Web Sites Built with WordPress
WordPress blogging software can be used not only to manage your blog — a web log or online journal — but also to manage your entire site. You can
- freshen your site with frequent blog articles,
- interact with visitors who comment on your articles, and
- maintain your site yourself —
- without having to learn code, or
- waiting for someone else to make changes, or
- paying someone to make changes to your site.
I’ve set up a demonstration site that uses WordPress as a content management system (CMS). Please take a look!
How It Works
You manage your site through an online, password-protected interface. After you log in, you are taken to the Dashboard, a set of menus where you can add, change, or delete pages and posts. You control whether visitors are allowed to comment on your posts, among other options.
The text for your pages is stored in a database. When a visitor clicks on your site, the pages are built dynamically using a theme (template) that you have chosen or had designed.
What You Need to Get Started
To build a WordPress-managed site, you need site hosting that
- provides a database, such as mySQl, and
- supports PHP.
Most Web hosts offer mySQL databases and PHP support as part of their standard packages. I’ve heard favorable comments (during Oct. 2006–May 2007) about the hosts listed below, but many excellent hosts exist.
Please visit my CMS demonstration site.