Every time I set up a new site with WordPress I love it more. I’m continually amazed at how flexible and well-designed it is. Many people still think of WP as a “blogging” platform, which it is of course, but it’s really more appropriately termed a content management system (CMS). I simply wouldn’t consider setting up a site these days and not run it on WordPress, unless it were a really special circumstance.
Don’t get boxed in
It’s easy to get boxed in by the way most WP sites are set up, and think that WP is not the right solution for a site because it’s not a blog. I have found, however, that the best way to approach a site, is to decide how you want to present the content and then figure out how to make WordPress do it. It is so flexible, and there are so many plugins, hacks and specialized themes for managing content that I have yet to work on a site I didn’t think it was the best solution for.
First design the car, then put the engine inside
The best way to approach a site you’re going to run with WP is to first decide how you want the site to look and function and then figure out how best use WP to drive it. For example, with our new site My Social Buttons, Char and I weren’t intending it to be a blog. (We happened to put a blog on there after the fact, but that was really secondary.) We just wanted a site that would have pages with different categories of social media graphics, that linked back to the designer of each set. The solution ended up being a combination of custom fields and some fancy if/then logic to hook everything together managing the content in the most efficient way. I also had to figure out how to have the blog posts look like a regular blog and the posts with icons and graphics remain as they were.
Don’t let limited experience limit your design
One important thing I want you to know: I didn’t know how to do any of that stuff before this site. I used to think that people who did fancy and unusual things were PHP and WordPress experts. Some of them are, but the truth is that many developers are just like me, learning one thing at a time, solving one problem at a time with the help of support forums, the many helpful bloggers out there who post what they’re learning, and my friend Google. Become familiar with what is possible with WordPress, then figure out the solutions as you go. If you’re trying to do it, chances are someone else has done the same thing in the past and written a post about it on their blog, or posted a question in the support forum.
More examples
Our site is just one example. College Crunch is another example of using WordPress as a CMS, and Glamorati is another interesting use of WordPress. I’d list more examples, but there’s already an article at Performancing that covers this in depth: 48 Unique Ways to Use WordPress.
I have found the same thing about WordPress – it is so powerful that if you can imagine it, you can probably get WP to do it.
Great post and advice. I totally agree with you, a few years ago I lacked any knowledge of how to manipulate a html / php page that I would always look for a theme to sort my problems out. As soon as you start learning bits here and there it really does get easier and problem solving becomes so easy, if I don’t have the answers I at least have learned how to find them.
Thanks for posting. I really like the theme!
Karl
This post gives me hope! I am by no means a developer, but I do design and code many sites in html/css. I am fairly new to wordpress, and I am in the process of designing a site for a client who wants the freedom to manage their site. I was about to contact a friend who is a PHP wizard, but instead I ‘thought’ about using wordpress instead of having a back office built. I am glad you posted this because now I think I will go ahead and incorporate wordpress into the site
Randa, thanks for that excellent article. Wordpress truely now is the ultimate content management system, site interface, blogging system
Ease of use really does it for me, and the templates system is amazing.
I use my Wordpress installations for CMS.
Great article Randa.
We’ve just started using WP as a CMS and have been really suprised just how good it is. And as it doesn’t cost £1k before you’ve started it means being able to keep the end cost to the client down.
Thanks randa, im using wordpress since couple weeks ago and I like how easy it is, thanks for your article. cheers
Thanks for the tips, Randa! Your article has opened up my view about the WP…
I personally enjoy Wordpress aswell, if it is hosted on your own server.. If it’s not then well… goodnight it’s useless on free hosting!
[...] How to manage (almost) any site with WordPress (tags: cms wordpress) [...]
I run two WP blogs, on 2.7 and on 2.3, and definitely enjoying the upgrade–but I have a question, if I wanted to join a static website, with one of my WP blogs, under the WP blog domain name, would the static site be mostly pages? And then the index as the blog, or a static index, acting as a table of contents? Thinking it is the latter???Also- is that something your shop does?
I am using WordPress on my site a mix of static pages and blog posts and it successfully brings me leads daily. I am not a programmer I choose WP because it can be used as a CMS and is not too complicated to setup. Of course, not everything was smooth sailing so I did search forums for answers.
WP rocks.
I still run a wordpress.com hosted blog,
but I am currently working in getting my blog migrated to wordpress.org with the Thesis Theme. It is tough going at the moment though, but it is fun.
Phill(synapticlight)
Filezilla helps me out with my engine work.
Thank you for that post.
am using Wordpress right now and i feel very controlable on my setting and every plugins come in and give more flexibilty and control on your site
Thank for Sharing
W.D.
I remain a huge fan of WordPress and enjoy building blogs from basically the ground up.
I have certain plug-ins I’ll use for every blog and there are various widgets I insist on using, not so much for uniformity but for conformity — I want my visitors to enjoy their experience, not have to hunt around for the link that they are seeking.
Blog themes though are a bit of a challenge. I’ve found some good ones and also so that can make you miserable. Worse are those themes which look great in Firefox, but are a disaster in Internet Explorer.
great read and advice. i haven’t tried it for a client yet but i’m definitely going to give it a shot!
Great post, especially for some of us with very uninteresting but very useful content.
Wordpress is great, I have set up my first wordpress page a few months ago and have had some fun with it. I have plans to do many more. The more I learn the more fun it is. Thanks… Good information!
I was having a hard time setting up my wordpress site but now since I read this, it’s gave me all the motivation I need
Thanks sooo much