…for beginners Class #1

Logistics Wed July 10-24, 7-9pm, at MEB 237MEB WiFi user: event0477, pass: q2P3=y9Z6=a9W3 class website: Rec. read: WordPress for Dummies (link on website) Quick survey: – Who works in IT? Other fields? – Programming experience? – Built a website before? Using what? – Ever used WordPress or another CMS? – Brought a laptop today? Tablet? (next time if can) – Purpose of the website(s) you want to build?

Disclaimers, etc I… – am a programmer & a consultant; WP is one of the many tools in my toolbox – am not all-knowing or perfect; Ill tell you what I know, and tell you when I dont know – am available for consultation (cost varies), but my goal is to make you able to run your own site You – should ask me lots of questions! – will get occasionally frustrated/lost; thats normal, but tell me if you do – will get the most out of this course if you build a site while were learning (even if you scrap it later)

Course Roadmap Internet Basics Dashboard, Administration Posts vs Pages Editing: rich- vs HTML; Drafts/Visibility/Pubdate Navigation, Parents, Order – Custom Menus, sub-menus Media library (& links to) Links (& Blogroll) Comments Settings: title/tagline, etc – Permalinks – Homepage / posts page Header & Background img User management Import/Export Widgets Themes: find, customize Plugins – SEO, videos, music/audio – E-Commerce, PayPal – shortcodes, inserting PHP Other ways of posting – – bookmarklet (press this) – iOS/Tablet apps

WordPress is a Content Management System… but what can you do with it? – Class listings, calendar, shopping cart & payments – Online courses, profession-based social networking – E-zine, event listings, advertising – Corporate website w/ design showcase – Photo & video gallery more at wordpress.org/showcase

Why WordPress? NOT JUST BLOGS! Easy to add/edit content Edit from anywhere via web browser Lots of plugins ( extensions ) & themes ( templates ) Easy to change look while retaining content Very flexible and constantly improving Why not WordPress? Complexity (but not as bad as you might think) Need slightly better server (but still cheap/free) Takes a little getting-used-to

Case Study Conversion from plain-old-HTML to WordPress Addition of SEO and other tools Immediate and dramatic improvements: – twice as many visitors over last 6 months – 8x increase in length-of-stay during first week, settled down to 38% permanent improvement – 40% decrease in bounce rate (visitors who leave) in first week, settled down to 7.5% decrease – the real benefit: 35% increase in gross income

Case Study

Internet Basics What is the Internet? What is a Webserver? IPs & Domain Names jonpeck.com= cutoncefilms.com= google.com= yahoo.com= jonpeck.com= cutoncefilms.com= google.com= yahoo.com=

Hosting – dedicated vs shared (VPS, cloud) jonpeck.com cutoncefilms.com ….. jonpeck.com index.html one.html two.html art.gif

Static content (text & files) somewebsite.com index.html one.html two.html art.gif database (MySql) code (PHP) transient pages -request Dynamic content (code & databases) VS

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com WordPress.org: provides software that you put on your own server (aka host) ; more complexity but also more extensibility (plugins, etc) WordPress.com uses a modified (crippled) version of that same software, but running on their own servers: you use their server Both are free, but… – WordPress.org: you need server (usu. $9-10/month) – WordPress.com: $30-100/yr to remove ads, allow custom domain, enable theme editing, etc For anything more than basic blogging, Id recommend WordPress.org

Set Up a Test Site! – these will be SLOW and are TEMPORARY – some features (add themes, plugins, etc) not available – UsernamePasswordPublic Website aaaa aaaa! bbbb bbbb! ……… nnnn nnnn! Eventually (or maybe now!) youll want your own hosting…

Get your own Web Hosting! info at > Get Hostedhttp://seeMeRoar.com OK: Dreamhost (infinite disk space, but slow/limited) - 2-weeks* FREE (*always if 501c3)501c3 - usually $120/year but Ive provided some discounts: - sign up at & enter code: wp2013 = $40 off (makes it $80 for 1 year of hosting) wp2013domain = $30 off + extra free domain for life wp2013ip = $20 off + extra free domain + free unique IP GREAT: MediaTemple (very fast, many different plans) - 10% off: - I shaved 50% off my load times my moving to MT

The Dashboard The administration panel (dashboard) is usually at wp-admin The admin bar tells you what site you are editing, and who you are (rollover your name to logout) A different version of this bar appears when you are visiting your own site (if you are logged in). Screen Options changes which items are shown on the current screen of the Dashboard. Help is context-specific, providing info about the current Dashboard screen. The left-Navigation provides access to specific features of WordPress. Each one has its own sub-menu… well get into the specifics in just a bit. The Content Pane has info about your sites status… how many pages you have, etc. This Pane changes depending on what part of the left-Navigation you have just clicked on.

Course Roadmap Internet Basics Dashboard, Administration Posts vs Pages Editing: rich- vs HTML; Drafts/Visibility/Pubdate Navigation, Parents, Order – Custom Menus, sub-menus Media library (& links to) Links (& Blogroll) Comments Settings: title/tagline, etc – Permalinks – Homepage / posts page Header & Background img User management Import/Export Widgets Themes: find, customize Plugins – SEO, videos, music/audio – E-Commerce, PayPal – shortcodes, inserting PHP Other ways of posting – – bookmarklet (press this) – iOS/Tablet apps