WordPress Blog

[gernot]

Hi

At the moment, I'm maintaining a blog on WordPress.COM. Now I wonder, if I should get my own domain - I've read that's better. I've heard you can do more on your own domain. But also someone recently pointed out to me, that Drupal was better. What the difference and which one is better as a CMS?

[chris.p]

You should definitely get your own domain. There are few reasons to run a subdomain site (one on someone else's domain) and I don't think you qualify - for example if you just don't care about traffic, future direction etc. Or you can run one of those to promote your main site sometimes.

In your case you need a domain under your own control. Some tips:
- Choose a name that includes a search term for your niche, if possible
- Pick a good domain registrar with a comprehensive control panel
- Never under any circumstances allow a host to hold your domains

As far as WP vs Drupal is concerned, Wordpress is just fine if it does what you want. It can be run in blog mode or micro-cms mode, depending on what you need. Drupal is a fully-loaded cms and will be very much harder for you to manage. I'd advise its use if you need good ACL, which is different user group access rights. As this is not a function of WP and presumably you don't miss it, I reckon you could give that a miss. There are other cms that do what WP does, and do it a lot better, such as Mambo and Joomla. These are easier to manage than Drupal and don't (as yet) have any ACL complications to worry about.

So if you wanted a big increase in capability you'd pick one of those, probably not Drupal, which is overkill. otherwise I suggest you stay with WP if does what you need. Make sure to get the right plugins though - everything in the world of dynamic webapps (database-driven website tools) hinges on the plugins, the core apps don't do a lot and what they do, they do in a clunky fashion. You fix issues and add functionality with plugins.

[simpleton]

OK, I understood basically what you're saying. But where will I get visitors from, when I leave WordPress.COM. There is this marvelous community which comes by because of the community shared tags etc. And could you say a word on 'micro-cms' please? What is the difference ot a blog?

[chris.p]

A micro-cms is a publishing tool that may be used as a blog but can do more. For example if you want sections of pages on your site, that are grouped by category and not date of posting; or pages that look like a standard website; or add-on features like a wiki, image gallery or directory section - these are things a micro-cms does better than a pure blogging app. WP is about the best of these though Movable Type may suit some users better.

You also need to take into account the availability of plugins as everything you do is based on them. SEO plugins are important with database-driven webapps since out of the box their performance is dreadful. But that's not really a fault, it's just a default condition that you must fix. For example you don't want a situation where there are multiple URLs (addresses) for the same page, that is a massive negative. Most dynamic apps (ie database-driven websites) suffer from this as a default condition, and you have to fix it as a first task.

To make your site successful you have to do two things -- get traffic and then engage your visitors in some way. That may be for a commercial purpose or simply to make your site popular.

The first stage is to get traffic. The simplest way is to look at keywords that relate to your site's theme, and ensure the site uses them correctly. If the site is about leisure flying and specifically about flying lessons at a certain airfield, then you must do three things:

1. Research the terms that interested visitors are likely to use when searching for resources like yours, and integrate those terms well on the site. Obviously, 'flying lessons' is a candidate but 'flying lessons seattle' etc may be a much better route at first.
2. Get links to your site that use those terms as the anchor text.
3. Look at how to get your site listed on niche sites for leisure flying, and in local listings for your area.

The idea is that when people are looking at resources in your niche they come across your site, and so you must have good visibility or that won't happen. Then, you have to convert them once on your site - get them to buy or to engage in some other way.