A Website? In Wordpress?

[makaveli]

does anyone here think i could use wordpress to make a website that is a review site of cultural and arts things in my city, im planning on making a website that promotes my local area and all the bars, food places and clubs... (planning ot make a few ££ out of it as well as get some VIP nights for review purposes )

 

my freind used WP for his group of sites, i.e [upedigreemusic[/u]

that design im not sure about as ive told him, but is it viable to make a site in WP? he thinks it is. im not so sure but thinking of it for ease of use.

it does look a bit boring, or would i be best using somthing else, as for this site, ive had bother with CSS in dreamweaver and tables etc and give up, so i want an easy to make soloution

any ideas

 

Thanks on advance (once again )

Edited May 4, 2006 by TCH-Bruce

[TCH-Tim]

As we've mentioned in other threads, you can make WordPress look however boring or fancy as you want it.

 

I use it to build sites all the time. Even used it for the site of my old town's Board of Education. It's quick to implement, and it's easy for users to update once you get the structure in place.

 

If you take the time to learn it, it's a very powerful tool.

[makaveli]

would i be bette roff using mambo, or php nuke (? think its called that)

im talking here from setup Point of view, as im a bit new to "proper hosting" and web work..

is their any good resources to jazzing up WP as you mention there?

[surefire]

Mambo and Nuke fall into the category of cms that force your hand in terms of design. You really have to know what you're doing in order to build a site with one of those systems and not have it look like every other Mambo and Nuke site out there.

 

(I'm sure I just upset someone)

 

Wordpress gives your more flexibility with design. You can usually still spot a Wordpress site... but it's more from the urls and the blog-like-look than a limitation of the system.

[abinidi]

If your question is: "Can I use a blog-type CMS to do a food/restaurant review website?" The answer is YES.

 

I recently stumbled on a the food blog genre. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Google: "food blog." Try Chocolate & Zucchini blog first, then follow the links from that blog to other food blogs. It is amazing.) The writer of Chocolate & Zucchini recently got a contract for writing a food-related book -- all because of her food blog. If it is something that is interesting to you, I'd suggest that you look at the food blog culture first to see what other sites in your general genre are doing.

 

Is WordPress your best option? That depends. Blogs tend to work well for content that is archived by date. The content is generally linear and is time dependent. Other CMS products sometimes work better for content that is non-linear (enter and exit at any point). You can add content and that isn't dependent on when (or the order in which) it was added.

 

One of our forum members (Crazy Uncle Dave) recently ported Website Baker (a CMS) to integrate seamlessly with the rest of his site. On the other hand, you can make WordPress do what you want with a little customization. I use WordPress on my portfolio website (link in signature). Notice how none of my "posts" or "pages" have a date shown. I didn't want my portfolio to have the "blog" date stamp on pages, so I went into the template and removed it. None of my pages have a date stamp on them, making the site look like it was done with CMS software than blog software.

 

In the end, CMS and blog software are very similar. One of the main differences is that blogs are usually time linear and CMS sites are usually non-linear.

 

You decide what you want for your site. Then pick the tool that will let you do that easiest. WordPress is one option. Website Baker may be another. Maybe something else will be best for what you're trying to do.

 

Short answer: Yes. WordPress will work.

[makaveli]

thanks for the help everyone

as usual TCH Forums, a font of knowledge !

Edited May 4, 2006 by makaveli