It is a funny thing I talk to many people that tell me "$3500 a year for inbound marketing service and hosting is expensive". They then proceed to ask me "can't I just set up our own blog through WordPress?".

Well, the answer to these two comments is this -

First $3500 a year is expensive if you are not actively using the blog and actively doing SEO and social media. If however you are able to put in the 5-10 hours a week it takes to do all this stuff than no $3500 a year is a steal. 

Second, yes you certainly can set up a WordPress blog, heck you can even add Google Analytics to track and measure your success. Honestly though, I doubt anyone will have the stamina to put in all the extra work. I am helping some non-profits do small inbound marketing campaigns and I can see right now that it is going to be a beat down to keep up with this.

I know I certainly would not be able to do it. I have started a few blogs years ago on several of the free software on the web. The problem is the focus of this software is journaling. If you are just looking to write a few posts every now and again, then wordpress might be for you. However if you are looking to use inbound marketing as a powerful business development tool than just cough up the few thousand dollars for the inbound marketing and hosting and the extra few thousand for the brandwise consulting to guarantee your success.

Seriously, in the amount of time it took to:

• set up a wordpress blog
• install it on our server
• build a branded design 
• install all the plugins needed
• configure all the plugins

I could have:

• designed and developed a much stronger branded website
• trained a client on the methodology of inbound marketing
• got the clients site fully optimizing for search engines and start getting them ranked
• get the client writing and posting several articles based on keywords
• trained the client on how to analyze what was going on with their site
• and set up a lead generation system to start testing

So here is why WordPress sucks - it is not set up for a solid inbound marketing program so you will work very hard and get very little in return. Where as using our inbound marketing system would truly get even a non-techy person up and running in no time.

If you have more time than money, maybe WordPress is for you. And WordPress is great for personal journals. If you are in business and time is money than WordPress will suck both your time and your money.

Don't settle for free tools without considering what free will be costing you. It will easily be several thousand a year with little results.

This mentality is kind of like advertising in a magazine and forgetting to add your company name, logo, URL or a way to contact you. If the viewer doesn't know who put out the ad than you will not get any business.