WordPress started as software for blogs and quickly became #1 in that area. Now after a concerted effort to broaden its use, WordPress is becoming the predominent content management system (CMS) for all types of websites.
WordPress rose to blogging pre-eminence because of these great attributes:
- It’s Free (Open Source)
- Easy to use
- One click to update to the latest version
- Lots of free and premium themes available
- Expandable through plugins
Initially, WordPress lacked the plugins necessary to create a full-featured website, but that’s all changed. Now you can find a plugin to do pretty much anything including:
- eNewsletter
- Calendar
- Event registration
- Shopping cart
- Online donations
- Pretty much anything you can dream up. 😉
That’s why earlier this year we made the move to develop all new custom sites in WordPress and we’re helping all churches, schools, ministries and businesses we work with to transition from Joomla to WordPress.
Have you used WordPress for a website? What’s your impression of WordPress as a full website content management system?
13 Comments
We use WordPress for our church website, and I like it for all the reasons you stated above, plus its easy integration of blogging. The only problem I have with it is that there are so many plugins from which to choose, that, when looking for a tool for a particular task, (sermon podcasting, or event registration, or prayer vigil sign-ups, for example), it's difficult for a non-techy type to select which of the many options would work best. It would be great if there was a compilation somewhere of the plugins that admins find most useful. I did learn about one, PowerPress, on your tweetchat yesterday, so I'll probably be back with my next vexing plugin question at next week's tweetup.
Hi Carolyn, finding the best plugin is often a challenge even for those of us who are techies. 🙂 When I see multiple plugins that all do what I'm looking for I compare 3 things: the date of the last update (I get concerned if there hasn't been an update for more than 6 months), # of ratings, and the average rating. You can find all that info by clicking the link to the plugin site.
Thanks again for participating in the chat. Glad you found it helpful. And l look forward to chatting with you again in the future. Bring your friends. 🙂
I wouldn’t use anything else. I’ve tried static sites, Joomla, Drupal, and other options. WordPress wins over and over.
We've used Drupal for one of our main website, and it's incredible how hard it is to do ANYTHING! You need to add modules for even the most basic features, and nothing's intuitive. Now I've created several WordPress sites, and I'm just dumbfounded how far it is down the other end of the spectrum. So easy to install and use, with tons of built-in features and very easy adding of others.
We're still using Drupal on that main site because we're not convinced there's a WordPress shopping cart solution that is as good as Ubercart. But if that's not important to you, then WordPress seems like a no-brainer!
Thanks Josh. I've heard many similar things concerning the comparative ease of use of WordPress vs Drupal.
I absolutely agree, Paul. WordPress is a viable option for nearly any website. We are switching over now that we found a cart that will do secure digital downloads as well as deal with the major shipping companies for physical products and still use PayPal. We paid for a premium theme in order to have control of fine details. (That way the switch to WordPress will not harm our branding.) I really think that WordPress has come of age.
Thanks Tim. What shopping cart plugin are you using for the digital downloads? And definitely let me know when your WordPress site goes live. I'd like to check it out.
Cart66 is the cart we chose. We are not active yet, a little video project has priority because the site has 150 pages and it will take some time to transition to WordPress – still worth it though!
Thanks Tim. I'll take a look. Hope your transition to WordPress goes well.
Hey Tim,
What cart are you using with WordPress?
Hi
We have a ministry that holds retreats over a few hours or a few days. We'd like to make it possible for people to sign up for a half-hour or an hour slot on our prayer vigil during the retreat. A plugin that allows prayer-s to fill their names and other information in a table that covers the period, so that the information appears in the table immediately, would be great. Any ideas on what existing plugins would do the job?
Paul, New Zealand.
Hey Paul, I don't know of one off-hand. When searching for WordPress plugins, you might want to search for something broader than prayer to something like "volunteer scheduler" or "volunteer calendar" or something.
Thanks for the improvement. Thanks for all your efforts