So, recently I came across some subjects on this topic and it struck a chord. After all, a lot of the time what I want is just to knock up a simple site quickly that doesn’t have too many bells and whistles and only has me editing it.
I’m not going into the basics of what a blog is or my particular preference is WordPress (OK, it’s because it’s PHP-based and a damned sight easier to implement and tweak than Movable Type), but rather why WordPress can work well as a CMS.
Why?
- Quick and easy to setup
- Flexible template editor great for creating designs
- There should be more date-based documents on the web! (so you know what information is up to date)
- All content available in RSS format
- The ability to add comments – particularly for articles/FAQ
- No worries about how you implement a blog – it’s already there
Why not?
- No workflow
- No ability for content versioning with multiple authors
- Localization not easy to implement
- (There could be a few more of these but I’d probably need coffee to tease them out)
So if you’re not too precious about the ‘why nots’ then check these out:
PHPit.net
A two-part series that goes into the basics of setting this up. Great thing here is that you can see a living breathing example on the site itself. Also starts with a brief intro into how the WordPress plugin system works in a slightly more digestable format than the WordPress Codex.
ONLamp
Nice and straightforward here: just make a few tweaks to the index.php file and create a WordPress Page that acts as your site homepage.
BloggingPro
Some more of those reasons why, although for me the best thing was the link to BlogHelper
5 reasons to use WordPress as a CMS
BlogHelper
A full breakdown of all kinds of different sites you can make with WordPress. I never knew these kind of people existed.
