WordPress is an easy-to-use blogging platform that allows nonprofits and individuals with little technical experience to quickly create and publish content online. It provides a low-cost alternative to traditional websites that requires hosting, databases, and technical skills. WordPress helps connect the nonprofit sector by enabling professional networking and information sharing between organizations through blogs and links.

1. JESSI LEVINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 311—PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APRIL 12, 2010 THE WORDPRESS 411

2. The Rapid-Fire Blogosphere At the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, journalist Andrew Sullivan explained how the blogosphere is coming up fast in the nonprofit world. “It's important to understand that a blog is not a publication, but rather a broadcast ,” said Sullivan.

3. Content Management is Key “ The content strategist must work to define not only which content will be published, but why we’re publishing it in the first place,” said web writer Kristina Halvorson in “The Discipline of Content Strategy” . “Otherwise, content strategy isn’t strategy at all: it’s just a glorified production line for content nobody really needs or wants.”

4. WordPress: For You, Me and the Techie-Newbie “… there was still a barrier in that it requires a hosting account, a database, FTP, and a whole alphabet soup of acronyms that make normal people like you and me dizzy…[s]o we created WordPress.com , a hosted version of the open source package where you can start a blog in seconds without any technical knowledge.”

5. Who Needs a WordPress?

6. Folks with Low Budgets, Less Tech Experience

7. The WordPress Alternative

8. WordPress Connects Nonprofits The Michigan Nonprofit Association links to other organizations including: Grand Rapids Community Foundation , Mission-Based Management and GVSU’s own Johnson Center . Other WordPress bloggers, like Jennifer Walker , use the platform for professional networking within the nonprofit sector.

9. Adding Spice to Your WordPress Widgets Pearsonified Smashing Magazine’s “100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes for 2009”

10. Any Questions?