Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Does anyone know of a WordPress site that looks good and that they like?

I`ve just never been a fan of it (I like TypePad so much better!), and I`m wondering if it is because I have only see template/ho-hum ones, or if they all look like that.

As far as a design for wordpress... there are a lot of free ones and you can purchase templates too.

For my clients I have used some of the free ones and modified the graphics.

When choosing a template, focus on the layout - where the content, menu, etc are placed.  You can always change the graphics.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

I haven`t used MT, so I can only speak from the Wordpress side of things, but to me the big attraction of Wordpress is that it`s so flexible and yet very powerful as both a blogging engine and as a CMS. MT may be comparable on all counts, as I said I don`t have enough time with it to know.

On the design side, I can`t imagine there`s anything you can do with a MT design that can`t be done with WP. For a few examples of sites which I`d say look good and utilize WP, I`d take a look at this, and this, and this, and this, and this, just to cite a few examples.


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chuck fuller

I think the strong benefit for TypePad is the plug and play modules. It took me minutes to set the whole thing up. To achieve the same results in WordPress, I will have to reformat their whole design and have my designer make the entire page. A couple of those I guess I liked, most I did not.

I think I have to look deeper into the backend features as well .. it`s been so easy for me to ping all the major sites with each post, setup the feed, etc ... I hope it is just as easy with WP.

Again, can`t speak too much about MT, but WP does have plenty of what I think would be comparable to plug and play modules. In every case where I`ve used one it was as simple as uploading the plugin to a plugins folder and activating it in the admin console. That`s about it.

Sorry the designs didn`t float your boat, I felt like they illustrated some pretty strong versatility more than anything else...to each his/her own I suppose


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chuck fuller

I am not as familiar with movable type, but I did happen to read the wordpress license last week and was amazed at what you can do with it for personal or business use. 

How do you get a domain name to point to a blog (for instance having yadayadayada.com instead of yadayadayada.blogger.com)?

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Steve, I don`t know how they do it with Blogger, but typepad has this feature and instructions on how to configure it.

If you are using a service that does not have these capabilities, you use masking and forwarding at your domain registrar.

For example, I have a DNS entry that points news.nhgconsulting.com to my blog, and www.nhgconsulting.com to my website. (These things are hosted on 2 different servers.) TypePad does their part on the other end, making sure people looking for news.nhgconsulting.com find the right subdirectory on their server.

For a WordPress install, like pursuethepassion.com, you would have a regular hosting account that your DNS entry points to, and then you`d just install your blog in a directory there. (like pursuethepassion.com/interviews/)

I have experience with MT, WordPress, Serendipity and Expression Engine. My work in IT at a university has given me an opportunity to explore blog software somewhat extensively.

Since version 2.0+ of WordPress, I`d have to give it the nod. As has been pointed out, there are hundreds of free templates, all of which can be (relatively) easily modified. There is now a broad range of some very good plug-ins. It`s quite stable. Installation and maintenance is simple. And, the WordPress developer community is alive and strong.

Here is a dated, but still helpful overview of blog software offerings: Blogs (If anyone finds an updated version of this chart, please post it here.)

A more recent review and chart from the folks at USC: Blogs reviews  Blog Chart

And a quick review from a great blog resource site: Blogs






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Mac-Sage "Complete Mac & OS X Consulting"      www.mac-sage.com

I wrote a blog entry that lists alot of resources and links to other blogs that do very comprehensive comparisons on Blogger, WP, and the Movable Type platform family. Here is the link if interested;
http://sachistudio.com/2007/03/17/comparing-blog-platforms/