I just looked and realized that I hadn’t posted anything since I set up this site. That was six years ago in 2015. My first WordPress site was in 2007.
Blogging was definitely more important in 2007, and that was the focus of WordPress. People were already starting to use it to make websites for businesses and organizations, but it was definitely blog forward. It still is, but the tools to make “real” websites with it have simply exploded. It’s a super easy to use platform, especially if someone sets up the initial site to get you rolling. I used to say that if you can use Microsoft Word, you can maintain your WordPress site.
Well, content wise anyway.
Security and back-end maintenance has only become more important as WordPress has become such a popular platform. I have many clients who came to me with broken, out of date and hacked WordPress sites.
Blogs were certainly still popular when I built this in 2015, but were already being eclipsed by Social Media. Why set up a blog when you can use something that: already exists; your friends are already on; you can post from your phone; doesn’t require any specialized technical knowledge.
I think a lot of people who started blogs just to have a place to post now have SO MANY places to post that they just don’t need them. People still blogging are people for whom it makes sense to have a platform outside of the social media sphere, especially writers, artists and journalists.
So, yes, WordPress is Blogging Software, and this is a Blog Post.
But it’s really so much more.