Disclaimer: This blog post is my own personal experience, which means that what you're about to read is personal to me, and may not necessarily happen to you.
I haven't really written much about my own personal experiences online, but I figured that not everyone has a happy experience migrating their blog.
So let's get into it.
You've probably seen one of the many blog posts relating to how easy it is to move your blog from your current platform over to WordPress. All of these blog posts paint what seems to be an effortless picture of transferring all of your blog posts and comments over with very little fuss, or problem.
Why I Decided on WordPress
As I mentioned previously I had been reading all of these blog posts about how wonderful and easy WordPress was, and why it's the best platform if you want a unique website. Not to mention the amount of money you'll make just by switching to WordPress.
Boy was I wrong!
Problems, Problems, Problems
The migration part went over fine. I chose Hostgator's WordPress Hosting Package, with all of the usual stuff, which obviously included security.
Funnily enough, it was the security that was my first problem. SiteLock wasn't activated properly, so it took a few days of chatting with the helpful staff at Hostgator to get it fixed.
Also my brand new WordPress was hacked into because there was no security to stop the hackers. So every time I went on it, it would show up as just a page with lots of links attached which had nothing to do with my blog, which was annoying because all I wanted to do was create a new blog.
When I did eventually get started with customisation, I decided to go with twenty twenty one, thinking it would be a simple template to use, and would give my blog a fresh new look.
But I was slowly starting to realise that WordPress wasn't like my old Blogger platform, it used PHP. I'll try and explain what PHP is a little further down this blog post.
Which strangely enough you're given a warning as soon as you enter the PHP code page not to touch it.
Which I didn't.
By this time I'd been on WordPress less than week and had nothing but problems.
- Problems setting up my security.
- Problems customising my brand new website.
As a writer, all I need is a website that functions and allows my to post regularly without breaking down.
The Blogger Conundrum
By Blogger I mean the platform, which I've been using since 2015, and even before that. I've seen that so many people put Blogger down. What I don't hear is how much the internet has changed, and how much it impacts on bloggers as a whole.
After I took the decision to cancel my WordPress hosting package, I still don't regret it. At the end of the day I'm a writer and my main interest is in being able to publish my work on a weekly basis, without any hassle.
Do I really need a website with so many bells and whistles to attract an audience?
I've seen plenty of other websites, not unlike my own that are pretty popular that use a simple blog setup, who have a good following, so I know it can be done.
Let's take a look at some common WordPress issues you may not have thought of.
What is PHP?PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but now it stands for the recursive initialism PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter implemented as a module, a daemon or as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code - which may be any type of data, such as generated HTML or binary image data, would form the whole part of an HTTP response. Various web template systems, web content management systems, and web frameworks exist which can be employed to orchestrate or facilitate the generation of that response.
This is why WordPress may not be a good fit for your blog or business:
The WordPress Supremacy
WordPress was originally built for blogging, but things have moved on since then.
Following its birth, it has become highly popular and sought after, which means it has to be all things to all people. Taking it further away from what it was in its original conception.
With a platform so big, you can't be everything to everybody.
Lots of Plugins
If you want a super-duper blogging platform, then you'll want all of the attractive features that go along with it.
You can add as many compatible plugins to your WordPress website as you like. Unfortunately because there are so many plugins available, they're not all of the same quality. Plus they can be made by literally anyone.
Many are built by plugin developers, then quickly become outdated, which means your website can breakdown at any time because a plugin may be incompatible with your current theme.
Illogical Structuring of Content
There's very little order to the WordPress platform because every part of the dashboard is produced like a blog article. Which means the admin area is often illogically ordered.
Making it difficult for people trying to publish regularly, often the dashboard can be a bit of a headache because it packs too much into one space.
More articles on why WordPress may not be the right fit for your new website:
- The 15 Most Common WordPress Issues
- Your Website Doesn't Have to be WordPress
- 50 Most Common WordPress Errors and How to Fix Them
- 7 Reasons Why You Should Not Use WordPress for Your Small Business Website
- 8 Reasons Not to Use WordPress
- Eight Reasons You Shouldn't Build a Website With WordPress
Off-the-Shelf-Themes
WordPress has a library containing hundreds of blog themes. Themes for every kind of blog or business idea, which you can download for free or buy. But again your website is moulded into a collective style.
A lot of designers that work with WordPress are quite comfortable sticking to the library of themes, but some do offer a unique template, if that is what you're looking for.
Because a lot of people swear by WordPress for everything, you end up with an internet full of the same kind of flashy style websites, that can be inflexible and difficult to maintain over time.
Updates, Updates, Updates
WordPress is regularly updated, which means you may come across new problems after every update.
Often that can mean plugins that conflict with each other, or they simply become outdated and need to be renewed.
When things like this start happening it can break your website and leave you unable to get any work done, like I said earlier. Which is very frustrating!
One update can basically break your blogging platform, and you're left scratching your head. Searching for help anywhere you can get it.
A Target for Hackers
A favourite of hackers, WordPress websites have become an easy target. Any vulnerabilities are seized upon and taken advantage of, leaving your blog open to all.
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