Author’s Note
I have written a more recent article about using a developer and WordPress.
Original Article About Using a Developer and WordPress
If you’re in the market for a new website, you may have heard of WordPress. The site you’re using right now was built using WordPress. WordPress is great way to build a cheap and fast yet high quality website. It’s so good, it might even make you ask the question, “What the hell do I need to hire a web developer for?”
It’s true. With a little bit of tech savvy and no coding skills whatsoever, you can build a WordPress site for free. The problem is you can only build a site within the scope that WordPress allows, and if you don’t know how to code, then this scope is pretty narrow.
This might lead you to believe that the best way for you to build a site is to build your WordPress site, then talk to a developer after you have it set up. There’s a number of reasons you shouldn’t do this:
- You will likely create redundant work because WordPress development needs to be performed offline, and theme development requires use of what is called a child theme so that updates can be performed without any problems. The bottom line is a lot of things will need to be copied then recopied. And transferring and copying WordPress can often be more complicated than it seems. This costs you time and money.
- You may be limiting your opportunities. WordPress developers tend to know quite a bit about themes and plugins, and even if you plan on setting up the site yourself, it is still worthwhile to obtain a consultation.
- You might find out that WordPress is way more complicated and time consuming than you actually need. With software like Bootstrap, developers can usually bang out a great looking site in no time. And if you don’t plan on updating your site on a regular basis, then that might be the best route for you to take.
The good news is WordPress is open source. That means it’s free. So you can always just try it, and if it doesn’t work out, then you can contact a developer.