Featured Blogsite: Big Shots by Marla – Senior Site
June 16, 2010 | Posted in Featured BlogsLet’s talk about blogsites! I’ve been on a roll with them lately, and have really stretched my skills in making the most of WordPress to build blogsites that are all-inclusive, interactive experiences. It’s amazing what you can do! Here’s an example of a blogsite that pushes the limit and power of WordPress.
Marla and I worked together to create a multi-template blogsite that contains 1) a regular blog (not yet live), 2) a senior information site (now live), 3) a general client information site (not yet live), as well as portfolio galleries featured in both the blogsite and senior information site. All this with one WordPress login! All of the URL’s are root based and SEO friendly (i.e. …/senior-info instead of /blog/senior-info), making for a more organized, streamlined, and neatly presented blogsite.
Take a look around her senior information site (the other sections aren’t live yet), and you’ll get a feel for how her branding elements have been infused into every nook and cranny of the site. I’ve recently switched from using flash fonts (i.e. sifr) to cufon fonts (image-based) and found that the custom cufon fonts load a lot faster than the flash ones. Cufon fonts are great for replacing regular web-based fonts for menu titles and post titles (body font replacement not recommended).
Marla is also incorporating video into her site, so you can check out what she’s done and get a feel for how it can look on your own blogsite. She also wanted to include client forms and agreements into her site, and I was able to set it up for her so she could create them within WordPress and create the pages herself. Be aware that some of the pages are password protected, but you can view the senior information form to see an example.
I hope you feel a bit more inspired to come up with ideas for your own blogsite!
Marla Wertheim wrote: wow! when i read that it just seems so amazing that you pulled it all together :) i came on to link you in my first post and found this! GREAT JOB!!! (07/09/10, 10:21 am)
Sigrun O wrote: I have been using WP like this since last January, just using one install of WP, multiple templates and plugins. For my galleries I'm using a modified version of the super-slider show plugin. I tried the nextGenGallery plugin but I wans't really that impressed. The only thing I haven't been able to work out jet is how to use WP for client galleries where clients can order or add photos to chart. I'm currently using Proofboddy and a very simple plugin for WP I wrote, just to connect WP and PB together. (09/10/10, 7:03 am)