In a world where there are limitless ways to deliver online content, we are going to be focusing on why you need WordPress to help you achieve that.
While there are a lot of options out there for anyone to create a website, what many don’t understand is what could happen if they went out of business, or a host of other issues that would then prevent your online content being available to your viewers.
I suppose we need to explain what WordPress is. The very website you are reading this article on was designed using WordPress. Years ago when WordPress even became a known entity, it was looked upon merely as a “blogging platform.”
No so in today’s times. Back in the day when blogging was actually popular, there were other platforms such as blogger, moveable type, and a host of others that would allow a content provider to fire up and launch a blog fairly quickly. However, WordPress has evolved into much more than a blogging platform.
WordPress is now the leading content management system and powers close to 40% of all content that you see across the Internet.
There are two versions of WordPress. You have WordPress.com, which is primarily set for those who don’t want to get to deep into design and functionality, then there is WordPress.org, which is the open-source platform that permits you to take the software and make it your own. I don’t want to dive too far into the geeky side of all of this.
There are other CMS (content management systems) available that appeal to churches such as SquareSpace, Wix, and even custom CMS’ that are specifically geared towards churches and ministries. However, you could find yourself in a real pickle in the event something were to happen by using any of those. Let’s take a deeper look into what some of those pitfalls may actually include.
With the current state of the world, taken from a political standpoint, almost anyone can be banned or even taken down for the content that they published. It doesn’t even have to be anything that most would take as offensive. I know each of you has experienced something like this. Just look at the “Fact-Checking” that is becoming more prevalent across various social networking sites.
Mmm hmm. You wrote something or posted something that mysteriously goes against someones “Terms of Service.” You know, that fine print that nearly nobody every takes time to read and proceeds to click on the box that says “I Agree.” Then poof, just like that your entire site has been taken down. Here’s where using a self-hosted version of WordPress comes into a HUGE benefit over using someone like SquareSpace, Wix, or a host of other content management systems.
If your site is taken down on any CMS, other that a self-hosted WordPress site, you’re putting all of your hard thought out content at risk of being permanently lost.
And just like that, all we heard is crickets…….
Let’s say you are using another platform other than WordPress and you decide that because for whatever reason you want to move your content to another platform. Guess what? You are going to have your hands full with copying and downloading all of the content to your hard drive in order to do that. Depending on the amount of content you have you could find yourself spending days to achieve this, only to throw your hands up in the air and give up.
When you utilize any other platform to deliver your content from other than WordPress, you are merely renting the space and actually DO NOT have ownership and control over your content. You CAN’T just pick it up and move to another provider.
Many other content management systems come with a price tag. While the entry point may seem low enough in price, the more functionality that your website may require will put you into position of having to spend more money. I’m going to give you and example here. Let’s say you are using Wix as your website provider. You’re spending around $20 month to host it. Now you need to add eCommerce functionality or a payment gateway, that will cost you around another $15 per month. Calculate that over a 3 year period. That has you paying $1,260 over that time frame. Again, let’s say you want to move all of your content to a different provider. Guess what, you CAN’T. You don’t own your content, the company that you are leasing space from owns it.
WordPress provides you the level of ownership and functionality that other content management systems can only dream of providing. More importantly, if you are using the self-hosted version of WordPress on the hosting provider of your choice, you could potentially be saving yourself hundreds if not even thousands of dollars of the course of time.
While WordPress may require you to roll up your sleeves and learn a few things, by far at the end of the day, it is the only way to go for providing your online content to your viewing audience.
The awesome thing about WordPress is that with the right theme and pagebuilder, you can find thousands of pre-made blocks and complete templates to select from. Simple change the wording and images, and voila you’re up and running.
Still not feeling the juice? Then take some of the money you will be saving and invest in a quality website developer, let them provide your hosting and design, pay them a monthly fee to maintain your themes and plugins and never look back again.
In the event you should choose that you want to move your website to another hosting provider, now you can without worrying about loosing everything you have built. Mose developers and designers and utilize a plugin that allows for a fast and efficient migration of your website to another hosting provider without the fear of loosing any content whatsoever.
To me, it just makes sense!
If you think about how many websites there are online today, why wouldn’t you want to utilize the tool that is responsible for delivering nearly half of web content?
Trust me, I understand that it is really easy to get sucked up into all the flash adds that both Wix and SquareSpace throw all over various social media channels. However, at the end of the day, there is only one true leader in the content management system providers and that is WordPress.
Still having doubts or possibly need some questions answered? I’m here to help you with that.
Click on the “Call Now” button, and I will be glad to answer any questions you may have or to assist you with your church or ministry website development needs.
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