2. WHO IS
AL DAVIS?
WORDPRESS INSTRUCTOR
•George Brown College, Toronto
•Workshops in Toronto and Montreal
•Corporate Training
WORDCAMP ORGANIZER
•WordCamp Toronto- 2011, 2012
•WordCamp Developers- 2012
•Meetup Organizer
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WPTEACH.COM
•Owner
•Tutorials and news
•WordCamp Speaker
WORDPRESS DEVELOPER
Freelance Developer
Content Strategy
3. WHAT WE ARE DOING
AGENDA
1
What is WordPress?
6
Creating content
2
.com or .org?
7
Pages, posts, categories and
tags
3
Common Misconceptions
from new users
8
Images
4
Installation Methods
9
Navigation
5
After the install
10
Questions
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4. WHAT IS WORDPRESS?
THE HISTORY
• Wikipedia defines WordPress:
• WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and content management
system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plugin
architecture and a template system.
• How WordPress defines WordPress:
• WordPress is a web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We
like to say Wordpress is both free and priceless at the same time.
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5. WHAT IS WORDPRESS?
THE HISTORY
• How prevalent is WordPress?
• WordPress 3.6 has been downloaded over 15.2 million times since it’s release in
August of this year
• As of March 2012, WordPress is used by 72.4 million websites
• In 2013, WordPress was used on 18.9% of the top 10,000,000 websites in the
world.
• WordPress owns 53.8% of the Content Management System (CMS) market.
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6. WHERE TO START?
Every Semester, the first question I get asked by my
students is...
Should I use wordpress.com or wordpress.org?
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7. WHAT IS ...?
WORDPRESS.COM
Wordpress.com is a commercial website where you
can host a free WordPress site.
It runs on a feature of WordPress called ‘Multi-Site’.
Did I mention it was free?
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9. WHAT IS ...?
WORDPRESS.ORG
Wordpress.org is the website where you can download
the core WordPress software to use on your hosting
space.
You can also get themes and plugins there as well
Did I mention it was all free as well?
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11. WHY CHOOSE
WORDPRESS.COM
Pros
•
Up and running in minutes- simply sign up
•
No need for an y technical knowledge
•
No need to worry about backups- taken care of for you
•
You get new features first
•
Security and peace of mind knowing the company behind WordPress is lookig after
your site
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14. WHY CHOOSE
WORDPRESS.ORG
Cons
•
Need to have a technical background,or know someone, for certain tasks
•
You are responsible for backing up and maintaining your site
•
You break it? You fix it
•
Additional cost for hosting
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15. HOW TO CHOOSE
WordPress.com
I want to sell online and need
ecommerce capabilities
I want nothing to do with
maintaining my site
I think FTP is something I order at
Starbucks and want to keep it
that way
I have a lot of videos and images I
want to use on my site
I don’t have a development
budget and dont want to DIY
I want to start a membership site
I want to see if I like WordPress
I’m all about the freedom- at least
when it comes to plugins and
themes
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WordPress.org
16. COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
NEW USERS
A couple of quick things cleared up
•
WordPress does not need to be installed on your computer
•
Wordpress does in fact do ecommerce
•
WordPress is secure
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18. INSTALLATION METHODS
.ORG FROM HERE ON
Two main methods of installing WordPress
•
One Click installer
•
Manually (via FTP)
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19. ONE CLICK
INSTALL WP
Most Hosting providers these days offer a one click installer for a
number of applications- WordPress being the most popular.
Benefits:
•
Super fast and easy
•
Requires no technical knowledge
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20. ONE CLICK
INSTALL WP
Most Hosting providers these days offer a one click installer for a
number of applications- WordPress being the most popular.
Drawbacks:
•
No control over the install
•
Database may not be accessible if you need it to be for some reason
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21. MANUALLY
INSTALL WP
You can also install WP the ‘old school’ way
•
Upload the software via FTP
•
Create a database
•
Go through the ‘Famous 5 Minute Install’
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22. MANUALLY
INSTALL WP
You can also install WP the ‘old school’ way
Benefits:
•
Control over your installation
•
Ability to determine what and where you upload for your site
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23. MANUALLY
INSTALL WP
You can also install WP the ‘old school’ way
Drawbacks:
•
Requires greater technical knowledge
•
Might require some troubleshooting if something goes wrong
•
If successful, your friends will want you to do it for them as well
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24. WHEN IT’S ALL DONE
INSTALL WP
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25. AFTER THE INSTALL
5 QUICK TIPS
Before you write that first piece of content:
•
Change your permalinks
•
Change your tagline
•
Change your default category
•
Activate Akismet ( spam control)
•
Install an SEO plugin
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27. CREATING CONTENT
BASE TYPES OF CONTENT
WordPress offers two primary types of content
•
Pages
•
Posts
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28. CREATING CONTENT
WHATS A PAGE?
A page is typically used for static content
•
About Us, Contact, Services, Location
•
Often used as a Home page
•
Content that won’t change often (if at all)
•
Pages that you wouldn’t typically let people comment on
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29. CREATING CONTENT
WHATS A POST?
A post is timely information
•
News, Announcements, Blog posts
•
Content that changes and gets added to often
•
Content that you want people commenting on
•
Typically shown in reverse chronological order ( newest first)
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30. CREATING CONTENT
CATEGORIES AND TAGS
One of the things that distinguishes Posts from Pages is the use of
Categories and tags
•
Applied to posts only, not to pages
•
Think of categories as your table of contents for your posts
•
Think of tags as the index words at the back of the book
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32. CATEGORIES
EXAMPLES
Lets take our example online....a Real Estate site
•
Cities
•
Types of properties
•
Local Real Estate News
•
Helpful tips for Home Buyers
•
Community Events
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33. HOW MANY CATEGORIES?
WISEMAN SAYS
You must strike a good balance between offering as few options as
possible, while giving your reader enough choice to satisfy them
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34. TAG
YOU’RE IT
Tags are descriptors for your content
•
Recipe Site example- recipe for lemon meringue pie
•
Tags could be
•
•
Custard
•
Lemon
•
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Eggs
How much pie can Al eat in one sitting?
36. IMAGES
CAUSE A PICTURE IS WORTH ALOT
Adding images to WordPress content
•
Add to the Media Library- use it when you want
•
Add it to the content your creating
•
Create a gallery
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