WordPress 101 - WordCamp Minneapolis 2016

WORDPRESS 101
SHANTA R. NATHWANI
WORDCAMP MINNEAPOLIS 2016

AGENDA
About Me
Introduction
WordPress
Hiring someone
FAQ’s & Tips
Q & A’s
Shanta R. Nathwani - http://shanta.ca - @ShantaDotCa
2

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

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
• Co-Founder, Web Weapons
• Clients include NPOs, Real Estate, Software
Development, Financial and Political Sectors
• Bachelor of Commerce in Info Tech Mgmt.,
Ryerson University
• Serial WordCamper. Went to 7 in 2014 and
crowdsourced my tour last year for 7 more
and even did WordCamp Mumbai in March,
2016.
• Co-organizer, WordCamp Hamilton, 2015-6
4

FOR OUR CONTENT TODAY
Our Foundation Friday collaborative space:
• http://smartypress.com/
My demo site:
• http://wcmpls.samuraiwp.com/
On Twitter:
• #WCMPLSIntro
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.
And you never know what kind of
prizes might be in store…
6

WHAT IS WORDPRESS? WHY SHOULD I USE IT?
WordPress used be known as a blogging tool. Now, it is a platform for creating websites.
Currently powers 24% of the world’s websites, including The Huffington Post. This has been
increasing at a rate of approximately 2-3% per year over the last 3-4 years. It’s not going
away any time soon.
Easy to use, can have multiple contributors at different levels of access and much of the
time, doesn’t need code.
Easy to integrate with numerous other platforms, especially Social Media.
7

.COM VS .ORG
WORDPRESS.COM (FREE-ISH)
Hosted by WordPress/Automattic
Typically has a set domain made up of
your username and “.wordpress.com”.
i.e., http://tantienhime.wordpress.com
Can have your own domain or modify
themes, but costs extra
No Plugins
WORDPRESS.ORG
Also referred to as “Self-Hosted”.
Hosted by a third-party (such as Bluehost)
FREE for the software. You will pay for
hosting.
Can have whatever domain you want. i.e.,
http://shanta.ca, http://webweapons.com
Can modify themes, add plugins and
much more!
8

THEMES
The “Look and Feel”
of your website
Might include some
functionality
The “Front End” or
what people see
9
From Graph Paper Press

PLUGINS
Plugins extend the
usefulness of your website
Some examples are Backup
Buddy and Jetpack
The “Back End” or what
people don’t typically see
10

WHICH ONE SHOULD I USE? IT DEPENDS…
PERSONAL
If you just want to use it for a
personal website and more
of a blog, use the .COM
version
BUSINESS
If you are going to run your
business off of this site, use
.ORG
11

CODING TIPS & TRICKS
No matter what your discipline, learn a bit of HTML and CSS. This will help you modify
your themes and include things in your post
Use Firebug (add-on for FireFox) to target what you need to find in your webpages. You
can also use ”Inspect Element” in Chrome.
Never go live (Thank you Al Davis). Always back up your work, and I don’t recommend
making changes to the code through the WordPress Dashboard. This is the ONLY thing I
don’t recommend doing through the Dashboard.
You can probably learn more about these topics at numerous talks online and at
WordCamps
12

RECOMMENDATIONS
Don’t use your social media as your primary channel (such as Facebook)
• I recommend using at least Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (depending on the
focus of the org)
Keep it current. Use Galleries and stories. (which are going to be many of our
examples today.
Automate to Social Media and Email Lists (Mailchimp, for example)
Monitor all the channels that you are on
Pay the money when you need to!
13

COMMON
QUESTIONS
…AND MAYBE SOME COMMON ANSWERS
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1. Do I have to download
WordPress to my computer?
Long Answer:
WordPress.org is hosted on a server running a number of different services, including
MySQL Server. You could run it on your computer, but it’s complicated for many beginners
My advice:
Unless you have to do a lot of testing, such as a developer or designer, don’t bother running
it locally.
Short Answer: NO
15

2. Where can I get themes and
plugins?
Long Answer
Do NOT use either themes or plugins from an unreliable source. Do NOT Google “Free
WordPress Themes”
My Advice
Start with themes and plugins from WordPress itself. These can be downloaded directly
through your Dashboard or from WordPress.org
Short Answer: Many places
16

3. Okay, you’ve convinced me. How
do I move from .COM to .ORG?
Long Answer:
WordPress offers a premium service for about $150 that will migrate your site over to your
new hosting company. This includes redirects and SEO.
My Advice:
Let the pros handle it.
Short Answer: It can be done, but it isn’t easy.
17

EXTRA RESOURCES
Codecademy.com: Lessons on learning how to code
Lynda.com: Videos as well as starter files included (paid service, but sometimes free
through in your education institution)
W3Schools: Great lookup resource for code. We don’t memorize every piece of code, we
look it up
WordPress: 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
Lucas Cherkewski: Great advice on hiring a developer! (More on this in WordPress 102)
18

FINAL THOUGHTS
Get involved!
Do your research, as with anything, especially hosting
Have an idea of what you want going into a relationship with a designer or developer, both
look and functionality.
19

QUESTIONS?
Tweet Me:
@ShantaDotCa
Email:
shanta@shanta.ca
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca
20

WordPress 101 - WordCamp Minneapolis 2016

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