WordPress is not just for blogging. Sure you can install and launchWordPress for your blog or find a blog hosting provider but there are so many things you can do with aWordPress installation. With the use of plugins, free and paid, you can extend your site and do things with it that you might had wondered if it could do or never thought of. I was initially inspired as I have been working on an e-commerce site for my non-profit movie project, Browncoats: Redemption, and I dove into investigating the e-commerce plugins out there along with other community functionality. I came across this initial post from WP Candy on the 10 things you can do with WordPress. I narrowed it down to the five most requested ones I hear from clients and I put my own experiences and perspective on them.

There I said it, now what else can you do with it? That is the question I would hope you would ask! Here there are:

1.) Create a Static Web Site

You would think when you hear this, you would go “Well it Should!”, and my response “It Does, but You have to configure it”. Many install Wordpress and it is set to default as the front page as a blog, naturally. What is recent in the 2.X functionality/options is the ability to set a Static Page as the home page and also specify what is the blog or page that uses the feed/RSS capability.

This is for three reasons – you can set a site up fast, you can edit content easily, the plugins make a site like this sophisticated with little or no cost.

Here a quick tutorial from WP Candy’s post which is fantastic. Why re-create what is done so well? Check out the screen settings:

As soon as you setup the site, change permalink structure by going to settings -> permalink in your dashboard. Change the default date based permalink to /%postname%/ like this:

Next, since you’re building a static site you need to assign a static home page. In settings -> reading in your dashboard assign a static page to display for the home page. If you’re going to use the blogging function as well, you can assign it to a sub-page of your blog here as well:

Last, turn off comments. You can turn these back on for any invidual pages (or posts if you use the blogging feature later). Go to settings -> Discussion to turn comments off by default:

That’s pretty much all there is to it.

The comments section is something many overlook but if this a static site, you have to turn it off. Now wasn’t that cool and easy? On to the next one – Discussion Forums.

2.) Build a Discussion Forum

Discussion forums are the basic tools in building a community. WP Candy says “A discussion forum is probably one of the greatest sources of content you could ever ask for! It’s the epitomy of give and take online, usually people asking for help, and experts answering questions to give their expertise (and signature links) greater exposure.” There are many discussion forum tools out there PHPForum but I bet you didn’t know you could use WordPress to incorporate this into your site or make the install a dedicated discussion forum. Yeah, I didn’t either.

There seem to be five good forum plugins according to Chase Segum but the one I like and WP Candy likes is Simple:Press Forum. For my tastes, it has lots of icons, powerful search, full statistics, use registration  and allows you to create an entire (and fully featured) threaded discussion forum within WordPress itself. It has as many features than most standalone forums and it too many to list here.

3.) Create a Photography Portfolio

For those photo junkies out there or any one that would like to create a photo portfolio site, there are some fantastic ways to build this type of site. NextGen Gallery is the best of breed plugins for photo management in WordPress. Another one I like that WP Candy recommended is Page Flip Image Gallery. According to WP Candy “If all you need to do for yourself or your client is display some sample work, show a portfolio, or just a simple image gallery – this is awesome! It features full screen mode, and you can even use either JPG files or SWF flash files for gallery display! It has batch upload, upload from URL, and zip file upload.” Here is NextGen Gallery in action below:

Lastly, it would be remiss of me to not mention the photo service plugins from Picasa or Flickr. I know these might seem like lazy gimme’s but many people use these sites and want to leverage them on their web site. Here are links to the Picasa Plugins or Flickr Plugins for WordPress.

4.) Build a Membership System

Ok, so you have been thinking of building out a membership base and maybe creating an exclusive paid area for members. Maybe you want a private space for family and friends. If you want to go the quick sign-on without control, you could use Facebook Connect, but we are here to talk about doing this within Wordpress. Looking at many attempts at membership systems I really like Memberwing. Memberwing is a WordPress plugin that allows you to setup a membership site. There is a free and a “pro” version and with the paid version you get some fantastic features like Gradual Content delivery functionality, Payment Processing and E-Mail Subscription Integration. However, if you want to start with the free version it does exactly what most people would need, by using special tags it separates “teasers” from premium (paid) content.

Here is a screenshot that WP Candy captured to show how content is hidden and users have options to either login or “become a member”:

However, if this overkill and you just want to restrict content to registered members and not deal with payment, then you should use the WP Private plugin. This is more appropriate for business to use for internal employees, private family content, etc.

5.) Build an Online Store

This an experience I just went through and narrowed it down the five key elements you need to build an e-commerce site. When you are looking at these plugins you have consider first and foremost your payment gateway. This will narrow down your choices dramatically in some cases. If you are going with Paypal and Google Checkout you have the most flexibility. If you use a more sophisticated gateway like Authorize.net you should be fine in many cases but the choices narrow. If you are using other great gateways like First Data, HSBC or PayJunction to name a few, your choices will narrow. My recommendation in retrospect is if you haven’t seleted a payment gateway yet is to look at these shopping cart plugins and based on what capabilities you need, get the gateway that fits. Almost all work with Paypal and Google Checkout to give people a great choice of payment methods if you want to turn that on.

When it comes to setting up the online store, you can go one of two ways with this Wordpress plugin – install a separate WordPress session in a sub-domain (shop.YOURDOMAIN.com or store.YOURDOMAIN.com) or you can use the plugin and designate a sub-directory (/shop or /store) which will work just fine. You will eventually have to deal with getting an SSL certificate for payment processing so plan this out well ahead of time.

With all that out of the way, there are a few plug-ins that you should be aware of for building a store. The first is the well known WP E-Commerce which is pretty cool if you need a clean and nice shopping cart. It has some cool plugins like DropBox (AJAX shopping cart) and integration with Campaign Monitor. It doesn’t have Authorize.net so you are limited with the gateway choices. The second one is called Shopp (not a misspell) which has more gateways, including Authorize.net and First Data and a slew of others. It also has shipping modules for USPS, FedEx and UPS, integration with Google Analytics which is a very powerful thing for using SEO with e-commerce.

Just so you know, we ultimately picked Shopp because we had selected First Data as our gateway, use USPS for shipping and Google Analytics.

What Things Are You Doing With Wordpress?

So what other things have you been able to do with Wordpress that we didn’t mention? What have you found Wordpress to be great at for your business? Did we miss a good plugin for these five things? Leave a comment.

When most people think of a company using social media to communicate with customers, they think that a blog is the first place to start. This may be the case, but you should really have an experience professional who understands the various tools and the way they should be implemented. Dr. Alan Glazier, a successful optometrist who specializes in Lasik surgery (lasers that correct your bad eyesight) was looking to overhaul his web site and communicate with those thinking about getting Lasik done. He loves blogging and actually has a personal one dedicated to music, but to implement it in his business, he looked to a seasoned social media professional to lend a hand.

Enter Larry Genkin. Larry is CEO of Larstan Publishing, most known for publishing “Blogger and Podcaster Magazine” and the “Black Book of …” series of books. Larstan is not just a publishing company but also has a consulting arm that builds web sites and incorporates social media strategy into their overall online presence. I was able to sit down with both client and consultant and talk about the process of overhauling a successful small business site that has traditionally worked in the past more on referral than on a full court-press web site promotion. This is part two of a two part article. Here is the transcript of that interview:

Steve: Since you really need to draw people in, what are your plans for getting people to the site through search engines and paid advertising?
Larry: In many ways Dr. Glazier makes my job easier because of his level of expertise and communication skills. Old school marketing is where you use the media to put your ad message in front of prospects. What I do with my clients is turn them into the media. Dr. Glazier will take his expertise and use it to educate others through podcast radio and tv shows, ebooks, special reports and the like. He won’t need to “rent” the media to promote his practice…he’ll BE the media. Not only does this more thoughtful approach generate more leads, it results in higher closing percentages at premium pricing levels. Marketing through building trust and credibility is very powerful.

Steve: What do you plan to implement to convert them from prospect to customer when you might only have one chance when they find the web site?
Larry: The most important thing at the outset is custom landing pages. Every ad will have it’s own landing page that will deliver precisely on the value proposition promoted in Dr. Glazier’s marketing. Next is lead capture. Right now when people visit the site they can browse around and Dr. Glazier has no idea who they are. We need to change that. We’ll offer up free resources for people to access, in exchange for giving us their contact information and permission to contact them. This way, even if we don’t sell them right away, we’ll have permission to build a relationship that will win them over, over time.

Steve: Since this is a type of business where you get one time customers for Lasik, how do you convert them to regular annual long term customers?
Dr. Glazier: Steve, happy lasik patients are patients for life.  They refer friends and family, and we instill in them the importance of annual eye health check-ups – just because you can see doesn’t mean the eye is healthy.  I prefer in the article you use the word “patients” instead of customers.  Offering LASIK sets our practice apart from other practices and staying on top of the technical know how also sets us apart.  Many patients curious about lasik turn out not to be candidates and continue to seek our expertise in glasses, contact lenses and a new exciting non-surgical alternative to lasik called OrthoK.
Larry: You really have to look at the lifetime value of the customer. Lasik is only one of the services Dr. Glazier’s practice offers, so a satisfied Lasik customer will likely be a regular customer. And, because Lasik is such a powerful, yet scary, technology, when a client is successful with Lasik the word of mouth marketing leads to significant additional business.

Steve: This one is for Larry. What are the Top 5 things small businesses should implement on their web site to make it more appealing to potential customers and make it easier to find through a search engine?
Larry:
1) A Blog – Search engines love them. If you want to learn about this you can get a free subscription to Blogger & Podcaster Magazine at www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/subscribe.php;
2) More Pages w/Less Copy – Don’t make your prospects work to do business with you;
3) Educational Content – Show off your expertise with original content, this is the number one thing you can do to attract search engines;
4) Lead Capture – Offer free resources in exchange for contact information. Compel everyone to want to tell you who they are so you can build a relationship with them;
5) Cross Promotion – Find partners and link/promote each other. Inbound links score well with the search engines and the 3rd party endorsements are a powerful trust builder with potential customers.

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a sense from both of you what your goals are for the web site going forward?
Dr. Glazier: To be a virtual practice where services that can be offered after hours are, patients can order new contact lenses, set up appointments and interact with the staff as needed.  To stand out among the many eye care practices in our area.  To offer the highest level in customer service and care outside of excellent doctoring.  To stay ontop of technology and maintain our reputation as a practice on the cutting edge.
Larry: I want Dr. Glazier’s site and marketing program to be effective at allowing him to expand his business as he desires. This means creating a reliable system to result in sales. The main components of this program are: 1) effective lead generation; 2) effective lead conversion; 3) Continuity marketing program that turns prospects into customers over time. When we do this the website turns from an expense into the businesses revenue generation engine.

When most people think of a company using social media to communicate with customers, they think that a blog is the first place to start. This may be the case, but you should really have an experience professional who understands the various tools and the way they should be implemented. Dr. Alan Glazier, a successful optometrist who specializes in Lasik surgery (lasers that correct your bad eyesight) was looking to overhaul his web site and communicate with those thinking about getting Lasik done. He loves blogging and actually has a personal one dedicated to music, but to implement it in his business, he looked to a seasoned social media professional to lend a hand.

Enter Larry Genkin. Larry is CEO of Larstan Publishing, most known for publishing “Blogger and Podcaster Magazine” and the “Black Book of …” series of books. Larstan is not just a publishing company but also has a consulting arm that builds web sites and incorporates social media strategy into their overall online presence. I was able to sit down with both client and consultant and talk about the process of overhauling a successful small business site that has traditionally worked in the past more on referral than on a full court-press web site promotion. This is part one of a two part article. Here is the transcript of that interview:

Steve: This business has been through many growth phases and the web site has evolved over the years. When you initially approached this project, what were your goals for the site?
Larry: Initially the project started because Dr. Glazier was spending a fair amount of money advertising on Google and he wanted me to examine his ads and make sure they were as effective as they could possibly be.
Dr. Glazier: There has been a fundamental shift over the past 15 years in how patients find my practice.  When I started I felt it imperative to have a yellow page ad, then around 1996 I found it important to have a website parallel to that.  This year I totally eliminated my yellow page ad and market externally specifically with the website, making the website imperative, and Larry helped me understand that to stay ahead of the competition it was imperative to improve the functionality of the website, incorporating bells and whistles that are imperative in todays more successful websites.  This also creates the impression that our practice is cutting edge, modern and concerned with the needs of our patients, which it is, of course.  My goal was to modernize the website and make it central to our external marketing efforts in this way

Steve: Has it changed over the course of the project?
Dr. Glazier: No
Larry: An ads’ effectiveness is determined by more factors than just the ad itself. It’s relatively easy to get someone to click through on an ad. What’s infinitely more challenging and vastly more important is to get the RIGHT person to click through. If they’re not a legitimate prospect then the ad was a complete waste. Then once you get the click through what happens to that prospect on your website. If they’re not quickly and compellingly directed to exactly what they’re looking for they’ll leave your site and never return. And who can blame them?

Steve: Larry, you mentioned that you “recommended that all Internet advertising designed to drive traffic to www.youreyesite.com should be put on hold while the site is redesigned to make it significantly more effective at turning that traffic into business”.
Larry: Absolutely. Dr. Glazier’s website looks beautiful and professional to the untrained eye. However when it comes to converting the leads he’s paying into clients it’s wholly ineffective. Why should he pay to drive traffic to his website if none, I mean absolutely zero, of these prospects are turning into business? Doesn’t make any sense. He understood and to his credit, stopped in the middle of our meeting when I made this recommendation to log into Google and pause his campaign on the spot.

Steve: How do you see Social Media tools like blogs and social networks adding value to a site like YourEyeSite.com?
Dr. Glazier: I see our practice standing out in the fact that I make my email available to my patients and prospective patients to communicate with me.  This has impressed a lot of people; social media tools are the next step in accessability.  It also provides a marketing opportunity within the marketing opportunity the website provides.   I have a practice facebook page, which I haven’t totally taken advantage of, and am considering other social networking tools to help the business grow.
Larry: Eye doctors are a dime a dozen. However few practices have the skilled level of doctors as YourEyeSite.com. Social network tools are invaluable for allowing Dr. Glazier and his team to demonstrate their expertise and thought leadership. When it comes to eyes, not all doctors are equal and these technologies allow Dr. Glazier’s vast expertise to shine through.

NEXT TIME IN PART 2 – We continue our conversation on advertising and SEO, we talk about transforming site visitors to customers and we get a top 5 list on making your web site more appealing.