It seems like the beginning of a joke, right? Two horses and WordPress walk into a bar. Cue the snare drum. You must be asking yourself, “Why would I pay someone good money to handle something as simple and easy-to-use as WordPress?” Or maybe you are thinking it is not worth paying someone for something you could do yourself. These are valid thoughts, but let me let you in on a little secret. Why is it worth paying professionals? Because people judge books by their covers. Let me show you what I mean.

In preparation to write this article, I decided the only way to truly know for a fact hiring professionals is worth the money was to go for it–set up my own WordPress and see how easy (or frustratingly difficult) WordPress really was. It was easy enough to find WordPress, sign up for an account, and create a blog name. However, pretty quickly out of the gate I wished I had help. See, WordPress is not just WordPress. WordPress offers several packages: one that is free and other options that allow you to have a .com, .net, or .org domain name that are subscribed on a yearly basis. Also, you can download WordPress from the WordPress site or download a version of WordPress that is not hosted by WordPresss. I went the free route since this was purely research, but had this been for my business it would have been nice to have someone to ask. Is it worth the extra money to subscribe? What is the difference between the free site and the paid version? Will one get me more hits? What exactly am I getting for the money I am paying?

So now I was rolling. I was picking out names, creating blog posts in my head, and thinking about what picture I wanted to use as a profile picture. It was fun and easy enough to figure out on my own. After a few minutes of clicking buttons to see what would happen, I decided I was done. It was time to check out what my site looked like to the world. My site looked nothing like my favorite WordPress sites. Insert sad face emoticon. After playing around with themes, my site began to look better, but still nothing to write home about. What I noticed right away was that there seemed to be a limitless number of functions that could be applied or adjusted to make your site your own. I have no idea how any of these work. WordPress is no longer just a blog site. There is no end to how a creative individual can tweak WordPress. This is why people hire professionals.

So what are my conclusions? Like I said at the beginning of this piece: it’s all about what your sight looks like. Nielson’s (an online measurement site) says that the average person stays on one webpage for an average of fifty-six seconds. I think this is generous. I feel like I stay on websites for as long as it takes me to think, “This looks like a hot mess. Next, please.” Or maybe, “Wow. This site is awesome.” Say you’re selling socks. The world is built around the Internet, and your clients, sock buyers around the world, are going to Google socks before they walk into your office. At this point, it is not about who has the best socks, it is about who can keep the attention of the sock-buyer the longest. This is what a professional can do for you, and when it comes to professionals the boys at Nicasio Design and Development are the best. Just check out their website—I’d buy socks from them. Call them up today! (And check out my WordPress courtneymac19 if you are curious).