: How can WordPress be used, besides a blog? WordPress has been primarily a blogging tool from the start. But recent releases have been very customizable and extensible, especially 3.0. What other

@Sent6035632

With the help of a few plugins you can turn Wordpress into an excellent CMS and create whatever type of website you'd like. It really is that flexible!

We currently use it for all our websites and it's just a case of rolling out these plugins (via some cloning to save you installing each time!) to name a few:

Admin Menu Editor
Lets you directly edit the WordPress admin menu. You can re-order, hide or rename existing menus, add custom menus and more.

Advanced Custom Fields
Completely Customise your edit pages with an assortment of field types: Wysiwyg, Repeater, text, textarea, image, file, select, checkbox post type, page link and more! Hide unwanted metaboxes and assign to any edit page!

CMS Dashboard
Big user friendly buttons to make your clients happy and your wordpress a better CMS

Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics to your WordPress blog, adding lots of features, eg. custom variables and automatic clickout and download tracking.

NIVO slider light
This is a wrapper for the jQuery plugin NIVO Image Slider from dev7studios.

Pages Children
Display Pages heirarchy a single level pages at a time.

Simple Page Ordering
Order your pages and hierarchical post types using drag and drop on the built in page list. Also adds a filter for items to show per page. For further instructions, open the "Help" tab on the Pages screen.

TinyMCE Advanced
Enables advanced features and plugins in TinyMCE, the visual editor in WordPress.

Web Editors CMS
A collection of plugins that optimize WordPress to use as a CMS. Includes our custom plugins and some extra's.

WordPress SEO
The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.

I'm sure there are other plugins out there but a combination of these has so far covered what we've needed for several different websites, all with different needs.

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@Caterina187

Wordpress can be used to power a facebook application :)
recently built one...

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@Kaufman445

I use wordpress with the P2 theme as a closed family social network were everybody can "tweet" what they are up to. Nice for keeping track of my siblings and nephews...

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@Samaraweera270

Blog into Book @ webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/1618/how-to-turn-a-blog-into-a-book

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@Goswami781

I've used WordPress to create everything from high-traffic news sites with workflow-wrapped user submissions, to e-commerce sites and full blown corporate CMS style sites.

Out of the box, yes it's just a blog engine.. but the ease of making plugins and the huge availability of third party themes/plugins/extras, as well as the sheer size of the supporting community, puts it right at the top of the list for me.

I still use Drupal occasionally if the client requires something really out-there (complex workflows, integration with other systems, etc), but i'd say 90% of my work is done purely in WordPress now just due to how easy it is, and how quick I can churn out a product that delivers the client's needs.

The back-end of WordPress is also among the best out there. I find a majority of support I do for clients is coming from the minority I have running Drupal. It's a lot easier for an everyday person to break things in Drupal, and a lot more difficult for them to figure out day to day tasks. WordPress is clean, simple, and easy to use even if the person has never done any webmaster-style work before.

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@Heady270

Because you can have pages (static) as well as posts (dynamic) you can use WordPress to do nearly anything, though it may not be the most efficient vehicle, depending on your needs.

The biggest benefit is separating the data, and the entry & management of that data, from the backend, technical part of the site. This enables non-technical users to create and post the content without having to know any HTML or CSS.

With available PHP functions and plugins, you can bend WP to your will easily by downloading and installing any of thousands available, or if what you need isn't available you can write or commission your own custom work.

WP Pages are technically the same as posts but are treated differently, namely they are static, and have no relationship to each other unless you build it with a hierarchy or a menu.

The new custom post type (really a page rather than a post) is a way to add structure to pages so that you can have standardized information on all of the custom posts of a given type. For example, on a real estate site, you could have a custom post type for houses, that had fields for all the standard features of these properties, like # of bedrooms, etc.

A new item is added to the admin menu for each custom type, so the non-tech content providers can add a house as easily as adding a post.

e-Commerce add-ons to WP work this way, and are all being upgraded to work with the newest version of WP, instead of having their own nonstandard approach.

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@Gail5422790

Wordpresses primary function is as a blog. It is not a Content Management System. I you want to do more than the simple blog/gallery/personal webpage then I would hire a developer and getg an actual cms such as Drupal. This will allow for better expansion in the long run.

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@Jamie184

Also there are plugins to make a site for realtors to list their homes for sale, it's really closer to a CMS once you start looking at plugins, and custom fields. Also in the latest version 3.0 there is now support for multiple users that allows you to create a sort of mini-facebook or ning-like social website.

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@Murray432

In addition to CMS and photography portfolio/gallery uses, it can also be used to run a webcomic site (usually via the "ComicPress" theme). You see quite a few webcomics running their backend using WordPress.

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@Kevin317

There is also an E-Commerce plug in for wordpress.

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@Sims2060225

It can be abused into a CMS, something I am guilty of a few times. While it's not ideal (and definitely wasn't around 2.0 when I started doing it), it's getting much better, and is far easier to explain to non-technical clients than the likes of Drupal, even if it is primarily about blogging.

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@Kevin317

I've seen quite a few themes that transform Wordpress in a photography portfolio/gallery site.

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@Rivera981

A lot of people use it as a full blown CMS. You can have your visitors land on any page of your choice, showing the blog as a special page (if at all). It also makes an excellent tool for photographers to publish their work, especially freelance photojournalists.

The other thing that I really, really like about WP is how easy it is to bring existing static pages into the Wordpress 'loop'. I've found it to be an invaluable tool to 'drop in' to existing static sites for clients that want to be able to publish without editing HTML. This brings (at least part of) the dynamic content to all of the static pages.

I think its also important to make a distinction between blogging and more serious self publishing. The first, of course, being more recreational. Wordpress (especially with the latest version) appeals equally to either use.

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