Viral Media Today

Category: Tech

  • 5 Alternatives to WordPress as a Blogging Platform

    5 Alternatives to WordPress as a Blogging Platform

    All my websites use WordPress and I love it a lot. But recently I thought of trying out some other CMS’ out there. I tried around 10-15 but only 5 according me is worth sharing. Finding alternatives to WordPress is not a difficult task anymore. There are hundreds of CMS’ out there.

    Before selecting a platform think a lot, think which one will serve you better. I used Blogger before moving to WordPress. It was good for a starter, but for better control I moved to blogger. It’s easy to move to WordPress from Blogger as WordPress has plugin’s which makes the transfer easy.

    These sites are ranked in no particular order.

    1. Drupal (Free)

    Drupal as blogging platform

    I think Drupal is the closest competitor to WordPress. Drupal was released in 2001. Like WordPress, Drupal also has a strong and active community. Also, they have tons of plugin’s also known as modules. Use Drupal to build everything from personal blogs to enterprise applications.

    2. Joomla (Free)

    Joomla as a content management system

    Joomla is another most used content management system.  Joomla also have a large community. The initial release was in 2005. Unlike other platforms Joomla gives us a chance to check out the Back-end and Front-end view through their demo site.

    3. Expression Engine (Premium)

    Expression Engine as a content management system

    Another great alternative to WordPress. Expression Engine has all the features needed for running your blog, and even some features that WordPress doesn’t offer! Expression Engine features friendly control panel, flexible content management, powerful member management and is infinitely extensible. I recommend Expression Engine to all clients who have a big budget for their website/blog. Some of the best websites in the world are powered by Expression Engine.

    4. Blogger (Free)

    blogger as a blogging platform

    Most of you might have already heard of Blogger or probably would have also used it. Blogger is the best platform as the user doesn’t have to worry about hosting or server downtime’s etc. Just concentrate on the content.  The blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com. Users also get an option to map their own domains.

    5. Tumblr (Free)

    tumblr as a blogging platform

    Tumblr is similar to Blogger where you get a free subdomain, free hosting. Tumblr also gives the option to map our own domains. But it is not as powerful as Blogger.

    Thanks for reading. These are some platforms which I like. What is your favorite platform? Let me know through the comments. I will check them out and probably will write about it if I like it.

     

  • Build An Alumni Website on WordPress – Plugins

    Build An Alumni Website on WordPress – Plugins

    In this article I will share the information about all the plugin’s I used to create my school’s Alumni Association website. This tutorial was requested by Arjun Vishwan on the tutorial request page.

    I will try to cover up most of the part and if you run into an issue, let me know through the comments, I will get back to you.

    We will be using WordPress as our platform to run our Alumni Association website. I hope you have the basic knowledge of hosting and running a WordPress Website.

    If you have a better and easy way of creating an alumni website, please let me know through the comments section.

    Plugin’s Used:

    1. Avia Feedback Box – feature request system – Premium – $25

    The Avia Feedback Box is a feature request system for visitors and customers. They can suggest new ideas, vote on existing ones, and track your work progress.

    Demo | Download

    2. BP Group Organizer – Free

    This plugin creates an administrative interface for organizing all of your BuddyPress groups.

    Based on the WordPress Menu editor, BP Group Organizer makes it simple to get your BuddyPress groups just the way you want them, or just to get a handle on the growth of your site.

    • Easily create groups in one step
    • Edit multiple groups and group properties without waiting for page reloads
    • Delete unwanted groups in a flash

    For users of BP Group Hierarchy, this plugin also allows you to move groups around the hierarchy by dragging and dropping. Get your groups just the way you want them, quickly and easily.

    Download

    3. BuddyPress – Free

    BuddyPress lets users sign-up and start creating profiles, posting messages, making connections, creating and interacting in groups, and much more. A social network in a box, BuddyPress lets you easily build a community for your company, school, sports team, or other niche community.

    Demo | Download

    4. BuddyPress Activity Plus – Free

    BuddyPress Embed Activity gives your social network all the features and ease of Facebook when it comes to uploading and sharing media! The plugin adds 3 new buttons to your BuddyPress activity stream. Enabling you to attach photos, videos, and even share web links with everyone on your network!

    Download

    5. BuddyPress Gifts – Free

    This plugin make user can send gifts image to other members in BuddyPress. It uses activity stream to keep the gifts sent information. Members can choose a gift from the gift box in others member gifts tab and type a message to receiver member. Receiver member can delete or reply message using activity stream function in own profile. The administrator can upload, delete and edit gifts item in the backend admin dashboard

    Download

    6. Chat Lite – Free

    Start communicating! Bring live, two-way chat to your site. Host your own live chat sessions, interact with your visitors and boost your sales without needing any third party javascript or other code – works great with BuddyPress and Multisite too.

    Download

    7. CubePoints – Free

    CubePoints is a point management system for sites running on WordPress. Users can earn virtual credits on your site by posting comments, creating posts, or even by logging in each day! Install CubePoints and watch your visitor interaction soar by offering them points which could be used to view certain posts, exchange for downloads or even real items!

    CubePoints is modular! And this means that it can be easily extended to offer more ways for your users to earn and spend points. APIs are also available for other plugins to work with CubePoints.

    Download

    8. CubePoints Buddypress Integration – Free

    Adds CubePoints support to Buddypress. Reward members using your BuddyPress portion of your website by giving them points and awards!

    Download

    9. Q&A Lite – WordPress Questions and Answers Plugin – Premium – $19

    With this plugin, you can bring full Questions and Answers functionality to any WordPress or BuddyPress site in mere minutes!

    Download

    10. ThreeWP Activity Monitor – Free

    Displays a multitude of user actions to keep the site administrator informed that all is well and that the blog or network is not being abused.

    • Logins (successful and failed)
    • Retrieved and reset passwords
    • Posts/pages created, updated, trashed, untrashed and deleted
    • Comments approved, trashed, spammed, unspammed, trashed, untrashed and deleted
    • Changed passwords
    • Changed user info
    • User registrations
    • User deletions
    • Custom activities from other plugins

    Download

    11. White Label Branding for WordPress – Premium – $25

    With White Label Branding for WordPress you can customize the menu’s and logo’s in WordPress and to decide which menu’s the users have access to.

    Demo | Download

    There are lots of other plugin’s out there, but I recommend reducing the number of plugins. The more number of plugins, more chance of server crash and more down times.

    Hope this post was useful and if you find it useful, please like the article and also our Facebook Page here.