Why I Didn’t Move To WordPress (The Hidden Cons No One Talks About)

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This post was originally published in 2013, but has since been updated. I did eventually make the move to a self-hosted WordPress site, but if you’re not sure if you should do the same, this post still has good points to help inform your decision!

I, like many bloggers before me, started blogging using Blogger, a free website/blog tool offered by Google that makes it easy for anyone to start a blog. It was great for a while, but then I started reading some pretty scary stuff, like how Google owns your content and can shut you down. Woof.

I also was feeling creatively trapped with Blogger. I wanted drop down menu items and a photo gallery and things I just didn’t know how to code. After seeing how happy my other blog friends were on WordPress, I knew it was time to make the switch. Or was it?

WHY WORDPRESS IS AWESOME

WordPress kicks serious behind as far as blogging platforms go. Here are just a few ways in which it does so:

1) Complete Creative Control

Want to create a completely custom theme for your site? Okay. Want a specific image to pop up when you hover over a specific link? No problem. Want to create a lovely, easy to use photo gallery to categorize and display your previous posts? Go for it! Want to be able to choose from thousands of plugins for your site? They’re at your fingertips.

As a full content management system, WordPress gives you the flexibility to make your blog virtually whatever you want it to be. This freedom is a HUGE deal for me, so much so that in my mind, this one bullet point carries the weight of about 20 bullet points in favor of WordPress.

2) Content Ownership

Per their terms, Google has the right to “add or remove functionalities or features [from your blog]” and may “suspend or stop a Service altogether.” {Insert theme music from Psycho here} Scary. It makes me want to back up my blog in five different places just reading that! Amanda at A Royal Daughter explains the issue clearly and in greater detail here, if you’re interested.

3) Support

There are literally hundreds of people all over the world working on the WordPress software, more than most commercial platforms, and the support forums are surprisingly helpful!

4) Ease Of Use

It helps to have a basic understand of blogging terms (“sidebar,” “theme,” “widget,” etc.), but once you understand these simple blog components, you should have no problem navigating your dashboard and producing great posts.

I know what you’re thinking.

IF WORDPRESS IS SO GREAT, THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU MOVE??

Well, I started to. I had purchased web hosting service and a domain name through Bluehost, which was quick and easy. Bluehost’s website has some excellent videos featuring a delightful dude named Paul who walks you through all the steps involved in installing the WordPress software, so I did that as well without any problems. Everything was up, running, and working smoothly, and I couldn’t have been happier. And that’s when things got dicey.

I have a confession to make:

I really don’t know how to code. If you need to add a line break, change a font size or color, or put a space between paragraphs, then I’m your girl. But that’s about all I can do for you. I do, however, know a bit of CSS, at least enough to customize my previous (and current) Blogger blog template. Given that, I thought what little knowledge I had would be sufficient to make the changes I wanted. But boy was I wrong! I was able to customize my blog to a small degree, but for some reason when I would refresh the page I would get a flash of the way my theme looked before customization.

It was UGLY.  After all the time I spent working on the design of my blog, watching this horridness appear–even if only for a moment–instead of my beautiful page made me want to implode in on myself like a dying star.

At this point, I knew I would need professional help getting this site looking the way I want. I must’ve been doing something wrong. But I didn’t know what! I was so frustrated that in a brief moment of weakness (and insanity), I considered giving up blogging altogether! That’s when I took a step back and thought hard about my decision.

WHY I DIDN’T MOVE TO WORDPRESS (EVEN THOUGH I REALLY WANTED TO)

1) Complete Creative Control

I know, I know, this was one of the reasons WordPress was supposed to be awesome. However, the point at which I would need to hire someone to make my blog look the way I want is the point at which I don’t really have the complete creative control I so strongly desired. And even if I paid someone to create exactly what I wanted for my blog—what if I got bored with it? What if I wanted to change something?

I didn’t want to have to rely on someone else to create the look I want, and I didn’t have the time to learn the code I would need to know to create what I want design-wise by myself.

2) Cost

Hosting your own website can be expensive! A year of hosting your site on Bluehost will run you about $5ish a month (that’s $60 a year on the low end), plus potentially another $30-$60+ a year for programs that will back up your site and scan it for malware (and other kind of internet-related buggies). I was able to get my domain name through Bluehost for free for the first year, but after that it would cost me about $12 a year.

Then there is the cost of your framework. I purchased the Genesis framework after reading some great reviews on it, and it was about $60. So before my website was even up and running, it was costing me about $200, not including the cost of paying someone to add a custom design to my site, which on the low end would probably run around $150 and might not even be exactly what I wanted.

I wasn’t prepared to part with that much money, especially considering the audience (or lack thereof) I was reaching. In contrast, Blogger is free, and my new domain name costs about $10 a year. End of story.

3) Blogger Worked

I realized that, in the end, what I wanted to get out of moving to WordPress was a fresh start and a chance to grow my blog from the ground up, and I wanted to do this so I could be better equipped to make connections with my readers. These connections are what ultimately makes blogging so worthwhile for me. If I am not connecting to anyone, why am I writing? Why am I doing any of this?

In the end, a beautiful WordPress site won’t bring my blog new visitors or help me forge new connections with them—only good, quality content will do that. To grow as a blogger, content—not aesthetics—is what I should be focusing on right now. And I really, really want to grow as a blogger.

SO NOW WHAT? WILL YOU EVER MOVE TO WORDPRESS?

Update: February 2022

Since writing this post way back in 2013, I eventually made the transition to a self-hosted WordPress site! I wrote an entire post on what ultimately got me to make the swtcth, which you can read here.

WordPress Alternatives Worth Checking Out (Especially If You’re Not Tech-Savvy)

There are now a TON of different WordPress alternatives that might be a great option if you aren’t yet ready to make the switch to a self-hosted WordPress site. Here are a few of the ones I’d recommend:

• Squarespace
• Wix
• Weebly

There are many more, but these have (as far as I can tell) a good reputation, and they make blog customization super simple. In the years since these website building platforms have come out, they’ve gotten impressively good at making professional looking websites and blogs easy to make.

DESIGNING ON WORDPRESS HAS GOTTEN EASIER

If you’re ultimately wanting a self-hosted WordPress site but feel intimidated by getting started, I have good news for you! Designing a website on WordPress has gotten a LOT easier since this post was originally published.

Most WordPress themes nowadays make it easy to customize the font, size, color, and layout of your website/blog. My favorite theme right now is the Kadence theme. It is a paid theme, but it is coded very well and has offers a robust number of ways to customize your website.

While you can use the Kadence theme to build sales pages and lead pages, my favorite builder for these types of pages is Elementor. You can do a TON with the free version of Elementor, but the paid Pro version offers benefits that are, in my opinion, well worth it–especially if you want to be able to create popups that your readers can use to subscribe to your website’s email list.