WordPress Redefined - Pushing Blogs Beyond Innovation

WordPress is one of the most popular if not The Most popular bloggin platform whether we speak of free-hosted solution or a stand-alone blogs. An army of followers and happy users continues to increase on daily bases by hundreds but many fail to utilize the full potential presented by this super flexible platform.

WordPress can be turned into just about anything you want it to be:

• A personal or business blog
• Complete CMS with custom front page
• Front end for an Internet based retailer
• And last but not least - a complete Web 2.0 Portal you can build a community around and really push capabilities of your blog beyond anything originally intended.

While there are many definitions for what is Web 2.0 portal I want to concentrate on perhaps most important aspects of it - community and interaction. WordPress can be easily made into platform of choice for anyone moving into this new and exciting realm.

And let me explain why and mention some innovative plugins you can use to redefine your WordPress installation and make it a true Web 2.0 portal.

User contributed Content.

One of the biggest definitions of Web 2.0 that is already available to you with default installation. You have an option to allow people register and make them contributors, which will permit them to submit their own content to your blog. Still requires your approval but if you have an absolute trust in your users abilities - you can increase their privileges and allow them to be an Author or go even step beyond that and make them Editors.

Commenting System.

While WordPress already provides you with commenting system - it is very basic and you can truly enhance it by installing few plugins.

Get Recent Comments - This plugin displays excerpts of the most recent comments and or trackbacks that have been posted to the articles in your blog and enhances interaction of your blog.
Live Comment Preview - a simple mod that allows people have a preview of the comments on your site as they type them. Not a big thing but people love it.
Subscribe To Comments - Give your visitors an option to receive email notification whenever someone replied to the topic on your blog that they found interesting enough to comment on. Crucial to keep people coming back and you get to benefit from traffic.

Content Rated By Users

One of the major points of any web 2.0 portal is ability to allow readers express their opinion via ratings. Popularity of your post or page is determined by the votes of your readers and enabling this is extremely simple.

WP-Post Ratings - Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog's post/page and a simple click creates a star rating visual that people love. A must have for any web 2.0 site and very easy to install.

Sharing and Social Networks

WordPress is an absolute King when it comes to the number of plugins and other options to share any of your posts. You can pick your favorite from the multitude of available plugins but I personally like Share This plugin. Providing you with any number of Social Network sharing that is easily configured by editing plugin source file if you are technically savvy or simply use a default, which already presents you with 17 most popular networks plus option to email any of your posts to friends.

Tagging Is a Must

Tagging is one of the new technologies that have defined Web 2.0 and once again WordPress comes out on the top. Or to be sure it will, once you install couple superb plugins that make tag-n-pin as simple as 1,2,3 ..

Ultimate Tag Warrior - gives you ability to add tags in multiple locations, including within the post or page itself and automatically creates proper technorati tag links.
Tagalize It - a great addition that works alone side with UTW and makes your work easier. Installing this plugin gives you an option to simply use predefined tags within post and turn them into technorati tags.

A few small modifications and additions available to any WordPress blogger can truly turn your blog into a complete Web 2.0 portal without much effort.