Wordpress Open Source CMS

Moving away from static brochure ware websites towards dynamic web conversations

If you've spoken to me at all about web development, you'd know I'm a Wordpress Lover. It's my web CMS (content management solution) of choice and it's what I use to power my own website www.nomad-one.com.

What is a content management system?

A content management system is a web based application which is developed to run in the background of your website allowing you to easily update content without the need for web programming or coding skills. All content is stored in a database which is then presented in whatever layout or styling your site is configured to be displayed in. Should you need to change the look of your site in the future you wouldn't need to touch the content at all saving you loads of development time and money.

Recently I've helped a few companies get a powerfully interactive online presence using wordpress at a fraction of the cost of a tailor made CMS (content management system). Lets face it, who wants a website which needs a web specialist just to update your new product information, or to add a simple news item? Not me and neither should you.

So what is Wordpress and how can it benefit your company or organisation?

Wordpress started out as an Open Source(Free) Blogging Platform, but has quickly developed into quite an advanced CMS (content management system) platform.

In the good (or bad) old days of the web, if you wanted a CMS to allow you to easily update your own site without needing coding skills, you would have paid through your neck to get web developers to develop a customized CMS for your site.

Those days are almost completely gone, unless your CMS requirements are so advanced or so specific that Open Source solutions just won't fit. Luckily for most of us solutions like Wordpress fit just about any requirements like a glove with a little persuasion. I've been running my own website on wordpress for almost 2 years now.

The Benefits of Wordpress as a Content Management System

The first benefit of Wordpress is it's 100% Free. The beauty of it is that it comes out of the box with highly interactive functionality using the latest web coding standards. This would costs tens of thousands to develop from scratch. Because it's Open-Source, there's a huge community working day and night to extend the platform by way of functional plugins which adds more advanced features, and regular updates, which extend the platform, fixing any bugs which may have been undetected. You could add contact forms, surveys, website traffic monitoring, RSS feeds, Photo Galleries, SEO enhancing plugins, powerful content tagging features, site search and many more even more exciting features to your site with thousands of freely available plugins developed by the Wordpress Community.

There are tons of free templates(Themes) and layouts available for the Wordpress platform. What's even better is these templates are easy to re-skin and tweak to fit your Branding needs. That means you could have a completely unique looking website, with highly interactive functionality and web 2.0 features at the same price it would have cost you to have a static, dead boring website a year or 2 ago. To recap, here are only a few of the reasons why you should take a look at Wordpress for your next website project.

• Open Source (FREE)
• Large Support Community
• Constantly being improved & extended
• Highly Flexible & Extendable
• Can be used in conjunction with your current website
• Thousands of Freely available functional plugins
• Built on web standards
• SEO friendly
• Quick to set up
• Easy to manage, upload and edit content

Over the past few months I have helped a few small businesses and individuals get online in a very cost effective manner using Wordpress and some design & coding know-how. Here are a few simple wordpress implementations for small businesses I've done recently:

www.bettinabranding.com

www.jayz.co.za

www.hakimquick.com

www.furlongproperties.co.za

These websites were all relatively simple to set up and populate with content. I re-Branded them to varying degrees and Ta-daa, these companies are now online in a much better way than they would be with a static (never to be updated) brochure ware site. The more I use and learn about wordpress, the more I realise how powerful it is. I now publish content to my site using a (Free) Open Source Program called Windows Live Writer. It's on my desktop and only requires the ability to type and select a picture file from your computer's folders, in order to start putting pages onto your Wordpress website without knowing a thing about web coding. And unlike other wysiwyg (What you see is what you get) programs this one produces great code. Easy Peasy!

Content is still King on the Web

Who cares when your company was established, people want value adding content.

You must have heard the term web 2.0 by now and are probably already sick to death of the term. What I want to focus on is not so much the technology but what it has resulted in over the past few years. Not too long ago the web was a place where the company mission statement was seen as one of the key pieces of content to have on the companies website. With the rise of the blogging phenomenon essentially turning anyone with access to a PC and an internet connection into a web publisher we've seen a drastic shift in the type of content being produced online.

Attention spans are rapidly decreasing forcing online publishers to pack more and more value into the content they produce. This has drastically affected what a company website needs in order to capture a piece of the attention pie. Companies have started implementing new web strategies which include blogs, e-books, help guides and many other value adding tools to develop on-going relationships with their target audiences.

The whole aim is to provide helpful content which captivates your prospects attention and turns them into a Brand Enthusiast. You can learn valuable lessons from consumers who interact with your company and in many cases they will even be willing to help you solve problems and give you much needed feedback which can be used to improve your offering and better serve them. This can only result in an increased market share and many big companies including Microsoft have implement similar strategies.

Another very important aspect of web communications is the human social aspect. The proliferation of online social networks is a testament to the fact that people want more contact with real living people and not corporate communications tools which spit out corporate jargon. Being a company that interacts with people on a human level, answering questions, asking questions or even asking for advice when needed shows you are willing to develop a real meaningful relationship. For this reason many companies have even started setting up facebook groups, organised social networking events or even started online social networks.

So what can you do to improve your web content strategy?

• Visitors to your site need to know very quickly what the site is about and how they might benefit from it or from your company
• Determine what information could benefit your prospects while drawing them closer to your products and services.
• Keep notes on typical customer questions and develop an FAQ bank which can be published on your site.
• Provide news on industry developments and innovations which could be of interest to your prospects.
• Put together help guides which solve a problem for your target audience.
• Provide supporting information for your products or services for existing customers.
• Allow site visitors to ask questions through feedback forms, commenting or via email.
• Provide case studies of the successful use of your products or services as well as positive testimonials

These are but a few areas to focus on when developing a web content strategy for your business or organisation. For further information in this regard contact me on nur@nomad-one.com

Recent nomad-one Projects

I've ended 2007 with a few nice projects in the bag and started 2008 with a few more. I've Recently completed websites including:

• Arabella Starwood Resorts Western Cape
• www.synerlogix.co.za re-design recently launched
• mini-re-design of the www.geezerduvet.co.za (awaiting content approval)

I've also completed a High Profile (yet confidential) Presentation for Property Development Project Managers Target Projects which I wish I could show you.

We've started the year off designing a new Wordpress based website for Independent Networking Specialists Praxia Technologies. This includes an Identity refreshment to take Praxia forward on a brand new note for 2008. Another new client which we will be servicing on behalf of Synerlogix Consulting is Unipalm, who's Wordpress based website is currently in development.

We've been working with Adriaan Pienaar of www.adii.co.za fame designing an identity for his much awaited Wordpress community website Wordpress magazine. Adii as he is known online has made a huge name for himself online using the power of web community, so I'm looking forward to developing this relationship further.

Andre Bothma from SA Climate Crisis, won our Logo Design Questions & Answers competition. We will be working with Andre to develop a brand new identity for the organisation, so we're doing our little bit for the environment as well. Andre won the Logo Design with the Question below and we are in the process of developing his new Logo which should be released pretty soon.

Andre Asked: "Should the values of my organisation be reflected in its logo, and how would a designer go about communicating these values visually and in an enticing fashion?"

I've been talking to a few more potential clients and strategic partners and have great plans for the year ahead. I look forward to having you with me on this journey and hope to be of service to you in the near future. Maybe we could even become partners and add value to both of our businesses.