As flexible as WordPress it is, you still need to bend it to your will to break it out of it’s blogging roots and use it as a CMS, portfolio, gallery, e-shop, magazine etc. Here are the best themes and plug-ins to install and achieve just that.
Themes
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but they are amongst the cream of the crop and I have come across few better themes .
News & magazine style… 
- http://www.woothemes.com/2007/11/premiumnews/
- http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2007/08/05/WordPress-magazine-theme-released/
- http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/23/magazeen-free-magazine-look-WordPress-theme/
- http://themasterplan.in/tma
Portfolio & Gallery…
- http://www.upthemes.com/2010/03/gallery/ (we used this one for wpview.com)
- http://webrevolutionary.com/sharpfolio/
- http://www.woothemes.com/2008/10/snapshot/
- http://pupungbp.erastica.com/wordpress-theme/fotofolio-wordpress-theme-for-your-online-portfolio/
- http://www.urbantrash.net/cssgallery/2008/09/13/css-gallery-theme-20-free-showcase-theme-for-wordpress/
CMS…
- http://www.adii.co.za/testblog
- http://themeforest.net/item/the-furniture-store-wordpress-ecommerce-shop/94982?ref=resellerdepot
- http://themeforest.net/item/just-like-old-times-wp/92730?ref=resellerdepot
- http://themeforest.net/item/bravissimo-porfolio-blog-business-cms-wp-15in1/94874?ref=resellerdepot
Other…
- Set up a basic CRM
- Create a Yahoo Answers style Q&A site
- Build a micro blogging website (like Twitter)
Plug-ins
WordPress owes the plug-in developers a lot for its success, these are the reasons why it has become so powerful and felxible. Here are the best of their category, some free and some are paid, but they are all classics.
bbPress…
Create a forum as part of your site or make it the sole focus
http://bbpress.org
WordPress Wiki…
Create a Wiki knowledge base with out having to install a full blown application and then tie it back in to your existign WordPress website.
http://themeforest.net/item/wordpress-wiki-theme/29479?ref=resellerdepot
Wp Review Site…
Turn your website in to a review site engine, perfect for affiliate based websites
http://www.wpreviewsite.com/
JobPress…
JobPress is a wordpress theme that turns your website into a perfect working Job Board Software
http://www.dailywp.com/jobpress-wordpress-theme/
ClassiPress…
Turn your WordPress blog into a professional Classified Ads Web site
http://wpclassipress.com/
WP Ecommerce…
Use WordPress to trade online and take payments for your goods with out having to install and integrate another piece of software.
http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
Article Directory…
Turn your WordPress in to, thats right, an article directory
http://articlesss.com/article-directory-wordpress-plugin/
A few smaller plug-ins to add extra functionality:
Contact Form 7
Create a secure and personalised contact form for your visitors to send enquiries and feedback in a matter of minutes
http://contactform7.com/
Breadcrumb NavXT
Reduce visitor frustration and bounce rates by making it easy to navigate your website through breadcrumb navigation.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/breadcrumb-navxt/
Page/ category order
Break out of the traditional WordPress page and category structure and decide for yourself in what order they should be displayed.
http://www.geekyweekly.com/mycategoryorder and http://www.geekyweekly.com/mypageorder
Exclude pages from navigation
Not all pages are suitable to be shown in your top navigation and there isn’t always space. If you want to exclude a page from being automatically added to the nav use this plug-in.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/
No comments
In one single swoop remove the automatic addition of a comments section on your pages without having to change any code yourself.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/no-comments-on-pages/
GD Star rating
Use this plug-in to create functionality such as Amazon style product reviews, top 10 lists and more. http://www.gdstarrating.com/
Are there any others you have used and would like to share? If so leave a comment and we can get it added to this list.
3 Comments
WordPress is Wonferful platform to create unique website
This design is spectacular! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Excellent job. I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content seem to be running off the screen in Opera. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though! Hope you get the issue resolved soon. Many thanks
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