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The Best FREE way to make wordpress a non-blog

by RoyChan
14 replies
hi all,

is there anyway to make wordpress a non-blog platform? your opinion as to free or paid option is appreciated.

cheers!
#free #make #nonblog #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
    Use pages not posts. That way your site will look and feel like a regular website.

    Any theme of your choice should be fine.

    If you use my favourite theme, Atahualpa, you can choose how many sidebars to use. When I'm using it for a regular website style, I usually use just one sidebar.

    If you got to Add New themes in the Wordpress dashboard you can search for themes using a selection of criteria - such as colour, number of sidebars.
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  • Profile picture of the author nplatt
    Hi Roy,

    You can tweak the code of the theme you use so posts do not display things like post dates and comments. This gives the posts a more permanent and static feel to them, like regular web pages.

    You can get rid of extra widgets or use a theme that doesn't support widgets.

    You can use pages rather than posts. Page layouts can be customized and saved as templates, so you could have a template for articles, template for product pages, etc.

    All of this is free if you can hack the code yourself.

    There are also paid themes that have a lot of these options built in to them in the admin section of wordpress, so you can tweak the theme's settings even if you don't know php.
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  • Profile picture of the author Davids22
    Another option is using Joomla or Drupal, however that isn't what you were asking, just wanted to give my insight that they are probably not hard to learn and a good alternative (don't know from personal experience but do plan to learn them)

    Nplat and Rosetrees have it right on though, so wordpress is a good option
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  • Profile picture of the author TrafficGuy Claude
    Hey Roy,

    You can't really make Wordpress a non-blog platform because that is what its coded as at its core. However there are a few tricks you can do to make Wordpress look more like a static website than a blog.

    1st) Make only one post to the blog itself. Have this post be an introduction to your site and let them know what content you have there.

    2nd) Use Pages for all your content and have Pages as the main navigation in your Sidebar.

    3rd) Edit your Sidebar and remove the tell-tale signs of a blog. Things like Categories, Meta Data, Archives, Recent Comments, Blogroll, Etc.

    4th) Edit your Main Index Template and your Page Template to remove the dates of the postings, and "Posted By: Admin" pieces of text.

    5th) Anywhere on the website where you need to refer to the site itself, use the word "website" or "site" and not blog.

    6th) Remove mentions of Wordpress from the site. Many times its in the footer where it says "Powered By Wordpress"
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  • Profile picture of the author BenFranklin
    Change the permakinks so that the website is more SEO friendly and it is easier to remember. For example, don't leave it as YourSite.com/p?gh432 change it to YourSite.com/Keyword
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  • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
    It's all in the theme and how you chose to structure the site.

    Basically, CMS systems, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc, are intended for creating easy to use dynamic sites, sites where new content is being added often by the webmaster and/or contributors. Also, they're intended to make things easier for those who don't know basics like HTML and CSS. If you don't need these features, you'll be better off building a static HTML site in terms of performance and site security.
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    • Profile picture of the author guzzi333
      I wouldn't go for Joomla or Drupal as mentioned before in this thread. They require much more maintenance and are more difficult to manage
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Do you want a site that is not a blog, or one that does not look like a blog even if it uses what's generally considered a blogging platform?

        For most people, simply tweaking the theme to remove the elements that scream "blog" is enough.

        Another tweak to heighten the illusion that your site is built with something other than a blogging platform is to structure your filenames so that they look like plain html files. To do this, set your naming preference to something like:

        /%category%/%postname%.html

        Your urls will read something like http://www.example.com/general-keywo...file-name.html
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  • Profile picture of the author PerfectedWeb
    The only free way I can think of is learning yourself how to tweak wordpress themes and use template tags.

    You can also buy a premium theme that doesn't look like a blog. There are tons out there.
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  • Profile picture of the author mattalways
    I can do it for you for a good price. Send me an e-mail at my site and I'll show you a bunch of sites you wouldn't even believe are running on Wordpress! matt@snidge.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    Its all in the way you design your theme and set up your options. But your theme is just the framework.

    In the main site change it to a CMS by using pages instead of posts and then just add your pages. You can use a side navigation bar or not.

    So we do these for our customers all the time.

    Tyrehouse for car tyres and servicing in Sydney Metro area
    Affordable garden garage industrial steel and storage sheds
    Kilns Furnaces And Autoclaves: Home

    We still use a blog component as it is a great way to drive traffic.

    Q
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    There is NO difference between a "site" or a "blog", it's all in your mind...
    But seriously, it depends on the theme and what you display. No one forces you to
    display "latest blogs" or "latest comments" on your blog...uhm..i mean site.

    There are countless ways to style and design a wordpress blog..uhm..i mean site...there really IS no difference in technicalities except that the "blog" has usually already some web2.0 features "out of the box" like rss feed or pinging capability whereas a static site often does not have them.

    Would you say this is a blog --> http://www.insurancehub.org ??
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    • Profile picture of the author mattalways
      Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

      There is NO difference between a "site" or a "blog", it's all in your mind...
      But seriously, it depends on the theme and what you display. No one forces you to
      display "latest blogs" or "latest comments" on your blog...uhm..i mean site.

      There are countless ways to style and design a wordpress blog..uhm..i mean site...there really IS no difference in technicalities except that the "blog" has usually already some web2.0 features "out of the box" like rss feed or pinging capability whereas a static site often does not have them.

      Would you say this is a blog --> The Insurance Hub ? Insurance Tips for Home, Life, Health, Car & Auto ??
      Definitely a cross.

      You're right though. It is in your head. The difference I find is how it looks. You could have a news site updating daily and you aren't going to call it a blog!

      I think it's the format that blogs are known for. You can take WP away from the blog look. If I have a client that wants some CMS capabilities, I might suggest we go with WP, and instantly I might hear, no I don't want it to be a blog. Well, a CMS is a CMS! I've made Wordpress a classifieds script in the past.
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      Quit wasting your money! If you need a website, get me to do it right! I'll probably even do it for less! Design/Development/Software, I'm your guy! matt@snidge.com
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

      Yes and yes!
      Because I see: Categories, Recent posts, Archives, Previous Entries - all very bloggish things on a site.
      Plus, there is - Links: WordPress and WordPress Admin.
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