saving a few dollars to purchase someone else’s recycled theme and add own logo and text?
The second reason comes from web designers. Alan C. Herman, the web designer, says that for him customizing the design of a website is a lot easier and quicker when he works with elements that can be put together. However, in WordPress, these elements are pieced apart. As the result, site templates cannot be edited the way designers best do so – in CSS and HTML.
This explains why there are so many guides to WordPress theming and so little about doing so in MVC based frameworks like Django. The developers of WordPress did not make the design of the template natural for web designers, so they need to educate them on how to do editing and other things there.
Key Takeaway:
There are limited opportunities in terms of customization of WordPress themes. If you want your site to be truly unique and enjoy freedom in customizing, go with something else.
You Can’t Get Official Support (In Many Cases)
As I mentioned earlier, there were thousands of themes available for WordPress users. That great, right? You have all the freedom in colors, layout, and functionality. Well, you do, but there are some more important things to think about before making the choice.
“But why? They have a great design and the feedback is positive!” I can practically hear you thinking that.
The reason why choosing themes is not recommended has nothing to do with design, user feedback, or functionality. It’s lack of official support.
The themes developed by third-parties are not supported by WordPress.com. This means that if something stops working, you will have limited option for help and no support from the WordPress developers.
To avoid getting into trouble, you have to go with a selection offered by WordPress.com. It is much smaller and contains a limited number of options. It’s sad because you can’t enjoy that vast pool of themes developed by third parties.
Once again, customization has to be mentioned here. By selecting a theme from WordPress.com, you have even more limited options for customizing it. What you can do is insignificant changes like changing the header of the menu and background color. That’s pretty much it.
As the result, your blog will look like many others out there.
Even if you decide to purchase a premium theme that has a more sophisticated design, you still have the same opportunities for customizations (lack of them, to be exact). For some reason, both free and premium themes have similar design restrictions.
The only helpful option, in this case, is a Custom Design Upgrade, which allows more freedom in customization. However, it’ll cost you $30 every year.
Key Takeaway:
The majority of WordPress themes on the web lack official support of WordPress.com. This could create some problems in the long-term.
You Can’t Get Discovered by Search Engines
One quick Internet search will show you that WordPress is great for SEO. For example, it allows installing of themes that use the latest SEO practices and creating readable permalinks. While this sounds good, there is nothing special about it.
All SEO functions delivered by WordPress are pretty much standard, which means they can’t help you to get discovered by Internet users. What some of the WordPress folks are not saying is that you have a lot of SEO-related things to do in the nearest future because the system is designed for content.
The truth is that even the best content in the world is insufficient to get you displayed in search results of Google. This won’t happen if you mark it up for the search engine, either. Simply saying, WordPress is a bad tool when it comes to SEO. A good-looking theme may persuade the viewers to stick around and see what you offer, but you need to guide them to your page.
This means that you will be working hard to get your site higher in the search results by utilizing internet marketing, such as pay per click and social media advertising.
Key Takeaway:
the job of marketing your blog should be done by you. WordPress is designed for an entirely different purpose, so don’t rely on it here.
You Can’t Run an E-commerce Shop
WordPress is not a perfect system to use to run an e-commerce website because it is an open source CMS platform (once again, it was built for a different purpose).
There is one thing that says it’s not the best idea. Given that WordPress has not been built for e-commerce, all the critical functions like customer support, pricing strategy, inventory control, shipping, promotion, and returns – must be completed by you even with WooCommerce plugin installed.
Sounds like a lot of work? It is. The plugins are just an extension of the primary role and not a legitimate platform for online stores. That’s why it is much better and easier to run an online store using systems that were specifically built for this purpose, including Magento, Shopify, and Open Cart.
Another thing. I would not recommend trusting your online business with CMS like WordPress because of its popularity. This means that hackers know a lot about it, so it would be easier for them to hack into the system when they have the opportunity.
Key Takeaway:
WordPress is not built for e-commerce and plugins are not the solution, either. It is much better and easier to use platforms that were designed for this purpose.
You Can’t Keep Costs Down
If you think that WordPress does not have any hidden costs, read this section. Although the developer allows you to start for free, it is still a profitable business, so be prepared for spending. The initial version of the system has very little functionality, so you need to upgrade it. That’s where spending comes in.
The developers are happy to offer you a wide range of paid features to improve the functionality of your blog, and you really don’t have other choices here. For example, if you want to have a custom domain name, you have to pay $13 per year. This option is used by many WordPress users because a subdomain is not looking quite cool.
When you set up a blog on WordPress, you have just 3 GB of free space. Although it may sound like a lot, believe me, it’s not. Content like documents, Excel spreadsheets, images, and presentations will eat up space pretty quickly (plus you can’t upload audio without space upgrade).
This means that you will probably have to upgrade your space. The cost of this premium feature starts at $20 per year.
A free use of blog also means third-party adverts. Obviously, they would make your blog bad and you should get rid of them. WordPress developers allow this for $30 per year. As the result, the blog will be ad-free.
A free version should be upgraded as well, should your blog feature videos. They are unavailable even in case you have purchased an extra space in addition to those 3GB you had. Of course, you can go with hosting your video on external sites and embed the links onto the blog. However, if you want to look professional, it’s better to upgrade. That’ll cost you $60 every year.
So, let’s calculate the total cost. $13 for a custom domain name plus $20 for an additional space plus $30 for keeping the site ad-free plus $60 for videos equals $123. This is the minimum total annual cost. Also, take into account that only starting prices were used. The same upgrade options could cost more depending on your needs.
Key Takeaway:
WordPress can’t keep the costs of operating and maintaining your site down. Even though the system is free, the upgrades are not, so remember about it when you make your choice of a CMS.
You Can’t Earn Money From Products Of Third Parties
Many people have made a lot of money by placing affiliate links on their blogs. Well, you’re not going to be one of them if you use WordPress because it doesn’t allow them. They only allow you to place the links to your own products.
For example, if you need to get some promotion going for a book you wrote, you will be allowed to place the link on your blog. That’s it.
There are several possible scenarios in case you decide to go against the system and place affiliate links anyway. First, it will be disabled; second, you will receive a warning from WordPress; and third, your account will be suspended or shut down.
Key Takeaway:
If you want to make money through affiliate links, WordPress is not a good choice because it does not allow them.
You’re Running A Risk Of Being Shut Down At Any Time
Sounds strange, right? Well, this is what the official Terms of Service at WordPress.com say! Here is the quote from that page: the company “may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately.”
As threatening as this sounds, most of the time no one gets terminated. However, one needs to remember that accident happen and mistakes are made whether we want it or not. And your WordPress blog can be shut down without notice.
If that happens, all your effort will be a waste. Even if it was unintentional.
Because of this policy, many serious bloggers look elsewhere to be safe. This decision is completely reasonable because no one wants to give up control over own livelihood.
The Bottom Line
The article may sound a little bit biased towards WordPress but believe me, I just tried to give you some helpful information so you can make a better choice for your online business.
Don’t get me wrong, I love WordPress and the opportunities it provides. However, in some cases, it’s not the best option to go with and you should know that to avoid running into problems.
If you are a serious blogger who needs all the freedom in design, functionality, and control, take some time to think if you want someone else to control your blog for you.
Meanwhile, thanks for reading! It’s time to make the change and share our ideas with the rest of the world!
