How to Turn WordPress into a CMS

For those of you who do not know WordPress is much more powerful then just another blogging solution. I am of course talking about WordPress.ORG. You can use advanced themes to turn WordPress into a powerful Content Management System.

You are probably thinking why can’t you just use drupal or joomla for your CMS needs? Well here are some reasons to help you in your decision making process.

1. WordPress is much lighter code and loads faster
2. WordPress is much easier to learn than the other two
3. WordPress is much easier to customize
4. WordPress has more plugins and support than you would know what to do with
5. WordPress is much more SEO friendly

Now that we got that out of the way here is how to turn WordPress into a CMS

First and most important thing to do is to make sure to set your homepage as a static page instead of your blog. This will automatically make your site look more like an actual website.

Second download some good plugins to help your site look more like a legit site. This Guy has a great list of plugins. Basically you need a nice sitemap generator, some forms, and some other goodies.

Third you will need to modify the layout and design of your template. In other words you can’t have the usual crap that lies around that shows that it is a blog… tags, meta, etc. You need to keep it clean, and if you can create custom templates to be used on your “pages” that do not have the typical sidebar that your blog would.

Now all of this might seem like a total pain in the ass, luckily there are a few great themes out there that help you through the process.

Check out this video from WordPress CMS Blog that shows WP Remix 2, by far the most advanced WordPress CMS Theme, in action.