WordPress is increasingly being used as a content management system, and I think we’re about to see many blogs follow the trend we’ve seen recently in sites like Problogger, from simple blog to “portal”. These portal entry pages are more of an overview of all the content the site has to offer, featuring all the elements more equally, rather than the blog being pushed so far to the front and everything else being secondary.
Brian Gardner, who is one of the best theme designers out there, has just released a “premium” theme for WordPress called Revolution. The design is a step up from the simple blog theme, and would work well for anyone wanting to use WordPress as more of a content management system. It includes multiple page templates within a perfectly clean and sharp design that is characteristic of Brian’s style. This type of theme release is something I expect to see more of from designers in coming months, as bloggers begin to break out of the traditional “blog” mold.
Who would benefit from a portal entry page?
I think this approach would work well for anyone who has more than one thing going on that they want to highlight. So often designers’ blogs, mine included, feature the writing prominently and the design work is off to the side, under a menu. The fact is that at least part of the reason many designers have a blog is to build relationships and credibility so they can generate business. Because this is the case, an entry page designed to feature not only our writing, but also our work is the perfect approach.
What’s important in a portal page?
- It must first and foremost, focus on drawing the reader into your content.
- The latest and greatest should be above the fold: Recent articles with compelling headlines and excerpts, popular posts and categories should be front and center.
- Readers should be able to find the search and subscription options at a glance.
Is anyone else considering putting a front page portal on their site? Charity is- check out her article for links to some other good portal examples. Do you think there are drawbacks this portal concept?
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That is so true, and yet so many of us (myself included) end up subscribing to the mindset that there’s only one way to design a blog… the most common of which does NOT highlight our other pursuits very well. It’s tough to break out of habit, but so nice to see signs of a new “movement” to remind us there are other approaches.
p.s. I love Brian’s work too. I was just admiring his new theme yesterday. His style really appeals to my minimalist sensibilities,
and I try to watch and learn from that.
I’ve been dabbling with using wordpress as a CMS, though still starting with a template as my coding is not that great, Wordpress is just so user friendly I’d like to get to grips with the styling side a bit more. The theme from Brian looks great, I’m looking forward to seeing more themes like this
Randa, thanks for the plug – really appreciate it. And thanks to Charity and Tara for your comments!
Regarding my Revolution theme, I really think that this concept is the way to go for most small business – I get so many requests from people with websites, to install a blog and “mock” their design.
My thinking is for them to port over their outdated static html sites into WordPress, and reap the benefits of all content (website stuff and blog) in one place, as well as the better search engine rankings that WP sites usually get from Google.
Guess we’ll wait and see how people respond!
This seems like a really great idea, especially for small businesses, like Brian said. I like it. I moves away from “Hi, I’m a BLOG!” (which people still associate with a personal journal) and more towards “Hi, I’m a professional website with frequently updated content.” I think it will help blogging to become much more mainstream and an accepted way to promote business.
[...] tool, and 2.) it comes on the heels of a recent discussion here on DA and a similar one over at Randa’s blog, regarding a new movement in blog [...]
[...] via Randa Clay] August 17, 2007 – 10:11 am | Posted in Wordpress Themes | Post a comment or leave a [...]
This is truly becoming a great way to build a site and harvest the amazingly flexible power of WordPress for creating dynamic content. This will become a much larger trend in the sites that typically publish lengthy articles and need to manage their content easily.
However, I believe the “personal journal” will become more of a cross between a tumblelog and a blog as it is commonly used today. Allowing people to roll their mixed-media publishing into one site without a lot of work and overhead.
[...] bloggers, Randa Clay of randa clay Design. Randa has helpful entries on blogging and design like this one on the move from blogging to a “portal”. In this particular contest Randa is giving [...]
I agree with the value of a portal home page. But if it is too different from a traditional blog page I would still recommend a blog home page that is easy for any new visitor to navigate in the common ways. So if you go to a page like:
http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/
Also have a page like:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
I have seen some blogs move to such a radical home page I can’t figure out how to see the current blog entries.
Interesting idea of moving from blog to portal. I bet many people who are using their blog as a way to promote their products/services (myself included) will eventually go this route when they have enough blogging history behind them. I bet it would take time to get everything organized to present properly in this format!
I noticed the new gumpdrop – sweet header you have.
Nice.
Aruni
Thanks Aruni!
People often say content is king. However, content without presentation is like a nice cut of steak served on a dirty dinner plate – just unappetising.
[...] projects in mind that would really work well with the Revolution theme. September is looking good. Randa or Randa Clay (nice new header, by the way) and Charity of Design Adaptations both posted their take on the new [...]
Well a portal would be nice for those who want a more sophisticated online presence. However, the standard look-and-feel of the current blogs have an advantage, that of familiarity of those who browse, and know where to find your posts, and in general what to do.
BTW, great blog! I find the information very helpful and will be back periodically.
Awesome theme. Hopefully more of these will come out. Most of my sites are not traditional blogs. But even so, I am using wordpress, like you say, to manage my content. Right now, I have to take a theme and essentialy completely redesign it in order for it to look and be more like a regular “website” instead of a traditional blog. I like using wordpress though, because I DO have blogs on those sites and I DO want the blog to be a major part of the site, just not the main focus of the site. So hopefully in the future, there will be more themes like this available.
This has to be the perfect thing for web designers who feel Typo3, EZ, Joomla and the other CMS systems are overkill for what they and their clients really need. The intuitive backend and the heaps and heaps of extensions should be enough to consider Wordpress a good alternative.
On the other hand, for more infrequent bloggers, this might result in an even more static front page, as there are a lot more content to replace all the time. That is, if you don’t have a huge archive and constantly swap the ‘featured’ articles.
Hey Randa,
Brilliant description… Obviously I was aware of Problogger’s new design (I haven’t been living under a rock!
but I was just thinking of it in terms of a whole lot of extra functionality added into Wordpress.
Calling this new trend a “portal” is the perfect description of what’s going on. I may have to help you popularize the term
I’m very new to blog marketing, and I’m amazed by the sheer number of amazingly slick-looking Wordpress blogs out there. They seem to contain so much more information than other blogs, which still appear to be nothing more than scrolling screens.
But seeing how quickly things move in cyberspace, I suspect that another platform will come along and blow even Wordpress away!
That’s so true whoever mentioned that we get stuck thinking there is one way to design a blog…. portal sites seem to draw traffic in and keep them interested, because there is more to see than just one post sitting on the top of the screen.
There are many niches where turning a blog into a portal would be ideal…. Although I’d actually be interested to see if the sheer amount of content on a portal site would be more distracting, compared to your typical blog.
Yeah, this is a very very cool blog.
I just added you to my favorites.
Thanx,
Mikey
Yes I beliieve it is important for a site to appear to offer more than just a blog, even if it is the primary purpose of the site.
I’m currently designing a blog and I’m beating my head against the wall deciding between portal vs. a regular blog homepage. It’s difficult to tell which would yield more value. I say it depends on
1) You audience and how they respond to it
2) The diversity of your content
I also think the portal homepage is simply more appealing to the type of audience who isn’t familiar with blogs. What do you guys think?
I know many sites that nowadays use Wordpress as a complete CMS. I have been studying it also, in the past weeks. Although, many won’t agree with me, I think that Wordpress has one of the most SE features out there between all the CMSs. I think if they keep going like this, they might even become more popular than Joomla. Sometimes I see websites which are build with Wordpress, and still I don’t recognize the “wordpress” in it. Just amazing!