April 14, 2011

Off Topic: Is WordPress Worth the Brain Damage?

By day, I'm in marketing so occasionally you'll see bits and pieces of things I'm testing for my agency. That little orange PR you see is part of a trial of the next-newest-best-thing-for-the-social-media-marketer. Actually, every widget and gadget on this blog has a purpose. Sometimes I think it's to cause dain bramage.

There are a lot of metrics when it comes to social media, all to be taken with a huge pinch of salt. I personally like most Google products including Analytics, AdSense and, obviously, Blogger. Despite the name, Google Buzz, not so much. PostRank+Google Reader is what's being tested today. The more metrics I can see, the less salt I have to use and the happier I am.

I'd love to love WordPress but it scares me. They have a 6-step "Famous 5-Minute Install" that has me saying, "Huh?!?" at step 2. "Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it." Really? WTF does that mean? Talk about brain damage.

So tell me fellow bloggers, is WordPress worth the brain damage? Do I need to break out of my Google box? Feel free to leave a comment, or simply vote in the poll at right. The poll is closed. There were 2 votes, both for WordPress! THX!
Anyone else having trouble using BlogThis! to upload images via Picasa?
On Topic: What's Blooming in the 'hood
Pear, cherry and crabapple trees: fabulous for the BOBs
Redbud trees: a member of the legume family, which produces ample amounts of nectar and pollen
creeping phlox and veronica
henbit and dandelions

EDITOR'S NOTE: PostRank was so great that it was bought by Google and sunset on 05/12/2012.

4 comments:

Grant said...

Wordpress is totally worth the brain damage.

The good news with Step 2 is that because WordPress is so popular most servers have tools to turn that 6 steps process into a single click :)

But even with the traditional install, I love the flexibility of it.

HB said...

I finally figured out there are two (2) wordpresses. The .com one is free and the .org one is not free. The former is good for blogging. The latter is better for web sites which, being fully-featured, could include a blog page.

The 6-Step program does not apply to the .com version. PHEW! However, with the free version of wordpress, you kind of get what you pay for: a basic blog.

The 6-Step program only applies to the .org version, which requires paying for web hosting. And the host you're paying is paid to make Step 2 a non-issue. So now all I need is for my visitors to start clicking on the ads so I can afford to pay for web hosting. It's only $6 a month but, yes, I am *that* frugal.

Solarbeez said...

My daughter set this up for me. I love it...the only thing I don't like about it is trying to leave comments to 'blogger.' So many times I've written something only to have it disappear. Now I 'copy' before I 'publish.'

HB said...

@Solarbeez Commenting on Blogger can get weird, especially if the word jumble is activated. I have double-commented many times before realizing that my original comment was simply waiting for moderation. WordPress is a bit more obvious in this respect. Unfortunately I've been getting a lot of spam (on this very post actually) so I turned on the word jumble. My apologies for any inconvenience.

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