7 Ways WordPress Rocks February 16, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Blogging, Humor, Writing & Writers.trackback
Milestones (anniversaries, birthdays, goals) remind us to take a peek over our shoulders to see our footsteps in the sand . . . to gauge our progress and to ensure we’re headed in the right direction.
“It doesn’t really matter how fast you’re going if you’re heading in the wrong direction.” ~ Stephen Covey
Next week, Spirit Lights The Way celebrates one year in the blogosphere.
Yay!
Time to take a retrospective glance at how the path has unfolded.
The first decision bloggers must make is the choice of host. I joined WordPress last February not knowing much about available options.
Since then, I’ve visited bloggers writing on BlogSpot, LetterDash, and other sites. Each time, I’ve found something that seemed off-putting ~ including the difficulty that visitors have just leaving a comment.
On some sites, every comment is viewed with such suspicion that bomb-sniffing dogs must examine your private parts before you can say, “I was here.”
It’s exhausting to type a comment, press submit, prove who you are, press submit, give more information, press submit, type in characters chosen for indecipherability, and press submit . . . again.
Who wants to write on a site where the bouncers at the door keep all but the most intrepid from supporting and applauding our efforts? Not me!
After a year in the blogosphere, I’ve decided that WordPress Rocks! Here are seven reasons why:
7. Better Bouncers. On WordPress, we decide who gets ID’d at the door and the level of security we want for comments. We can moderate every comment before it’s posted, or just comments from new visitors. We can ask WordPress to hold comments with one link . . . or a multitude of links.
6. Get out! The SPAM filter catches titillating ads for sexual enhancement products so that readers don’t get . . . um . . . sidetracked from reading and commenting on our posts.
5. Just Do It! The PostADay/PostAWeek Challenges encourage and motivate bloggers languishing on the sidelines to stretch their writing muscles on a daily/ weekly basis.
4. Catch! The Daily Press prompts tossed out by Scott Berkun help us access our innate creativity by considering questions we often think about, even if we’ve never coalesced those thoughts into a meaningful mass.
3. Say Cheese! The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge reminds us to see the world anew, to keep our eyes open, and to share what we observe with others.
2. Tag! You’re It! In addition to linking blogs via Tags, WordPress uses Freshly Pressed to highlight posts which will resonate with other bloggers.
Being Freshly Pressed is a wild and crazy roller coaster of a ride!
1. You! Thanks for visiting Spirit Lights The Way, sharing your thoughts, making me laugh, and inviting me around to your enticing blogs. If I haven’t left a comment, it might be because you’re not on WordPress . . . yet!
Here’s to Flying With WordPress . . . while Spirit Lights The Way!
This just in . . . Showcase: 10 Themed Blogs That Rock (The Daily Post) ~ one more way that WordPress Rocks!
Related: The Art & Science of Getting Good WordPress Support
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Hear, hear! Couldn’t have said it better… though #6 did make me pause… Happy Early Anniversary! 🙂
Eliz
Yes, #6 is an eye popper! 🙂
Thanks, Eliz
Wow, Nancy, do you know – I never checked to see when your first post happened. I didn’t realize you were a fellow newbie. Because you were so prolific, I was under the impression you had been at this for years! 🙂
The gratitude you express in this post speaks to the thoughts and feelings I’ve had over the past year as well. I marvel that we are able to have this sort of expertise at our disposal. There’s something wonderful about adverstising after all …however beneficial it is in cyberspace for the businesses that pay.
I wrote for two years on WEbook, so in that sense I’m not a “newbie.”
But I did not even SEE a blog for the first time until last January when I visited Rik at Uphill Writing. He did my research for me ~ he chose WordPress and I followed his lead.
Glad I did!
Happy Blogoversary!
Great post!
I agree WP rocks!
Thanks, Tokeloshe.
WP has been a wonderful host site ~ always something new and different to encourage and motivate flagging enthusiasm.
That Rocks Nancy! Great Job and thank you so much for all your help over past year with tips and tricks on blogging as well as all the information you share with us readers 😉
Thanks, Shannon. This has been a terrific year in so many ways ~ it’s been a pleasure getting to meet you and the Faerie Dust Clan!
You rock too! Thanks for saying what I didn’t know I was thinking.
Have you been FPed then?
Thanks, Tilly Bud
I have been Freshly Pressed ~ once in April and once in August. It feels like flying with WP! Zoom!
BTW: I never tire of “saying” your name. Cindy is right ~ it’s a fun one!
Thanks 🙂 Blame the Hub.
The reason I ask is because I recently read a comment that poetry blogs never get Freshly Pressed. But you write poetry, don’t you?
I expect they meant Poetry posts rarely get Freshly Pressed ~ from what I’ve seen, WP does tend to promote essays, rather than poems.
If a blog contains both essays and poems, the poems won’t exclude the essays from consideration.
I didn’t know what I was getting into either. I think I picked wordpress simply because it sounded “writerly.” I’m glad I did.
I liked the name quite a bit ~ WordPress sounds quite scholarly . . . but still FUN! Because, really, what’s better than playing with words?
My favorite thing about WP – the stats page. It’s nice to see what kind of crazy stuff people are Googling to somehow get to your blog. 🙂
I love that too ~ and it’s also nice to see which links readers used when leaving SLTW.
For example, clicking Cities of the Mind to go see Connor’s ad offering freelance services or using the BlogRoll to visit the Dalai Lama’s website.
I followed your link to Cities of the Mind and found a really cool blog. The guy is a first-class wit.
Blog sharing is cool.
Glad you like Connor’s blog.
Happy blogpversary! Word Press does rock!
Thanks, Suzicate! It’s been a fun filled year full of amazing connections, for sure.
The part about commenting really struck a chord with me! And made me laugh out loud, too! You are so right about the difficulty in leaving a comment on a non-wordpress blog! Do you suppose non-wordpress people have the same problem we do to comment on wordpress? I hope not!!
Rosa, as WordPress Bloggers we have the option of making the writing of comments easy or hard. There are plugins that make it as hard as Nancy describes, but most of us wouldn’t dream of putting our readers through such a thing.
Rosa ~ I’ve asked people from other hosts about the ease of posting comments here.
They say it’s easy.
And, like Rik pointed out, we can make them jump through a few more hoops, but we don’t have to . . . because WP keeps out the “riff raff” with it’s SPAM filter. 😀
Glad I made you laugh. Laughter each day is one of my life goals.
Nancy!
I knew your 1-year was about to hit. It’s been quite a ride, hasn’t it? It’s been fun to watch you learn and grow, and especially interesting to watch your readership blossom.
Good work!
Thanks, Rik! Under your tutelage, I not only got on the right host site . . . but I developed some fine blogging habits right from the start.
Like blogging EVERY day, or posting ahead when need be. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Happy Anniversary and what an outstanding post! I love all that about the comments; it is SO true! Right on about the roller coaster with Freshly Pressed, I am just getting off that ride .. whew! I also like how the WordPress blogs look so much more professional and how we can teak them to fit our own characters. Great post and Thank you for taking the time to visit me..I do appreciate it!
Debbie 🙂
Thanks! Freshly Pressed is such a great feature to give us a taste of “fame” and notoriety.
There is terrific flexibility here with all the themes and we end up with a professional looking post . . . even when we are not tech savvy. 😉
Great list! I was just thinking about how helpful the peeps at WordPress are to their blogging community. However, it is the little community of bloggers, like you Rosa, that stop by and visit from time to time that keep me going. Thanks for all you do for each of us and happy 1 year.
Exactly! That’s why #1 on the list is “YOU!” It’s the community of bloggers who enjoy blogging on WP that make this such a great site.
But if WP didn’t rock, I expect the community would be a tad smaller.
I’ve only been on WordPress for 2 months but I already feel it’s home. Everyone here is so friendly and helpful, and there is always something new being put out by WP to keep it all interesting and exciting.
WP certainly does rock!
I agree! In no time at all, it seems like a favorite place to hang out.
Thanks, Barb
Well, somehow I didn’t know about the photo challenge and now I do. Thanks Nuthatch
It’s new ~ we’re only in week #2.
This week’s theme is Curiosity. You have until Friday to post.
I did one, here
http://pseu1.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/the-cats-curiosoty/
but hadn’t realised it was a WordPress thing!
I thought you had, but assumed you knew better than me what you knew. Make sense? 🙂
“On some sites, every comment is viewed with such suspicion that bomb-sniffing dogs must examine your private parts before you can say, “I was here.”
This made me alaugh out loud. It’s so true
“It’s exhausting to type a comment, press submit, prove who you are, press submit, give more information, press submit, type in characters chosen for indecipherability, and press submit . . . again.”
I’ve given up with some sites. I found a cracking blogger who I had lots in common with. Despite making several attempts to leave comments on her blog – could not get past the bouncers!
Love WordPress should have sent them a Valentines message 🙂
Thanks, PiP! Glad I made you laugh.
Paula (Reflections from a Cloudy Mirror) used to be on Blogspot or BlogCity or BlogBGone. I encouraged her to move to WP because leaving comments on her blog was so hard.
She did! She’s here. I’m happy.
That’s so nice that you sent WP a Valentine’s!
Yay for WordPress! I didn’t know anything about blogs until WordPress was recommended to me. I, also have noticed the extra measures required to leave comments on other sites. I supposed that if I were registered with them as a blogger, those measures might not be required. Whether or not that is true, I am very happy with WordPress. Blessings to you…
I think you’re right ~ it’s easier to leave comments when you’re already registered on them as your host site.
But, from what I’ve seen, WordPress seems to be the FRIENDLIEST site in the blogospher.
Thanks, Carol Ann
I agree NR…i just love it here.
Hope you are having a happier day today . . . Wednesdays can be full of woe, you know. 😦
Love your list and your blog.I have another blog that I follow that recently switched from WordPress to another host and I hate leaving comments for her because it is so time consuming.
I also love the spam filtering on WordPress and not having to deal with all that stuff.
Starting out I didn’t know anything about blogs and just happened on to WordPress and found it very user friendly. Congrats on your year of blogging. I enjoy your perspective on many things you write about. Jeanne
Thanks, Jeanne.
I have yet to see another host site that would lure me away from WP. It’s perfect for my non-existent level of tech savvy. 😉
Wow, congrats on the year. I thought you’d been doing this a lot longer.
I laughed at your description of what you have to go through to leave comments on other sites. It really is a pain, especially since I never get the funky characters right on the first try.
Come to think of it, maybe they’re onto something there – in protecting the world from one of my comments 😉
Hardly. Your comments need not be blocked. 🙂
At first, I thought it was just me . . . not understanding the secret password. But then I asked around and the “unfriendliness” on certain host sites seemed a more universal experience.
Seems odd ~ like chasing away paying customers for fear that one might have bad intent.
Thanks, Janna. I’ve been writing a long time, but my time in the blogosphere has been a mere drop in the bucket of words I’ve tossed out.
Yes, it is a drag to comment on other sites 😦
OK, then. We shall henceforth request ALL our friends who are enamored with our astute comments to move to WP!
Next order of business . . .
Couldn’t agree more – WordPress is THE BUSINESS! Congrats on your pending anniversary!
Thanks, Naomi!
This year has been quite fun ~ probably the best time I’ve ever had as a writer.