GDI CincinnatiWordpress Workshop

Erin M. Kidwell // @erinmkidwell // erin@girldevelopit.comJulie Niesen Gosdin / / @juliegosdin or @winemedineme //

julie.niesen@gmail.com

IntroductionsGoals

What is Wordpress?What's the difference between

Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org?Using Wordpress.comExercises & TipsTransitioning from .com to .org

 

Agenda

1. What’s your name?

2. Do you have Wordpress installed?

3. What do you hope to get out of this class?

Introductions

  

What is Wordpress?WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a dynamic content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.

It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system.

WordPress is used by over 16.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1 million" websites and as of August 2011 manages 22% of all new websites.

WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet. (Wikipedia)

  

Common Terms (1)1. Posts: used for blog entries, chronological2. Pages: used for static content, hierarchical3. Categories: broad groupings of post topics 4. Tags: generally used to describe post in more detail and to get

search engines to notice you (SEO)5. Comments: reader feedback on your content, can be disabled6. Permalinks: direct link to a specific page on a siteSite: http://www.meetup.com/Girl-Develop-It-Cincinnati/Permalink: http://www.meetup.com/Girl-Develop-It-Cincinnati/

events/78717132/7. RSS: Really Simply Syndication, aggregates site updates without you going directly to the website

Ex: Google Reader

  

Common Terms (2)8. Widgets: provide content, adds feeds Ex: Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Video Player, posts by category9. Plugins: extend capabilities and functionality Ex: Spam blocker, Google Analytics, eCommerce, Polls/Ratings10. Themes: templates of graphic style for customization11. XHTML: Extensible Hypertext Markup Language newly formatted HTML12. CSS: Cascading Style Sheets13. PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

  

.com vs. .orgWordpress.org(hosted)

Wordpress.com(free, unhosted)

*upgrades

Full theme support – custom/commercial themes. You can modify, customize, or do anything with your site.

Limited theme support – free themes only from the Wordpress repository. You cannot modify the CSS or other codes within the theme.

CSS upgrades for Wordpress.com can be purchased for $30 a year

All Plugins allowed – upload any free, paid, or custom plugin.

No Plugins allowed – not allowed to upload any free, paid, or custom plugins. There are a lot of built-in plugin-like features.

Wordpress.com VIP program allows you to get full control over plugins, themes, PHP code, ads, etc. for $2500/mth for up to 5 sites.

Regular Expense – you have to pay for web hosting monthly. Domain registration fee yearly.

Free – Wordpress.com sites are FREE for up to 3GB of storage space. Your blog will display text ads.

Domain - $12-17Space upgrade – $20/GBAd-free option $30/yr

  

Wordpress.com vs Wordpress.org (2)Wordpress.org(hosted)

Wordpress.com(free, unhosted)

*upgrades

Monetization Freedom – sell ads, use any ad service, keep 100% of what you earn from site.

Limited Monetization – NOT allowed to sell ads on site unless 25k pageviews/mth.

By adding Ad Control, you have to split the revenue 50/50

Maintenance – you are responsible for keeping your site updated, regular backups, SPAM control, site optimization

No Maintenance – all site maintenance provided

Not part of the Network – site is independent and not part of the Wordpress.com network, posts do not get extra traffic from Wordpress.com network.

Wordpress.com as a network may feature your post in their blogs of the day section or tags, which would result in extra traffic to your blog that you normally wouldn’t get.

 Create and edit a page + post

 

Exercise 1

Add links & imagesExercise 2

Categories and TagsExercise 3

Manage Users Roles and Comments

Exercise 5

SidebarExercise 6

Transition from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org

What if I want more?

Transition from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org

1.Make sure the server meets the minimum requirements to run WordPress

2.Delete all the spam comments on the WordPress.com blog

3.Export your posts and all data from WordPress.com

4.Wordpress.org download

5.Dreamhost (or similar hosting service)

•XAMPP MySQL database on the new server

1.Install and configure WordPress on your own web server

2.Import the WordPress data

3.Install theme(s)

4.Install and configure additional plugins

5.Repoint the domain name (if you had your own to begin with), so that when people visit they get the new self-hosted blog location instead of the old WordPress.com location

6.Child plugins: Hello Dolly, Akismet, etc.

Switch from .com to .org

Where to Host?

• Dreamhost• Bluehost• Web Hosting Hub• Mediatemple• Pair Networks

Good Plugins to Try

Commenting: Disqus, FacebookSharing: ShareThis, Facebook, Pin Button Attraction, Feedburner FeedSmithSearch: Lijit SearchTools: Wordpress Editorial Calendar, Google Reader Widget, WPTouch, Akismet

Tips and Tricks• Use short but descriptive titles • Use categories to organize your topics• Include pictures for interest (Creative Commons)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

• Use tags to alert search engines to the topics of your posts• Link back to other posts (internal links) or other website content (external links)

Themes

• Wordpress.com has great themes• Wordpress.org theme sources:

• Woothemes.com• Studiopress.com• Thesis.com

• Design your own!

Questions?