Recently I faced the need to create several small sites with quite simple structure and layout. However being too lazy to make them by hand (well time= money anyway) I decided to check several CM system and find the simplest and most convenient one. I checked like 10 of them and results were not satisfying. Either it was complex solution not really suitable for simple solutions or it was so complicated that I would take more time to understand how it is works then to build these site. Also I faced the fact that lot of CMSs lack good free templates which I like so much using WordPress. Finally I decided that it is worth to check if where are any plugins/mods for WordPress which I can use instead of completely new CMS. WordPress is actually already a CMS but it has some blogging features that we don’t need if we want to use it for non blogs – first of all it is posting and all the stuff related to comments, users registration etc. The advantages of WP as are tons of free themes, widget flexibility and some nice SEO plug-ins. So what do we need to make nice simple CMS out of Worpress:
1 Install all your favorite plugins, like All in One Seo, stats, backup etc. Also I strongly recommend you to install Flexi Pages plugin. Since you will operate not posts, but pages and sub pages
2 Download and install this very simple script – it temporally removes posting feature and makes options simplier
3. Install your favorite themes that supports pages in the way you need.
You are done and ready to go. You can create pages, sub pages order them as you wish , use or not use widgets and easily edit theme. If you need anything else just check and install more plug-ins, I bet you can find everything you need.
