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WordPress as a CMS: New Premium Tutorial

on Oct 28th 2009 with 61 comments
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When most people think about WordPress, they think about blogs. If you look at the front page of WordPress.org, they talk a lot about blogging as well. What they don’t tell you is that WordPress can also double as a very powerful CMS; you just have to set it up properly. It can be a bit tricky to get setup and working the way that you want; but this is where I come in.

In this 3-part tutorial + screencast series, I’m going to take you through the three steps of using WordPress as a CMS. Become a Premium member.

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Matt Vickers is a coder at heart and a designer by necessity. If it involves coding, he'd probably be into it!He's currently employed at Vantage Studios Inc. in Winnipeg, MB as a Media Developer. You can also check out his personal site, Envex Labs, where he usually has something interesting to say!  

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  • http://myspace.com/xrommelxcastrox xRommelx

    FIRST

    • Unknown

      Don’t do that here. Just walk away… just walk away.

      • http://demstudio.com.ar Dem

        hahaha!! Cool to be the FIRSSSSTT

  • lossy

    What’s the point of using WordPress “as a cms” when there are many “real cms” outhere that will do the same do the job easier and probably quicker than with a blog engine?

    Plugins? Joomla has more, Drupal got plenty
    Template sytem? MODx or Expression engine does it better
    Flexibility? How can we talk about flexibility when you have to hack WP in order to achieve simple tasks?

    Don’t get me wrong, WP is awesome at what it does, actually the best blog engine available, but as a cms, it is a very average system on too many point.

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
      Author

      It’s kind of along the lines of why use mootools when jQuery does the same thing.

      I use wordpress because 75% of the time a client just wants to be able to edit content and WordPress is simple enough that once you get going you can whip up a quick site in a few hours.

      Plus, i’ve never used joomla, drupal, exp. engine or anything. WordPress is what I know :P

    • http://www.troypeterson.com Troy Peterson

      I’ve developed in three of the majors… Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress.

      While you do need to “hack” some things in WordPress, the speed that it takes to design and create a WordPress theme (including hacks) is much MUCH faster than developing in the others.

      In addition, WordPress has a far superior UI for the client. It’s much easier for them to use and doesn’t require as much ongoing training as does Drupal or Joomla. Both of which have absolutely HORRID interfaces for a non-technical client.

      All-in-all, WordPress is the way to go.

      What would be great is if WordPress came out with a dedicated CMS based on their current system.

      • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

        I’ve used WordPress and Expression Engine. WordPress didn’t start off as a dedicated CMS, so it is undoubtedly less easy to do many things that are related to building a dedicated CMS.

        However, I have to agree that the admin area of WordPress is far superior to that of Expression Engine (even v2.0, from what I can see.)

        If only you didn’t have to ‘hack’ to get what you really wanted.

      • lossy

        @Troy Peterson

        WordPress has definitively NOT the best template system.

        Drupal 7 will change many thing on the UI side of this CMS which will also go to the framework side of development.

        Much more CMF than CMS.

        The same thing is going to happen with Expression Engine 2 and MODx Revolution.

        Those 3 can do things that WordPress can’t.

        But i have to admit that for simple websites, WordPress might be the way to go.

    • Dan

      I’ve used WP, Drupal, and EE. Each has it’s own pros and cons for sure. WP is a the ONLY blog solution (nothing compares) and can be a very powerful CMS. Drupal is nice and its easy to deploy but if you’re building a somewhat complicated dynamic site the admin side can be a nightmare for a client. In fact, a Drupal Admin is what I get those tech support phone calls for. lol EE is great and robust – but its not Open Source. :-(

    • http://theissacharforce.org Sharon

      I would use WordPress as a CMS just because it’s so much simpler for a newbie than, say, Joomla. And I like the amount of plugins it has.

  • http://spotdex.com David Moreen

    I am wondering if this would be more effective then, me taking months to build a custom one, which with most likely not have the same functionality.

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
      Author

      It’s all up to you.

      When i’m given the choice i’ll build one in cake instead. It’s less hacking :P

    • Dan

      I’ve been wondering the same thing.. I just started tinkering with my own CMS (no Framework) and hoping to start deploying it soon. Sometimes clients just need a very bare bones CMS to control their About Us page – which they will update 1 a year. HAHA

      • http://www.mathias.li Mathias

        Wanna get some inspiration from cushycms.com maybe?
        For many customers thats all they need.

  • http://sffarlenn.net Laneth

    Personally, I like the portability and accessibility that WordPress grants – I’ve heard horror stories about developing with Drupal and Joomla and the bulkiness of those packages, despite their winning stats in other areas.

    Matt, I will be looking at the Tut when I get home, but thanks for this – it’s something that I really want to get involved in (developing WordPress as a CMS). Thanks again!

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
      Author

      Thanks, let me know what you think!

  • Moneyxl

    Thanks for this tutorail, have been reading for a couple of years on how good wordpress is for cms and a few developers I respect use this, I reckon this is the best one week on tutsplus, the xhtml/css screencast now this, all we need now is a good e commerce tutorial on here.

    I’ll keep supproting this website!

  • Yheng

    I’ve been waiting for this tutorial for many months @nettuts finally here it comes! Probably some people didn’t embrace yet the concept of having wordpress as a cms but I think it is cool specially when you develop your own theme and customized it the way you like.

    I’ve been building CMS sites using Joomla for years but I think this idea is cool! Thanks Matt I’m looking forward for more of your tutorials related to this..

  • http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog Russell Heimlich

    I’m working on converting 6 sites into a WordPress CMS (using WordPress MU) at work mainly because it is so easy to use for non-technical people and it is easy to customize for a developer.

    Don’t get the wrong idea, it will take a lot of work and many customizations but it will be well worth it when people actually want to use WordPress instead of dreading it like our current CMS.

  • alan

    I use wordpress as cms for most of my clients aseptically for small business.
    Joomla and Drupal are complex and not that easy to use and require more time to setup and for client to learn how to use it plus both are heavy for shared hosting (small business site).

    My clients are happy ,they got easy to use cms for an price that they normally pay for an static web site.

    This is a great tutorial!

    Thanx!

  • Gavin

    I dont get it?
    Content Management System (CMS) Lets you manage the content on your site

    WordPress, Lets you mage the content on your site.

    What is the difference?

    I love playing around with wordpress far better than any other I have tried.

    This is a great tut and I am so glad I get access to it, even though I originally signed up for the psdtuts content.

    Thanks!

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
      Author

      WordPress’ main focus is on blogging so out of the box it’s not perfectly setup to use pages , etc.

      It’s all really just potatoe – potato!

    • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

      A car is a form of transport. A rickshaw is a form of transport.

      What is the difference?

      It’s those differences that generate such a debate when someone like Matt writes a tutorial about WordPress. Rather than look at the contents of the tutorial, WordPress itself is criticised :)

  • http://www.rushplate.com Dan

    You can do in 3 clicks in WordPress what you need 20+ clicks in Joomla + Super admin access.

  • http://www.twitter.com/tylorskory Tylor

    Coming from a guy who was hired by a web development company be their “CMS Guy” (and having worked with Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Expression Engine, Kentico and more), I can honestly say that it all depends on the site!

    99% off the freelance work that I do, for my personal clients, fit perfectly into a WordPress CMS (typically 10 page sites with a news/blog area) so I don’t bother with anything else. I like working with WordPress so I use it (as a CMS).

    Every content management system has their ups and downs so it’s up to you to get a feel for them so you can better decide which one will fit your site.

    • http://sffarlenn.net Laneth

      It’d be cool if you could do a Tut like this one, or similar, exploring Drupal or Joomla, (or others) as a CMS of choice to introduce it to users here. I’ve never used anything but WordPress (since I’m still green) and would dearly love to hear from someone experienced in the others.

      Perhaps a detailed article that highlights the strenghts and drawbacks of each CMS platform and recommending each one for a particular type of site, based on your experience?
      There will be positive and negative feedback on the Tut, but that’s to be expected from any tut posted recently it seems. I know I’d be in the positives though :)

    • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

      Absolutely – they’re all competent systems, and all appropriate for one situation or another. It’s down to the developer to make an informed decision based on the requirements.

      I recently did a site for my technically inexperienced mother-in-law. She needed a blog that was easy to update. I decided that WordPress fit the bill perfectly for me, and also for her, since I felt that she’s be comfortable updating the site.

      Remember, a CMS is something that a client will be using – you have to evaluate the user-experience from their point of view. No point in having a super-efficient back-end, with fantastic security, if it’s an absolute ball-ache for a user to update the site.

  • http://ronnieblogg.com Roaa

    Nice idea :) I’ll have a look at this tomorrow. Thanks!

  • Batfan

    Or . . . if you like free stuff . . . like myself

    http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/41-wordpress-as-a-cms/

  • Michael Restuccia

    Haha, good timing for this post.
    Just posted this article yesterday on my blog lol
    http://www.getobjected.com/blog/objected/article/wordpress-is-not-a-real-cms/

  • ySchaub

    awesome. +1 on my list why I should buy plus =) really looking forward to this

  • http://rationalogic.com Jeremy Hixon

    My coworkers and I have started using WordPress as a back-end for the sites we are putting together. It’s easy for the inexperienced and even easier for those with some experience managing their own content.

    We used Silverstripe on a couple of sites already and it was a giant pain in the ass to move around depending on if the client had hosting already and what type of hosting it was, there are some awful ones out there.

    I think I’d rather use WordPress any day.

  • Joao Aliano

    What I like about WordPress as a CMS:
    fast and easy install
    friendly admin/editing panel
    SEO ready
    plugins, plugins, plugins
    tight community
    fairly easy, well documented theme development

    Dislikes
    documentation can be confusing, outdated
    WPMU and BuddyPress compatibility issues

    A commentary goes for wordpress.org. The extend directory could be tweaked a little, with an improved search filter for plugins and themes.

  • http://www.pixelsoul.com pixelsoul

    man…. this might actually get me to pay $9

  • Paul du Long

    I just watched all the parts and its great guys, it covers everything. Especially the third part about setting up WordPress.
    A week ago I asked myself; build a own cms or use WordPress/Joomla. With this tutorial I definitely go for WordPress:P

  • grimdeath

    Hmm surprised at the amount of Joomla/Drupal support here. It HAS been a while since I used Joomla but I want very impressed with it,. It seemed slow and bloated and the options on the backend were not organized, really at all.

    For Joomla I have barely used it, mainly because when I did start trying to learn it the documentation was a wretched mess, links to went no where and not really one good solid tutorial to use.

    Instead I use Concrete5, it’s simple to use….you literally can convert any page/site into a template in 10 minutes or less. I have used it for probably around 10 sites this year. It’s also much more logically for clients to edit from the frontend…they login, go into edit mode for a page, click on a section they want to edit and area greeted with a simple edit screen with all the options they would ever need. The documentation is also great. With that said, if a template is not set up properly clients can easily mess up the page styles or add excess code…still looking for a solution for this.

    I am just surprised it doesnt come up more often in CMS discussions.

  • ySchaub

    decided to buy + today, you guys are so cool :D

  • Marcus

    I was actually surprised by how “lite” this tutorial was. To me this is more a tutorial about using pages in WordPress than using WordPress as a “real” CMS.

    You also for some reason keep your standard blog as the start page even though you don’t use the blog and delete the posts. WordPress has a setting for using a static page as the home page instead of the blog and I think it’s a pretty big miss not showing people how to set that up in this tutorial.

    The thing that WordPress doesn’t have out of the box (but which can be achieved with plugins) is the ability to create distinct content types. Without this ability it can’t really be called a “real” CMS out of the box. However with plugins like Custom Field Template, Pods and More Fields this can be achieved in a pretty good way.

    This tutorial is about making a static site using pages and I think the title is abit of a misnomer.

    Now before I get flamed I just want to say that I think it’s a good tutorial, it’s just not a tutorial about using WordPress as a CMS, it’s an introduction to using pages in WordPress (which might have been a more accurate title ;P).

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
      Author

      I actually covered changing the front page (blog posts) to a static page in the “Tying Up Loose Ends” section of Part 3.

      • http://www.dragnet.se Marcus

        Oops sorry I must have missed it. I looked for it in the video several times and didn’t find it.

      • http://www.dragnet.se Marcus

        Ok now I’m abit confused. I went through the video again and couldn’t find it. I downloaded the written tutorial and there is a part in there about changing the default homepage but it’s not in the video as far as I can see.

        If I’m correct in this, why isn’t this info in the video? I think alot of people will (like me) assume that the written content mirrors the video content.

        I went through the video again and I just can’t find it. If it’s in there could you give me the time for when it starts?

      • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
        Author

        I see what you mean now!

        I’m just re-recording the last part of the screencast and hopefully it will be updated soon.

        Thanks for pointing that out!

    • http://shabushabu-webdesign.com Boris

      Custom post types will be supported by WP 2.9. They work much in the same way as custom taxonomies do. So, you’ll still need to write a few lines of code, but that’d make WP a ‘real’ CMS in your eyes, right?

      • Marcus

        In a word: yes. For me (and many others) that’s what a CMS is all about. Right now there’s kind of a middle ground between the “simple” WordPress site and the Drupal/Joomla monsters where making a good choice for the client is pretty hard.

        Like I mentioned there are a bunch of plugins for WordPress right now that give you that functionality but all of them have some serious issues.

        Luckily I have found SilverStripe which for me pretty much blows everything else out of the water when it comes to creating custom content types and setting up data relationships. You have to do more coding than in WordPress but they have a kickass API, a pretty nice backend interface and very powerful and easy to use relationship management out of the box.

        I really have my hopes up for custom post types in 2.9 so I’m really excited about that release.

  • Kevin

    Amazing follow through Matt,
    I learned alot. Maybe another tutorial that focuses on using the posts for portfolio purposes?

    cheers

  • http://pro-questions.com James

    A good tutorial

    thanks

  • http://www.purebloom.com David Elliott

    I’ve used Drupal, WordPress, and EE. For small sites it’s perfect. A ton of modules, easy UI, free, and quick. Certainly has a place in the arsenal of management systems.

  • http://www.aimonkey.com Waasys

    Hmm, must be interesting

  • Zura

    There are other great CMSs out there that are actually easier to use and admin than WP and are light weight too. No need to Drupal or Joomla, those are too big and complex. Try http://www.madebyfrog.com/ and or http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/ These are true CMS platforms, give them a try and you’ll see what I mean :)

  • JP

    Thanks a lot for this tuto very helpfull,
    (In the writing version of the tuto you say open post.php to delete stuff and add our content but should be page.php I think…)

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers
      Author

      You’re correct, thanks!

  • Anton
  • http://www.aus-media.com Nik

    Why not notify somewhere clearly that this tut is for members?

  • Deborah

    There’s no screencast or tutorial on this page. Any idea where I can find it?

  • Huggy

    Not sure we needed the first screencasts with the psd production.

    Could surely have started with the html /css layout already completed and used the time to illustrate some more flexible.

    Also be nice to stop sniffing every 30 seconds when recording a screencast.

    • http://envexlabs.com Matt Vickers

      This is probably falling on deaf ears as this tutorial is so long but here goes :P

      Most people aren’t established graphic designers, so I thought the first part could be helpful to some people.

      I’ll keep in mind for next time to not record while sick, some people may get annoyed.

  • Aribowo

    Wow great video tutorial… thanks a lot. :D

  • arnold

    I hope someone will update or make a new version of this WordPress as CMS tut,

    the first two video
    is about creating a psd/html/css of the site, which I think isnt really necessary, you could just use other theme or the default theme , to demonstrate the CMS stuff

    and the last video is about the wordpress.

  • Nenad Jovanovic

    Matt, this tutorial series fits like a glove for my level of knowledge.
    I love it.
    Best regards and many thanks!

  • flo

    Your tutorial is awesome ! But could you please make an adaptation for WP 3 ? Because a lot of things are different from the old one. Thansk a lot !

  • http://twitter.com/openwaveMY openwave malaysia

    do you suggest any updates now ? why so it is very old post and like to listen from you if any

    newhttp://www.openwavecomp.com.my/content_management_system.html