I must admit that I am super excited to explain all the wonderful attributes that WordPress can offer you. As for Content Management Systems go, this one is top notch. I read that WordPress runs over 43% of the internet, that’s almost half of the entire world web! I found that to be mind blowing, and it made me feel less like a fraud. When I was setting up my first Touch Of A Feather website about 8 years ago, I felt like using WP instead of coding from scratch was cheating, so it was nice to know that it’s not.

           At that time, I had already tried Etsy and Storenvy, I had researched other Ecommerce sites such as Wix, and Shopify (which I ended up trying a couple years later). I wasn’t happy with any of them, Etsy had too many little fee’s and having to pay for each listing was not ideal. Depending on how many products you intend on having in your shop that could become costly. It didn’t sit right with me that I was charged a fee to list, and after I sold the item. Etsy also lacked the creative freedom I wanted to make my shop personalized to my brand. So, this brought me to Storenvy, I was able to find a suitable theme and it was free, so I thought it was perfect for me. I was wrong, tons of customers complained about the website not working or wouldn’t let them order; it became a huge problem.

          By now I was frustrated and was beginning to feel a bit discouraged. So, during my moment of weakness, I was faced with the realization that I could just build my own website. Now at this time it had been a while since I had tinkered with the web machine, and I began to do my research. I spent about two months reading about all my different options, and that’s when I discovered WordPress, I had heard of it before, but I thought it was just a blogging platform, that’s when I found out that it can do so much more! I have now been using the WP platform since 2015, and I love it and I highly recommend it; so here are my reasons why:

1. Versatility – WordPress is so much more than just a blogging platform, it can be altered to fit any of your website needs. It can be the home for your shop, portfolio, appointment scheduling and that’s just what I have used it for! I have yet to find something that I can’t do with WP, and I want to share that with e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e!

2. Ecommerce – This was the hardest part for me, I am not a programmer and far from a coding expert, so I found the WooCommerce plugin for WP. The one thing that I always mention to my clients is that this plugin is super easy to work with. I have given it to people who hardly knew what to do on the backend of a website, and they were able to configure and manage their own shop.

3. Free – WP is entirely free of cost. Anyone can use it, so that means there are a lot of options out there to help you create the site you need. There are tons of Free Themes and plugins that will bring that dream to life. I love that whenever I want to add a new feature to my site, all I do is ask Google what the best plugin option is right for me.

4. Information – At this point so many people have used WP so there is a plethora of info to find about it, there are tutorials, videos and millions of articles just waiting for you to discover.

5. Tested – This platform has been tested and updated consistently since 2003, it’s not perfect but it’s super close to it. This is one thing that makes me feel better, I know that there is always someone out there working to make the program better so I can use it, and did I mention it’s free? That’s a killer combo if you ask me.

There is only one way for you to find out how awesome WordPress is, you must try it for yourself; At this point there is nothing for you to lose, but there is a ton for you to gain!