Why Maven Uses WordPress
What’s not to love about WordPress?
Now, to be clear, we’re not being paid by WordPress to do some shilling for them. Which is just fine, since we did not have to pay for using it in the first place.
If it seems like we’re biased towards WordPress, then we can tell you that we’re not the only ones: it’s the market leader in Content Management System (CMS) platforms with a staggering 30% market share. Much like Google, it’s basically a “legacy” company; we even recently celebrated its 15th birthday with a community-led party. More than that though, we’re involved in hosting Iloilo City’s first WordCamp, an event that aims to bring together WordPress enthusiasts of all skill levels in a single event (MORE DETAILS HERE!!!).
The primary reason why we’re gravitating towards WordPress is because it’s a platform that’s very friendly to small businesses. But, as you’ll find out in this piece, there’s more to it than just that.
#1 Reason to Use WordPress: It’s Free and Sooooo Easy to Use (and Did We Mention “Free”?)
There’s a reason why almost every blogging beginner starts out with WordPress: it’s just very, very easy to use. How easy, you ask? Well, we’ve taught female parolees who had little-to-no computing experience to create a WordPress blog!
Go back 15-to-20 years, however, and you’d see that setting up a website can be incredibly complicated. Web design as we know it today wasn’t as intuitive and user-friendly back then, and as a web administrator during those times you’re forced to learn as many programming languages as possible. And yes, it’s as brain-exploding as it sounds. Thankfully, it was through WordPress’ widespread adoption that most websites adopted leaner and cleaner looks today.
And best of all, it was, and still, remained free.
However, just because it “casualized” website design and content creation doesn’t mean that it didn’t do a lot of good to today’s developers, too.
Second-Best Reason to Use WordPress: It’s Open-Source
To those who aren’t well-versed in programming, “open-source” sounds like technical hacker-talk. One of the coolest things about it, however, is that unlike most programs that are produced for the purpose of selling them to a mass market, open-source technology is free to use, share and even modified or improved upon.
Much more so today than ever, open-source programs have translated well to an increasingly connected world that is more open to coordination and collaboration. No wonder platforms like WordPress were pretty successful in creating different communities around the world.
This open-source ethos of WordPress might have manifested through the one tool most associated with it: the plugin. In essence, plugins are how countless independent developers were able to make improvements to WordPress itself, and the beauty of it is that they can either share it with fellow users for free or for a small fee.
While a developer’s job is certainly made easier because of WordPress’ flexible toolset, like the opportunity to download various themes and plugins, it also takes a programmer’s specialized training to know how to work around an open-source platform. But other than that, it also allows said developer to make a living by just developing plugins for web administrators who also want to make their work easier.
We’re living in the era of the independent entrepreneur, and WordPress has become the perfect platform for our age because of what it provides for its users.
Third-Best Reason to Use WordPress: It’s going to last for a long, long time
If anything, WordPress’ guiding philosophy has mirrored the push-and-pull between design and execution that we see in many real-world professions — think “architects” and “engineers”, for instance — and it could have only come from a platform that was built on the contributions of its enthusiastic community.
WordPress has long transcended its reputation as a blogging platform. It’s now used for everything from running ecommerce platforms to hosting creator-focused portfolios. And, frankly speaking, we can even say we’re indebted to it since that was how we got our “breaks” in the industry we’re working in today. It allowed us to create the right services for our customers, and it also pushes aspiring entrepreneurs to go beyond their regional boundaries when it comes to looking for new markets.
It’s fostered a community in just about every part of the world with an internet connection, which is why we’re very excited to be a part of the first WordCamp in our city!
WordPress embodies how we could create our own digital spaces by being fluid, adaptable, and, above all, welcoming to users of all skill levels. That’s why we’re using it, and we hope you can also join us in our community, too! See you at our first WordCamp!
