Posted on 11/29/2012 8:59:51 AM PST by Chickensoup
Wordpress is great for websites. Easy to setup, lots of free plugin tools to add advanced functionality, great for SEO, FREE, and many other benefits. I’m a huge Wordpress fan and have multiple websites all built on the Wordpress platform.
It depends what is being done for the $3k. A lot of people on here say that the software is free, so you shouldn’t have to pay anything to have it set up. They are not correct. I can almost guarantee you that none of them have their sites setup correctly (or get any meaningful traffic).
Also, you need to think what your goals are. What does your website do? Are you ranked anywhere for keywords that you want to preserve? Will you be preserving the link structure, or at least redirecting to the new content pages so that you don’t take a dive in the rankings when you switch?
The point is, yes you can probably get wordpress setup yourself in about 30 minutes or so, but you will not probably pick out the best combination of plugins to use with the site for your application ... (there are over 100,000 plugins)
Pick the correct link structure for your posts and pages.
Adequately secure the site from sql injection attacks, insecure plugins, form spam etc
Make the correct changes to the Wordpress code to make it SEO friendly.
Correctly implement your analytics and tracking code.
Automate your internal linking structure.
Automate and secure your RSS feeds.
Correctly limit the ip ranges that can access your site.
Correctly rewrite your robots.txt
Correctly reprogram the rel links in Wordpress to be more Google friendly. (HINT: out of the box, Wordpress can hurt your ranking because of recent changes to the way Google uses rel=next and rel=prev tags which are coded throughout wordpress.)
In short, you get what you pay for, just ask them to outline exactly what you are paying for bring it back here for a look.
I’m with you on C# and the Asp.Net framework. There is a free edition of Visual Studio 2012 (Express) and you can even use a version of Sql Server (compact edition) for light database work. There are many many examples and templates to do most common types of sites. 3K sounds like a lot for a transfer... .
I’ve been blogging for years on Blogger. It was easy to figure out and a great way to start blogging.
Now I’d like to take my blog to the next level, so I looked at WP. Very happy with it. I started a private blog there to learn how to use the software and what not, and when I feel comfortable (and after New Years when I have the time) I am going to move my blog from Blogger to WP.
I know someone who offered to do it for me but I’m self employed and can’t really afford big bucks to do it. So I’ll do it little by little.
I also noticed my local community college had a intro to blogging adult ed course, and they teach blogging on Word Press. I may also end up doing that as well if I need extra help.
Good luck with your blog!
3k is way overpriced!
I have experts (personal friends) here in Central Europe who just did a pro site for a friend for about $1000 including splashy graphics, etc.
If you want, I can give you their contact and show you their work.
I build my own, as it’s very simple and flexible.
There are a lot of themes and plugins that can do all kinds of magic.
I only use Wordpress these days except for some of my older sites, but almost all have some PHP.
Oh, and two wickis... I use MediaWicki.
You can keep your domain while using the service provided by wordpress.com - it’s only $13 a year. Trust me on this, just give it a try before you decide.
I have been considering switching to Wordpress too, but I would not pay $3000 for someone else to do it for me. I think I could do it myself in 10 or 15 hours. Wordpress is really easy to work with.
Correctly reprogram the rel links in Wordpress to be more Google friendly. (HINT: out of the box, Wordpress can hurt your ranking because of recent changes to the way Google uses rel=next and rel=prev tags which are coded throughout wordpress.)
______________
Can that be modified?
I am bumping this thread as it helped me make the decision to make a jump from a GoDaddy site to a Wordpress-based site.
FWIW there is a pretty good podcast series by http://yourwebsiteengineer.com/ that I now listen to, and a recent podcast 110 talks about some pretty good ways to set up your own blog on wordpress.com, or how to use the wordpress.org repository software on a self-hosted site.
what’s the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
A simplified version is this: WordPress.org is an information and “grab the software” repository; WordPress.com uses the same core software, but focuses on the provision of hosting services, some basic ones for free, but with some add-ons for a fee.
More info on this is also at http://diythemes.com/thesis/rtfm/differences-wordpress-com-org/
My public service for the day.
FL
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