WordPress Advocate

So far I am on the proverbial band-wagon with WordPress, and have no indication of needing to jump off. Almost two years ago I started messing around with WordPress, in the sense that I thought their "look" was very polished and had the smell of professionalism that I was looking for. Yes, it's true, I can smell 'em. I started where most people do, at wordpress.com for the free hosting, lots of free themes and lots of forum-based support to go alongside the extensive knowledge base. Today, I'm into customizing the free and not-so-free premium themes using the self-hosted platform. Version 2.8 today - zero cost downloadable at wordpress.org.

I was already self-teaching my way into the world of HTML and had learned a bit about manipulating templates; it was new to me and the free-dom (yep, free/no cost/take as many as you want) of WordPress allowed me to delve in a little deeper. Using the analogy of a caveman scrawling on the rock, progressing to the use of crayons, then moving up to a pencil (ouch, sharp end), to today's use of the more permanent Sharpie marker, I can say WordPress lets me do things with websites that are just plain cool.

These days, I use WordPress to provide products to clients, and I also spend a lot of time exploring the hundreds of things that can be done with themes, plug-ins, widgets and all the other geeky-nerd stuff that keeps me up way past bedtime. A big "plus" to learning about this stuff is the opportunity to make some money.

Look at what most businesses want and need - a basic, professional online presence coupled with the ability to sell their product directly and/or educate visitors about why their products and services are the best. That premise allows me to build that basic, professional website at an affordable price for the small business owner.

There are business people out there don't have the time or the desire to know about how any of this works, they just want it working for them! Here is where the knock of opportunity can be heard. I do not advocate being opportunistic in the negative sense, rather taking positive action to use aquired skills and knowledge to help a business owner take ethical advantage of their online opportunities.

I do advocate using WordPress to accomplish that goal.