Content Marketing Today

IT Prof at U of SF Lauds WordPress as Small Business Web Development Tool

Leading edge transit technology supplier, NextBus is cited as a great example.

You may think of professors as ivory tower folks who live in a world apart–even an IT Prof within a business school.  But J.P. Allen is a different breed.  He has a great blog that focuses on “the future of IT, business, and society on the new Web.”

In a recent post he gave a shout out to NextBus as a great example of a cool company with a cool WordPress-based website, NextBusNews.com. 

As an example of a business WordPress site, I use nextbusnews.com.  NextBus is the groovy technology that tells me real-time how late my next MUNI bus will be (more details on how NextBus uses WordPress as a simple content management system here).

That quote links to an article by my colleague Scott Frangos’ site, Webhelpermagazine.com.  Scott and I worked together on building this contemporary site for NextBus which provides a wealth of relevant content for its large audience of transit managers who operate in a variety of complex settings.  Although a lot of customizing was involved in building out the site, that work was still orders of magnitude easier than it would have been to build a content management system from scratch. NextBusNews.com really is a great example of how customizable WordPress can be.

I’m delighted that J.P. is building a curriculum around the use of WordPress in the creation of small business websites.  He notes a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that only 36% of small businesses in the US with Web access actually have a website.  That may seem astonishing, but it may have to do with the difficulty of creating a credible website with old-fashioned tools. If it’s too hard and too expensive, your small business may be unable to afford a kind of web presence that’s essential today.  As JP stresses, WordPress can take a lot of the heartache and expense out of building a website.

This is a great blog from an unexpected source that takes a look at the Internet, at business, and at broader social issues from an intriguing perspective.  Be sure to give it a look: The J.P. Allen Blog.