I have worked with a lot of different CMS tools in my 10 years of working with computers – Wordpress, Joomla, Sharepoint, and even attempted writing my own CMS tool twice in the past. I have found, in the last 2 years of using Wordpress exclusively that it’s an excellent publishing platform.  As a bonus, being in Vancouver, Canada I’m lucky to have many sources of theme developers and access to local meetup.com groups discussing Wordpress development in Vancouver as well.

Why I think Wordpress is a Great Publishing Platform

1. Extensive community support.

The Wordpress platform is actively developed by Automattic and there is a massive online community behind it as well. It’s the tool of choice for bloggers and Freelance design shops like mine, and the source of information online to solve any problem or question is vast.

See why Wordpress is the CMS you should use

2. Endless plugins that enhance functionality.

Without adding plugins to your Wordpress installation, it’s pretty dull and boring.  Plugins are what make your Wordpress installation sing.  Here is a current list of the Wordpress plugins I use for all client installations and this is just a starting point. 

1. Cforms for building custom feedback forms
2. All in One SEO for handling your Search Engine Optimization
3. Wordpress DB Backup because even world class hosting can fail
4. Social or Sharethis so Posts can be shared on Social and Bookmarking sites
5. Google XML Sitemaps so that Google indexes your site completely
6. Linkwithin to direct readers to other relevant content on your blog
7. Pagemash to manage page ordering and hierarchy if you are building a CMS site
8. Statpress to get a quick pulse of your site activity
9. Quick Meta Keywords which uses your categories in your keyword meta tag if you are running a blog-centered site like mine is
10. Linkubaitor so users can embed URLs themselves

Large Resource of Theme Options. 

Wordpress (today) is quite easy to skin and many companies have popped up online offering theme packages you can buy.  My favourite sources of themes are Themeforest and Woothemes, but I occasionally hunt down alternatives (like the theme in use here).  It’s not that hard to find.  Here is my short list:

1. www.Woothemes.com
2. www.themeforest.net
3. www.templatemonster.com
4. www.revolutiontheme.com
5. www.wpremix.com
6. www.premiumthemes.net
7. www.press75.com
8. www.prothemedesign.com
9. www.pearsonified.com
10. www.wpdesigner.com

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Minimum Requirements:

1. Wordpress website
2. A form built with Cforms which is already running on the page you want (I’m using version 11 in this example)
3. A Paypal account of any kind

Limitations:

1. You can’t take in subscription or recurring payments with this tutorial as far as I can tell, unless you fiddle some more with the PayPal Link Generator

Instructions:

Install the Cforms plug-in into your Wordpress installation – if you are stuck at this stage, this tutorial probably isn’t for you.  How about hiring us to do the installation for you?

Build your website form in Cforms to your satisfaction

Integrate the form into your page or post using the Wordpress Page/Post editor

Visit the Paypal Link Generator at http://www.codetransit.com/generators/paypal_link_generator.php and create a link of your liking

Once you click “Generate Link” you will get two boxes.  One is a form you can use on any page, and the other is a Link for Email – which is the one we want here.  Grab that code and copy it.

Visit your Cforms configuration page for the form you’re using and go to Core Form Admin/ Email Options

In this area, look for Redirect options and past the Email Link into that option and also Enable this option

Now, if you did everything correctly, you should be forwarded to this link automatically after submitting a form! 

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