First, I’d like to mention that there are a number of really great CMS solutions out there (both PHP and .NET based) that are all good solutions. We do preach Expression Engine and WordPress the most, as those are our favorite solutions. But we can work with a variety of them.

More often than not however, we’re probably preaching WordPress, as we’ve just found it the easiest for clients to use. For whatever reason (well actually because it’s structured so elegantly) we have the easiest time (by far) training a client how to use it. We’ve quite successfully spent 30 minute training sessions with very non-technical clients, and they immediately take to it.

The point of this late Saturday night entry, however, is regarding the aversion people have when they hear WordPress. Clients that are technically inclined, will immediately recognize it as a great solution, and more often than not are coming to us asking for it. However, with folks that are not as technical, when they hear WordPress, they immediately think of a blog. They express question and doubt regarding wordpress, and it becomes a bit hard to peel them away from that notion.

It just dawned on me why. The confusion is from them not knowing the difference between WordPress the CMS and the free blog solution WP offers on wordpress.com. Wordpress.com is a free blog that anyone can signup and start, that sits on a stripped down version of the WordPress CMS. This is a fantastic solution for anyone that wants to simply start a personal blog or site, doesn’t want to pay for it, and wants to benefit from having a URL at wordpress.com. However, that is quite different from having a custom designed website, and having it hand coded, and integrated into the WP CMS platform. 

So to wrap up this late night writing, I hope that this is the reason why folks have the stigma with the term WordPress, and that we can easily remove the concern with a simple explanation. We wouldn’t be suggesting WordPress (or any other CMS or Ecommerce solution for that matter) if we didn’t do our homework and feel it is absolutely the right one.