Video Post: Website vs. Blog – Ease of Use (with actual footage using CorporateDollar.Org – social media for non-profits)

Posted December 11, 2008

Note: This video was made using WordPress.Org version 2.6. If your backend looks like this, then you’re on version 2.7.

Social media needs to be easy to use in order for non-profits to impact fundraising. Why? Because social media is conversation. Time spent on the phone with your website’s hosting company could better used engaging fans – actually DOING social media!

Now, a blog is much easier to maintain and customize than a traditional website. In this video post I’ve outlined four major areas (outlined below the video), showing you details of the actual back end of my blog to demonstrate “ease of use”.

At the end of the video I mention a free“Blog Jump Start” course for non-profits that I’ll have for you in a couple of weeks.

Four “ease of use” factors of a WordPress / Thesis blog:

1 – Publishing web pages and other content

Non-profits that use a traditional website frequently complain to me about how hard it is to do the simplest changes. A Wordpress.Org blog makes creating web pages and posts as easy as writing a word document

2 – Custom widgets

fotolia 2977510 m 250x166 Video Post: Website vs. Blog Ease of Use (with actual footage using CorporateDollar.Org social media for non profits)Non-profits that need any additional functionality – surveys, audio players, donation widgets – usually have to get a hold of their hosting company or call the guy on the right side of this page. WordPress has a built in community of thousands of software developers who have created over 3,500 plug-ins. These plugs-ins do everything from eliminating spam comments to playing music and video within your site.

3 – Design

Changing the design within a traditional website involves selecting one of 50 or so templates or have someone write code for your site (time, money, and frustration). Wordpress has over 500 free “themes” which dictate the look and feel of your blog. One of the best themes is the Thesis theme by Chris Pearson. Thesis has an extremely flexible design that’s driven by menus and check boxes – little to no coding.

4 – Community

Traditional websites offer only the support provided by the vendor. WordPress and especially Thesis have great forums with folks who will help you with any question.

As I mentioned at the end of the video, stay tuned for the free “Blog Jump Start” video course for non-profits.

If you found this post useful, leave a comment, subscribe, or find out how I can help your non-profit.

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  • @Yael - Thanks for the clarification on the header banner. I know that some coding is invloved with the header, but didn't want to get into that level of detail for this video.

    @Everyone - Here are some additional articles on WordPress 2.7:

    New WordPress 2.7 Paves the Way for WordPress Social Networks
    Everything Your Need To Know About WordPress.Org 2.7
  • I just put up a site using WordPress 2.7 and Thesis (http://www.molliesanders.com) I had no problems in terms of compatibility. Although, I don't use Thesis' Custom Backgrounds so I can't speak to that element.

    As to the question people are wondering, is it really as easy to customize as everyone says? Yes and no. For a great deal of customization, you don't need to fool around with the code, Thesis gives you the options in the Dashboard. I've tried a number of themes (not a lot, mind you) and found Thesis, by far, by far, has the most options to customize without playing with the code.

    Thesis isn't perfect and for putting in a header banner you do have to put in code. But don't despair, how to do it, is stated in the Thesis support forums. So many questions are already answered in the forums and there's always someone there to answer every level of question.
  • Note: This video was made using WordPress.Org version 2.6. If your backend looks like this, then you're on 2.7.
  • I was referred over here to watch this video on Thesis because I am contemplating a blog makeover yet I am blog challenged/illiterate.

    I really appreciated this video - definitely made me interested in Thesis and want to learn more about it.

    Thank you!
  • @Frankie - Damn... sounds painful. My host (KnownHost.com) doesn't force upgrades. I'm going to wait until the dust settles on the new WordPress version.

    Can you send me the link to your thread in the forum so that I can link to it here?

    Thanks,

    John
  • Thanks, John. Very helpful intro. I'm also using Thesis and very happy you asked about the 4x4 boxes. I'll head over to the forum now.
    I installed WP 2.7 yesterday and lost the graphics in the Thesis options area so nothing looks like your video now. It all works, just no nice columns anymore. You may want to check this out before finishing your video course.
  • @Deborah - Oh jeeze validation errors... If I didn't have all that crap happen in my childhood, I probably wouldn't have such a great need for constant validation. :-)

    @Vince I totally agree. Using Thesis for the first time reminds me of when I got my first macbook. The instructions were basically "Press the on button".
  • Great vid, John! I had been looking for a professional-looking theme for my blog for a long while until I heard about Thesis. Ever since installing it, I haven't looked back. I even purchased the Developer's pack so I could install it on my other blogs! I love how I can make the changes I need without having to know PHP. Right out of the box, this theme looks stellar, it's great to make those few tweaks here and there to make it your own. I recommend this theme to anyone who was in my shoes as far as looking for a well-designed and programmed theme!
  • Deborah
    Hard to say. I did a quick look at the code, but couldn't identify the issue. There are other issues on the page causing validation errors in the code, so it's hard to isolate the issue with the video.
  • Great job man! The video was quite helpful. I just wrapped up a post on Shouting vs. Communicating and I think that this would be a great follow-up topic for me (website vs. blog).

    I'm going to try to come up with a few more examples and put something up soon.

    Thanks,
    Vik
  • @Deborah - I didn't know that... but also don't know what to do about that.

    @Shane - Thanks, Shane - nice wordpress videos on youtube!
  • Deborah
    Nice tips for non-profits. Not sure if you knew this already, but the video on this page doesn't display in Opera 9.61 under Windows Vista. At first, I thought there was some issue with the page display, but changed to Firefox and could view the video on the page.
  • Nice vid, and I agree wholeheartedly with Thesis!

    Regards
    Shane
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