What do Tech Crunch, BBC America and the official Disney owned Star Wars Blog all have in common?
Sure, they publish stuff you can read, they’re well known and their owners make money but there is something else…
WordPress
All of these sites are powered by WordPress. As are sites owned by Sony, Bloomberg, the New Yorker… and many, many more.
WordPress Has Transformed the Web
WordPress was released in 2003 and the Web hasn’t looked back since. Now nearly 30% of the Web is powered by it. According to WordPress, there are 60 million active sites using their services. But by a rough calculation of the nearly 1 billion websites online, that number could easily be much higher.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) and functions as the backend of a website. It does the heavy lifting – like the primary database functionality, user accounts, post scheduling, email subscriptions, admin panels and more.
It is also open source and customizable. Some companies customize their WordPress installs to fit their needs more specifically rather than build a CMS from the ground up (and they save a lot of money). Yet most website owners don’t need a custom CMS – they need a custom website.
That’s where companies like Rystedt Creative Services comes in. Individuals, freelancers, and creative firms (like us) use WordPress as the digital foundation for custom designed and developed websites.
WordPress allows creative web professionals to spend their time focusing on what the client really needs on the front-end (a beautiful, adaptive and functional search engine ready website) while letting WordPress do the heavy lifting on the backend. Sure, we install professional plugins and tools into the WordPress system when developing but WordPress is the engine of the beautiful product we designed – and most of us don’t mind telling you so!
WordPress powered websites are making their owners money – right now
Of the millions of WordPress powered websites online today about 25% make their owners at least a full time income. That means that roughly 15 million WordPress website owners are making enough money to just do what they love.
Rystedt Creative exists to help you find this return on investment sweet spot. We want our clients to focus on what got them into their business to begin with while their website just works. Seems like a perfect match.
WordPress, when customized appropriately, provides the sort of blogging, e-commerce and advertising control owners and organization-heads need to take your passion from a hobby that makes enough money for that weekend latte to a business that makes you a living (and that’s not “It Works”-type spammy talk here – we mean a real living).
Need a blog for selling your ebooks, e-courses and other written content?
WordPress, at its heart, is about blogging. Draft, schedule, post, insert, edit, categorize and tag to your heart’s content, our Bloggy Friends (once you move to a WordPress site that is).
When you have enough of a following to start selling paid content, like ebooks, courses and even rad physical products – WordPress will be there for you. The most popular CMS on the web is ready for e-commerce software and ebook downloads – all from your server-space.
Even as a part-time blogger, you can make enough money to cover your hosting fees (or maybe buy that new 5k monitor you’re eyeing) – with unobtrusive advertising. Those ads are no problem for WordPress powered websites. Your web-developer, like Rystedt Creative, can get you up and running.
Perhaps a blog is not the cornerstone of your content. Maybe your company sells various physical products and you need a simple and beautiful online store from which to make the sale. WordPress has the flexibility to work with you as you sell those custom lawn gnomes, freshly roasted coffee or, like this WordPress store, whiskey.
About 15 million WordPress website owners are making their living off of their WordPress powered site rather than losing money on their website. You can too.
We Use It
Rystedt Creative loves WordPress. This site is powered by a custom WordPress install. We build our clients’ sites using WordPress (unless you insist otherwise). With the flexibility it offers developers like us and the control it gives owners like you it is an obvious match.
WordPress as a Content Management System
Whether you build your website yourself or you hire a creative professional to handle the stressful details, WordPress gives you the control you need. Gone are the days of having no control over your site or massaging your temples as you try to puzzle out how to add that new feature.
By visiting your site’s admin panel and logging in with the appropriate credentials (depending on the tier of access you have been granted) you can:
– Add posts, products, users, pages, categories, tags and more
– Edit content
– Check site stats
– Download a backup
– Change user permissions
– and much more
Want control on the fly? Download the WordPress app for iOS or Android and sign in to your WordPress account.
The creative professionals who work for Rystedt Creative have used other content management systems in the past, but kissed them goodbye and now choose WordPress. Every time. For us and for our clients.
Moving to WordPress
Moving to WordPress is a different process for different organizations with different sites. This short blog post could not cover every use case. Yet, we can point you in the right direction.
There are three ways to get a WordPress website.
- You could visit WordPress.com and get your domain name, hosting, and support directly from Automattic (the organization behind this great software). You can even find free themes and plugins for nearly every basic use case. This approach is very cheap but lacks some of the polish and professional support businesses look for (and customers look for in businesses they are considering buying from). This approach is best for part-time bloggers starting out.
- Have some technical skills yourself? You could build your own WordPress install. Visit WordPress.org, download the software, and install onto your site. The basic install is open source. Keep in mind that you will need to purchase your own domain and server space. You will also be your own support. This is an excellent choice for freelance web-developers who know what they are doing.
This is the best way to begin developing custom WordPress sites for your clients. Need recommendations on where to learn the software? Contact us. If this option sounds confusing to you that’s because this isn’t an option for you at this time. You may need to take some classes first (don’t fret, we believe in you). - Or you could go through a professional creative firm that works with WordPress. They have the knowledge, time, and resources to build your site the way you really want it while still giving you some access to the best CMS on the Web. If this sounds like something you are interested in Contact us for a free consultation.
