How WordPress is being used beyond blogs
WordPress’ potential as a content management system is not something that can be fully explained using words. Hence, I will be pointing you to several websites that use WordPress so you can get an idea of what is possible when you use it for your site:
1. News blogs: Time, CNN and Wall Street Journal
These blogs do not look like WordPress sites on the surface, and also do not use the structure of typical WordPress blogs. However, WordPress gives them the flexibility to create whatever layouts they want. What is also worth noting here is that these sites are not single blogs, rather, they are an assembly of several organized blogs under a single website.
And why did these news organizations need several blogs? So that each blog could feature the same topics they feature under their own news articles. So, you can see blogs on topics like the US Presidential Election, technology, Europe, religion, entertainment, etc. WordPress enabled these organizations to have a better online presence, using the customary conventions of the online community.
2. Government websites
Many websites run by different governments, including the Philippines, the U.S., the U.K., and Brazil, were made in WordPress. For some notoriously nontechliterate governments, government websites are known to be sparse, lacking in features and not very useful to citizens. It takes a deliberate effort from administrations to make these sites attractive, easy to navigate and resource rich.
The degree to which governments and their agencies upgrade their websites varies to how knowledgeable those governments are to the power of the internet and how to fully utilize them. For those who are in the know, WordPress is a great choice to make easily accessible websites. Of course, governments will prefer to make sites with their own unique templates, but you can plainly see the structure of pages and posts in many of them.
3. Websites for publications, like Reader’s Digest and New York Observer
Whereas some publications have chosen to use WordPress to run their blog sections, others set up their entire websites around it. For publications like Reader’s Digest and the New York Observer, this is a stylistic rather than functional choice. Reader’s Digest actually reappropriates their shortform, big type philosophy to their website, and I personally think it works very well for what they are.
4. Websites for musicians
Musicians being creatives themselves, they were among the first to muddle in the world of feature rich websites, and even know some revel in flashy animation intros and song previews. For some musicians, however, it makes much more sense to make practical sites to help people get more information about them, including upcoming albums, tour dates, etc. Some celebrity musicians known for using this approach are Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Jay-Z and Wyclef Jean.
5. Design oriented blogs like Icondock, Creative Depart and Typographica
Finally, there are blogs made by people in the design disciplines themselves. As designers, they are expected to make websites that attract attention, sometimes even flouting conventions and expectations. Designers are expected to make the most out of any platform, but in particular, they are able to display the full aesthetic capabilities of WordPress. With WordPress, they are able to feature their best work, and they are enabled to feature it in the best way.
What is your favorite WordPress site?