On balance, it is better for businesses learn to WordPress than other aspects of web development.

RebuttalsC1: WordPress limits CreativityIn regards to the story about a lack of initial visitors, I would quickly like to say that such problems can be easily solved in WordPress, and take very minimal know how to do it. In fact, the lack of traffic very well may have been an SEO problem, as opposed to content problem. Of course if a web site is at the top of the search engine,it's conent is going to be that much easier to access, thus resulting in more traffic to the website. Nathalie Lussier gives a great example of a wordpress plugin that handles SEO optimization (7). In a quick and short 3 minute video, there is an excellent example of how to use a plug in that handles all the meta tags for description and keywords, without having to input the meta tag every few seconds. The "SEO All in One" plug-in allows the creator to add such tags to every blog post, such that their own website shoots to the top of the search engines (8). In fact there are plenty of tutorials and instructions on Youtube, and in personal blogs, that demonstrate how to create many different things in a WordPress site. Really, the creativty aspect is limitless, and WordPress just makes it that much easier to learn. As far as adding a unique design for brand entity, I don't see why this is impossible with wordpress. Every single theme you can add to your wordpress site is customizable, but that aside, the choices really are limitless. The content inside of them, is what seperates them from the rest anyways. Again, Visual Composer is an awesome tool that allows such customization to the website. You can create multiple tables within a webpage, edit headers and footers to proportionate sizes, and design the whole thing exactly the way you want it to look. C2: the WordPress experience is improved by web design skillsIn reference to the first part of your Lisa Irby qoute, it is true that many aspects of CSS and HTML are important and driven my WordPress. The thing that makes WordPress so great, is that it can use those things in a way that makes things easier for the user to recognize. As far as the customization you speak of, I think the center of this debate comes down to this question: Are the weeks of required learning for those functions really worth it to businesses? If most everything they need is covered in a plug-in, why tweak it? Also even using the appearence editor, someone can add such minor features to their website without an exstensive knowledge of CSS. (9)Unfortunately learning how to program, design, and develop, isn't worth the time and effort that is saved in learning how to work the mostly self explanatory WordPress. But even with that, I have a hard time realisticly believing that there isn't a plug-in that suits the needs of the website creator. Even making padding, margin, and font changes to the header and footer can be done with basic plugins. (10)C3: WordPress plug-ins do not fill every needUnfortunately, in some cases, every need cannot be fulfilled even by the hands of the most skilled programmers. But when it can, it can take weeks, or months to create such specific things that allow these needs to be filled. As far as "out-of-date" plug-ins go, I doubt this is an issue as well. There are always new and innovative plugins being created for the CMS, even with the newer versions. The descriptions should tell you what versions they are compatible with. Conclusion:I think this debate really breaks down to what can and cannot be done in WordPress, as compared to learning coding. I have given plenty example outlining how most if not all of the same things can be accomplished and easier through WordPress, but I have also explained why the ease of use factor makes up for any physical capabilities anyway. Anything that can be done with coding and not in WordPress, probably isn't a big enough deal to make it completely worth it to someone to learn how to code as compared to managing there website through a CMS such as WordPress. WordPress, is easy, user friendly, and can satisfy the needs of both noobies, and experts. It is for these reasons, that I believe WordPress is on balance, better for business to learn than other aspects of web development. I would one again like to thank my opponent for a great debate, and wish him luck in future endeavors. 7. . http://nathalielussier.com...8. 9. . http://codex.wordpress.org...10.