Sep 11, 2009 0
WordPress as a Portfolio. Good Idea or Bad Idea?
WordPress, we know what it is, we know what it does. But have we stopped to think of its use as a portfolio? That’s what I’ll answer in this piece; the perks, the faults, useful plugins and portfolio themes. Most of us look at WordPress and immediately think… blogging! And that’s correct, that is what WordPress is, designed for, functions as and is synonymous with, it’s a blogging platform.
But lets take a closer look at WordPress and how it can be used as a portfolio system. The pros, the cons and of course the hiccups involved. WordPress is great for blogging, but can it be used as a portfolio, can it be used for both and better yet, is it worth it?
So… What are some perks to using WordPress as a portfolio?
Using WordPress as a portfolio sounds like a good idea… right? But before that decision is made, let’s take a look at some benefits. Later we’ll look at some of the downsides to using it for a portfolio.
1. It’s Dead Simple!
The first and in my opinion the most important, it’s dead simple to use. WordPress has always excelled in this area and with each new release it only gets simpler. I remember back in the day… a year ago, each plugin that needed to be installed had to be done so manually. Now… simply search for it, install and there it is. This frees up valuable time that can be spent on more important things.
Publishing is also very simple to do, anyone that can fill out a form could publish something in WordPress. All the needed tools are right there and readily available, laid out in an easy to follow manor and very self explanatory. Every bit of information has its place and is easy to find when needed. Management is automated, backups can be setup to be automated as well, leaving only what truly matters, the content.
2. Content Management at the Core
WordPress’s CMS core is outstanding. Add a post, customize the look and feel with a built in WYSIWYG editor, add a few images, some links and publish. Sound simple? Not only is adding content simple, but managing content is simple as well. WordPress has made viewing, sorting and editing posts as quick and efficient as possible. There are numerous options that aid in managing content, even some bulk actions and quick edit features as well.
3. Expandability
Do a quick search for WordPress plugins and you’ll find millions of results on Google and thousands of available, up-to-date, ready-to-use plugins at your disposal. If there is a feature not already implement in WordPress, it’s likely that there’s a plugin for it. I’ll go over a few that might help with a portfolio blog later in this article.
4. Universally Supported
WordPress works with just about every server system out, every web host provider and even on your own personal computer. It can even be downloaded in self-contained Virtual Machines for personal development or sandboxing. There are plenty of places online to find support for WordPress, such as here, here and even here.
Perks are good, but could there be any downsides?
I’ve gone over four reasons to use WordPress as a portfolio. But could there be any problems with using WordPress as a portfolio? Here are four sound reasons why it might not be a good idea to use WordPress for a portfolio.
1. Is it just too much?
For some, finding a web host provider to support WordPress, paying for enough resources to accommodate higher traffic web sites, configuring everything needed, spending time on a design and layout, formatting every entry to fit within the layout and generally making it all work together; might just be too much for some. In the grand scheme of things, simplicity is usually better and a WordPress setup could potentially cause more problems than it could solve.
2. Speed and resource usage
With most dynamic CMS systems come the need for resources and sometimes a good amount of them. Just for a basic install of WordPress a bare minimum of 16MB’s of PHP memory is required, with a recommended 32MB’s for normal use, this doesn’t take into account heavily trafficked web sites. WordPress also requires a few services for it to even function properly, such as MySQL databases, mod_rewrite and safe_mode turned off (This isn’t required, but does cause issues while on). All this combined together normally rules out many free web hosting providers and limits most to a
hefty hosting package in order for their software to function at a speed reasonable enough for production use.
Note: Keep in mind that some web hosting providers keep a close eye on the amount of resources each client uses, crossing the resource line could cause interruptions in service.
Another consideration is plugins that utilize their own JavaScript libraries. WordPress by default uses jQuery, while other plugins may need MooTools, combining these two libraries together will cause unwanted conflicts. The amount of resources needed for one JavaScript library already puts a strain on most web sites, adding another just isn’t acceptable.
3. Project layouts and organization
Every pre-made theme that I located for WordPress that functioned as a portfolio required some custom formatting of projects or portfolio entries. Normally this required custom categories to be created; blog, projects, testimonials, etc… So a new category that would be used for the blog would have to be nested under the parent category. For a new install this might not be a problem, but for an existing blog switching over, this could yield a great deal of time and effort to setup correctly.
Projects are simply blog entires formatted in a specific manor and published to the projects category. In most cases this created an entry for the homepage, displaying a large image and a bit of information about the project. While this looks great on the homepage, the project page itself is left with little to no information other than the bit displayed on the homepage.
4. Custom theme?
For some a custom theme is a necessity, while for others it isn’t. For those designers that require something custom, creating a WordPress theme that also functions as a portfolio could be more than some care to deal with. For most, however, this isn’t an issue, there are plenty of free and premium themes available.
Most of these themes are straight forward to setup and configure, while some still needing custom configurations to function properly. But for those designers needing a custom identity, there are services that will take any PSD and convert it into a functional WordPress theme, potentially saving hours of development. This does however come at a cost. Prices start at $100 and go up depending on how extensive the conversion is.
Resources
I have gone over the good and the bad of using WordPress as a portfolio. Now lets take a look at some of the resources that are available, this will help to determine if there are even enough out there to utilize WordPress as a portfolio. I’ll start with WordPress plugins that can be used on portfolios, portfolio geared themes (free & premium) and some WordPress portfolios that are in use. This will give a better understanding of the available resources for use in a portfolio.
WordPress plugins for a portfolio, are there any?
1. All in One SEO Pack
All in One SEO Pack isn’t really a portfolio related plugin directly, but one worth mentioning in any case. SEO is one thing designers tend to overlook and the All in One SEO Pack helps to solve some of that. The newest feature of this plugin is one that is probably the most important, dynamic keyword generation, which will take tags and other relevant information directly from the post itself and inject it into the META data for that page. Dropping some of the work needed to make each entry more SEO friendly. Be sure to configure the Permalink Settings in WordPress to accompany
this SEO plugin.
2. All in One Video Pack
A full featured video management, editing and capturing plugin. Deal with video at all? This plugin will handle just about anything thrown at it, from using Kaltura’s online video editor, capturing directly from a webcam to importing videos from other video sharing web sites. Supports over 150 video, audio and image file formats and codecs.
3. Contact Form 7
Every portfolio needs a functional form for potential clients to utilize. Contact Form 7 provides just that and much more, including support for multiple forms, customization of created forms, AJAX submission with jQuery, spam filtering with Akisment and even CAPTCHA bot protection.
4. Flickr Gallery
Similar to other gallery plugins, Flickr Gallery takes a different approach by inserting a Flickr gallery into a singular page. Already have a Flickr account setup, full of photos or creative works? Flickr Gallery is the quickest way to add that gallery directly inside of WordPress in a professional manor, allowing visitors to few all of the photos without leaving the gallery.
5. Image Gallery Reloaded
Image Gallery Reloaded replaces the default WordPress gallery and replaces it with a sleek jQuery based image gallery tool. Each post can be configured with a singular image or a set of images, using Thickbox for zooming images. There are plenty of configurable options in this one.
Note: Fancybox plugin gives a cleaner zoom function and adds a few more sleek features to images than Thickbox. This plugin can be installed alongside and it overrides the Thickbox function in Image Gallery Reloaded.
6. Image Shadow
Want to add realistic shadows to images or artwork? Image Shadow does just that, directly through WordPress. Multiple options to change all aspects of drop shadows, from the opacity of the shadow to the direction of the light source. Simple, clean and easy.
7. NextGEN Gallery
In need of a full fledge image gallery management system? NextGEN has you covered with a flash slideshow option, extensive image management system and even a watermarking feature. Traditional gallery connoisseurs will surely enjoy NextGEN for their portfolio. NextGEN is written on jQuery.
8. Post Templates
Portfolio sites tend to post the same types of information over and over, especially for projects and case studies. Why not automate a portion of this work by creating a template for each type of repetitive information posted and simply fill in the blanks for each new entry? Post Templates does just that.
9. Sociable
Social bookmarking is becoming very popular and giving viewers the ability to bookmark works they may see, posts that interest them or even that tweet posted last week they liked, is a great way to drive more traffic to any web site. Driving traffic always correlates with more prospects and more prospects is always a good thing. Sociable adds social bookmarking to wordpress supporting over 99 social bookmarking web sites, simply select the desired bookmarking sites and an icon is added to the end of each entry with a properly built link to that particular web site.
10. WP Portfolio
WP Portfolio is a simple way to setup a singular page for created works. WP Portfolio creates a list of web sites along with a description and a generated thumbnail of each web site. A quick and simple way to produce a portfolio page of live web sites.
Free WordPress Portfolio Themes
Monochrome Gallery
Demo - Download
The Unstandard
Demo - Download
Premium WordPress Portfolio Themes
Cassiopeia ($60)
Demo
DesignFolio Plus ($30)
Demo
Folio Showcase ($30)
Demo
WpShowcase ($59)
Demo
Modern Portfolio ($30)
Demo
Thoughts?
WordPress as a portfolio seems to be very doable. It all boils down to the artist and if the time involved is worth the results. There seem to ample plugins to utilize and more than enough pre-made themes to select from, so is WordPress as a portfolio worth the time and effort? Is it a good idea or bad idea? Post a comment letting us know your thoughts.
