WordPress Talk given 12/13/13 at WCCC Internet Marketing Group WordPress: Your Passport to Business

1. WORDPRESS
A PASSPORT FOR BUSINESS
DEBRA SCHMIDT
Detroit Networking WCCC
December 12, 2013

2. December 12, 2013
Your passport
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
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3. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
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Your Tour Guide
• Debra Schmidt is an online designer, WordPress blogger
and micro-business consultant for people taking their
businesses online with WordPress or Zazzle.
• Find her online at Beachwalker’s Time on the Beach on
Zazzle (www.zazzle.com/beachwalker*/) and
www.RightBrainLeftTurn.com
• Connect with her on social media:
www.Facebook.com/rightbrainleftturn and
www.Twitter.com/rightbrainLT
•

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WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
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What to look for on this trip
• What is WordPress?
• Is WordPress right for your business?
• DIY vs assistance setting up & maintaining your site

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WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Where are you going?
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What is WordPress?
• Fun & Painful
• Easy & Hard
• Foreign language & Familiar words

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WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Why use WordPress?
• Personal
• Business
• Experiment with online presence
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8. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
How much does it cost?
• Free
• WordPress.com (without upgrades)
• WordPress.org SOFTWARE
• Oodles
• Learning
• Professional Assistance
• Domain name & Hosting
• Components: themes, plug-ins
• Content
• Marketing
• Maintenance
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WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
How long does it take?
• Fifteen minutes
• BLANK website on existing hosting account
• Forever
• Research
• Planning
• Initial Content Creation
• Design Development
• Maintenance
• Continued Content Creation
• Promotion
• Continuing Education / Development
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10. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Tale of two cities . . . Choose one
• WordPress.com
• Easy to start
• Free
• Maintenance-free
• Restrictions
• Up-grades available at a price (CSS, domain, no ads, etc)
• WordPress.org
• Own domain
• Own hosting
• Own maintenance
• FLEXIBLE (plugins and more)
• No restrictions (TOS of hosting company)
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11. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
How DIY is WordPress?
• Compared to travel modes
• Hitchhiking – you’ll get there, but maybe not efficiently
• Tour Buses – you’ll get there, but not so original
• Driving – you’ll get there, once you figure it all out yourself
• Escorts – you’ll get there, but pay premium
• Armchair – you’ll not go anywhere
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WordPress.org set-up
• Plan your site
• Purchase a Domain Name from Domain Registrar
• Set up a paid Hosting Account
• Install WordPress software
• Easy way: Fantastico on cPanel or equivalent 5 minute install
• DIY: download software then upload to hosting account, etc

13. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Learning the language of the web
• Basic Components of a marketable site
• Domain Name
• Hosting
• URL
• SEO
• GA
• As well as languages
• HTML
• CSS
• PHP
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Learning the language of WordPress
• Layout is in three parts
• Header
• Body
• Footer / Sidebar
HEADER
BODY
SIDEBAR
[FOOTER is a type of SIDEBAR

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Language of WordPress
• Posts – reverse chronological order (commonly the Blog)
• Pages – generally evergreen, accessed via menu
• Menus – aka Nav Bar, links to pages and categories
• Links – hyperlinks to external sites, other pages / content
• Widgets – code / image snippets in sidebar
• Plugins – pre-written code for short-cuts, ease of use

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Your WordPress Install
• Name – Site name
• Tagline – What’s your site about?
• Username – DO NOT use Admin (security risk)
• Password – You know the drill
• Note: this is over-simplified! You will have numerous
passwords for domain registrar, hosting account,
database and admin of site.

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Dashboard
• WordPress 3.7 3.8 released today!
• Automatic mini-updates
• Set-up options on dashboard
• Time zone
• Comments on or off
• Permalinks – creates URL of each page or post. Cannot change
later.
• etc

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Purpose
• Drives everything
• Budget and cost
• Choice of hosting
• Choice of theme
• DIY or Pro
• eCommerce
• Advertising
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
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19. December 12, 2013
Looking Good
• Theme
• Layout
• Colors
• Graphics
• Logo
• Header
• Avatar
• Favicon
• Banners
• Ads
• Fonts
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20. December 12, 2013
In your suitcase
• Plugins
• Jetpack
• Maintenance
• Cache / Optimize
• Contact Forms
• Slideshows
• SEO
• Security
• Design
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On the shelf
• Widgets already available with any theme
• Comments
• Tag clouds
• Text boxes
Note: Themes [especially premium ones] may offer a plethora of
available widgets

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WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Rules of the road
• Legal
• Disclosures required, especially for affiliating and selling
• Intellectual Property
• Respect others, protect your own
• T.O.S.
• Hosting company will have these
• You may add your own
• Legal page
• Optional, depends on type of site you run
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23. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Typical content
• Header
• Title or logo, tagline
• Main
• Home Page (may or may not be blog)
• Blog (optional)
• About
• Contact
• Archives (optional)
• Sidebar
• Ads, search, links
• Footer
• Credits, copyright
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24. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Web Content is different
• Write for web audience
• Short
• Conversational
• Headings and subheadings
• Images are good
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25. December 12, 2013
Marketing
• Separate discussion. . .
• SEO
• Social media sharing
• Site maps
• Plugins can help
• Outside links
• Analytics packages
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26. December 12, 2013
WordPress: A Business Passport by Debra Schmidt
Let’s go!
• Look at a live WordPress site
• Dashboard
• Switch themes
• Add plugins
• Look at widgets
• Updates
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