A while back, maybe 3 or 4 months ago, I converted this entire site to run on WordPress. There were a lot of reasons for me to do it but since the primary content on this site is the blog (which I admittedly don’t add to enough!), it made sense.

Since then, I’ve been telling folks who approach me about putting together a website that they should go with WordPress, with a custom WordPress theme (more about that in a moment). Almost invariably folks cringe at this because WordPress is thought of (and rightfully so) as a great blog tool. But it does the small website thing really well.

I’ve found that many other sites out there go with WordPress instead of Drupal, Joomla, CMSMadeSimple, and the many other CMS systems out there. Check some of these sites out, all done in WordPress:

http://autoshows.ford.com/

 http://slamonline.com/

So what is a Content Management System? From your perspective, think of it as a web-based editor for you to login from your PC via the web, and then edit your content or add to it. Spot a typo? Just login and fix it yourself. Takes 2 minutes. Want all the text and images on your homepage (or any page) changed? Login and change it yourself.

Not that I don’t want to do it for you. I need all the money I can earn. But I cringe when I get contracted to work on a non-CMS site.

So the next time I recommend WordPress for a site, realize that it’s not just a blogging platform. It can be hacked into just about  anything you want. That said, if you need something full-blown with forums, ecommerce (beyond just paypal integration) then it may not be the right way to go. Conversely, if you just need a simple site that isn’t going to be updated very often then the time it takes to develop a custom WordPress theme is probably not worth the trouble. It takes time to develop one of those things, unless all you’re trying to do is make small changes to an existing theme.

But if you want a website in which, once developed, is something you can maintain yourself with an easy to use and learn content editor, then consider WordPress.

With it’s simple to use and polished built-in CMS capabilities, it is something I’m going to recommend to most folks who ask me about developing a website for them. It just makes the most sense for the vast majority of small websites out there. It’s lean, easily styled and modified, the plugins are amazing (can you believe it – there are ‘forum’ plugins for WP – I’m going to add one to this site as my next personal project…beats answering questions in the comments!). The problem with most prospective website owners is that they want something they can update themselves. But they don’t want/can’t spend a ton of money hiring someone to do a custom CMS, or work with something like Drupal, etc. Yeah, I know, these guys ‘get what they pay for’, but here’s a good example:

My wife is a member of a local ‘Mother’s Club’. Here is their current website. The current caretaker is a mom with zero design/dev experience who the original site designers hoisted a copy of Dreamweaver 4 onto her, setup the FTP settings, and let her run with it….I felt bad for her. She’s done an admirable job actually. But you can see the result. Forget that the site design looks like crap to begin with (believe it or not it’s only a couple of years old….). It was developed, I was told, by a professor at a local community college who teaches design/development (LOL). Then they elaborated and told me that it was actually done by his students as a ‘class project’. That’s great. Now this non-profit mother’s club is left holding the bag on this clown’s class project. I told them what they need is a CMS (in simple terms), since they wanted the ability to constantly update it themselves. When I told em they should scrap the site completely and redesign/dev it in WordPress, they shuddered at the thought. I offered to do it for a measly $200 (I normally would have charged much more), not for the money but because I won’t work for free (those of you who do freelance know why). The money wasn’t the issue for them I don’t believe. The problem, I think, was giving up on a piece of garbage site they should have never been handed in the first place.

Tables? Comic Sans font?!? This site was designed not 2 years ago! By ‘professionals’.

Enough of my rant. On to something you may actually care about….

The Captivate questions have been coming my way from folks all over the world via the comments sections of my blog posts, as well as direct email. The Captivate posts of my blog get hundreds of hits each day. Amazing! Keep the questions coming – I answer every one as best I can. However, as I’ve stated the last few weeks now, I don’t use Captivate very often anymore. Not that I don’t want to. it’s just that I’m not using it much for my day job anymore, and when I started freelancing I had a huge project using it (along with a custom flash nav/wrapper, hence my posts on that subject) but since then….not much demand for projects using it. Once in a while I’ll fire it up to help someone with a problem they’re having, but that’s about it. That said, I’ll continue to do the best I can in regards to helping people. I’ve learned so much from the web it’s the least I can do to give back to the community.

Have fun! :: mark