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by Scott Frangos, Managing Editor - WebHelperMagazine.com

ALERT: Blogs have been Vanishing from WordPress…

In a scary development, perhaps timed precisely to coincide with Halloween 2007 — blogs have been vanishing from WordPress websites. That’s right… poof… they’re gone — could David Copperfield be involved?

Take a look at the following four sites (click to enlarge), all built on WordPress… but… where’s the Blog?

You caught me on AstroDaija’s website (third from left) — right? There is a link there named “Blog” — more on that below. I think on the other three, you will agree — there does not appear to be a Blog there, but instead the sites come across as a standard website, or portal. Yet, all were created and are maintained using WordPress.

The first example (above left) doesn’t look anything like a blog, does it (view the site at autoshows.ford.com)? The second example (above) is actually from a WordPress template theme, (Note that you can download that theme, called “Mimbo”, at DarrenHoyt.com), by Darren Hoyt whose intriguing post, “WordPress Themes Aren’t Just Pretty Packaging,“ added inspiration to what we’ve been thinking here at WebHelperMagazine.com, and have discovered in work for our clients at WebFadds.com. In a nutshell, WordPress is no longer just a “blogging” tool.

To support that claim, here are some excellent points that Darren made in his article, followed by our conceptual approach to using WordPress as a CMS — Content Management System.

Mr. Hoyt offers these intriguing points, which I’ve paraphrased a bit:

• WordPress is actually an Application, and themes can be seen as “mini applications.” That means the the application of WordPress may not necessarily be… a “blog.”
• Themes for WordPress, can be thought of as a “blueprint” for a CMS website.
• A “post” is really just a container of information which may be used for purposes other than blog posts.

How did they hide that “blog” in those WordPress CMS Websites?

That’s a question for both website developers, and business people who want the ease of CMS while using the WordPress engine to develop their business website. The answer? There’s more than one option — the “blog” may be secondary, it may be called something else, or a blog may not be found in your WordPress CMS website at all. Here’s the way it shakes out:

1. No Blog necessary, because the company/client does not need one. This may be because they are focused on eCommerce, or just want to present services/products in a straightforward fashion. In the Ford autoshow example, you’ll recognize the familiar wordpress comment structure on any of their “news” pages — but there doesn’t seem to be any “blogging” going on. One might argue that social networking is making Blogs an important part of doing business. Well, that’s the beauty of WordPress as a CMS — you can always fire up a blog or two at anytime.
2. The Blog is secondary or a “Hybrid”. A blog in “secondary” usage is seen in the AstroDaija.com website example above. She presents her services, first, using WordPress as a CMS. One of the links leads to her “Blog” — and contains the postings in reverse chronological order. Here at WebHelperMagazine.com, my blog, “The Open Source WebMaster,” actually appears as a Category of the larger Magazine, and so is a sort of “Hybrid” use of a blog. Its features are the same — a “blogger” (yours truly), a series of posts, comments and answers, RSS feed, etc. But we are also including some news stories in that “section” if… they are written by me, and pertain to Open Source Matters. I will still engage in discussion and answer comments on them. Is that still a “Blog”? You be the judge of that, but I think of it more as a “column” and article section within an ezine, that offers its readers the ability to dialog with the author. Note that the WordPress Mimbo theme, discussed above, does use the subheadline, “News & Blog”, in the right column. But when using that theme, you could choose to drop the word “Blog” and present straight news, or drop the word “News” and present blog(s).
3. The Blog section of a website is used for a different purpose, and so labeled differently. See WebFadds.com example from above. There is a section there called “News” which operates the same way as AstroDaija.com’s “Blog” area, but is intended to be less of a Blog, and more of a company news area. Of course, the potential for comments and discussion are still there, just like in a Blog. What’s missing is an individual who presents their opinions in each post — and that is not the purpose of that “section” at WebFadds.com.

Are any of these examples of “using WordPress the wrong way?” No. WordPress is now a very flexible platform which may be applied to a variety of web development purposes, including use as a Content Management System. Form follows function. And, if the function of your website doesn’t call for a blog, you can still enjoy all the benefits WordPress offers… without blogging. David Copperfield is not required to make your blog vanish — it just depends on the mission of the website… and with a little magic from WordPress, and plugin developers.