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18 Unique Uses of WordPress and the Plugin or Theme Used

January 18th, 2010 by | WordPress | 48 Comments

Everyone knows that WordPress has been a popular and powerful open source blogging platform. Many people have been using WordPress because of its simplicity and user friendly blogging tool and even as a content management system (CMS).

When extending WordPress functionality for your existing site, you can find dozen of plugins that can help you add-on features without the hassle of changing to another platform. All you have to do is to find the right plugin(s) that you need and install it into WordPress. With the combination of plugins, hacks and creativity, WordPress has been often used in different unique and unconventional ways.

18 Unique Uses of WordPress

Below we will share with you some of the different unique uses of WordPress and the plugins or themes used.

18 Unique Uses of WordPress

Twitter Site

If you are a twitter fan, and love to build a twitter-like site, the easiest way is to use WordPress with Prologue theme. Go to "Add New Theme" at the admin, do a search for P2 install and activate it.

WordPress P2 Theme
P2 Twitter

Forum

If you need to add a simple and light-weight forum to your existing WordPress site, you can try adding 1 of the following forums built for WordPress, instead of installing the full pledged forum which can be overkill or bloated.

Bbpress
BBpress

More Resources:

Tumblelog

Turn WordPress into a Tumblelog which allows you to make short and quick posts like publishing posts, sharing links, videos, images or whatever little scribbles you want to make online.

Quick Post
Tumblelog

More Resources:

CSS Gallery

Most of the CSS Galleries you find online are powered by WordPress. It helps to collect and archive nice websites that can inspire you for your next project.

CSS Gallery Theme by Os Designer
CSS / Inspiration Gallery

More Resources:

Community News Site

Building a community news site that aggregate news among your niche help you bring community news to one place.

FV Community News
Community News Site

More Resources:

Photoblog

A photo speaks a thousand words. The use of a photoblog focuses on the photographs rather than text. It helps photo lovers and photographers to share their photos easily, and at the same time has the capabilities of a blog. Simple, no text!

Yet Another Photoblog
Photoblog

More Resources:

eCommerce Site

WordPress is used as a blog, but what if you need to sell some products, build another eCommerce system? To save trouble, there are some great eCommerce plugins that you can integrate into your existing WordPress system and start selling right away.

WP e-Commerce
WP e-Commerce

More Resources:

Invoice System

As your business grows, you might need to send itemized invoices to your clients. Having an invoice system helps you to keep track of your client's billing and allows your clients to pay using their credit card.

WP-Invoice
WP-Invoice

Job Board

Many established blogs offer job board listing among their niche when they have huge readerships. You can turn WordPress into a Job Board that lists the available jobs, and charge job posters for posting their entry.

Job Press Theme
Job Board

More Resources:

Business Directory

Easily turn a WordPress site or blog into a simple directory where people can submit their links, and you can moderate those submissions.

Business Directory
Business Directory

Membership Subscription Site

To have pay-to-view, membership-oriented, subscription-based content publishing platform, you can turn a WordPress into a membership subscription site that only paid members can enter.

Sumaplugin
Membership Site

More Resources:

Contacts and Company Manager

Turn your WordPress into a contacts and company manager to keep track of phone numbers, email addresses, websites, social networks and other types of information regarding your clients.

Rolopress

More Resources:

Digg-like Voting Site

Like the voting system from Reddit of Digg? You can add the voting functionality to your site for visitors to use. With more changes to the themes, you can clone a Digg-like voting site.

Vote it Up
Vote It Up

Newsletter Mailing System

Sending Newsletters or Electronic Direct Mail has been part of online email marketing. With Feedburner or WordPress plugin you can add the newsletter mailing function into your existing WordPress System.

WordBurner - Newsletter Manager Using WordPress and Feedburner
WordBurner

More Resources:

Wiki

Need a Wiki for your WordPress site? Use this plugin to transform WordPress into a custom, knowledge based application to power your documentation needs. You'll be able to add articles and frequently asked questions, rate content, show related articles, and much more!

WP-Wiki
WP Wiki

Auction Site

It’s a breath of fresh air for the WordPress community. Turn WordPress into a site that hosts auctions on your blog.

WP Auctions
WP Auctions

Review site

Turn WordPress into a powerful review site engine, allowing you to easily create user-powered review sites on virtually anything – to review products, services or add star ratings to your existing website or blog.

WP Review Site
WP Review Site

Social Networking Site

Add a social networking layer to a new or existing installation of WordPress MU. This transforms your network of blogs into a social networking site, so each blogger can interact and get to know more about one another.

BuddyPress
Buddypress

More Resources:

Other WordPress Use?

There are many different ways we can extend WordPress. Just note that WordPress can only help you to extend to a certain level of functionality. If you need more features, consider other alternatives for your requirements. Remember, it is still a blogging platform.

Have more unique uses of WordPress? Share it in our comments section below.

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Author

Terrance is a versatile web developer and the technical editor at OXP. He enjoys creating functional websites and is particularly engrossed in all the tiny details mixed together to construct great user experiences. He always believe that every web user deserves the best!

64 articles published to date.

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  • http://www.designfollow.com/ designfollow

    thank you for the great collection.

  • http://www.smashingshare.com Smashing Share

    this is great roundup overall. thanks for putting them together

  • http://ntechnologies.co.cc/blog Nikunj Tamboli

    Really nice post it would help me alot

  • http://kovshenin.com Konstantin

    Nice list, the auction part was new for me, hehe :) I hope the first author to come up with that idea got his work listed in the WordPress.org showcase, there's a collection of unique WordPress users.

    ~ K.

  • http://netreview.de Daniel

    Thx for this great list. But what's about Flash Games Site? There ist also a Plugin Suite available to transform WordPress into Online Games Portal.

    See here: http://netreview.de/myarcadeblogpro

    Best Regards
    Daniel

    • http://niceselfpromotion.com Susan

      Nice self-promoition plug...

  • http://www.joyoge.com joyoge bookmark

    very important plugins, thanks for share..

  • http://www.noahsportfolio.com noah

    Excellent plugins list thanks for sharing

    ~n

  • http://superlumi.nl JeremyOLED

    I've been using WordPress to run a custom Flash games arcade for almost a year now without any particular arcade plugins. Just a flash embed plugin and everything else to make the site great and presto.

    You can check it out at http://physics-games.net

  • Vald

    Another example of a non standart use of wordpress. Community for artists and art lovers. Talks, discussions, ratings and so on. Check it here artstork.com

  • http://pthesis.com pthesis

    Nice overview. I wasn't aware of several of these uses for WordPress.

  • http://www.briskstudios.com Mike

    Dang, some good stuff on here, unique stuff too. Thanks for WordPress stuff!

  • http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce Dan Milward

    Thanks for linking to the WP e-Commerce Plugin & the Wiki Plugin that we made. Its not everyday I read a post that links to both :)

    Nice site. Nice article (thanks Japh & my mates at AIOSEOP for the link!!)

  • James Pasion

    WordPress sure has come a long way. From blogging to WP Auctions? Amazing!

  • http://www.rolopress.com Steve Bruner

    Thanks for mentioning RoloPress. We really appreciate it! We just put up a demo site so people can see how it works: http://demo.rolopress.com.

    Thanks again!

  • http://beautifulshopping.com Jim MacDonald

    Thank-you Terrance. Was going off to bed as your website was going to be my last site to see.

    Wow, interesting WordPress plug-ins. I'm now wide awake, itching to get finding out more and trying these plugins on my blogs. Off looking over RoloPress and WordBurner to start.

    Thanks, Cheers

  • http://desaindigital.com jeprie

    thanks. nice info. realy usefull

  • http://ebsoft.web.id ebta

    Wow.. thank you
    never though that wordpress can be used like that

  • http://www.bisnisukm.com Bisnis UKM

    Thank you...
    wordpress rock.. :)

  • http://www.dslr-test.de Tom

    Nice list!
    I didn't even know that there is a Wiki plugin for WP!
    It's great!
    thanks

  • http://www.alexpaezsyll.com Alex

    Hi, I´m Looking to use wordepress like a electronic journal, with articles/research, but I didn´t find plugins or themes for this use.
    Thanks.

    Great Post

  • Daniele

    Hi, does anyone of you know if it's possible to use wordpress as project manager?

  • http://www.websitedesign.co.uk Louise

    One of the best list's of WP modules that I have seen in a long time, thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.binarymoon.co.uk Ben

    Great list and timely too - we released Accumulo today :) More info here on the Accumulo release post

  • http://www.redesignyourbiz.com/ Maverick

    these are simply stunning........ these people make our lives so simple :)

    thanks a ton

  • http://www.elatio.hr PVC stolarija

    Nice collection :-)

  • http://www.w3avenue.com/ Saud Khan

    Terrance

    I wrote a similar post on W3Avenue back in October: http://bit.ly/kq2nP.

    WordPress is such a wonderful platform, you keep on looking for more - and the amazing part is that most of the time you succeed.

    Good job and best wishes.

  • http://webdesignpuertorico.com Luis Rivera Colon

    The RoloPress plugin was very nice im doing a project with that plugin, and works perfect.

  • http://www.webstuffshare.com Hidayat Sagita

    Woho finally find you "FV Community News"! :D

  • http://dinolatoga.com Dino

    Awesome list. Very inspiring to see such unique WordPress powered sites.

  • bodomias

    Great round up. I miss a portfolio theme for WordPress here.

    Thanks

  • http://www.theinsidedesign.com The Inside Design

    Great Article and awesome collection. Thank for sharing this information.

  • http://www.ozdtasarim.com/blog fireRoxy

    WordPress plugins do their best jobs. I love wordpress. and this article is very useful. thank you.

  • http://www.healthburden.com Ranjith

    Thanks for the amazing list. I was just wondering the "forum" plugin does it kill lot of bandwidth?

  • http://www.gooseneckfloorlamp.net Jennifer

    Thank you for this list. I have been wanting to incorporate some of these ideas into my blogs. Now I know that I can.

  • http://www.secretcontents.com Ret

    Wow...the possibilities in WordPress flatform is endless. Thank you for widening up my mind on the things that WP can do for me. I am so impressed. This is the article I am looking for.

  • http://www.kaliteliforum.org kaliteliforum

    thanks for sharing, really nice article..

  • http://www.careeroutlook.in/ CaeerOutlook

    This is a very powerful post, I am currently running a career site and this post is really going to help me to increase the functionality of my site.

    Thanks for mentioning all the job related theme & plugins :)

  • http://fosesepticeconstanta.blogspot.com/ fosa septica constanta

    buna. interesant webite. ce theme de WP folosesti? E facuta de tine?

  • http://www.can-crusher.org Can Crusher

    the morning fresh air is the best, i have asthma and i love to get some fresh air .`,

  • http://www.swastiksolutions.in Hiren Khambhayta

    Nice Collection! keep it up. Can you give me the name of the below used antispam plugin used by you of arithmetic?

  • http://www.review-theme.com TJ from ReviewTheme

    Hey There!

    Really great list! - The Twitter Site was new to me and something I would like to explore further.

    Thanks

    TJ

  • http://www.digitalark.co.uk Simon

    I have recently found the power of WordPress but have only been using it to run my blog. The membership info was very interesting to me.

    Simon

  • sheena sancho

    it really gives a lot of help on my ass. thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.inmonova.com Rafa

    In my opinion the versatility of wordpress is just amazing. Being able to buid an e-comerce or a job portal with wordpress is just a great option for beginners or entrepreneurs with great ideas that are simply not so web design savvy.

    Great post, thank you!

  • http://www.digitalark.co.uk Simon

    I have increasingly been using WP over the last year. One blog involves reviewing meals. Therefore, it was very helpful to find the review plug-in.

    Thank you.

    Simon

  • http://bisnisukm.com Bisnis UKM

    hmmm....

    i have turned the wordpress into
    - Membership Subscription Site
    - Business Directory
    - Forum / Community
    - Contacts and Company Manager
    - Marketplace
    - Invoice System
    - and ...

    i love wordpress so much

  • http://www.freebiesandcoupons1.com/ dailer-freebies

    Excellent collection.
    I want to create a site with WP but I want to have the appearance of a web page.
    I want the site does not have the pariencia Blog
    These tips are very useful

    thanks