At The WordPress Helpers we love us those Torquemag folks. They came up here on our very first day, again a couple of weeks ago, and now Josh Pollack has published a piece at Torque that wraps the ideas of WordPress and The Pareto Principle together in a really simple way.

And very little about the WordPress 80/20 problem is simple.

In the scheme of things, WordPress is incredibly easy to use as a full-fledged content management system, or as a blogging platform. And the latter is never a big deal; just select a theme you like and get started!

But the build-an-amazing-business-website side of WordPress, while still simple, is full of pitfalls that need navigating. It’s why Sitebuilders work so well as a business model that they can afford Super Bowl ads.

Josh, a guy who makes his living as a WordPress plugin developer, is completely pragmatic about the WordPress 80/20 issue. He admits and describes the details surrounding his wife’s business not being in WordPress, and his logic is impeccable:

My wife actually made her website using Squarespace, and I’m perfectly happy with the monthly charge. It works, it’s beautiful, and I didn’t have to do anything for it.

Could it be better, faster, and more SEO-optimized? Yes, and when her career progresses, we’ll spend a few thousand dollars, and invest in hiring one of the many talented developers I know, to make something way shinier—but for now, it just works.

Obviously, no WordPress developer likes free software that can replace need for his work. And Josh does make the opposite point;

If you buy a $25 plug-in expecting magical results from it without spending more than its purchase price, you’re miscalculating the WordPress 80/20 equation.

Think about that. If a twenty-five dollar plug-in couldn’t possible require more than twenty-five dollars of implementation work, then WordPress, which is free, should be perfect the moment you install it!

Head spinning yet? We’re pretty good at finding the right 20% of your stuff to put 80% of your time, money, and effort into. Want to talk WordPress 80/20 optimization?

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Article Title:

WordPress 80/20 Sitebuilder Problems

Subject:

The WordPress 80/20 Problem is Sitebuilders. Whether "WordPress 80/20" is about competitors or themes, The Pareto Principle is in full force in WordPress.

Author:

The WordPress Helpers