My new website built around wordpress

[HeavyHitter]

Here is a mock up I am working on for JMR Manufacturing. I will be adding an online store to this site. The attached screen shot is for the Wordpress section of the site.

I am using Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver for this site. Please keep in mind the attached pic is in the works. I changed the size of the "Featured Article" pic on the top left. Now I need to adjust the Pirate4x4 and FabSchool banners. I will be changing the banners out as soon as the online store goes live. We will be adding banners to direct traffic to specific items in the store.

 

[mountaingraphic]

Nice Site. I tried wordpress for sometime and once you get use to the PHP editing its pretty easy to work with. Not sure why I switched but great layout and very informative.

 

[stephenj148]

which wordpress are you using. Wordpress.org or .com?

 

[HeavyHitter]

which wordpress are you using. Wordpress.org or .com?

wordpress.org is to download a copy of wordpress to install on your server. wordpress.com is a place to get a free blog which you do not control hosting. I am stating this for those who may not know the difference.

I use wordpress.org because all of the wordpress sites I build are self hosted. If you want to build traffic, brand identity, and establish a professional web presence I would recommend hosting your own.

With that said you can use hosting services like godaddy.com for cheap wordpress hosting.

If you decide to use the wordpress.com your blog url will read something like this: yourblog.wordpress.com rather than your own url which would read yourblog.com

Dan

 

[stephenj148]

Thanks, I need to learn a lot more about web design I suppose before getting to build sites...tried using video tutorials. not working to well for me.

 

[artist4christ]

Thanks, I need to learn a lot more about web design I suppose before getting to build sites...tried using video tutorials. not working to well for me.

Just remember its a progressive learning curve, start out small and learn the basic concepts, then move to something more complex.

The unfortunate part of web design is that in 6 months you have to learn something else, part of why I enjoy it.

 

[Jim Doggett]

Marketing guy comment (why people hate marketing guys):

It feels like a Blog and not so much like a site to buy stuff ... wordpress is great for publishing blogs and articles. But to sell stuff online, I'd want to look like a commerce site.

Example: as cheesy-looking as the "design your own banner" sites look, they sell a bunch of product. Instead of communicating "here's how cool we are; read more..." they scream "here's stuff you want. Buy It Here!"

My $0.02,

Jim

 

[artist4christ]

Marketing guy comment (why people hate marketing guys):

It feels like a Blog and not so much like a site to buy stuff ... wordpress is great for publishing blogs and articles. But to sell stuff online, I'd want to look like a commerce site.

Example: as cheesy-looking as the "design your own banner" sites look, they sell a bunch of product. Instead of communicating "here's how cool we are; read more..." they scream "here's stuff you want. Buy It Here!"

My $0.02,

Jim

Thats the beauty of wordpress, you can very effectivly produce sites that have no blog feel in worpress, it's all about how skilled you are with it. Its a great CMS, with unending possibilities.

The marketing side of things is all about how you utilize the content space.

 

[Jim Doggett]

Yeah; all good points, A4C. But I'm wondering if it's better to work from an eBiz platform instead of whacking Blog/WebMag features and inserting commerce-looking elements within the spaces provided.

Then maybe use wordpress/Joomla/whatever for faster population of your Blog/Brag pages.

Just my thoughts.

Jim

 

[artist4christ]

Yeah; all good points, A4C. But I'm wondering if it's better to work from an eBiz platform instead of whacking Blog/WebMag features and inserting commerce-looking elements within the spaces provided.

Then maybe use wordpress/Joomla/whatever for faster population of your Blog/Brag pages.

Just my thoughts.

Jim

Yeah its def doable. I often use a combination, wordpress can do ecommerce but widgets are in need some serious revamp. You can always run a seperat ecommerce section and style it to look liek your wordpress theme.

Another developer that I know started using this:
http://www.concrete5.org/

I havent looked at it much be he said that he is really impressed with it.

 

[HeavyHitter]

Marketing guy comment (why people hate marketing guys):

It feels like a Blog and not so much like a site to buy stuff ... wordpress is great for publishing blogs and articles. But to sell stuff online, I'd want to look like a commerce site.

Example: as cheesy-looking as the "design your own banner" sites look, they sell a bunch of product. Instead of communicating "here's how cool we are; read more..." they scream "here's stuff you want. Buy It Here!"

My $0.02,

Jim

Jim,

I appreciate your comments. I need to call you guys and order some stuff. I guess I should get off the computer and on the phone.

The intent of my website is not a "click here buy here" type website. I am working on an e-commerce side to the site that will be aimed at the "click here buy here" customer. I agree that an online store needs to feel more commerce like. Hopefully I will have time to work on the store side of my site soon. The e-commerce side to my site will be using CRE Loaded Pro. It is basically a modified version of oscommerce.

I am working on another wordpress install that will use Xcart for e-commerce. I will post a link to this project very soon.

Thanks
Dan

 

[HeavyHitter]

Yeah its def doable. I often use a combination, wordpress can do ecommerce but widgets are in need some serious revamp. You can always run a seperat ecommerce section and style it to look liek your wordpress theme.

Another developer that I know started using this:
http://www.concrete5.org/

I havent looked at it much be he said that he is really impressed with it.

Sounds like the Wordpress people are planning to shift a little.

http://wordpress.org/development/2010/01/2010-open-source-design/

I checked out the link you posted. When I get a little more time I will read a little more. Looked cool. Thanks

Dan

 

[artist4christ]

Sounds like the Wordpress people are planning to shift a little.

http://wordpress.org/development/2010/01/2010-open-source-design/

I checked out the link you posted. When I get a little more time I will read a little more. Looked cool. Thanks

Dan

I haven't personally used it, but open source stuff is always fun to mess with.