The flexability of Wordpress

I am continually amazed at all the ways Wordpress can be used. Granted, it was initially intended to
act as a blog, and still does of course, but it, it's thousands of plug-ins and themes have evolved,
making Wordpress suitable for just about any web based endeavor you can think of.

Speaking of add-ons. What Wordpress article would be complete without touting the can't live without add ons, so here it is...   Contact Form 7 and the All in One SEO Pack.   A very short list yes?

I've done a few dozen Wordpress installs by now, and without fail the very first things I add is Contact Form 7. No matter what you intend to do with Wordpress, you will almost certainly have a contact form, and while Wordpress includes one out of the box, it isn't nearly as feature rich.

The All in One SEO Pack is another plug-in I almost always install. It allows you to tailor title and meta tags, and acts as a gentle reminder that unique pages ideally have unique meta tags and such.

The remaining must have Wordpress add-ons really depend on what you intend to do. For example, if you intend to make photos and graphics an integral part of your website, you'll want to install the NextGEN Gallery plugin. If you want to sell stuff, you'll want the WP e-Commerce add on.

If your site becomes popular, and possibly sluggish, then I'd suggest you look into adding the WP Super Cache, but since it caches the pages, this is typically the last thing I add, since it can make tweaking Wordpress themes tedious, having to clear the cache after every edit.

Then there are the various forum applications you can add. Granted some integrate with Wordpress better than others, but typically, the forum doesn't really need to be integrated at all, just skinned to match the look of your Wordpress installation.  Without a doubt my favorite forum software is SMF, and I usually use it, but sometimes Buddypress may be better suited, depending on your needs. There is also something called WP-Forum, which I haven't tried yet, but it does look promising.

So what else do you want your website to do? Chances are there is a Wordpress add on that does it, and if not, plenty of documentation and help out there. You could also of course hire a Freelancer like me :p