WordPress Basics

Jeff Bennett

www.DigitalSplashMedia.com

An Introduction to the WordPress Publishing Platform and

WordPress.com

Introductions

• Name & Company/Business

• WordPress Experience

• What do you hope to get from this workshop?

WordPress Basics

WordPress BasicsLearning Objectives:•Signing up and activating a WordPress.com account•Basic settings•Defining the look of your site with themes•Creating posts and pages•Adding photos and videos •Menus•Adding additional functionality to your sidebars with widgets

Agenda

Conceptual Overview

Guided Tour & Demo

Hands-on

Agenda

Conceptual Overview

Guided Tour & Demo

Hands-on

Every Business NEEDS a Website

But historically, to build a website, you

needed to know how to code

... or hire someone who did

But with the advent of free Internet

publishing tools like Wordpress

Geek-speaknot required!

You don’t have to know how to code

Though it started as a blogging platform,

Wordpress is now a very rich online

publishing tool used for building entire websites

So, why is this good news for you?

You can build this...

without knowing this

Create a website using only your browser for FREE

$0

You just use a simple text editor to create

and edit pages

The Basic Process

Sign-up/

Install

Choose theme

Adjust settings

Write a page Publish

The Basic Process

Sign-up/

Install

Choose theme

Adjust settings

Write a page Publish

The Basic Process

Sign-up/

Install

Choose theme

Adjust settings

Write a page Publish

theme.wordpress.com

The Basic Process

Sign-up/

Install

Choose theme

Adjust settings

Write a page Publish

The Basic Process

Sign-up/

Install

Choose theme

Adjust settings

Write a page Publish

The Basic Process

Sign-up/

Install

Choose theme

Adjust settings

Write a page Publish

If you’re familiar with Microsoft Word or another word processor,

you should be able to get the hang of Wordpress

Before we jump in...

.com .org

vs.

Flavors

This workshop is focused on

WordPress.com

WordPress.org will be covered in a follow-up

workshop

.com

Things to prepare before you get sign up

What’s your blog/site about?What kind of content will it have?What will it be called?Who is your audience?What kind of a look or feel should the site have to match its content and your audience?

Agenda

Conceptual Overview

Guided Tour & Demo

Hands-on

Wordpress Guided

Tour

Wordpress Guided Tour

Wordpress Guided

Tour

Wordpress Guided Tour

For this part of the workshop, just watch rather than trying to

follow and create. We’ll do some hands-on later.

WordPress Basics•Signing up and activating a WordPress.com account•Basic settings•Defining the look of your site with themes•Creating posts and pages•Adding photos and videos •Menus•Adding additional functionality to your sidebars with widgets

Sign-up and Activation - A Brief Video

http://learn.wordpress.com/get-started/

The Dashboard

Customize Layout

Expand/Collapse Menu

http://wordpress.tv/2009/01/05/the-wordpresscom-dashboard-introduction/

Settings

GeneralWritingReadingDiscussion

http://learn.wordpress.com/get-started/

Themes

Search

Appearance

Browse

Preview

Activate

Options - not all themes created equal

Hint: Use Your Browser’s TabsOne tab for viewing the public view of the site

One tab for the “back end” / admin section

Other tabs for documentation, reference, etc.

Creating Posts

Title

Type or paste content

Insert imagesFormatting icons

Click for all icons

Publish options

Categories

Tags

Creating PagesSimilar layout as posts

Attributes instead of Categories and Tags

Posts vs Pages

Posts PagesTime-based content displayed in reverse chronological order - more “bloggy”

Pseudo-static pages used to create web pages for non-changing information like contact, about, products, services, etc. Not listed by date, and they don’t use categories and tags

Editing Posts & PagesSelect Edit under either Posts or Pages

Select item to edit

Categories & Tags

Categories - helpful for organizing your posts by topic

Tags like keywords

Custom Menus

Managing Comments

UnapproveApproveSpam

Static Home Page

First create a page that will be your home page

Under Settings > Reading click on A static page in the Front page displays section & select the new home page for Front page and new blog page for posts page

Create another new page that will be for blog posts

Links

Optional if you want to have a set of links in your sidebar

Media Library

Upload and manage photos, video and other media

WidgetsContent for your sidebar & footer

Drag-n-drop widgets with your mouse

Find it under Appearance menu

Useful Widgets:Recent PostsArchivesCategoriesRSS

Some themes include extra widgets

Polls & Ratings

Ratings - people can rate posts

Polls - requires account with PollDaddy.com

Wordpress.com Upgrades

Your own domain name - $9.97/year

Custom CSS (extra flexibility for changing your theme) - $14.97/year

Applies to .com, not .org

Agenda

Conceptual Overview

Guided Tour & Demo

Hands-on

Let’s Get You Signed Up & Started

Wordpress.orgMuch the same as .com as far as interface goes

Lots more themes

Lots more options via plugins

Tons of flexibility

You have to sign up with a web host

BlueHost.com - very affordable ($6.95/month), good options, easy Wordpress installation

WordPress Resourceshttp://learn.wordpress.com/

DigitalSplashMedia.comMauiWP.comWordPress.tv

codex.wordpress.orgTwitter.com/DigitalSplash

Twitter.com/MauiWordpress

Wordpress 201WordPress.org

What is WordPress.org - self-hosted WordPressFinding a web hostSimple installation of WordPress with BlueHost Review of dashboard, posts, pages and menusThemes - lots more and their customizablePlugins - need some additional functionality? There's a plugin for that!SecurityBackupsMigrating from WordPress.com to WordPress.org Transferring from one WordPress.org site to another WordPress.org site