Black Board Friday: Save Money Use WordPress

Times are tough and everyone is looking to save money, in technology unfortunately when you start looking to save a few dollars you really do get what you pay for at least when it comes to the quality of programmers and designers.

One easy way to save time (which in my book is way more valuable than money) and money (cause everyone has to eat) is using WordPress as the starting block to your ideas. All of you have different needs like Affiliate Marketing, adding a blog to your existing site or a more custom solution. What is amazing to me is how often people still start projects from scratch with new technologies and end up spending a ton of money and wasting a lot of time. In the end you are attached to a super custom solution and the developer who if by now hasn’t flaked or disappeared on you is in a great position to raise his/her rates on you. I have seen time and time again projects obsolete or over/under developed due to custom solutions shortly after they have launched, usually I am being contacted because nobody seems to know how to fix or update the site.

Custom solutions have there place; what I am talking about is 95% of all the other work that can be done faster and less expensive leveraging WordPress. Let’s take a quick look at why you should look at using WordPress as a framework for your next idea:

Cost
Hands down the number one thing that is on everyone’s mind these days is money. Guess what? WordPress and the database it requires are FREE! Setting up WordPress is also one of the easier installs you will find.

Go Download WordPress:
http://wordpress.org/download/

Design
The key is to get your idea up and running with as little out of pocket as possible. WordPress once again shines with more themes than you have time to look through.

Download Free Themes:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

If you need something a bit more custom you can find very talented WordPress theme designers and those who can take an existing theme and convert it to a WordPress theme.

WordPress Theme Designers:
http://www.briangardner.com/services
http://www.uniqueblogdesigns.com/

PSD to Wordpress:
http://www.psdtowordpress.com/

Functionality
Of course if you do not need more than a blog then you can stop here. For most of you though you are looking to find a site that does something like showcase your products, Affiliate Marketing or maybe a more custom solution. The great news for you is that WordPress solves many of the up front problems one may face when looking to create a new site.

With the WordPress plugin architecture you can easily add on tons of features and convert a simple blog site into a monster simply by extending and introducing new functionality via plugins. It gets even better as most of what you will require has been already written and is either free or costs a small fee to use.

WordPress plugins are written in PHP so you don’t have to worry about a shortage of qualified coders. You probably already know someone who codes in PHP and if you don’t try Craigs List (no link love, they banned me, long story) or contact me.

Here then are a few great examples on how you can leverage the plugin framework to create what you need.

SEO Plugins:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
http://www.biggnuts.com/referral-feed/

Shopping Cart:
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/projects/yak-for-wordpress/

Monetizing:
http://www.biggnuts.com/adsense-plugin/
http://www.soxialize.com/wpbayads/

Affiliate Marketing:
http://www.wpreviewsite.com/
http://www.soxialize.com/wpbayads/

Real Estate Platform:
Best Real Estate Platform - http://www.propertytown.org/

Massive Blog Farms:
https://datapresser.com/signup

Tough times call for creative solutions and there is no reason why you shouldn’t leverage a successful and proven platform such as WordPress to work for you.

With the extra money you save hire professionals to drive traffic to your site:

Search Engine Optimization - Greg Boser
Social Media Expert - Brent Csutoras

If you have questions or are interested in setting up a WordPress blog and or a custom solution feel free to contact me, if I can’t help you I probably know someone who can.

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