The word ‘WordPress’ immediately strikes a chord with bloggers around the world, whether they use it or not. But WordPress has always been designed with flexibility as the foremost priority, and with the changing needs of the world, WordPress has managed to evolve and deliver.
WordPress today is so much more than blogging software. In this article we will highlight five of the most novel ways in which WordPress is being used and indeed, even obsoleting some other software
1. Wikis : If you’re serious about creating a wiki, WordPress is actually a great option. Several plug-ins like Wiki Pro and UserPress have been released that do just this and do it beautifully. It completely eliminates the need to install separate software. Additional plug-ins to improve editing and layout can lead to the eventual creation of a wiki to be reckoned with, such as Travelpedia. What’s more, you can set up several wikis from a single WordPress network.
2. Job Boards : This is an excellent source of extra revenue. They come with everything from resume sections to neatly summarized profiles, ordering by salary, area and profession and several other features. There are several plug-ins that do this for you, WPJobBoard among them. To cap it off, these beauties sell themselves at half the price of professional job board software.
3. Review Site : You can turn your WordPress site into one where people rate things from movies to books to schools to amusement parks. Once again, plug-ins do the trick. Not only could you have people reviewing things you know about, write about and are passionate about, but the review site can also serve as a fun way to make some money using affiliates on the side.
4. Directories : While Search Engines are good for getting vague ideas about something, people with specific interests want well-ordered lists of sites with exactly what they’re looking for. WordPress, with its multifaceted approach to the web, can give you exactly that. If you’ve done a lot of internet research on a niche topic you will know the pain of trawling through thousands of links that are just not what you were looking for. If you’re smart, you can do something about it. And doing it with WordPress is easy, cheap and profitable.
5. Galleries : If you suddenly feel that writing is not for you, and have been bitten by the photography bug, you needn’t despair over what to do with used server space. WordPress has the option of converting a blog into a gallery with the help of themes like Showcase Theme. This saves you money, time and heartache. A gallery is also a great idea in and of itself and it needn’t have any features of a blog at all.
Need some help building your WordPress extension based on one of those creative ways? Share your idea with us through the contact form.