By Nancy Messieh, MakeUseOf – April 23, 2013 at 11:31PM
There’s quite a lot of ways you can use WordPress beyond simply using it as a blogging platform. We’ve already taken a look at a list of 5 things you might not have known you could do with WordPress. The platform lends itself to versatility and there’s a huge variety of websites out there that you can’t even tell are created using WordPress, and there are five ways you can put the platform to use that goes beyond simply content management.
WordPress can be used to create an extremely interactive experience on your website, which can translated into a social network, a project management tool, a community board and more.
Create a Private Social Network
While there are options out there for private social networks such as Yammer, using WordPress to create that social network gives you so much more control over the experience. There are several ways to go about turning WordPress into a private social network – whether it’s using a theme or a plugin.
One of the easiest ways to get it done is to use the theme P2, which creates a Twitter-like experience, allowing you to create and add users, post updates and more.
P2 also comes with threaded comments, real-time notifications for new comments, keyboard shortcuts and more. It can be used to create a private social network, or as a live-streaming tool of your own.
You can see the theme in action on WordPress’ very own blog for its core development team.
If you’re looking for something even more elaborate, you can give BuddyPress a try. We’ve taken an in-depth look at what it has to offer, so check out our review of BuddyPress here. It allows you to create user profiles, add friends, send private messages, create user groups, discussion forums and more.
Create a Help Desk
If you want to use WordPress to incorporate a more heavy-duty customer service experience on your site, there are a few themes that will get the job done. You can create a help desk, allowing customers or users to submit questions, support tickets and more, with complete functionality to manage these submissions.
One great example of this is Woo Themes’ SupportPress. With the paid theme, users can submit tickets, while on the backend, you can assign the tickets to members of your team. SupportPress also goes one step further by allowing you to create a knowledge base as well so that users don’t submit duplicate tickets on questions that have already been addressed.
Support Desk is another option available to users. The responsive theme, which will set you back $50, also allows you to create a community forum and knowledge base, as well as FAQ pages. You can see the theme in action here.
If you’d rather not spend a little less in order to get a Q&A site up and running, you can opt for a plugin instead. Q&A will set you back $19, while ClickDesk is free. The latter allows you to place a live chat feature on your site, and if you aren’t online to answer questions straight away, users can leave a message.
Create a Wiki
Another way you can get more out of WordPress is to use the CMS to create your own personal Wiki. The WordPress Wiki Theme, which costs $40, allows you to create user accounts, post content, categories and more. The theme is also completely searchable. See the theme in action here.
Woo Themes also provides users with the $50 option, Wikeasi, but if you don’t want to spend a penny, you can opt for the WordPress plugin WordPress Wiki Lite, but with the caveat of your Wiki sitting on one WordPress page within your website.
Use for GTD
WordPress can also be used as a pretty impressive productivity tool. You can use it as your own personal GTD tool or as a collaborative tool for project management.
With the plugin, Project Tasks, you can turn your WordPress website into a project management tool where you can create and assign tasks, keep track of progress and keep a log of your completed work.
If you’re looking for something even more robust, CollabPress allows you to create projects, create and assign tasks, upload files, and view tasks in a calendar.
Create a Directory, Classifieds, Jobs Board, etc.
WordPress also lends itself to creating any kind of information board or directory. You can use it to create a business directory, a jobs board or a classifieds board. No matter what kind of information you want to collate into a directory on your WordPress website, there’s likely a plugin or theme that will get the job done.
There’s nothing to stop you from creating your own Yellow Pages-like service that could become a useful resource, and with the Business Directory plugin you can even monetize the service by enabling users to submit and post to your directory for a fee.
Can you think of any other creative uses for WordPress? Let us know about them in the comments.
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