Use blog software to maintain non-blog sites?

Are blogging packages, such as WordPress, TypePad, and others, suitable only for blogging, or could they be used — extended, if you will — to handle non-blog sites?

That’s an interesting question, and one that I’ve been involved in testing, as well as disproving comments and thoughts from some “experts” I spoke with a few years ago about this very topic.

Abhijit Nadgouda makes the case that blogging packages can be effectively used for creating and maintaining non-blog, or “real” Web sites.

I’m involved with a national non-profit organization, and we’ve been planning a move from a static (HTML-based) site to a CMS-based site for about a year now. Not wanting to jump up and move to something that may not meet our needs, we first sat down, looked at all needs for the site — currently and things we’re planning for the next three-to-five years.

Nine months ago, after putting everything down in writing, we assembled a large team broken into a variety of groups. Each group would work in assigned roles, doing specific tasks, as assigned. Basically, what we did was have an inventory of strengths and weaknesses of each individual involved, and using those inventories, we gave each person tasks to accomplish on three of nine CMS platforms being considered. To ensure each person had the same skills on each CMS platform, since they were approaching it without any prior exposure, we created a set of written instructions for each task, a graphical set of instructions for use, as well as screencasts (screen video with audio) for each task, explaining step-by-step what had to be done and how.

The test platforms were wiped out and re-created anew at least once a week (from the testers’ perception), but on the backend, we kept an audit log showing everything that was done, including saves, replacements, etc. As the testing went on, we were able to chart how successful each person was in becoming familiar with each CMS platform, what the common problems were, and other issues.

After several months of testing, having eliminated six of the CMS platforms, we had three the were ranked highest. They were actually clearly highest in overall usability from many user-assigned tasks, as well as other issues we rated the system on. During the six months, we also used dummy domains to test actual content being uploaded, as well as a variety of add-ins available for each CMS platform.

Three months after the final trio of CMS products were put to the test, the sad news was that two products were tied for first place, and the third product, while scoring high in the initial testing, was far behind the other two platforms. Why? That was something we weren’t really able to determine, even from written notes and summaries provided by those involved in doing actual tasks we assigned.

One product is the self-hosted version of WordPress and the other is Joomla. Drupal was the third product that was being considered, with Nucleus one-point behind Drupal on the initial test phase.

Now, since there is no clear “winner,” as it seems, we are running two CMS platforms — Joomla and WordPress — to see which one performs better for the next three months in actual development, albeit on a dummy domain with restricted access to content. We will be uploading actual content to both CMS platforms while we prepare for the final, actual move. Yes, it seems like duplicating a workload, but the Board is hesitant, and rightly so, about trusting WordPress to be as dependable as a full-fledged CMS. A few on the Board said, “This is designed as a blogging platform, not a content-management platform,” and I can fully appreciate the concern and the statement.

In defense of WordPress, while it is a blogging platform, it does seem to perform well when placed into service as a full-scale, low-end CMS system. In fact, WordPress is actually used by the New York Times in at least one section of its site for hosting content, as well as on the U.S. Postal Services’ stamp collecting site. I know it’s also used on several mid-sized newspaper sites as the CMS-of-choice, as well as several other popular sites. That lends, to me, credibility, that it could — should — be able to handle the tasks thrown at it. Since it is a new step in a different direction for the Board, I can understand hesitancy in being cautious being taking that final leap.

Sure, initially the workload will “seem” to be double. It really won’t be that much work to upload the content to two sites, in reality. We are having to strip the old (original) content of its HTML coding, re-code much of the content, as the HTML-based site had a lot of server-side calls (SSI), as well as other functions that would slow down everything — or that is unnecessary — in the CMS platform. We are using a crafted local editor to upload the content to both sites simultaneously, adding in keywords, descriptions, and excerpts. One swipe does it all for both sites.

In the end, whichever CMS platform we ultimately end up using, I am confident, will be the best choice for our needs. So far, both have proven reliable, dependable, and user-friendly, which is critical for organizations, but even more important for non-profits that often rely on volunteers to help maintain content.

From the regard of usability, we work with many volunteers each year to maintain the site, add content, and such. Some are experienced with HTML, some have little experience, and some are high school or college students studying HTML or Web work and need credit for a course. Others who volunteer are older people who want to remain active and give back to society. In all cases, one critical concern we had was that the user interface be user-friendly and “familiar.” The CMS platform also had to have role manager that allowed custom tweaking, not simply have a built-in role model and not allow any local customization without actually hacking core files.

As Abhijit said, many non-blog sites are using software intended for blogging as the site’s backbone. In many cases, this is an excellent choice, and, from all the testing we’ve done, almost every CMS package — all open-source — that we considered, was able to handle what we tossed at it. The main issue, when things came down to brass tacks, was what did the end-user basically needed to know? How familiar did each person on any given team need to be, first with HTML, second, with CMS tools overall, and third, and perhaps most important, with the design and operation of the actual CMS platform chosen? If you wanted to, you could tack on one final issue, and that could be or should be: How much does any given person, who will have access to the backend of the CMS system, need to know about that platform to handle it — and make use of it — most effectively?

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, if you users cannot use the tool, or if there is a steep learning curve, such as with a few open-source CMS platforms, as well as many of the commercial CMS platforms, they are worthless. Let me restate that: if you have to pay to have people trained on how to use a CMS platform, how much is it worth to you?

If you’re using a free CMS platform, would it be worth your while to spend $50 to $100 to buy a few books or DVDs for reference? Would it be worth your while to spend $20 per person for individual user books about the product? Probably. But most of the open-source CMS platforms are fairly simple to use for people already familiar with many of today’s top word processing programs, such as Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2003, and OpenOffice.org.

Another option that is available, especially for blogging packages that are being used as CMS platforms, is many of them allow blog editors to add and edit content, including posts and pages. Blog editors are tools such as Windows Live Writer, BlogDesk, w.Bloggar, and even tools such as Nvu and Dreamweaver.

Using blog editors, or, for that matter, HTML editors (please forget about FrontPage! Please!), allow you to work on a local computer or laptop, creating content when and where you want, at times when it is convenient for you — even if you don’t have Internet connectivity — and then upload it to the server. You have a local copy — just in case you have a server problem and ever need to upload the file again, such as in the event of a server crash or a backup file just didn’t do its job properly and re-install like it was supposed to do.

Ensuring the folks who will touch the backend of the CMS platform have a basic knowledge of HTML is the key. Knowing how to manually insert tags, such as the title tag, for example, when adding links to other sites, links to internal content, images, videos, or, for that matter, anything that needs a link. An example of a title tag is shown below:

title="this is a title tag"

No, knowing how to insert title tags isn’t going to make or break any site. In fact, several CMS platforms, including WordPress, actually have core functions to turn off some tag refs. That’s fine, there are many add-on extensions (depending on the CMS platform you select, the terminology is different. In WordPress, they are called plugins, in Joomla, they are called mods) that will basically undo the core coding and allow you to do as you see fit with your content.

When looking for a CMS platform, or, for that matter, when you are considering revamping your site, reworking your site, or even moving your site to a new Web host, or even making significant changes on your site. Even if you aren’t, look at the bright side: having a Web site means you’re constantly doing work to maintain it. In maintaining it, do something simple, and here are the steps:

1. create a MySQL database
2. download the current WordPress package
3. install the WordPress package to your server
4. configure the basic setup (need help? Get free lessons!)
5. make your first post or page
6. find a new theme for your site
7. find plugins for your site
8. now have fun!

In the end, some blogging tools are more user-friendly than others, especially on the backend. The frontend, the site itself that visitors will see, is up to you and the theme you choose. The backend, though, is where the power lives.

What’s there to do now? Venture out, check out WordPress, TypePad, Drupal, Nucleus, and other platforms for yourself. Find something you like, then jump in, with both feet, grabbing a cup of hot coffee and maybe a slice or two of pizza, and let time slip by on you as you get lost in total immersion of your new toy.