Blog Platform or Content Management System?

As a longtime user of WordPress, I have seen how WordPress has migrated from a blog platform to a Content Management System (CMS). These days I hear,

“Oh, WordPress the blog script?”
“WordPress is not a CMS.”
“Can I -INSERT QUESTION- with WordPress?”
“I’ve heard about WordPress, but I’m not sure if I want to use it. I just want a website without the blog.”
“I heard WordPress is hard to learn.”

My response:

WordPress is a CMS. It is no longer just a blog platform. There are features that make it flexible enough to turn a WordPress site into a forum, a social bookmark site, a social network, an e-commerce site, and more. The beauty of WordPress is that you do not have to have a blog for your website. You can choose to harness that feature, but you can have a site of just pages. There are plugins built for WordPress that literally transform websites from ordinary to extraordinary.

Using WordPress is easy. I know it is because I have taught people in their 60s how to use WordPress. It does take a little time to learn, regardless if you want to be a WordPress.org self-hosted user or a WordPress.com hostee. You do NOT have to necessarily know HTML or PHP if you are using a free template or have someone design one for your site. It is as easy as typing an email.

WordPress won a CMS award at the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. This is pretty significant news and confirms the status of WordPress in the CMS World when pitted against CMS giants like Drupal and Joomla.

So, what do you think? Has WordPress made you think of it as a CMS or do you think of it as just a blog platform?