Which platform do you use? Why? And, would you recommend it? Did you build/design the site yourself or did you hire someone? Any recommendations?
We use Wordpress to run our blog and would definitely recommend it! Although we don’t have experience with any other blogging platform, we’ve found that Wordpress is really easy to use and easy to change the design of. By using themes we have been able to build and change the design of our blog all on our own. Currently we are running on the Black Olive theme by Angie Makes and it has been our favorite! In the past we have also downloaded themes from Etsy and Theme Forest. Although some of the themes are easier to use than others, for the most part they make keeping up with the design element really easy.
Another thing we love about Wordpress are the plugins! There are tons of options for add-ons to your site. However, we have learned to be careful with the plugins we download and the amount of them we use on the site. Too many plugins can slow your site down and a bad plugin can cause a total crash of your website. It’s important to read the reviews and check that a plug in is compatible with your version of Wordpress before installing it.
Finally, what we love about Wordpress the most is that you can use it to design just about any kind of website, not just a blog! We also use it to run our shop! The theme we use for the shop is bundled with WooCommerce, so we’re able to easily manage the entire store, from inventory management to tax collection, in Wordpress.
One thing we would add to a great Wordpress experience is self hosting. Self hosting helps you appear more professional and allows you greater flexibility! We purchased our domain and hosting for both of our websites from GoDaddy. We can’t attest to the performance of GoDaddy v. other hosting sites, but we can say that for the most part, we have no complaints! Their customer service has been very helpful over the years, from offering advice about private domain registrations and SSL certificates, to helping us set up our blog on our domain. They were even able to help us out of a bind when a bad plugin caused our site to crash!
What about you, what platform do you use?
– Brooke & Erica
Hop on over to Peaches In A Pod to see what Whitney and Blaire have to say!
