I first discovered WordPress a few years ago around version 1.5 (as I write this we’re into V2.8), when it was mainly just a good blogging platform. I preferred it to the predominant blog engine at the time (blogger.com) because it gave me more freedom to control and manage my own blog.

Since then it has evolved out of all proportion to its humble beginings to become a first class website building and content management tool. It gives me total control over both content and ‘look & feel’ and provides many powerful add-on tools known as ‘plugins’ to enhance its operation and search engine ‘friendliness’.

The WordPress use of themes makes creating and modifying the website design a breeze even for the most inexperienced website builder whilst adding and updating your own content is as simple as using a word processor. This means no-one needs to be totally dependant on a web designer to make simple changes or updates to their pages.

It also means that a small business owner with a modicum of computer skill can have a complete website up and running in as little as a few hours. Best of all I like the cost …. FREE! After all free is the beginning of freedom, freedom from reliance on others to build and maintain your main marketing tool.

In this series I’m going to talk about my experience with WordPress and show why I have been steadily converting all my web real estate to this format.

You may be wondering where the tag ‘Freedom Guy’ came from. Well the potted bio box on the top right gives a a clue to something that is important to me, but it also comes from my work with embryo entrepreneurs whose predominant reason for starting their own business is the freedom that it gives them. These people have decided to give up the day job as a wage slave and carve their own niche in the world and good luck to them!

Freedomguy has also been my ‘handle’ in business forums and internet marketing forums for a number of years.

So it’s only natural that I have a special category on my new blog to talk specifically about individual freedoms and my take on the meaning of personal freedom.

As you can see, the website has had a complete makeover as part of the process of moving all of my websites over to WordPress. This website has also become my new HQ. It brings all the operational, accounting, order processing, affiliate program and customer support functions into a new central location. This will make it so much easier to manage a growing and diverse range of websites and services. 

All product groups, memberships and subscription services will also be managed from here. This will give you, my customers, a central point of contact and a central help and support area. You will also be able to access your purchase history and downloads in one place. 

Although the ‘shop front’ is based on WordPress, the site has some pretty impressive new software managing the back office from where I shall manage my growing ‘Web Real Estate’. For those of you planning to take a similar approach to your own online business, I’ll keep you informed on the progress and performance of all the new changes, both visible and hidden ‘around the back’, through this blog.

Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing you back here again soon.

John