After a recent presentation, a medical professional who runs her own solo-practice approached me.   She currently has a basic, static, website and wants to upgrade it.  She wants a website that she can update and manage herself.

To date she had not found any solutions that would let her easily manage her site. Everything seemed to be too complicated and costly.  She wondered if I had any suggestions for her.

I asked her if she had ever heard of WordPress and she said no.  We talked a bit more about the benefits of WordPress and how she could use it to develop and run her site.

I thought you might be interested as well, so  here are key points that  you might want to think about as you consider WordPress for building and maintaining your site.

1)  Isn’t WordPress just for blogs?  Not Anymore!

For starters, WordPress lets you create both static pages (akin to a page in your website) and posts, like this oneJ  And there are no rules…want all static pages…you can have them, want all posts…you can have them….want a combo…you can have it!

2)  When it comes to cost, WordPress can’t be beat.

How much does it cost…wordpress.org describes it this way “WordPress is free and priceless.”   WordPress is an open source project, which means that anyone from you to a Fortune 500 company can download the software without paying any licensing or maintaince fees.

Since it’s inception in 2003, WordPress has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on hundreds of thousands of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

3)  Can anyone use WordPress?

Do you know how to send an e-mail, use MSWord, set up your facebook page?  Then you can use WordPress…it’s really that easy.  It’s website and content creation for non-techies.

4)  Add a template designed for Business and you are in charge!

You may be most familiar with blogs that look like a…blog.  Most blog templates are one or two columns, with the categories listed on the right or left had side, and the postings in chronological order.

But today, there are several ready to go WordPress powered templates that look more like a “website” than a blog and you can buy off the shelf.  They typically cost under $100.00!

Here are a couple of WordPress business templates that I would recommend:

• WooThemes has recently released the VibrantCMS theme. 
• Brian Gardner, the brains behind Revolution Theme, has a great business template called Revolution Pro Business. 
• iThemes has the most robust portfolio of WordPress business templates that I have come across.  Starting with the very simple Business Card/Brochure theme, to the more robust Corporate, iCompany, iReal Estate, Ecommerce, to Viz/Biz (a great template for creative professionals to showcase their work.) 

5)  Still not sure?  Check out these two sites  Ford Auto Show and Simms Furniture .  One is a Forutne 500 and the other is a small business. Both are powered by WordPress…but guess what was missing in both sites?  Yes you guessed it a blog!

6)  Does this mean that I won’t need technical support anymore?

Not necessarily.  You still have to select a host site and set up your domain, download the WordPress software and your template.  Depending on the functionality included in your template, you will probably want to add plug-ins, to further customize your site. You will probably want to customize the template with a banner and maybe tweak the color.

If you are familiar with all of this, then you won’t need a technical resource.  If not, you will want a professional to set the site up for you and be available for future support.

With WordPress, you will feel like you’ve been “given the keys to your web kingdom” free software, shrinkwrap templates for under a $100, minimal techie involvement, and you are in charge!

To learn more about WordPress, visit their site at www.wordpress.org.