Wordpress anyone?

[WhiteLight]

Wondering if anyone has gone the Wordpress route instead of a regular 'hand made' website, or even zenfolio/smugmug?

I made a mistake of choosing Wordpress.com instead of Wordpress.org.

I want to start a website to have a home for my pics, though am not sure if anyone would want to buy them...

 

[Robert Mitchell]

If you want a place to host, present and sell images then I would suggest something like Zenfolio or SmugMug, etc.

If you want to blog and write about the images or your photography then using Wordpress to create a blog makes a lot of sense.

Wordpress is powerful and one of the easiest content management applications to use and administer.

I have my own domain and hosting to run Wordpress but you can also use Wordpress.org to host your blog.

 

[Dave_W]

I've wanted to learn how to build a website for some time now. Even went so far as to download Dreamweaver for the 30 day trial but ended up concluding that it's not like falling off a log. But it's on my TTD list....and trust me, it has lots of good company on that ever growing list.

 

[Cochese]

I have a blog on Wordpress for my woodworking. I think that once I start a standalone site I'll still keep the WP blog by moving it over, and building the rest of the site to go with it. .com sites are freely hosted, .org sites are software you use to build your own hosted site. The first can be transferred to the second.

If you're bored...the144workshop.wordpress.com

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

.com sites are freely hosted, .org sites are software you use to build your own hosted site.
If you're bored...the144workshop.wordpress.com

Are you taking about the wordpress.com vs wordpress.org? Because you can have a .com or a .org site anyway you wish. Just get hosting and buy your preferred domain name. There are also .net and .info that are fairly common today. A lot of other also that are not quite as common yet. Wordpress, Drupal are probably the most common CMS websites in use now. Many webhosts have built in software that sill load and configure the basic setup for either of these Content Management Systems with 1 click and fill in the blanks. It takes a little more work to tailor it to suit yoiur needs. Finding and adding modules and then building or finding a theme to give it the look you want. I used to do this for a living but now it is just for fun.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I found Drupal to be a bit confusing and even Drupal guru's seem to indicate that the logic behind the design is more complex and not exactly suited for everyone unless you want to spend some time really working through the structure. I saw the power of Drupal but didn't want to take more time away from getting work done just to learn the way it works. It's not intuitive by any means.

I say go for Wordpress. Just about every plugin or mod you could want to do can be done and you can literally be up and running within a few hours without actually learning anything.

 

[Cochese]

Wordpress.com hosts free and premium blogs, whereas Wordpress.org is the management software and it's support forums for running your site wherever you wish.

My site is hosted by them at the .com site.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I found Drupal to be a bit confusing and even Drupal guru's seem to indicate that the logic behind the design is more complex and not exactly suited for everyone unless you want to spend some time really working through the structure. I saw the power of Drupal but didn't want to take more time away from getting work done just to learn the way it works. It's not intuitive by any means.

I say go for Wordpress. Just about every plugin or mod you could want to do can be done and you can literally be up and running within a few hours without actually learning anything.

Drupal can be a bear but if you really want lots of options and control it is great. I use it for a number of sites I build for other people/groups because once it is built and set up managing the site can be done by anyone with about 30 minutes to an hour training. Since I do most of these for churches / groups that don't have a lot of money it does not tie me up much past the original build.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

That's great to know Don. I never got past the initial frustration.. loll

 

[WhiteLight]

Interesting insights...
AFAIK WordPress.com is quite useless...
I didn't do any research at that time and paid a bit for some services.

WP.org seems very cool considering it being open source.
There are tons of fantastic themes.
Even options for being able to sell directly from your blog.

From reading a lot of stuff today, my thoughts are to immediately go for a full fledged wp.org account, scrap the wp.com and if by some weird chance ppl want to regularly buy my pics I'll start one with zenfolio or smugmug

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

That's great to know Don. I never got past the initial frustration.. loll

I worked for a company that built websites. The ones we built started in the 6 figure range. They were all based on Drupal. Heavily modified with custom built modules. The modules are the part I cannot build. Luckily there are so many modules out there that can do what I need. Sitting at a computer with you I bet I could show you how to have a fully functioning drupal website in a few hours. The ones I do for free are pretty simple. If they want more then they have to pay dearly for my time. Keep my involvement to a minimum. www,alachoirschool.info is a good example. I set it up and give them the web space on my server. To keep the space to a manageable level I use google for the photos and video. The only photos I have on the site are the static ones. The slide shows are google. Content was put in by the school.

 

[PapaST]

Thanks Tracsoft-DK. This could be what I've been looking for. Something a bit more robust than WP but not entirely too difficult to work on. I installed it on my webhost last night and I'm checking on some themes now. I like what I see so far. Thanks again.