Wordpress or roll my own?

I'm just getting started here, my first site launched a few days ago using wordpress and pages are gradually appearing in google now but no human traffic yet... but I live in hope!

However, it occurs to me that it would be a pain to manage a large number of wordpress blogs spread across multiple servers, with installing and updating (code updates) etc. Also any time I want to customize something at the moment I have to spend ages digging through various templates or php code.

So I was wondering should I just build my own simple 'blog' system? Since I don't really need all the functionality of wordpress anyway it seems pointless to use it. Is a custom system the better way in the long run? Or are there reasons why I should stick with wordpress?

Building a "custom" system is going to give you "custom" problems . Wordpress is free, updated constantly, and the most supported blog system in the world.

You should get somebody to help make you some automated system for creating wordpress blogs.. If you cant find something already made...

Building a "custom" system is going to give you "custom" problems . Wordpress is free, updated constantly, and the most supported blog system in the world.

You should get somebody to help make you some automated system for creating wordpress blogs.. If you cant find something already made...

search engines like wordpress
if you can't edit simple php files of wordpress how will you create your own so called "custom system"
Wordpress have beautiful themes - change three tiume before you sleep and three times after you wake up
any help with wordpress is easy - like writers, editors etc but for a custom system there is only one einstein and he died long time ago.

regards

jamunkala said:

search engines like wordpress
if you can't edit simple php files of wordpress how will you create your own so called "custom system"
Wordpress have beautiful themes - change three tiume before you sleep and three times after you wake up
any help with wordpress is easy - like writers, editors etc but for a custom system there is only one einstein and he died long time ago.

regards

Click to expand...

The problem is not that I can't edit simple php files, it is that I am not generally a php coder and not familiar with wordpress code yet so when I want to do some custom mod it takes time digging through code to find where to change something small.

On the other hand I could code my own system in a language I am familiar with which does only what I need and nothing more and then mods would be simple for me to do.

You say "search engines like wordpress" - but why? What is it that they like about wordpress in particular? Is there any proof that google likes wordpress more than any other? Ultimately it is just a platform to publish html..

Wordpress is certainly a nice system for actual blogging, but it has way more features than I would ever need just to throw up a load of small niche sites with a few articles on each..

Alternatively, maybe just have one wordpress multiblog thing and use squid on remote vps servers for each blog so the real location is not visible and there's only one installation to maintain?

GoForMo said:

The problem is not that I can't edit simple php files, it is that I am not generally a php coder and not familiar with wordpress code yet so when I want to do some custom mod it takes time digging through code to find where to change something small.

On the other hand I could code my own system in a language I am familiar with which does only what I need and nothing more and then mods would be simple for me to do.

Click to expand...

You know a web programming language and you can't work though PHP? What web language do you know?

BHopkins said:

You know a web programming language and you can't work though PHP? What web language do you know?

Click to expand...

Didn't say I can't, just that I am not as yet familiar with the wordpress code so perhaps a better use of my time would be to roll my own since maybe that would be better in the long run if I plan to have many sites on multiple servers.

Personally I would learn my way around WP. Once you do you might not turn away from it. There are tools to manage multiple wp sites. There are so many addons and there are always making great add on IM.

I actually did build my own system with php/mysql and have a little over 700 pages on my one blog using it. Here's some of the positives and negatives...

Positive +
+Easy to change custom appearance
(biggest plus for me)
+Know it inside and out
+Less spam
(spammers don't take the time to create bots for my comment section and they get discouraged easily once I delete their manual comments within 24 hours)
+Can easily adjust anything for SEO - Image alt text,title,filenames,linking structure
+page load time
(my pages have 30+ images, are .5mb, use 1 CSS file + 1 sprite and load in under a second)
+I think it gives me a boost in SEO
(I started ranking 9th for a 720 monthly search term by creating a single 250 word post with an image)

Negative -
-Took time
(make sure to work everything out b4 you start because going through to change your system when you've got 500 pages is a huge pain)
-Google doesn't care at first
(google loves wordpress because they know where everything is and can index it in a snap, it took over 2 months for googlebot to work out my system and find everything. I launched with 150 pages)
-Harder to integrate social media
(Those FB like boxes suck, it's by far the slowest loading thing on my website)
-security
(you have to worry about security, although nothing's happened I still make backups at least once a week)


It's really up to you but I would recommend at least trying it because you'll learn so much in the process.

I agree with the others ... learn WordPress!

If you want to know why G loves WP, google it, but basically it is:
WordPress takes care of 80-90% of (the mechanics of) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Let's put it simple Google loves Wordpress infact it's Google's best friend because unique content is being generated and WP is search engine friendly and does not build any trash if you use it correctly of course

I would definently stick to WP - I know you want to be different and say hey everyone is using WP however there is a reason to why we all use WP it's because right now it is the best at what it does

Hi,
I agree with Zakhar because Wordpress is a nice system for actual blogging but the problem it's that when I make a transition from an existing website to wordpress. The site seems slow and I can not really diagnose the problem.
if anyone can help me plz

mark27 said:

Positive +
+Easy to change custom appearance
(biggest plus for me)
+Know it inside and out
+Less spam
(spammers don't take the time to create bots for my comment section and they get discouraged easily once I delete their manual comments within 24 hours)
+Can easily adjust anything for SEO - Image alt text,title,filenames,linking structure
+page load time
(my pages have 30+ images, are .5mb, use 1 CSS file + 1 sprite and load in under a second)
+I think it gives me a boost in SEO
(I started ranking 9th for a 720 monthly search term by creating a single 250 word post with an image)

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. Also I reckon with a template function and a bit of mod_rewrite it is simple enough emulate anything that wordpress does anyway as far as on page seo.

As for security I would say as long as the usual precautions are taken with regards web dev such as sql injection etc. then a custom system is less likely to get hacked since the automated tools used by script kiddies don't know anything about your site and unless someone really has a grudge against your site (or you get really big) there's not much chance of anyone bothering. Plus not having all the multi-user and other functionality that wordpress has also removes a lot of potential security problems.

I would like to know exactly what google likes about wordpress though.. but perhaps thats a subject for another thread.

jamunkala said:

search engines like wordpress
if you can't edit simple php files of wordpress how will you create your own so called "custom system"
Wordpress have beautiful themes - change three tiume before you sleep and three times after you wake up
any help with wordpress is easy - like writers, editors etc but for a custom system there is only one einstein and he died long time ago.

regards

Click to expand...

I agree wholeheartedly. stick with wordpress.

I disagree. Wordpress is bloated and not as performant as a custom solution. Plenty of web frameworks to choose from. You need to have front end skills also. If Google loves Wordpress, duplicate the page elements that Wordpress has and construct the Markup in a similar manner.

Stick to Wordpress dude.
A custom script will be a bigger pain in the ass. All maintenance will be up to use.
Unless you intend to be different, continue with Wordpress.

id stick with wordpress. its very customizable, easy to use and has great online support

have fun fixing bugs all day long whilst the other
wordpress users put up there latest blogs


using wordpress does not dis-credit your website
if it did nobody would be using it

think smart - smart work is better than hard work