Advanced websites with WP

by screwdriver

Posted: 13 years ago 3 replies

WEB DESIGN

I've made two websites with wordpress which have turned out pretty good. Now, I was was wondering, since my programming skills are unimpressive, is it possible to build more advanced websites (that hosts a blog, community/forum functions etc) with wordpress or do you need to go into php, css for that?

For example if you look at this website: rockethub.com - would it be possible to build something like this using wordpress' platform? Where would one look to find themes that can handle more technically demanding websites than what a regular woo theme provides for instance?

Thanks

#advanced #websites #wordpress

Kezz 13 years ago

The short answer is yes, it is possible to create a site like your example using WordPress. It would still depend on your design skills given the graphics in the example are at quite a high level, but other than that yes it's possible.

For a forum, I recommend the Simpleress plugin - Simpleress. In my experience it's the best forum plugin available for WP. It's the only one I've used that has features at the level of a stand alone forum script like phpBB. But you have the very notable advantage of it being fully integrated with your WP site.

Incidentally, it also works very well with the free membership plugin s2member. So you can use that plugin to control who can access what parts of your forum, and along with that protect content in your site so only certain member levels can see it.
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screwdriver 13 years ago

Thanks for your reply!

Alright, sounds promising then.

Would it be a wise idea to outsource this - for example using 99designs.com to come up with a design?

That would be a lot cheaper than hiring a programmer/designer to figure it out, wouldn't it?
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- Istvan Horvath 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by screwdriver
  
  That would be a lot cheaper than hiring a programmer/designer to figure it out, wouldn't it?
  
  Yes and no.
  
  Designers, like ones at 99 will give you the graphics. That's it.
  
  From getting the graphics to having them used in a custom theme... it's a long, long way to go. And it should be the last thing to focus on.
  
  First have the structure and the content of the site all laid out, planned and figured out. Get together the components for it. Have a list of the features you need. When you have all that - you can start thinking about the design
  
  Thanks
  
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