Have you ever heard of WordPress? Chances are pretty good you have, if you’ve looked into blogging or creating your own website. WordPress has grown tremendously from the days when it was merely a blogging platform, to the point where it can be considered a content management system. Twenty-five percent of all websites globally use WordPress.* Over 76.5 million blogs use it, with over 50,000 WordPress websites being added daily. Two point five billion posts have been written with it.
I love WordPress myself, and use it for numerous websites I’ve created. But I’ll confess, as it’s been improved over the years, it’s gotten complicated. That’s one reason I teach WordPress classes, to help users over the rough spots.
I recently did a brief survey of authors to find out what frustrates them about WordPress, out of curiosity and as an aid to creating future classes. I used SurveyMonkey. Twenty people answered it, so it was hardly a scientific study, but I suspect your answers would be similar.
Question 1: Do you have a WordPress website?
Question 2: How would you rate your feelings about the following aspects of WordPress?
The respondents were provided with a rating scale of very difficult, somewhat difficult, neutral, somewhat easy, and very easy. The choices were:
- Getting a domain name (URL)
- Getting hosting for your website
- Installing WordPress
- Installing a theme
- Getting the right settings
- Posting blog posts
- Posting website pages
- Adding images to pages or posts
Here’s how the above tasks were ranked in difficulty, grouping together very and somewhat difficult:
- Getting the right settings (46%)
- Posting website pages (33%)
- Installing a theme (30%)
- Installing WordPress (28%)
- Adding images (23%)
- Getting a domain name (0%)
- Getting hosting (7%)
- Posting blog posts (14%)
In the comments, additional frustration was mentioned with plugins and widgets, as well as choosing themes and getting support after the initial setup.
I hope you found these statistics interesting! May you have good experiences with your own WordPress websites!
*This and the statistics in this paragraph come from Craig Smith at DMR, http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/wordpress-statistics/