Is WordPress the Right Choice for Your Business? - Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

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I want to use WordPress to set up my
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business website do I want to try and
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set this up for my by myself or do I
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want to hire somebody I have a story a
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long time ago
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where I made things sold things
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and I had a problem because I wasn't
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getting paid when I chip stuff and I
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realized the reason I wasn't getting
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paid was I didn't send out any invoices
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so people don't pay you if you don't
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answer the money so I thought well okay
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I'm gonna take care of my books I'm
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gonna learn how to keep my books and I'm
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gonna spend and I spend a lot of time on
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my books you know what happened I didn't
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make any art so I hired somebody because
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if that's not what I want to do and it
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makes me crazy to have to do it get
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somebody else to do it for you
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[Music]
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WordPress is a popular content
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management system used by many small
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business owners but are there some
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businesses it simply isn't suited to
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support e-commerce for example Kirsch
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mcconnellogue of
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wefixbrokenwebsites.com has been working
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with WordPress since 2005 and tells us
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about the platform's benefits and its
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limitations so kurch just to get started
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um what kind of business or business
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businesses that is a WordPress website
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passport now I I realize this is a
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loaded question because I think there's
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probably I mean WordPress is very
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versatile but in general in general we
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were talking before the show about the
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kinds of businesses that wordpresses
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probably best suited for at least in its
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simplest form well you're right about
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the loaded question I mean theoretically
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you could do anything on a WordPress
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site I mean there's big I'm not sure New
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York Times is the right answer but
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there's a lot of real big
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companies that use WordPress but if
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you're little and you're just starting
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out and you're a little bit
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you you want to make sure people uh know
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where your store is they want to know
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where you're you know that don't I've
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had therapists who say that what they
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really like about their website is
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somebody goes there and gets directions
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they don't have to have a secretary
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answering the question of how do I get
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to your office so simple straight up
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almost slightly better than a brochure
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that's like the basic of basicness but
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then if you want to have uh if you want
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to have a Blog if you want to do some
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sort of educational stuff it's great for
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that it's I mean it's good and if you
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have this thing you want to sell it's
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good for sales and and again there's we
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talked about this before it's a there's
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a I have a book or I have a sweater I
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want to sound then you don't need
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woocommerce you don't need Shopify you
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don't need anything else you need
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essentially uh it could use a PayPal
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button that you get from PayPal to put
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on and that would work or you have three
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things you want to sell and you could
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use the gravity forms or something like
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that to let people just buy this one
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thing and it's great but if you go into
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hundreds of jewelry uh that's going to
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be you know turning over maybe Shopify
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is a better answer and here's one that
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you'll have to look up Mal's Dash
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e-commerce
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m-a-l-s-e is if you have if you have um
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things you're selling and you have lots
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and lots of options for each thing
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woocommerce is paying the next for that
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but Mouse does great work
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should explain quickly for those who are
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not for uninitiated what woocommerce is
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Commerce is a plug-in for for WordPress
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that allows you to set up sales I think
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they also do memberships uh anything you
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want people to buy it's it's it's kind
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of tedious to set up in the first place
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a lot of boxes to miss and things to not
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get quite right but if you're selling
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you know t-shirts in small medium and
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large it's great if you have some
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collection of uh just a lot of things
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but not thousands of things although it
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could support thousands of things so I
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so I think what I'm hearing is and we
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talked about this a little bit before
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the show started though it might be a
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controversial statement if you're just
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getting started and you're gonna you're
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planning to set up a whole store full of
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and then you have hundreds or thousands
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of pieces of merchandise all kinds of
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things like that that might not be the
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best use a store like that uh is is more
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a store and less
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sharing of information for example
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Amazon which is not a WordPress site
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Amazon doesn't try to educate you they
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just try to sell you stuff and maybe
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that's the maybe that's the bottom line
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of you know what are you trying to do on
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your website just sell stuff maybe not
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the best choice but if you're trying to
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do some education some more information
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you're trying to pass off at you know
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classes or something like that then
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Spotify how do you decide if WordPress
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is is right for you and maybe
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one of the things that we should think
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about here when we're asking this
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question is there's kind of other ways
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you can promote your business too you
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can you can have a there are people who
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have a Facebook page for example and
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nothing else you know a lot of people
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who are new think well I don't need all
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that I could just have a Facebook page
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or Facebook group but in Facebook I
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don't I'm making this number up but
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content has a shelf life of about 20
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minutes and if somebody misses it on
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that 20 minute thing then you've lost
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something I'm not saying it's nothing
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but you know it's it's you might start
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there but once you're sure that you're
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really moving ahead and you really want
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to have an actual website that actually
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has content on it and information on it
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then you want to move into the next
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thing and some people will say Wix or or
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whatever the Squarespace or something
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like that
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um
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uh I'm a WordPress person so I'm going
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to tell you all that's crap but it's
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probably not depending on what you want
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to do with it if you want somebody to
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keep coming back to your website not
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just you saw an ad and want to buy these
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shoes that you know that's that's one
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kind of website but if you want people
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to come back to to uh learn to know who
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you are to like you to trust you and
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then get around to buying something you
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got to have more than just a store even
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in a brick and mortar store people come
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in they're going to look can I help you
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no I'm just looking and they do that a
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couple of times and then they decide you
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know what I'm going to go back there and
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buy something but you have to get
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through the know me like me trust me
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before you can pass me your money
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whatever it is I want to say I want to
6:32
use WordPress to set up my business
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website do I want to try and set this up
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for my by myself or do I want to hire
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somebody I have a story a long time ago
6:40
I had a business where I made things and
6:42
sold things at craft shows and I had a
6:44
problem because I wasn't getting paid
6:46
when I ship stuff and I realized the
6:48
reason I wasn't getting paid was I
6:49
didn't send out any invoices so people
6:52
don't pay you if you don't answer the
6:53
money so I thought well okay I'm gonna
6:56
take care of my books I'm gonna learn
6:58
how to keep my books and I'm gonna spend
7:00
and I spend a lot of time on my books
7:02
and you know what happened I didn't make
7:04
any art so I hired somebody because if
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that's not what I want to do and it
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makes me crazy to have to do it get
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somebody else to do it for you now the
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the kind of beauty of Wordpress is you
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could get somebody to set it up for you
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and if you want to if you have the
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inclination to if you have the interest
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in the puzzling of it you could maintain
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it yourself you could add your own
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content you could change the prices you
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could you know add pictures you could do
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all those things yourself it's it's it's
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relatively easy it's not uh uh uh you
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blink your eyes and pictures are there
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or blink your eyes and a link is there
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you have to want to do it and it's and
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it's tedious and it takes time and it
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always takes more time than you think
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it's going to take even for people who
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know what they're doing so that's sort
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of the line there is is is that what you
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want to do with your time or not but you
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know you look at awful lot of people who
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have been doing WordPress press for a
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long time and even new people how do I
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get started I needed a website uh my
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first one was HTML and then I oh anybody
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have a Blog cheese that's interesting I
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want that and then that was you know
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2005 and here I am all these years later
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so but I like it I want to do it it's a
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puzzle it's fun so that's your sort of
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line of can you do it yourself yes
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do you want to
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maybe maybe not I want to find somebody
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a WordPress developer or whatever you
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want to call it I'm going to find
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somebody
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set this up for me
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where do I find somebody there's an
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awful lot of people who say oh my kid
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can do that my neighbor's kid my my
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brother can do that my uncle can do that
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and the problem we have with somebody
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who's related to you
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uh or even a friend uh if if they get
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stuck if they family members often get
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bored and go away and don't want to do
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it anymore and then you're sort of
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screwed uh and and and so and then if
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you decide you don't like what they're
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doing it's really hard to tell your son
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you know this isn't what I'm looking for
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so finding somebody else I think is the
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first part and then you know if you were
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to find a local Meetup you could go to a
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Meetup and you could ask around who are
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you using who did it for you what you
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know can can you help me start with
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something can you
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you know how how do I go about it I I
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hesitate to stay safe sites like um
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Elance I think it has a new name now but
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uh uh for five or something many uh
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upwork upwork yeah yeah that's what it
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was fiber or right yeah I hesitate to
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say I mean maybe it'll be fine uh maybe
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it won't be
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um things you want to be sure if you get
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somebody to do this work for you is that
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you own the domain name and you own the
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hosting so if they get anything's wrong
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you still have control you go to your
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small business group and ask somebody
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the small business group and the other
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thing you get from that is being able to
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ask a a random collection of people how
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much did it cost you I mean you're gonna
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get answers everywhere between 500 which
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is or you know 25 000 and you gotta you
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got to figure out what's it worth to you
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and how much do you think you can make
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it if you're just starting out and
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you're selling three books you don't
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want to spend thousands of dollars on
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that because the likelihood you are
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getting it back is you know maybe not
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that great
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you touched on something and this
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happens to be how you and I met
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interestingly enough but you you talked
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about WordPress meetups
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um you know I think as a non-wordpress
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developer you know I I could just say I
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enjoyed so much just just going to one
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and I think that it it opens your eyes
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and you meet people and even if you're
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not a WordPress developer you meet
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people and if you need this kind of
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talent it's a great pool but tell people
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a little bit I mean
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I was amazed to find one in my community
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just meeting there you know just meeting
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at the community college so Meetup
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meetup.com I think uh has meet a group
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which is kind of a a group of people who
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have a similar interest it could be
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everything from I just moved here to I
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like salsa dancing to uh how to make
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drinks how to do everything so you go
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there you search within whatever your
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reasonable amount of driving space is uh
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for WordPress and and then you find out
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when the meeting is and you go and also
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first of all and every time I've been to
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a Meetup there's always been at least
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one person and even in real small groups
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at least one person who has no idea what
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they're doing and they come there and
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they ask questions and there's always
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somebody there who will help them and
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the beauty of it also is that even if
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you think
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I think I know pretty much I don't know
12:05
everything I don't even probably know a
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lot in the big pictures of life but I
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know I can help lots of people who are I
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say this less than me but I don't mean I
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mean who don't know as much as me and I
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can learn from people who know way more
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than me and and it's a it's a very the
12:21
WordPress community in general is a very
12:23
welcoming group and they want to make
12:27
your life easy and they want to help you
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and even if it's just a I can't figure
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out how to do this one thing but I got
12:32
my whole side with this one thing go
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find somebody there who can who will say
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oh yeah I can help you with that boom
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boom bogey humble also lots of the
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meetups over the last couple of years
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with the pandemic have been online so
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virtual so you can find virtual meetups
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and we've had a couple of them and we
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had a guy from Colorado and a guy from
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India who you know came to the Meetup
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because they could and they're free
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there's this idea that you have to stay
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in control of your vision because you
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know how your business works so somebody
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gives you a bit a website that just
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doesn't work for your business just does
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not work for your business
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um then you're in trouble this is it
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yeah before you even talk to anybody you
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must write down on paper write down what
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exactly you want your website to do what
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do you imagine it needs to do and what
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do you think it should look like and if
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somebody comes to me and says I want to
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can you just can you draw me a picture
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on a piece of paper with a pencil take a
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picture with your phone scan it send it
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to me how do you think it should be laid
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out don't put content in it just give me
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a picture so I have something to start
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from from where to go so so I have this
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personally I have this weird sort of
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geekifiedness and and artistic stuff so
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I can do an awful lot of design work
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myself but if I don't know what anything
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if I don't have any idea what it is you
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want well then I'm sort of at a loss and
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if what you want is something more
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complicated than what I can do then I
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can say oh well we're also going to need
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a designer and that's a whole different
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kettle of fish but knowing what it is
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you want what are the pieces what you
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know what are you going to do with it
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who is who are your clients who are your
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ideal clients who are your visitors who
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do you want to have as your visitors you
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know well I remember asking this
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question to somebody one time a long
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time ago when I was coaching and I said
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so what's your ideal customer oh well
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well somebody pays me you know that's a
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perfectly legitimate piece of an ideal
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customer somebody who pays on they say
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they're going to pay I want the money
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you gotta pay knowing all of those
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things before you start talking to
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somebody is really helpful and that's it
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for another episode of small business
14:40
15. thanks again to Kirsch mcconnellog
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and please like And subscribe if you
14:44
enjoyed the show and please leave a
14:46
comment and let us know what topics
14:48
you'd like to see covered in future
14:49
programs for more small business news
14:51
and tips join us at smallbizstrends.com
14:54
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