Wednesday, December 12, 2012

WordPress CMS | Name.com Blog: domain names, the internet, and ...

WORDPRESS CMS

Most people look at WordPress and see and blogging platform, but they are missing the point of WordPress. Sure, you can stick with the basic setting and roll out a blog in no time with WordPress. However, you can also do a lot more with the right plugins, settings, CSS, and some creative themes. In the right hands, WordPress can be a complete Content Management System (CMS) with many features not offered by some alternatives. Getting your business started online requires careful consideration of your online presence and how it will effect your business and its ability to interact with customers.

Website

When thinking about designing a website, most people think about a static site with basic information for their business, products, and services. The website is the modern version of an informational flyer or catalog to which customers are directed for information and to make purchases. However, today's websites are much more interactive than that. The days of static websites are behind us and every business needs to have some level of social interaction built into their website.

Blog

A blog is basically a website with content that is updated on a regular basis with some frequency. For example, some blogs are updated with new posts weekly, some daily, and still others are only updated every few months. Blogs are often conceptualized as a magazine or newspaper with periodical updates and stories. This is the main market where you can find WordPress users and many people don't see the usefulness of WordPress outside this market. This is because it is very difficult to see a new use for a tool that does its job so well. WordPress is so good at blogging that most people overlook its other uses.

Content Management System (CMS)

Content management systems work to merge static website content with regularly updating blogs and a wealth of social media interaction. This is where WordPress begins to shine and a solution for almost any business. Using the right plugins, settings, CSS, and themes, you can create exactly the online experience your business needs to engage customers and drive sales. This is the type of site every business should have. One which can serve as the focal point of their online presence and can merge their business identities on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and YouTube.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress makes it easy to extend beyond the basic features of your site through the addition of plugins. There is a vast community of developers who are constantly coming up with new ideas about how to use WordPress and how to make it better. All it takes is a few clicks on your mouse and your WordPress site can be automatically translated into any language, shared on any social media site, or optimized for search engine traffic. Most of these plugins are free, many ask for donations, and some provide tiered levels of support with a premium. It's a great way to start your business online and pay for additional services as your business grows.

WordPress Settings

Keeping your growing business in mind, the settings built into WordPress can allow you to begin by managing your site on your own and bring in additional staff as needed. This is part of the built in user administration settings. Also, you can change many other features of your WordPress site as your business needs change over time. One very common example of this is the use of a blog. Many businesses setup a static site to get started and decide to add a blog after they have launched their business. With WordPress you can create only static pages to get your site off the ground. Then, when you're ready for a blog, it's as easy as changing a few settings on your site and you can have a blot that seamlessly integrates into your existing site. This can save a lot of money in redesign costs as your business needs change.

WordPress CSS

Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) you can use your website to build your brand. This is done by using custom fonts and colors throughout all your content. Should you decide to change some aspect of your site design or move from one theme to another, you can move these CSS settings with you. This enables you to maintain a common typographical feel to your business and helps your customers recognize your brand.

WordPress Themes

While considering the development of your brand, you may want to think about a custom WordPress theme for your site. This is a great idea for some businesses and a terrible one for others. When considering a custom theme it is important to remember the cost to maintain the design. WordPress and its various plugins will have updates from time to time and these may effect your custom theme. When this happens, it is often necessary to redesign the theme at an additional cost to your business. If you can't fit this redesign into your budget at least twice a year, it's usually a good idea to stick with a community supported theme. Even with a community supported theme there are a lot of customizations you can make to put your company brand on the site. Some of the most common modifications to community supported themes include a header image, background colors, and CSS customizations.

WordPress Outside the Box

One of the more interesting ideas for using WordPress has to be for the creation of a classified ads network. There are custom themes which modify WordPress and allow users to create classified ads instead of blog posts. These posts can then be referenced by RSS feed readers and automatically shared with social networks. It's an innovative and interesting way to combine multiple online technologies and drive sales.

Advanced WordPress

Another advanced use of WordPress is the Multisite feature built into the platform. This feature can allow you to host multiple websites from a single WordPress installation. Potentially, a company could host multiple blogs for different divisions or personnel in their company. The best part of this feature is that you can maintain all the sites through a single interface which drastically cuts down on maintenance costs. A great way to use this resource would be to create a multilingual site with custom text and images for each language. The beauty is that the themes and CSS would come from a single WordPress installation. This would create a uniform look across all the sites with minimal effort.

Other WordPress Resources

When you use WordPress for your business website you are joining a community of developers who are passionate about creating great online resources. This includes sites that will automatically post your blog articles to social feeds on Fecebook and Twitter, automated site backup systems, newsletter creation and distribution, and many other resources specific to your business needs. Take a quick look around the web and you'll see there is a wealth of WordPress resources available, and many of them are free. These include plugins, themes, CSS instructions, and various tutorials for WordPress and its related tools.

Categories: contentmarketing | Permalink

Source: http://www.name.com/blog/contentmarketing/2012/12/wordpress-cms/

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