In This Chapter
Seeing examples of how WordPress powers Web sites
Discovering sites that use WordPress for more than just blogging
A tremendous number of well-designed WordPress sites are floating around the Web. Picking only ten of them would be a near-impossible task for me. Sometimes, you can look at a Web site and not even know that it's a blog or a site built with blogging software. Because users can extend the WordPress software to function as so much more than just a blog, people refer to WordPress as a CMS (content management system), rather than merely a blogging platform. You can do much more with it than just blog; you can also build fully functional Web sites with it. In this chapter, I reveal ten sites that go beyond the blog.
Note
Many Web sites using WordPress as a CMS have a blog as part of their content. However, just as many don't include a blog. These sites are using WordPress to power their small business, magazine, news, or e-commerce Web site with dynamic features such as:
Shopping cart
Event calendar
Links directories
Discussion forums
Multimedia galleries
Podcasts and/or Internet radio shows
User-submitted content
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette
The Harvard Gazette, on first glance, looks like an online magazine of articles, resources, and information. Dig a little deeper, and you find that it's a Web site that is rich in multimedia offerings, such as videos and photography. All these additions provide a beautiful accent to the written content.
Included in the Harvard Gazette Web site is an extensive calendar of events that is updated routinely and offers the visitor a glimpse into the types of events — giving visitors the capability to add the event to their own calendars with applications from Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Apple iCal, and more.
Tip
If you take away one idea from this site, it's the use of category archiving coupled with fully customizing the different category templates. This touch creates an interesting and clean browsing experience.
http://icondock.com
Icon Dock is a Web site created by the folks from N.Design Studio and is a perfect example of using WordPress as an online shop. Icon Dock has a fully functional and easy-to-navigate e-commerce shop where visitors can purchase high-quality designed icons and graphics.
Tip
If you use one good idea from Icon Dock, it's the site's smart use of a great WordPress plugin to power its online shop. The plugin is called WP E-Commerce, which you can find here: www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce. You can install the plugin on any WordPress–powered Web site, and you immediately have a state-of-the-art e-commerce platform that allows you to host a full-featured shopping cart. Very professional! The possibilities of this plugin are literally endless.
http://mosaic-consulting.com
Mosaic Consulting is a small legal IT consulting company whose work spans the globe. Mosaic chose WordPress as a CMS because of the software's flexibility and extensibility.
The company doesn't run a blog on its site. Instead, it offers an unlimited number of static pages on the site — pages that someone created without ever having to touch a piece of the underlying code in the theme (that's the WordPress way). The site also uses WordPress categories and subcategories in a nice dynamic navigation menu that takes visitors through the various sections of the site. The different layouts for individual pages and categories are accomplished through extensive use of custom page and category templates within the WordPress theme.
http://csscollection.com
CSS Collection is a showcase site powered by WordPress. The purpose of the site is to showcase what people can do with Cascading Style Sheets when building Web sites and blogs.
Here are some of the site's features:
Thumbnails: The front page includes thumbnail images of highlighted sites. Click a thumbnail to visit the Web site. The thumbnailing is accomplished through the image handler in WordPress, along with some custom coding done with the Custom Fields tool.
Interactive ratings: Click any Web site's title, and you go to a single page where you can comment on the entry. Through the use of a plugin called Rate My Stuff (
http://deadcantrant.com/projects/rate/), the folks at CSS Collection let readers rate each site with a star-rating system.
CSS Collection also makes good use of the typical blog layout and functions that you are used to seeing with WordPress. But the blog is not the primary part of the site. Rather, the site keeps a news section active with announcements and updates, using the old-fashioned blog layout that you've come to expect with WordPress. It uses RSS and Categories extensively to accomplish these goals.
I never really envisioned myself writing about the rock band Queensryche, especially since what I have to say has nothing to do with dissecting the psychology behind its Operation:Mindcrime albums.
Nope, this is all about the Web design. Using a relatively simple layout that is rich in photographs and imagery, and powered by WordPress, Queensryche has provided a fun place on the Web for members of its fan club to get news, information, tour dates, recordings, videos, photos, and a growing Members Only discussion forum.
Visitors to the Web site are first met with the latest update and news from the band, along with photographs and graphic imagery.
www.streamys.org
If you've ever found yourself wondering. . . ."Hmm, do they have an awards program for online Web television programming?" — yes, they do! The Streamy Awards is a Web site and organization dedicated to honoring excellence in the field of original Web television programming. This organization is no joke, either. Past winners include industry greats such as Felicia Day, Joss Whedon, William Shatner, Rosario Dawson, Alex Albrecht, Zadi Diaz, Jane Espenson, Neil Patrick Harris, Paul Rudd, and Ronald D. Moore.
The Streamy Awards Web site, powered by WordPress, of course, mixes up traditional written content with multimedia offerings such as videos and a live-streaming of its annual Streamy Awards show, available on demand. Visitors to the Streamy Awards Web site can participate in some of the following activities:
Vote for the Audience Choice award for your favorite online television programming.
Watch videos from last year's event, including acceptance speeches, photo montages, and more.
View or download Streamy media to various mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, Android).
Connect with Streamy through Facebook and Twitter.
MommyCast lives in the genre of mommy blogs — blogs owned and maintained by mothers. But MommyCast takes that concept quite a bit further through its radio program. MommyCast.com is a unique online audio company by and for women who are immersed in the fullness of motherhood and life; the site's motto is "Holding the world together, one child at a time." MommyCast offers interviews with people on topics that encompass all things having to do with motherhood.
I had the chance to speak with Joelle Reeder of Moxie Design Studios (http://moxiedesignstudios.com), the design brain behind the MommyCast brand. Joelle had this to say about the decision to use WordPress as the CMS for the project: "The MommyCast show has sponsors who use WordPress, so it was a natural choice for them to go in the same direction. The people behind the project also have used WordPress in the past and were very familiar with the platform."
Joelle also implemented a really neat way to bring some visual vitality to each post through image thumbnailing, combined with Custom Fields, that lets them insert small images into each post that calls attention not only to the post but to the post topic. These Custom Fields are called Call Outs, and they draw the eye in and make you pay attention.
www.mendocinobeauty.com
This Web site is a professional business Web site for the beauty and skincare studio, Mendocino Beauty. Powered by WordPress, the site contains a blog — however, the blog isn't front and center like you see with a lot of WordPress installations. Instead, you're met with a beautifully designed front page that invites you into its site by providing you with navigation links to the different areas and offerings.
Tip
If you take away anything from this site, it's the use of its Look Book — a full photo gallery powered by a nifty WordPress plugin called NextGEN Gallery by plugin author Alex Rabe. The plugin was developed for the WordPress platform, and it allows you to create an unlimited number of photo albums and galleries for your Web site. You can check out, and download, the NextGEN Gallery in the official WordPress Plugin Directory here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery.
http://johnjamesjacoby.com
John James Jacoby is one of two core developers on the BuddyPress team. He is a specialist in new media development and design. I am including his Web site here because he runs a very simple but elegant online portfolio with WordPress. This Web site doesn't contain a blog. What you will find is a gallery of work and projects that he has been directly involved with.
Additionally, you will find a few static pages that John uses to publish a short bio, information about his rates, and an explanation of the services he offers. Using a plugin called Easy Contact, John also provides an easy-to-use e-mail form that allows visitors to contact him via e-mail using a form on his Contact Page. The Easy Contact plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-contact) was developed by Scott Allan Wallick and has features that include an options menu so that you can customize form content, built-in spam reduction measures, customizable CSS, and trackable information such as referrals and user agents.
http://ewebscapes.com
I have to issue a disclaimer for this listing: I've owned and operated this site since 1998. I include it in this chapter not so much to self-promote (although that is a bonus!) but as a way to illustrate some great things that you can do with just one installation of the WordPress software. I often refer people to my site when I explain how WordPress not only powers a great blog, but also is the foundation of a fully functional business Web site.
E.Webscapes has several sections:
The front page: This page contains an introductory message to visitors, some examples of my work, links, case studies, and news.
The Design Blog: I update this blog regularly with information about the design projects that my designers and I have completed for our clients.
FAQ/Services/Resources: These are examples of several different pages I have created within the E.Webscapes Web site — each use a slightly different custom page template to display the information in the way I wanted to arrange it.
Our Work: This section is the design portfolio that spotlights all the projects that my designers and I have done in the past.