I regularly get asked how to make a wordpress look like a normal website.
The easiest way to make a blog look like a “normal” website is to do the following:
1. Remove all sidebar widgets, such as archives, recent post/comments blocks. Anything that wouldnot exist on a normal website.
- Set your permalinks to be
%postname%.html - Make pages instead of posts.
- Make use of the following WordPress plugins to make things works so much easier:
- PageMash (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagemash/) – Customise the order your pages are listed in and manage the parent structure with this simple ajax drag-and-drop administrative interface with an option to toggle the page to be hidden from output. Great tool to quickly re-arrange your page menus.
- RSS Includes Pages (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rss-includes-pages/) -Modifies RSS feeds so that they include pages and not just posts. Deactivating the plugin restores RSS feeds to their default state. Including pages in your feed is particularly useful if you’re using WordPress as a CMS where pages represent a good portion of your content.
Now your website will look alot like a normal website, than a blog.
You are right, the correct template can make all the difference.
Try searching for a template that is a 1-column template, with a horizontal menu for the pages..
Here is a link with some 1-column wordpress templates.
http://mashable.com/2007/09/04/1-column-wordpress-themes/