1. Making websites
with WordPress
A workshop by Dan Phiffer for Trade School

2. 1. How to begin
2. A tour of wp-admin
3. Finding your WordPress theme
4. Keeping things running smoothly
5. Where to find help

3. First, what is
WordPress?

4. Software for
publishing websites

5. Free Software
(also open source)

6. Huge community of
developers & users

7. Assumptions
1. You are not a “technical person”
2. You are willing to learn new things
3. You have something you want to put
online
4. You don’t mind a trade-off of
convenience for more control

8. Welcome
to the internet

9. What do you need?
1. Hosting service
2. A domain name optional
3. A WordPress theme

10. Web hosting
• For a small website, shared hosting is
what you want
• I recommend Dreamhost disclosure: I get a
kickback if you sign up via this link
• There are many options popular choices
1and1.com, mediatemple.com are
bluehost.com,

11. wordpress.com
• The official WordPress hosting service
• It’s free to start + paid upgrades
• Some limitations can’t install plugins, only
officially-supported themes
• No domain required e.g., you.wordpress.com

12. Domain name
• You might get one free with hosting
• Most web hosts also register domains
• Try instantdomainsearch.com to
brainstorm possibilities

13. Ok, let’s start
• We’ve already purchased hosting
• I’ll show the next steps in the
Dreamhost web panel
• Other hosting providers have a
similar process

22. You enter your payment info...

23. ! Domain name

28. ! Site configured

35. ! WordPress

42. ! Ready to use!

43. wp-admin

44. Demo

45. WordPress Themes

46. wpfolio

47. Oulipo

48. Grid Focus

49. Sandbox

50. There are many
choices
• WordPress official theme directory
• ThemeShaper theme-making tutorial +
Thematic framework
• Make your own or hire somebody
• Commercial themes

51. Upkeep

52. Back up your shit
• Make a zip file of your entire site
• Learn how to make MySQL dump files
• Download to a different computer
• Automate this so you don’t have to
remember

53. No seriously,
back up your shit

54. Upgrade
aggressively
• Always run the most recent version of
WordPress or you will be hacked
• Use your host’s one-click installer or
the built-in automatic upgrade
• Also keep your plugins and themes
current beware compatibility issues

55. Required plugins
• WP-Super-Cache will save you when
you get a big spike in traffic
• Akismet makes it possible to turn on
comments without getting spammed

56. Customization
• Try poking around inside wp-content/
themes/theme-name
• Keep track of changes you make to
your theme
• If/when your them gets updated you
may need to reapply your changes

57. Run your site locally
• Test out changes on your own
computer
• wpbeginner’s video tutorials
• Beau Lebens’s Advanced WordPress
Development Environments

58. Yes, things will break

59. Remember those
backups?

60. Practice restoring
from a backup

62. How to fix this
• Put up a new replacement site
• Excavate your hacked site
• Reclaim your URL with Google’s
webmaster tools
• Get help from Badware Busters

63. The first thing to try
• If you have odd problems, it may be a
compatibility issue
• Try testing with the ‘default’ theme
• Disable all of your plugins
• Re-enable them one at a time

64. Where to find help
• Google for your error message,
problem description, etc.
• WordPress forums
• IRC chat go to channel #wordpress

65. How to find coders
• Ask your friends if they know anyone
• Know what you want to do in general
terms
• Be flexible about the technical
approach

66. Thanks!
http://phiffer.org/