A Blog platform - that was how WordPress started to come to life some years ago! But things don’t have to stay that way forever…

Image via Wikipedia

With right themes or plugins put into play, a WordPress blog can be transformed into many of its incarnations with great ease. In most situation, that could just mean dropping a plugin into your WP system and go tweak a few settings to your likings and… you’re set to go. Another good thing is that most plugins and themes come at no cost. How nice!

1. WordPress As A Portfolio Site

Here are two themes that can help you tailor your WP into a portfolio presenter:

•  Blog-O-Folio from Noupe.com

• Portfolio Press from Wptheming.com.

2. A Forum Site

Have you ever been frustrated with forum or bulletin board software that was slow, bloated and always got your server hacked? bbPress is focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed.

It keeps things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add-on features through WordPress's extensive plugin system. What does all that mean? bbPress is lean, mean, and ready to take on any job you throw at it.

bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress.

3. Adding Q&A Feature

Q&A Lite allows any WordPress site to have a fully featured questions and answers section - just like StackOverflow, Yahoo Answers, Quora and more.

Chock-full of features such as:

• Full front-end capability - users don't ever have to see your site's admin back-end
• WYSIWYG editing of both questions and answers
• Snazzy voting for both questions and answers
• Integrated reputation points system
• Dedicated user profile pages
• Easy theme integration using widgets
• Fully customizable using dedicated template files

4. Now You Too Can Have A Wikipedia Clone

Wiki allows you to create a wiki as easily as adding a post.

WordPress Wiki Lite transforms your WordPress website into a fully functional wiki or add wiki pages to your WordPress blog.

You can use Wiki Lite to create...

• A WordPress based Wiki site
• Multiple Wiki sites on a WordPress MultiSite install - so any user of your site can have their own Wiki.

5. Help Documents Integration

WP Help allows administrators to create detailed, hierarchical documentation for the site’s authors and editors, viewable in the WordPress admin.

Powered by Custom Post Types, you get all the power of WordPress to create, edit, and arrange your documentation. Perfect for customized client sites. Never send another "here's how to use your site" e-mail again!

6. Online Shop With WordPress

There are so many free plugins that let you power a WP blog into a full-fledged e-commerce site. Listed here are some of the good ones:

WP e-Commerce

It is an elegant easy to use fully featured shopping cart application suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.

WP e-Commerce is a Web 2.0 application designed with usability, aesthetics, and presentation in mind.

Perfect for:

• Bands & Record Labels
• Clothing Companies
• Crafters & Artists
• Books, DVDs & MP3 files
• Memberships
• Ticketing

MarketPress

MarketPress brings you a solid, simple yet extensible foundation for a WordPress-Powered store.

The first WordPress eCommerce plugin designed from the ground up for seamless integration with WordPress, Multisite and BuddyPress.

Do you have your favorite power plugins or themes that you’d like to share? Then please talk about it in the comments..