WordPress or Pure Design via HTML Coding

newfabear

New Member
Hi,

I last done some web design around five years ago and have decided to dip my feet back in again after speaking to a friend about Internet Marketing. My question is that if you intend to create a number of different sites how would you decide whether to base them around Wordpress themes or code the sites up manually.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Matt
 

jonweb2009

New Member
It is about personal choice,

and what kind of websites you want to create.

If you just want to fill some articles then wordpress is enough.

if you want to create some professional sites you may start from hand coding.

Or you could use JOOMLA with variety of templates.
 

newfabear

New Member
Think I will need to get a balance between the both like they say "Content is King" so either way got to get that sorted before I decide on the technicalities I suppose.
 

hankyjohn

New Member
i would like to use wordpress because its very to easy to maintain contents and add new pages, change designs etc. For a technical person, wordpress works best.
 

5minutejoomla

New Member
I assume that you mean by "code the sites up manually" that you are referring to HTML? If you are, and your clients want 3 -5 page brochure type sites, then you could probably churn those out faster with an HTML editor and a couple of template files.

However, once you get over 5 pages or the client plans to update it themselves and want more functionality (like widgets that do things), you should go with Wordpress.

If they want people to sign up, access special information, have multiple authors, a directory, events, community etc. then it's time to get up to speed on either Joomla or Drupal.

If you are doing this for yourself for internet marketing, then you are the client and just need to consider the level of complexity you are considering. Most IM folks use Wordpress because it falls in the middle of ease of use vs. professional functionality and there are a number of tools the IM folks like that run in WP.
 

PixelPusher

Super Moderator
Staff member
Really depends on what the client intends to do with the website and whether they are wanting to manage content or pay you to do it.
 

northpark

New Member
It's up to the client. I've had someone with a fairly static 3 page site want content management and on the other hand i've built large sites with no cms because the clients prefer to leave updates in my hands (which suits me fine!).

I wouldn't add cms for my own benefit because i've not found one i'm totally happy with although i'm thinking about trying expression engine as i've heard it's great.

Wordpress is good because it's quick to learn and because of all the plugins already available for free. I've found joomla, drupal etc to have too steep a learning curve and for the majority of jobs i've done, a bit overkill.

I bet a client comes along insisting on Drupal or Joomla now ;)
 
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aracaris

New Member
As others have said, it really just depends on what your needs are. Personally I often times find that I like to have a combination of the two, with articles being largely WordPress, and other pages being .html (or .shtml).
If you like both, there's no need to go exclusively with just one or the other (plus if you are going to be taking on clients you should learn both, because chances are good you'll have clients that want one or the other or a combo of both), it's quite possible to have a site with both work very very well, in which case which you use will come down to the needs of a given page within a site. What's really nice is your WordPress pages and the rest of your site can be made to look pretty much identical, so there's a seamless transition from one to another.

I'm thinking of starting to learn Drupal or Joomla, any recommendations for which one to start with? Or should I just in and start learning both?
 
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