This talk that I delivered at WordCamp Chicago introduces WordPress to people that have never touched the platform. People want to know what their getting into! What kind of commitment does this mean? What things can it do for me on social media? A quick look at the dashboard and take questions that people have. Why would people use WordPress?

1. WordPress 101
Shanta R. Nathwani

2. Agenda
 About Me
 Introduction
 .COM vs .ORG
 Themes & Plugins
 Pages & Posts
 Categories & Tags
 FAQ’s & Tips
 Q & A’s

3. Find Me!
Tweet Me:
@TantienHime
Email:
shanta@shanta.ca
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca

4. 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
• Independent IT and Social Media
Consultant
• Clients include NPOs, Real Estate,
Software Development, Financial
and Political Sectors
• Bachelor of Commerce in Info Tech
Mgmt., Ryerson University

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.
• I’m not going to run you through the
Dashboard, since Marc is going to cover
that after me.
• Please ask questions! I’ll try and add them
to the slides after the fact.

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 22% 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.

7. .COM vs .ORG
wordpress.COM
 Hosted by WordPress/Automattic
 FREE!
 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
 Some consider this choice limiting, others
find it comforting.
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://tantienhime.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
From Graph Paper Press

9. Plugins
 Plugins extend the usefulness of your
website
 Some examples are Backup Buddy and
Jetpack
 The “Back End” or what people don’t 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. Pages vs Posts
Pages
 Static information for the most part
 “About Us” is a great example
 Does not use Categories
 Can have sub-pages
Posts
 Dynamic information
 Time sensitive
 Uses Categories & Tags
 “Upcoming Events” or “Events Attended”
are good examples

12. Categories vs. Tags
Categories
 Major classifications for information
 “Events” is a great example
 Can have sub-categories (much like
pages)
Tags
 Describes the content using keywords
 WordPress recommends 5-7 per post

13. Coding Tips & Tricks
 No matter what your discipline, learn a bit of HTML and CSS. This will help you modify your
themes
 Use Firebug to target what you need to find in your webpages.
 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 think I
don’t recommend doing through the Dashboard.
 You can probably learn more about these topics at numerous talks throughout the
weekend.

14. Common Questions
And maybe some common answers

15. 1. Do I have to
download WordPress
to my computer?
Short Answer: NO
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.

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

17. 3. Okay, you’ve
convinced me. How
do I move from .COM
to .ORG?
Short Answer: It can be done, but it isn’t easy.
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.

18. 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

19. Questions?
Tweet Me:
@TantienHime
Email:
shanta@shanta.ca
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca