My top 5 reasons to use WordPress

A bit of a departure from my usual (if infrequent – for now) running posts. I’ve been blogging for a while now and I’m often asked why I use WordPress. So there’s no better way to answer the question than to post my top 5 reasons for using WordPress.

My top 5

WordPress is FREE. To get started blogging is really easy. Just head over to wordpress.com and get an account. Once you’ve decided on a name for your blog you can create it in minutes. I hope you’ll take longer writing your first post though! Even if you decide to pay for a domain name and hosting, WordPress is FREE to download and install. The only cost is your time.
WordPress is easy to use. There, I said it. I really do think WordPress is easy to use. It’s like any piece of software you do need a little time to get used to using it. But, you’ll probably only need to know a few of the features to get started. If you are stuck, check out the WordPress support forums or failing that use google, you will find the answer.
WordPress is widely used. In October 2014, there was 17,598,991,867 page views of wordpress.com blogs, or externally-hosted blogs that use the Jetpack plugin. 74.6 million sites use WordPress. Need I say more?
You can customise the appearance of your WordPress site. The Theme controls the appearance of your site and you can customise parts of it, depending on the Theme you use. There are lots of free Themes at theme.wordpress.com to choose from and they’re really easy to install. And no coding skills are needed, unless you really want to!
The WordPress community. The community side of WordPress blogging is something that I’d never considered when I first started. I’ve read lots of really good posts over the years and I’ve been able to share my ups and downs over the years. The support I’ve got has been amazing and I count many of my followers as friends now.

So there you have it, my 5 top reasons for using WordPress, I’m sure there are plenty more reasons to use it. And there are many alternative blogging platforms out there, I’m sure they have many advantages too. Whatever you use, enjoy your blogging, you can gain so many transferable skills.

Are you a WordPress user? What would be your favourite reason for using it? And do you find it easy to use? I’d love to know.