WordPress as a simple content management system
We are in the process of moving our fiction-related writing over to our pen name site, http://www.rowandai.com/. At the moment it sits as a separate WordPress blog under our work site (http://www.infinitediversity.com.au/).
We had a long discussion about how we might do it.
Did we want to do as we had done with Infinite Diversity, where we had some base HTML pages and just linked separate blogs beneath it? Or did we want to base the whole thing around a WordPress blog so that managed all our content from the one place? Because that’s what WordPress is, a content management system (CMS).
I know that some users of high-end CMS’s may dispute this definition, as a high-end CMS does a lot more. But what is a content management system really? It is content, stored in some kind of database, accessed via a front end. That is exactly what WordPress is.
Not only that it’s free, well supported, and easy to use.
The problem with WordPress is that it’s a blog. It looks like a blog, and while we want to include a blog, we want the whole thing to look like a web site, not a blog.
We want our blog to blend in with the site, so if we decided to go the HTML top level with WordPress sitting beneath it route we would have two sets of style sheets—exactly the same—to manage. Not to mention two different ways of inputting the data.
We would have to customise the layout extensively if we used it. Neither of us know PHP, but we’re both okay with HTML and CSS. I think we can manage the PHP component, with a little help from W3Schools and the WordPress documentation.
We decided on the single solution. A standalone WordPress website, with customised pages to look like a blog.
Because, let’s face it, if you can get around the design issues, WordPress has to be one of the best, cheapest content management systems around.
Comments (3 comments)
I totally agree with you about the merits of WordPress as a CMS. I wrote a post last week about the best way to convert your WordPress blog into a CMS: see this link
The key, I believe, is to put the List Subpages plugin into your sidebar. If you look at stc-suncoast.org, you can see how I did that. It doesn’t too much like a blog. I could have very easily selected a static front page and eliminated the blog altogether, but I think people really enjoy the blog section on any website. It gives it a fresh appeal.
Tom Johnson / July 6th, 2007, 9:43 am / #
Great minds think alike Tom. Thanks for pointing to the List Subpages plugin. It’s a great feature.
I, too, like the blog on the front page. The blog has given static web pages new life, a reason for people to go back again and again, rather than just one visit and that’s it. I think it’s so important it has to be on the front page, or at least the latest post, anyway.
CabSav / July 8th, 2007, 2:28 pm / #
[…] I mentioned in an earlier post how WordPress really was a simple content management system, and other people have said the same thing, including: […]
Technical Writer » Archives » WordPress used as a content management system / August 26th, 2007, 12:53 pm / #
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