On a daily basis I get asked by my peers and other up and coming entrepreneurs, which website building platform they should use to build their site. Everyone has their favorites and depending on the person, my answer may be different. I’d like to clear up some common misconceptions about WordPress and tell you what the real deal is.

I may be biased but for me, it’s always WordPress. I’ve used others but none of them gave me the flexibility and control I wanted. I’ve used the software at WordPress.com (same software but different in “how” it’s used.); Wix, Weebly, etc.

And back when I was a wedding planner, I used a platform offered by Showit.co. It’s a website building platform that specializes in sites for photographers. Other wedding professionals use them but the design elements of their sites focus on the needs of photographers.

Anyway…when I tell entrepreneurs they should use WordPress, they hit me back with all kinds of excuses. The main excuse is that it’s too hard to learn. I always tell them, “The same way you learned how to use Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft Word, Excel and other software programs…you can learn to use WordPress. WordPress is nothing more than another piece of software.”

But…I get it. In the world of 9 to 5 schedules and a home life that may not allow for a lot of free time, entrepreneurs need things done quickly. Plus, if the interface isn’t fun to use, people get bored and that makes it harder to learn.

WordPress is as easy to learn as any other software program you’re using today.

Misconception Number 1: “It’s too expensive.” – It’s actually free. Those other companies charge you to use THEIR software in order to build your site. It’s the hosting and domain that costs money and 99.9% of the time, using WordPress on a self-hosted plan is cheaper than what you pay the others on an annual basis.

Misconception Number 2: “You need to know how to code to use WordPress.” – There are thousands of WordPress website themes available today and some of them are drag and drop, which is perfect for the non-techie type. But even if the theme is NOT drag and drop, there are little programs called plugins…many of them free…that you can add to your WordPress site.

These little programs allow you to build any page on your site using the drag and drop technology. I use one in particular very often to customize certain areas of my clients’ sites…AND I KNOW HOW TO CODE!

Misconception Number 3 (The biggest one of all!): “It’s too hard to learn.” – Trust me…WordPress is as easy to learn as any other software program you’re using today. There are a ton of tutorials on the web that will teach you the basics. There are also plugins you can install on your WordPress dashboard that will walk you through how to add a blog, a blog post, a page, an image, etc. (Check out WP101.)

Here’s the real reason it seems that WordPress is hard to learn…

Users will often choose a theme where the demo looks great and it has all the functionality they want in their own site. They download the theme, install it onto their site and expect it to look exactly like the demo.

It hardly ever works out that way!

Hold on…I need to get a bit technical here, but stay with me!

They find out later that the elements that make the site look the way it does are all hard coded into the programming code of the theme. This means there is no GUI (graphical user interface), (pronounced goo-eeee) easy to use screens to help them create the look, feel and function of their website. And on top of that, the theme doesn’t come with specific enough instructions on how to set it up. Many times, they either end up hiring me or some other programmer to set it up for them or they just give up.

The other platforms are great if you don’t mind limited creative options and paying more for your site.

But honestly…if you’re going to maintain your own website anyway, having a WordPress site is a more secure, more cost effective way to do it.

Today there are thousands of free and premium themes available that requires NO CODING. These themes come ready to load; “out of the box” with minor adjustments and all are easy to do. If there are optional custom elements included in the theme that require you to use some “code”, the developer of the theme includes the code AND the instructions on how to use it with every download. But these are usually optional.

So…Are you ready to build your site?