Shanta Nathwani gives a presentation on WordPress 102. She discusses hosting options like shared hosting and managed hosting. She recommends Backup Buddy for backups. When selecting themes and plugins, she advises starting with the WordPress repository and choosing carefully based on purpose and functionality needed. She also discusses hiring a professional for WordPress work and provides additional resources for learning WordPress.

1. WordPress 102
Shanta R. Nathwani

2. Agenda
• About Me & Introduction
• Review of 101
• Hosting
• Backup
• Theme selection
• Plugin selection
• More on hiring someone

3. Find Me!
Tweet Me:
@ShantaDotCa
Email:
shanta@shanta.ca
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca

4. About Me
• Instructor, Sheridan College
• Joint program with University of Toronto at
Mississauga: Institute of Culture,
Communication, Information and
Technology
• Web Design and Capstone Project
• Independent IT and Social Media
Consultant
• Clients include NPOs, Real Estate, Software
Development, Financial and Political
Sectors
• Bachelor of Commerce in Info Tech Mgmt.,
Ryerson University

5. Disclaimer
• Please excuse all the text. I’m used to using this
for my students, but they make great notes!
• I’m going to upload these after the session to
my website. So you don’t have to write this all
down.
• Please ask questions! I’ll try and add them to
the slides after the fact.

6. 1. Review of 101
• We gave the differences between .com and .org and why you would choose
one or the other.
• A quick idea of what plugins and themes are.
• When to know when you’re in over your head.

7. 2. Hosting
• Shared hosting
• GoDaddy
• BlueHost*
• Managed hosting
• WPEngine
• Siteground*
* - I’m an affiliate

8. 3. Backup
• Most hosting companies will offer a backup system of some kind
• Jetpack has one now
• WordPress.com doesn't need one
• I recommend Backup Buddy by iThemes because of its options, it's easy to
use and to migrate, especially those in the room hoping to do their own
development business

9. 4. Contact Information
• Contact forms rather than publishing your email address
• Mailchimp signup form. Integrates with WordPress and can be done as a
widget

10. 5. Themes
• The “Look and Feel” of your
website
• Might include some functionality
• The “Front End” or what people
see
From Graph Paper Press

11. 5. Theme Selection
• Start with the repository
• Can be accessed through your Dashboard > Appearances > Themes
• Directly at wordpress.org/themes
• If not, go outside and use the authors in the repository as a start
• Do not Google “free WordPress themes”!
• These could contain malicious code

12. 5. Theme selection (con’t)
• Where do I start?
• Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of the website?”. Many of the themes are
categorized by purpose (i.e., photography/portfolio, business, blog, etc.)
• Ask yourself, “What do I want it to look like? Do I want a big header? Do I want
columns? Main content with sidebar?”. A good way to familiarize yourself with these is
to look in the repository.
• Make sure that the them you choose is mobile-enabled/responsive!

13. 6. Plugins
• Plugins extend the usefulness of
your website
• Some examples are Backup Buddy
and Jetpack
• The “Back End” or what people
don’t see

14. 6. Plugin Selection
• Just like the themes, best to check the repository
(http://wordpress.org/plugins)
• Don’t overload your site. Choose your plugins carefully.
• First, by function. What do you need it to do?
• Is there a plugin that does multiple functions, such as memberships AND payments?
This is such a wide area, you need to research it. It will depend on what functionality
you need.

15. 7. More About Hiring a Professional
• Educate yourself
• Not only about the terminology, but also have an idea of what you want. This saves
everyone a good amount of time and effort.
• Expect to give a deposit of some sort, whether you’re working with a student or a
professional. Don’t expect any of this for free.
• This is not a cookie cutter process, nor is it an overnight one.

16. WordCamp Hamilton
• June 6, 2015 9 am
• McMaster Innovation Park
• http://hamilton.wordcamp.org/2015/
• In case you missed my WordPress 101, I’ll be repeating it there in the Beginner
Track first thing!
TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE!!!

17. Extra Resources
• WordPress.com: This is where you can learn almost everything I’ve just
talked about! There is also one for .ORG, but this will get you about 90% of
the way there. Skip the “Getting Started” part if you are using the .ORG
• WordPress.tv: Most of the talks given at WordCamps are recorded and
archived here. You can find my WordPress 101 from Chicago and my
Content Architecture from Buffalo there!
• Lucas Cherkewski: Great advice on hiring a developer!

18. WordCamp Tour 2015
If you like what you’ve seen today,
and would like to donate to my
WordCamp Tour, please visit my Tilt
Campaign. Every little bit helps!
The more I tour, the more info I can
bring back and share with you.
https://www.tilt.com/campaigns/wor
dcamp-tour-2015

19. Questions?
Tweet Me:
@ShantaDotCa
Email:
shanta@shanta.ca
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca