Freelancing with WordPress: Using WordPress to Manage Contacts

FREELANCING WITH WORDPRESS: USING WORDPRESS TO MANAGE CONTACTS

In a march of your freelancing career you’ll run in to copiousness of people for each plan we work on. It can be flattering chaotic to keep everyone orderly in your conduct so it’s rarely endorsed which we have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of a little form of hit government system. For a little of we which competence be Outlook or Gmail or Thunderbird. Others competence have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of 37signals’ Highrise or conduct contacts inside of Basecamp as well as others still competence have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of a elementary notebook.

But we suggest we an additional solution, arguably a improved resolution — WordPress!

Introducing WP Contact Manager

Unlike using WordPress for Project Management, hit government for WordPress has a definite as well as scarcely finish resolution which is a wish to work with as well as easy to learn. WP Contact Manager is a stand-alone thesis for WordPress by Artisan Themes which allows we to spin WordPress in to a bone-fide hit government system. The thesis can additionally be used in as well as with plugins such as Members Only for gripping your contacts private, Related Posts for displaying associated contacts, as well as Search Everything for displaying law poke options.

The Interface

WP Contact Manager has a unequivocally orderly as well as professional-looking interface, a single which we would pattern from a some-more grown up commercially-developed app. The homepage displays a list of a many not long ago combined contacts, a poke form as well as a tab cloud.

If we click on any contact’s name we have been taken to a some-more minute view. You can see (and add) flattering most any report we wish for your contacts — name, address, email, websites, phone numbers. Each hit additionally gets User Notes, which have been some-more or reduction a comments territory for a contact. we can suppose this entrance in accessible if we have been collaborating with others or even only operative alone as well as we wish to keep lane of a actions already taken as well as a subsequent actions for a contact. Additional Notes have been some-more permanent records for a contact, may be a outline of how we met or since a chairman is important. These have been combined as a normal post would be in WordPress.

Using WP Contact Manager

With WP Contact Manager, a brand brand new hit can be combined by clicking “Add New Contact” in a tip menu of any open confronting page. This will take we to a WordPress post admin. All a hit report is combined regulating law fields solely for a Additional Notes which can be combined with a WYSIWYG editor. It’s kind of quirky at first. For example, a initial dual contacts we combined never took since we didn’t give a hit a title. we only combined in a law fields information. So, we had to sort a name twice, once for a pretension as well as once for a law fields. It’s not a large deal, only redundant.

Conclusion

WP Contact Manager is great. It unequivocally does get a pursuit finished and, for me at least, it is allied to Highrise (which we love). It’s a wish to have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of as well as does just what we pattern it to. There have been a integrate things which could be finished to urge it, though.

1. Theme Options or Child Themes

I would adore to see a capability to shift colors as well as credentials images. Even better, maybe, would be a accessibility of a little kid themes for it. Just something to have it some-more sharp as well as contemporary.

2. No WordPress Admin

It unequivocally shouldn’t have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of a WordPress admin for adding contacts as it’s not quite accessible to newcomers. Adding brand brand new contacts though observant “Add Post” is confusing. I’d similar to to see a law done admin page which follows a same pattern as all a alternative pages though unconnected options similar to a WordPress admin sidebar. It unequivocally needs an admin privately written for someone adding a contact.

WP Contact Manager isn’t being actively grown right now, so we don’t know when (if ever) we competence see these improvements, though even though them, WP Contact Manager is a single of a most appropriate solutions out there. If we haven’t since it a try, do so today!

Download WP Contact Manager

Do we have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of WordPress to conduct contacts? Is there a approach to have make have make make make make use of of of of of of of it which we haven’t found yet? Let us know in a comments!

JD Bentley is a freelance designer, WordPress developer as well as entrepreneur. His essay can additionally be found at wageslaverebel.com as well as jdbentley.com.