Opinioneer

24 February 2008

Thinking outside the Wordpress “theme” box

Posted by Opinioneer under: On Wordpress .

I have to write this in order to vent, because I am starting to feel like I am the one-eyed cyclops among the blind.

It seems that the discussion about premium WordPress themes has been heating up lately (and by lately I mean in recent months, not days) and I am thinking to myself, “so what’s the big deal”? What is premium? A nicer designed theme? A theme with more functions?

And then I come across the occasional arguments about whether WordPress is a blogging platform or a “true” CMS. And then, someone comes up with a magazine style theme and all of a sudden everyone responds like they’ve seen a miracle! “You can do that with WordPress?? Really??”

So I will say: Give me a Break. (that’s with a capital B, because I need a Big Break!)

First things first: Premium Theme?

WordPress has tons of functionality built in and can do almost everything you can imagine in your wildest dreams. The fact that 90% of WordPress users, theme designers and WP enthusiasts don’t pay attention is, well, unfortunate. There is nothing Premium about a fancy theme. Personally, I would start to call “premium”, something that extends the functionality of a platform beyond the obvious (and I reserve the right to change this definition if I think of something better). A magazine theme is starting to scratch that surface. But I want to see more!

So start thinking outside the (“title” and “post”) boxes and you will realize what WP is capable of. Unfortunately my PHP skills are limited so I can’t create out-of-the-box solutions myself, but my knowledge and understanding isn’t so I can give you plenty of ideas about things you can do using WP as the platform.

Secondly: Is it a CMS ?

WordPress is a CMS. You might have your own definition of what a CMS is, but CMS stands for Content Management System. WordPress helps you manage content. And the better you know how to customize WP the more ways you can manage your content. Perhaps a look at Webunload, AppBid (both of which where developed by AJ) and WP Contact Manager will give you samples of “outside the box” thinking.

I have tested several CMSs and have extensively used Article Manager by Interactive Tools, which is an amazing and very flexible system. But it comes with a price tag of $350. I started using it back in 2001 (it cost much less then!) when WordPress wasn’t even around. Let me tell you, when it comes to flexibility and user friendliness, it still holds its ground. In fact, it is possible to make Article Manager to behave like a blog, no problem. Having said all that, over the past year I have converted all my sites to WordPress.

I can’t customize WordPress by myself, the way I can customize Article Manager, but the beauty of WP is the availability of free themes, and of course the fact that I can have multiple installations without paying for a separate license each time.

Keep in mind that there is no perfect CMS. Each one of us has different needs, so perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Heck, even a Rolodex is technically a CMS.

To sum this point up, I have found WordPress to be able to do most things someone would need, especially considering the plethora of plugins. So, yes it is a CMS. Whether it suits your needs, or whether you can think outside the box and make it suit your needs is up to you.

Finally: Thinking outside the box

Here is how one site is run completely on WordPress: Lifescape Vacations. It is not a blog, and you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it is a WP based site if it weren’t for the comments being set to “on”, yet WP plugins (such as Tag Cloud and Flick RSS) help it be more socially interactive.

I won’t go into details here (because it will all be theoretical) but I am hoping that in a couple of months time I will have some impressive real examples of thinking-outside-the-box solutions based on the WordPress platform.

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