OK, I admit it, I have become a HUGE fan of the WordPress blog/website platform over the past year and am dedicating today’s Tech Tuesday post to talking about it.
WordPress is much more than a good application for making your own blog, it’s also a platform for developing and publishing fantastic websites that no-one would ever guess were made using ‘blogging software’.
Check out Emmanuel Church London’s website, for example.
It’s pretty, easy to navigate, content rich and yet is built on something that many people think is ‘just for blogs’.
I’m currently rebuilding one of my websites, day3.co.uk, using WordPress although there is only one small section that actually uses any form of blogging features. The rest uses the wonderful ‘pages’ feature in WordPress which allows me to create a website which has consistent design and navigation and still incorporate all of the blogging-style functions I require.
Designers
I know quite a few designers who are working almost exclusively in WordPress these days, and have raved about a couple of the before, like Gabe Taviano for instance (check out this site he designed – yes, it’s made using WordPress) but today I want to introduce you, if you don’t already know him, to Nick the Geek.
Nick is one of my favorite tweeting youth pastors and has been really impressing me with his blog design work in WordPress.
If you are looking to refresh the design of your blog, move over to the WordPress platform or even start a new blog/website then I thoroughly recommend that you get in touch with Nick and see what he can do to help you. Find him on Twitter or at his blog.
Hosting
Finally today, I want to do a little promotion on a new website we just launched.
I’m not usually big on people hawking their own products and businesses on their blogs but we’re doing a fundraiser as part of this new arm to our business and so I want to let as many people know about it as possible.
For seven years now, we have run a small web hosting business, which we originally aimed at churches, charities and small businesses. We sold our hosting mainly to customers in the UK from two sites, HeavenlyHosts.co.uk and StoneageHosting.co.uk.
The thing with hosting a website is that once you have the server space, you can host pretty much any kind of website and over the past year I’ve heard (and read) a lot of people saying that they want a ‘new blog’. They’re tired of the constraints of the blog they currently have and want to upgrade.
Our servers are perfect for hosting blogs so it is a natural progression for us to add blog hosting to the portfolio of services that we offer.
What name could we use for a website selling hosting to people who want new blogs?
Well… NewBlogHosting.com of course! 🙂
My family has been trying to find ways of giving our own money to pay for a well somewhere in Africa (check out nothingtogive.com – which is built on WordPress, of course). One way we’ve come up with to be able to do that is for us to give $15 to our ‘well fund’ for every new hosting package that we sell between now and the end of June 2010.
We’re hoping that NewBlogHosting.com will be inundated with new business so that we can get a long way toward our target of $2600.
If you know anyone who needs hosting either for their website or their blog, we’d be very grateful if you’d point them our way. They’ll get personal service from me, what we think is an excellent, cost-effective solution to their hosting needs and we’ll get to donate $15 more to a very worthy cause.
Oh, and if I haven’t been clear in this post, I REALLY think you should consider using WordPress for your blog/website! 🙂
Hey cool, thanks for the shout out. I agree that WP is a great platform for building websites on. It does almost all the work for you on the functionality side so it is easier to focus on design. The other reason I love it though is that it is really easy to use on the back end.
Not everyone knows html but WP makes it possible through plug-ins, and built in features to be able to do almost anything via a point and click interface.
In fact, most of my recent design work comes with a lot of user definable options for site layout. WP is VERY cool.
It's VERY cool indeed. I love it, and I'm really impressed with your work on it!
I know that I need to make the jump one day … hopefully one day soon! 🙂
Yeah you need to make the jump!!!! 🙂
Thanks for the mention Peter! WordPress sure is on fire this year. After starting my new job, my department's first task is going to be moving an older HTML site (for the radio station) to a sweet WordPress site. Keep up the great work!
You keep up the great work too.
I love what you do with the platform!
I wouldn't mind making the jump, but I think I'd have to have someone help me before I would attempt it. I played with it briefly, but that was it. If anyone was confused about how you feel about WordPress, this should clear it up. 🙂
I doubt there's anyone you know who can help with WordPress…. I mean, who knows anything about that?
I love WordPress. I can't imagine using anything else any more. For the less than mediocre coder like me, it makes building a website like it was your job.
I'm with you. I'm sure that one day I'll build a site not using WordPress, but I can't imagine why! 🙂
You have an awesome blog template.
Thanks, Trey.
Hopefully you'll have an awesome WordPress blog template some day soon too…
I'm with you Peter. WordPress Rocks! Been working with it for years and am glad to hear more folks are growing to appreciate what all can be done with the platform.
…and WordPress is getting so much better. I tried it a couple of years ago and wasn't too impressed but it is really very impressive as a platform now.
I'm getting there, Peter. Promise! If anyone reading this is considering WordPress and you need a host service and some technical assistance, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Peter Pollock. He is awesome with a capital AWE!
Aww, thanks, Kat.
That's such a nice thing to say… if only anybody actually read my blog any more to see it…
Nice to know a community like yours would report such a thing…i don't know if that would happen in the large city. Not sure where God is taking you…You're being SALT and LIGHT…in the city…awesome!