Judging by the amount of people that have been asking me lately for help with their WordPress blogs and installations, I thought it might be helpful to write an information post for a change

And before I start, let me just clarify that this is about self-hosted WordPress, since I’m not entirely sure of the options available for WordPress.com blogs.

First of all, WordPress can be more than a blogging tool if you choose to make it that way. It can be used as a general website, a news site, or some other form of a very-light content management system. I’m going to be using both of my current installations (my site, and the RPWS site) as examples here for what you could do with your own installation.

Static Front Page

The ability to have a WordPress page as the home of your website, is an option that I very seldom see being used, but it’s one of the most useful options available to you. With the static front page, you can make a custom template file to show whatever you wish on your front page. In my case, I use my front page to show a brief welcome message, followed by my latest blog posts and random gallery images.

Use query_posts() or a custom posts query to show what you want on your front page, or use it as a splash page before your visitors reach your blog. Just don’t forget to make a new page which becomes your new blog home page (and is affected by the home.php template file)!

Photo Gallery

WordPress 2.5 introduced increased support for photobloggers and galleries, but I still swear by the combination of WordPress and Gallery2 – and the plugin which merges them together: WPG2.

Using this plugin, you get all the features of Gallery2, along with the ability to easily add photos from your gallery to your WordPress posts or pages, as well as the gallery displaying inline in your WordPress site. My Stuff page is an example of WPG2 in action – the Gallery2 displays within the WordPress header and footer.

Website and Forums

Another possible option with WordPress is to use it as the main website for your bbPress powered forums. bbPress may seem very lightweight at first, but it’s infinitely extensible with a wide range of plugins available, allowing you to pick and choose which features you want.

The main advantage of this is that WordPress and bbPress integrate so well with each other. With the ability to use the same user info, the same database, and with the bbSync plugin, use the same WordPress posts and comments as bbPress topics and replies. This setup is currently in effect on the RPWS website.

In short, there are many things that WordPress can be used for, not just as a blogging platform. Think about the possibilities you can make using a combination of plugins, settings and other fancy options