88interactive | Social Strategy & Web Development

Seven Reasons to use WordPress as a CMS

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:09:48 +0000

If you’ve been thinking about building out your site in a CMS, you’ve already considering using WordPress to do it. Sure there are other options like Joomla, Drupal, etc. etc. which are very powerful in their own right, but for what most sites need to do, WordPress is a great choice. Why you ask? Well…

Ease of Use – WordPress is undoubtedly the EASIEST to learn and use open source CMS on the net. With pages just a click away in a very easily navigated administration panel, anyone can use it. I’ve taught everyone from children to technologically illiterate seniors how to use WordPress as a CMS in just a few minutes. It’s very intuitive, you want to edit a page, go to pages -> edit, and there you go. Easy.
Flexibility – With sites built on wordpress ranging from music + video, real estate, e-commerce, and of course, the almighty blog, there is nothing you CAN’T do with it. You can even create your own niche networking site with WordPressMU or your own inter-company private twitter clone. Building a CMS with wordpress is easily attainable thanks to this flexibility.
Plugins, Plugins, Plugins – No more need to spend countless hours creating new functions from scratch or dropping big bucks on getting them done. Need an audio player? It’s there. Need e-commerce? It’s there. All the plugins you could ever need to turn WP into a CMS for your site.
Support From the Web - Since WordPress is such a popular blogging tool, there are a ton of resources online. Not just support forums, but countless blogs dedicated just to wordpress tips and tricks, sites loaded with free themes, and sites with tips to improve your sites performance. Also, if you ever have a technical bug, hope over to the wordpress support forums and you’ll likely find your solution in the boards.
Themes for Days – There is just about an endless supply of free and paid themes to choose from if you’re looking to get off to a quick start, or don’t really need a custom theme for your blog. Eventually, you’ll outgrow your free themes, but it’s a great way to get started with little investment into the world of blogging and using WordPress as a CMS.
SEO – Using wordpress permalinks along with many of the Search Engine Optimization plugins gives you a great foundation for on-page SEO. You can edit your titles, descriptions, and keywords without digging into the html and you can even send your sitemaps automatically when pages are updated – all through the administration panel. Making your CMS site easily found by the search engines.
Finally, It’s FREE – WordPress is a completely free and open source project. Not just the code is free, so are the plugins, themes, and support forums. The only thing that isn’t free – getting a custom site built, but when is that ever free?

There you have it. Seven reasons to consider using WordPress as your CMS back-end. Looking to get your CMS custom built and designed by WordPress pros? We can help. Just contact us today!

Web Design – ThreadandCommon.com Online Shop

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:00:22 +0000

ThreadandCommon is an online boutique for women’s clothing. The shop needed an easy-to-upgrade system and Magento was the choice. This was built off the basic magento template and was a highly customized and intense project with lots of customizations.

WordPress Design – SoundHot.com

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:48:47 +0000

SoundHot.com is the website for HottHouse Sound, a mixing facility located in Philadelphia, PA. They needed a clean and simple interface which would allow them to showcase audio projects. Go and check it out. You click on the title of the song, it plays instantly. Very cool stuff.

Print Design – Custom Akai MPC-2000xl

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:11:07 +0000

Design project for BeatStatus.com a Custom Akai MPC 2000xl Skin shop.

WordPress Design – Sky Beach Club

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:57:52 +0000

Sky Beach Club is one of the newest and most exclusive resorts in the Bahamas. Built on the beautiful Island of Eleuthera, famous for it’s pink sandy beaches, the island also provides amazing adventure packages including scuba diving, cave exploration, and so much more. A fairly standard WordPress site being used as a CMS provided the backend to this exclusive resort.

WordPress Design – Vennti.com

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:32:56 +0000

Vennti is an online magazine geared towards women – by women. It’s all about news and lifestyle that relates to women in a way not covered by the mainstream media. A lot of custom work that included delivering 4 different categories of posts to the front page of the blog in different sections. An amazing concept by great people.

WordPress Design – The Balabusta

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:15:10 +0000

TheBalabusta is a niche-market online mag/blog dedicated to the best in fashion, food, and decor for the “hip jewish housewife.” A very fun and informative site. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into that kind of stuff.

WordPress Design – EducationAndPeace.org

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:05:16 +0000

One of the greatest cause-related projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on. EducationAndPeace.org is the site for the Afghan Education Peace Foundation. A New York City based not-for-profit, seeks to strengthen the security of the United States by rebuilding the economic and social infrastructure of Afghanistan. We sponsor the education of Afghanistan’s best and brightest students in American high schools, community colleges and universities who will return to Afghanistan to contribute their new skills to the reconstruction. A stable and prosperous Afghanistan is key to American national security.

WordPress Design – La Jolie Noire Media

admin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:32:59 +0000

So this was my first project that focused on a Paris life, and it’s pretty cool. Robin from La Jolie was a pleasure to deal with so if you’re looking to publish something on travel, nightlife, or anything else hip or chic, check out la jolie noire media.

10 easily customizable wordpress themes for personal blogs

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:55:23 +0000

While looking for wordpress themes for an actual BLOG, it can be a little daunting. So much is geared around using WordPress as CMS, which is awesome, but sometimes you just want a good old fashioned blog. These 10 free wordpress themes look great and have a great structure that begs for customization. Enjoy! Thanks to WPZoom for providing hundreds of themes to dig through!