Schipul Webinar - Intro To Wordpress

Intro to Wordpress Caitlin Kaluza, Project Manager & Social Media Consultant Schipul – The Web Marketing Company

Wordpress - not for the faint of heart
Just kidding.

What we’ll go over
What is Wordpress?
How do I use Wordpress?
Content Management – posts, pages, and plugins
Administering your site – users and comments
Advanced stuff – themes
What now?
Maintaining your site

Why Wordpress?
What’s all the hype about?

Why Wordpress?
Usability
“ Wordpress thinks like a writer”
Standards
“ Wordpress thinks like a designer”
Open source
Community
Support, Passionate People

Who uses Wordpress?
>> Wordpress is one of the most widely used blogging platforms
>> As of August 2010, WP 3.0 has been downloaded 12.5 million times
Big Guys Really Big Guys Academics Schipulites!

How do I use Wordpress?

First things first: Logging in
Go to yourdomain.com /wp-admin
If you don’t host your own blog, you can register for a free blog at wordpress.com – your domain will be username.wordpress.com
Login using your credentials
This will take you to the dashboard

Dashboard

Posts
The bread and butter

Steps to Create a Blog Post
Click “Posts” on the left side
Click “Add new”
Enter title, body, category, tags
Hit publish

Adding a Blog Post – Steps 1 and 2

Inserting an Image
Choose file
Title
Alt text – for search engines
Use words (defaults to image title)
Caption
Optional
Styling depends on theme
Description
Optional
Shows in media library
Link URL
If applicable
You can add this later
Size
You have control over in settings
Keep in mind the width of your theme

Editing Image Settings
To edit an image, after you have inserted it into your post click on the image and choose the left button (the mountains)
Choose “Advanced Settings” to edit size, border, spacing, etc.

Inserting a Video
Go to YouTube or Vimeo
Copy embed code
Paste into HTML view
For more on this, visit http://schipul.com/en/helpfiles/v/225

Adding a Blog Post – Steps 3 and 4

Saving as a Draft
If you are not ready to publish, you can hit “Save Draft”

Publishing a Post
Hitting “Publish” publishes immediately
To schedule in advance or post date, hit “Edit” next to “Publish Immediately”

Categories and Tags
Categories are the main way to organize information on a blog
Keep your blog to 5-7 categories
Keep your categories discrete
Tags are a looser way to organize information
Tags are not required
The way these tags display (or whether or not they display at all) is determined by the theme

Categories and Tags
Click “Categories” or “Post Tags” to manage categories or tags
Fill out the form at left to add
Edit details by selecting one at right
To see a list of the posts in each category or tag, click the number next to the title
Tags page also has a tag cloud of top tags

Pages
Content that lives outside the chronology
Same process as adding a post

Adding a Page

Plugins
Making Wordpress do more

Plugins
Plugins allow you to extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine
To find plugins, go to the Plugins Directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins and search for what you are looking for

How you know you have a good plugin
Use Wordpress approved plugins – if you find a plugin by Googling, search for it in the official Plugins Directory as well
When was it last updated – anything updated more than 6 months ago may be dead
“ Compatible up to” to make sure it is up to date
Ratings and Reviews
Trial and error

Plugins I like
Google Analytics - inserts Google Analytics code into site http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics
All in One SEO pack http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
Sociable – great customizable sharing plugin http://yoast.com/wordpress/sociable/
Twitter Tools – for integrating Twitter http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/
Intense Debate - for comments http://intensedebate.com/wordpress

To Install a Plugin
On the dashboard, go to “Plugins” and click “Add New”
Click “Upload”
Search for your plugin
Activate and look for any settings

Users
Giving others access

Users
You can add additional users to your blog and give them various permissions depending on their role
Built in Wordpress roles:
Administrator - has full control of the site
Editor – can publish posts and edit others’ content
Author – can publish posts but can’t touch others’ content
Contributor – can create posts but can’t publish

Contributor View
Fewer options on the left sidebar
Can Save Draft or Submit for Review – not publish

Comments
Item #5

Comments
By default
Filter out spam (will not publish)
Hold suspect comments for moderation
Optional additional comment moderation settings include
Each comment must be manually approved
User must have a previously approved comment to automatically post
Additional plugins like Intense Debate are useful for adding more features to comments

Comments

Appearance
General Theme Editing

Theme Management
In Wordpress the content is separate from the style of the site
A theme is a skin – and controls the look, presentation of the content, and often the features
A theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software
Themes are highly customizable

Different Themes

Where do I find themes?
There are lots of resources for Wordpress themes
Many are free, some are paid (they are typically inexpensive)
Some resources:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes
http://themeforest.net/
http://www.woothemes.com

Customizing a Theme with Widgets
Widgets let you drag and drop content without touching code
To edit, go to Appearance > Widgets
Drag and drop widgets to be in the order you like
Each widget will have its own settings
The most flexible widget is “Text” – you can enter anything, including HTML

Maintaining your Blog
What now?

Important things to do after launch
Post!
This seems basic, but is essential
Having a sad empty blog is worse than having no blog at all
Determine what pace is right for you, once a week is good
Monitor comments
Respond to comments on your blog
Comment on others’ blogs
Watch the stats
Tweak
Check static content (About page, etc.) to be sure it is up to date
Look for new plugins and features
Update, update, update
Wordpress frequently has updates to the system and plugins
Update as soon as possible to avoid spammers exploiting known bugs
For extra credit: follow the Wordpress development blog - http://wordpress.org/development

Questions?
Caitlin Kaluza
[email_address]
Twitter @qcait

Schipul Webinar - Intro To Wordpress

by Caitlin Kaluza

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 1

Statistics

Schipul Webinar - Intro To Wordpress Presentation Transcript