Anyone using Wordpress CMS?

[mattcleaver]

We use wordpress for our church website and I wrote a series on how I did it, for almost free. I'm not allowed to post links yet, but you can read it at my website which is mattcleaver[dot]com. In the sidebar there's a dropdown menu with a list of all my series. You can select the "How I built a church website for free" series there.

I learned that Dreamhost allows non-profits to host one domain for free, so a church could host one wordpress site for absolutely free using Dreamhost. I highly recommend it. Ease of use on wordpress is much higher than other CMS solutions.

[ddocket]

Add myself to the list of users who have a church website built using wordpress.

It is very flexible and the wordpress plugins make a lot of things easy to build in to your site. One of the under-estimated features of wordpress is that you can have multiple users adding content and its not just in the hands of a web developer. If you can email, you can use Wordpress.

[forty31]

Just to revive this thread...we just went live with our new website. We are using Dreamhost (free for non-profit) and using Wordpress as our CMS. Everyone loves it so far and it has saved me hours of updating because they can do it on their own. I can't recommend using Wordpress enough. The site is www.madisonparkchurch.com if you want to check it out.

[dewknight]

Love Wordpress for some of my sites, but just never really liked it for our church site. I'm just about finished creating a custom CMS that will do exactly what we need, and allow groups to update their info / members as needed. Wordpress is great, but if you can go completely custom it's well worth it.

[thehosh]

i LOVE wordpress! and I love it for churches - easy, free, quick, etc. . .

here are a couple that I have launched using wp
lifesongworshipcenter dot org
marilynandsarah dot org

This month alone, I am helping 4 other churches get their sites up and running with WP doing the heavy lifting. LOVE IT!

[DesignHideout]

We use wordpress for our church website. It is a heavily modified theme and has some custom plugins. Most people are surprised to learn that is it built on WP. We have been very happy with it.
ovationchurch.com

[LaneLester]

One of the main advantages of WP is that it is so widely known and used. This is particularly important for an organization that relies on volunteers who come and go. If one WP "expert" leaves, another is likely to come along.

Lane

[kcrox]

So here's a question, our church is requiring the ministers update their portions of the website, so is WP a multiple-user CMS?

[Nathan J]

Originally Posted by kcrox

So here's a question, our church is requiring the ministers update their portions of the website, so is WP a multiple-user CMS?

Very much so. And you can limit the rights of such individuals -- so you could make a minister an Author or Editor and thus prevent them from making other changes or modifications to the site itself (whether inadvertently or intentionally).

[Mark0514]

Well, I've been working with Joomla for a couple years. I want to also learn WP, as everyone says it's easier to teach people to use and it seems quicker (more lightweight). Quite frankly, I'm at a loss.

What do I use for a menu? Do I use posts or pages? I've heard posts for SEO, and thats a concern.

I just cant find a definitive guide to set up a site as a CMS without this hack or that. My question is, if it's a hack, how do I teach someone to use it?

Dont get me wrong, I love the editor and being able to open the php files from the back end....its just that when I open the dashboard I dont know where to begin.

[mattcleaver]

Originally Posted by Mark0514

What do I use for a menu? Do I use posts or pages? I've heard posts for SEO, and thats a concern.

I just cant find a definitive guide to set up a site as a CMS without this hack or that. My question is, if it's a hack, how do I teach someone to use it?

Sorry no one has answered this for you, yet. With WordPress 3.0, there is now even more CMS capability build right into WordPress. WordPress 3.0 compatible themes have drop down menus that you can organize using the Menu options in the Administration Panel. Use pages for static pages. Use posts for news or blogs. Or not at all. You don't have to use posts at all if you don't want to.

I started out using Joomla for CMS options, but once WordPress got to a certain level of functionality (I think it was 2.3), it is the no-brainer choice for 95% of organizations needing a cost-effective website. There's not any significant hacking needed to make it work.

Contact me if you need more help or direction.

twitter.com/mattcleaver