No Film School has been powered by Wordpress since launching in 2005, and in that time the CMS (Content Management System) has grown by leaps and bounds -- while remaining 100% free. Today parent-company Automattic officially released Wordpress 3.0, which adds some key features for moving the publishing platform toward a more full-fledged CMS (viable for, say, filmmakers). Video (and a hosting recommendation!) after the jump:
It's a common misperception that Wordpress is only used for blogging. For example, using the previous version of Wordpress (2.9), we threw together a portfolio site, despite the fact that the Exit Strategy site doesn't even have its own blog. As it is, you can use Wordpress to power just about anything, including portfolios and photo galleries or even online stores. However, 3.0 adds some key features that move the software further towards being a CMS for any kind of content. Chief among these features is support for taxonomies and custom post types, as demonstrated in their release video:
If you're wondering what Wordpress has to do with filmmaking: everything. As devices like Google TV start penetrating the market, we as filmmakers need to build and cultivate optimized online presences that make it easy to find and purchase our content, and Wordpress is going to play a big role in this going forward. At least, it is for me, because it's a flexible and extensible platform that we can mold to fit our particular needs. That's why I'm spending a lot of time these days figuring out how to build online platforms for marketing and distribution.
BT-dub, if you're looking to start your own Wordpress-powered site -- and I'm working on some tutorials and resources to that end, but they won't be up for a while -- I recommend the host I originally launched No Film School with, BlueHost. I'm now running NFS on a VPS (virtual private server), but it took me five years (and a few shoddy hosts) to get to this point, so BlueHosts's unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and free domain for $6.95/month is hard to beat. Not to give you the hard sell, but as Wordpress.org recommends them as well. From the official Wordpress site:
WordPress Auto-Install — new WordPress updates are made available within 24 hours! Unlimited disk storage, Unlimited monthly data transfer, host unlimited domains on 1 account, 1 free domain name for as long as you host with BlueHost, 2500 POP / WebMail addresses, 50 MySQL databases, free control panel, free Fantastico, free SimpleScripts, 24/7 network monitoring, 99% uptime guarantee, mirrored storage backups, no hidden fees, voted best support in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008!
Not sure what happened to the last two years; I have a feeling they just didn't update their blurb.
Are you using Wordpress to power your site? I'd like to take a look -- please post your URL in the comments!
