Using a Blog for a Website

[howard11792]

Is it feasible to use a free WordPress or similar blog as a website to get started?

My son is doing video recording and editing as a part time job - his budget is limited and cannot set up a website. I think this might be a good way to set up a 5-10 page on-line presence.

1. What product would you use?
2. Any tips for setting up the blog for this sort of application?

Thanks in advance for the insight.

[frobn]

Is it feasible to use a free WordPress or similar blog as a website to get started?

My son is doing video recording and editing as a part time job - his budget is limited and cannot set up a website. I think this might be a good way to set up a 5-10 page on-line presence.

1. What product would you use?
2. Any tips for setting up the blog for this sort of application?

Thanks in advance for the insight.

WordPress is an excellent way to begin a web presence.

Have your son cleck http://wpfeed.com/2009/02/list-of-al...-video-themes/ for a free WordPress video theme.

[thataway61]

Use Wordpress!
He can create pages that are just like a regular website or use just the blogging portion for posts, or better yet build a 6 page site and then do some blogging. WP is a content management system CMS and used properly is very effective in the search engines. He can set up a free WP site at www.wordpress.com and be very effective, but he would do better to see if he can find someone that will host a self hosted wordpress app for him. The difference is that the self hosted permits the use of plugins which allow you to do some amazing things.

[jamesww]

@Granda - A self hosted WordPress site using a pro level theme will work great. I have a number of sites ranked well that have a website feel built on WordPress. As do a number of agents that participate on this forum. Examples would be Eric Bramlett, Ryan Ward (prior to going REW), as well as others.

If you would like I would be more than happy to help your son get up and running. He should land hosting with a company that makes fantastico available, since it makes it a snap to set things up.

In the end it is the plugins that make WordPress great or just another templated website tool.

[jessiesc]

I have quite a few customers with WP sites, and they work very well to get someone started.

[wpreality]

Yes, wordpress is a GREAT tool for building a website, the magic about it is that in the beggining you can use a simple free to few $$$ theme for starters and once the site and content gets rolling you may invest in a custom design. The other great think about wordpress is its flexibility. You may find a huge array of plugins and widgets do do almost anything... and if you can not find what you want you can hire a developer to make it for you and integrate smoothly with wordpress.

I personally have started using wordpress for all my sites and also for many of my customer's sites.

So far there has been only a small selection of sites that I found wordpress not suitable for, usually when the amount of extra development gets near to the cost of building a site from scratch, but it is diffficult to compete with the feature set of wordpress, especially regarding the ease of content management.

[CLTMichael]

Yep, he can do it and look good!

[abcharlton]

I like Blogger, too, because it's easier to get going.

[devendra3047]

Ya it is possible.Using a Blog for a Website is helpful to promote the site.........
with the help of blog site also find visitor.

[Joelrunner]

I second, no third... wait - make that 8th everyone else's opinion. Wordpress is fantastic! Plus, once you get a budget for design, you can upgrade the design later without effecting your SEO much.

You might want to consider a Thesis theme. That will give you a lot more flexibility to make it look however you like. Then, down the road, when you want to spruce your blog up a bit, go to 99designs.com & you'll get multiple designers submitting bids to do a custom WP theme for you.