Creating your own website can be tricky. WordPress makes creating and managing your own website much, much easier. I've created this presentation to walk business owners through the steps.
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WordPress for Business Owners
1. WordPress
Not Just For Blogs Anymore:
Build Better Business Websites - Slides
By Nick Armstrong -- IAmNickArmstrong.com -- @ImNickArmstrong
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
2. Hi - I’m Nick!
2 web design awards in state-wide events
4 years of WordPress experience
13 years web design experience (I’m 25)
Ask Questions
Email: Nick@IAmNickArmstrong.com
Twitter: @ImNickArmstrong
Website: IAmNickArmstrong.com
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
3. What We’ll Cover
1. WordPress 101: Blogs, Business, + Beyond
a. About WordPress
b. Installation
c. The Dashboard and Controls
ickg
d. Blog or Website (or both!)
m N arnin
2. Look and Feel
Frrovital toailleing a f.ew
a. Themes
ote e
b. Widgets
c. Menus
d. PHP, CSS, and XHTML A N nd error OK with of do it live
a
e. Tools to Design la e tt
Tria Press. B try no re y
ou
3. Managing Content d t efo
Wor mes, bu er b !
a. The Two Types of Content ti erv
b. Publishing Method te st s tomers
u se a ur cus
c. Images and other media ays ow yo
4. Managing Users Alw sh
a. Handling User Accounts
b. Managing Updates
c. Comments and Links
5. Connecting to the World
a. Plugins
b. 3rd Party Tools
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
6. How it all works...
Your domain is like your Street Address. It describes
a place to go.
Your hosting is like your House. It’s a place for
things to be put.
WordPress is the shelves/walls/tables/etc, a place to
put stuff on.
The theme is the paint on the walls, decor, etc.
Your content is the stuff on the shelves/walls, etc.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
7. .ORG vs .COM
.Org
Self-hosted (you buy hosting)
Self-promoted (no built-in community)
Highly customizable (custom themes, custom plugins)
.Com
WordPress.com-hosted (you can pay for add-ons)
Community-driven (built-in community)
Not so customizable (no custom themes -- only custom css, no
custom plugins)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
8. WordPress: SEO Secret Sauce
Pretty URLs
Pretty Code (XHTML Valid)
Content Structure
Plugins
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
9. WordPress: Simple CPanel Install
*Assuming your domain is already pointed, to get to CPanel just visit
http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel in your browser. Your webhost may not use cpanel.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
10. WordPress: Simple CPanel Install
Install in a sub-domain
Install in a folder or in the root
Admin Username - Don’t Use Admin.
Really.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
11. WordPress Basics
The Dashboard
Hub of all action
Reached by
going to
yourdomain.com
/wp-admin/
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
12. The Wordpress Menu
Add new blog post
Add new static page
Google Analytics
Plugin update available
Drafts
Recent Comments
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
13. Basic Settings Use this option to change whether
the blog is the home page or if a
static page is the home page.
Blog Title, Tagline,
WordPress address, and
Blog address all affect
SEO. Settings -> General How many blog posts appear
Settings on the blog page before the
archive starts.
Static pages and archive
width.
Settings -> Reading
Settings
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
14. Wait, No Blog?
Remove the blog entirely or just move the blog to
somewhere besides the front page.
Here are the steps:
1 - Create two pages. One called “Home” and one called “Blog” (or
whatever you want them to be named).
2 - Go into Settings -> Reading and set “Home” as the Front Page. Set
“Blog” as the Posts Page.
3 - ALWAYS leave the *Page* called “Blog” blank. It’s just a container
now - not where you write posts. (You still write posts under the “New
Post” menu option).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
15. Blog Terminology
Blog vs blog post - Be very careful. Your “Blog” is your website. A
“blog” or “blog post” is an individual article on that website.
Tag - Key words or phrases associated with this particular post. Pick
3-5.
Category - Think of these as folders to organize the types of posts you
often write about. For example, if you’re a vet, and you wrote about
dogs, you’d put the post into the Dogs category (as opposed to the Cats or
Birds category). A post can belong to more than one category.
Trackback/Pingback - A link to your Blog from another site, which
creates a reciprocal link in the comments section. You can delete these
like comments (if, for example, the trackback was spam).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
17. Let’s Check Out Some
Themes and Customize
Them
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
18. You probably don’t want to
hear this, but...
The -best- way to make sure your site
looks and feels like your brand is to
have a custom theme designed for you.
For moderately complex designs, expect
to spend between $2,500 to $10,000
(depending on your local economy)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
19. Silly question, but...
How do I get rid of all that junk in the
sidebar?
Click here or here
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
20. Widgets
Widgets directly relate to...
This is where all that
“extra junk” in your
theme comes from. ...what your visitors see.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
21. ...Widget Be Gone
1
Click here
2
3 After
Before
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
22. ...Widget Come Back
To add a widget to
the sidebar, just
click and drag it to
the sidebar until a
dashed box appears,
then drop it there.
You can rearrange
widgets the same
way.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
24. Posts vs Pages
Posts are dynamic content that are frequently updated
by you.
Pages are for static content that doesn’t change very
often.
Think “Today’s News” (post) vs “About Us” (page)
A blog page (created automatically for you, unless you
customize) is a special kind of page that shows posts.
Newer posts stack on top and push older posts down (into
the archive).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
25. Add a New Post
On the WordPress Menu, click on
“Add New” under the Posts menu.
Note that this is a collapsable/
expandable menu.
Collapse the menu
Edit brings up a list of existing posts
and drafts.
Post Tags shows you all the “tags”
you’ve used.
Categories shows you all the
“categories” you’ve used and allows
you to edit them.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
26. Minimal Outlines
WordPress recently minimized what they show on each page.
Here’s how to fix it.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
27. What you see is what you
get view vs HTML view
Title
Add a picture
Publish or Update (save)
Post body - write your content here.
300-500 words is the usual guideline,
but write for your audience. Select or create
appropriate categories
Excerpts are helpful descriptors of the blog post - I use the
single paragraph that best exemplifies the post.
Don’t worry about this.
Don’t worry about this.
Enable/Disable comments and trackbacks Add 3-5
keywords or
phrases
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
28. More Post Options
Save without making public Preview without publishing
You can create
Category hierarchies.
For example, if you
Draft/Review/Published
talk about Dogs, you
can create a Dogs
parent category, and
Large Breed and
Small Breed child Public - visible to anyone
categories under Dogs. Password - public, with password
Private - must be logged in
Publish now vs future
Add as Parent or child of ... Publish or Update (save)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
29. Adding/Editing Images
Rotate/center
Scale = resize
Title and Alt text can be the same
Crop = cut
Add a link here
Aligns with text
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
30. New Link Options
You can easily link to
internal content now (via a
search box or recent posts list)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
31. Pages
Exactly the same as posts, but:
No Tags
No Categories
No Excerpt
Pages can be children of other pages
Pages can have templates (advanced)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
32. Same as posts
Title
Publish or Update (save)
Page body text
Select a parent for this page
Enable/disable comments and trackbacks
Don’t worry about these
Order for menu
purposes
Don’t worry about these
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
33. Page and Post Management
Edit page New page
content
Preview page
Delete page
Edit tags, category, title - not content
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
34. Blogging Best Practices
SEO isn’t magic.
SEO (search engine optimization) happens when you put your ducks in
a row.
Focused posts, with well-chosen, appropriate keywords, a well-chosen,
keyworded title, and a well-chosen category go a long way to improving
your rankings.
Plan - then write!
Your blog should have a definite niche.
Our Vet example continued - know what topics you’re likely to be
blogging about and create categories and structure beforehand.
It’s okay if this structure changes over time (it will!)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
38. Customizing Menus
Add a link to
a page outside
your site
3
Link text Mouseover text
1
Remove this link
2
Add a link to
a category listing
from your blog
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
39. Customizing Menus
Finally, select your
new menu from the
drop-down box and
click “save”
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
41. Users, Subscribers, Etc.
Username is the default “display
name” - you can change this to the
First Name, Last Name, Nickname
or combination.
Certain themes link your website/bio
info.
Roles:
- Subscriber - can access “Private”
areas.
- Contributor - can write posts but not
publish them.
- Author - can write posts AND
publish them.
- Editor - can edit others posts.
- Administrator - can edit site.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
42. Best Practices for Users
Do not give a user more permission than they
need.
The fewer admin accounts, the better.
STRONG PASSWORDS.
- 1 letter
- 1 number
- no whole words
- 1 symbol
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
43. Comment Moderation?
“Lefties” say: Let everyone comment.
“Righties” say: Hell no. Sign up first.
Users say: Why the hell are you making
me jump through hoops?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
44. The “Best” Answer:
Disqus (no site-specific login)
Akismet (strong spam filtering)
Common Sense
Apologize (Actually, say “Sorry”)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
46. Pretty URLs
This prevents your listing in search engines before you’re ready.
These settings control your
“pretty” URLs - and improve
SEO on everything but
Numeric and Default.
If you have a lot of pages and posts, starting with a number (like year) is vital.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
47. Plugins
Add
Update
Click here
Search here
Click here
Then... (next Then here
slide)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
48. You’ve Got Plugins
Rating Click to install
Mouse-over to see
number of ratings.
Last Update
Compatibility
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
49. How To Pick a Great Plugin
Highest Stars/Most Ratings
Best Features
Up To Date (Works with your version of
WordPress - or at least the “family”. For
example, 2.8.x is a family, 2.7.x is a
family...)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
50. Plug-Ins (Part One)
Feedburner - Feedburner.com
Track your RSS stats
Free account and Plugin required
Google Analytics
Track your Site stats
Free account required, Plugin is useful
Google XML Sitemaps
Creates an XML Sitemap of your website
Notifies Google, Ask, Bing, and Yahoo when you update
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
51. Plug-Ins (Part Two)
Disqus (Official)
Users log-in and comment to your site w/ a social media profile
Easy comment moderation
All-In-One SEO or Platinum SEO
Keywords and Metatags for individual pages, posts, etc.
Highly customizable
Sociable // TweetThis // whatever
Adds social media icons to your site for easy sharing
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
52. Plug-Ins (Part Three)
Widget Logic
Allows you to customize exactly which pages a widget appears on
ExecPHP
Allows you to put PHP code into your pages and posts
PHPCode Widget
Allows you to execute PHP code in your widget areas
Login Lockdown
Prevents most break-in attempts to your site
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
53. Common Add-Ons
YouTube/Flickr slideshows
Now able to just throw the URL in a post and WordPress does the
heavy lifting for you.
Feedburner - Feedburner.com
Track your RSS stats
Free account and Plugin required
Google Analytics
Track your Site stats
Free account required, Plugin is useful
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
54. URL Shorteners
I use http://bit.ly because I like real-time
stats; there are other URL shorteners that
include good stats as well.
HootSuite’s ow.ly links and Google’s
goo.gl links are just two more.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
55. JavaScript Effects
jQuery (javascript) is easy to add.
http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Accordion
Depends on theme, but code goes in
functions.php
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
56. Let’s Do Some Quick
Modifications
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
57. Best Practices
Do not search for the “cheapest” solution.
Buy hosting, domain, and services
FROM ONE PLACE.
Prepare documents with all your log-in
and account information.
Search for coupons before purchasing.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
58. Finally
Do not feel “stuck” with one WordPress
developer. We all charge different rates,
we all have similar skill sets.
The differentiating factor is the care and
consideration they give to you as the
client.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
59. Free eBook!
For a more in-depth look and explanation
on the topics we’ve covered today, I’ve
created an eBook.
My eventual goal is to sell it, but you
lucky ducks get it for free. Subscribe to
my blog to get a notification.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
60. Q+A Time - Thank You!
Time to ask and answer specific
questions
NickMArmstrong@gmail.com
www.IAmNickArmstrong.com
Twitter: @ImNickArmstrong (say hi!)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/
NickMArmstrong
Tuesday, March 8, 2011