What is WordPress?

This presentation, given to the Burlington Writers Workshop, gives a high-level overview of the WordPress open-source Content Management System. It also highlights some of the differences between WordPress.com and a self-hosted WordPress site.

Transcript

1. W H A T I S W O R D P R E S S ? B U R L I N G T O N W R I T E R ’ S W O R K S H O P
2. J O E D I S T E F A N O W E B D E V E L O P E R http://okaypl.us/
3. C O N T E N T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M “WordPress started as just a blogging system, but has evolved to be used as a full content management system.” H T T P S : / / W O R D P R E S S . O R G / A B O U T /
4. C O N T E N T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M • Web-based publishing • Format management • Revision control • Indexing • Search • More
5. C O N T E N T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M S T A T I C W E B P A G E
6. C O N T E N T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M D Y N A M I C W E B P A G E
7. O P E N S O U R C E S O F T W A R E “Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”. H T T P : / / W W W. G N U . O R G / P H I L O S O P H Y / F R E E - S W. H T M L
8. O P E N S O U R C E S O F T W A R E GPLv2 • use the software for any purpose, • change the software to suit your needs, • share the software with your friends and neighbors • share the changes you make
9. • https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ • https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress O P E N S O U R C E S O F T W A R E
10. • Over 20% all websites • 60% of all websites with a CMS • WordPress.com Gets More Visitors Than Amazon • 40 Translations of WordPress W O R D P R E S S F A C T S
11. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M WordPress is free open-source software available at WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a WordPress hosting service which is free with paid upgrades.
12. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M T H E M E S You can use any theme that exists or create your own. Limited to themes approved by WordPress.com. Editing CSS requires $30/yr upgrade. WordPress.org WordPress.com
13. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M P L U G I N S You can use any plugin that exists or create your own. No plugins are allowed. Built-in additional features which replicate some plugin functionality, e.g. Social Sharing and Analytics. WordPress.org WordPress.com
14. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M H O S T I N G Self hosted. Typical hosting costs are around $10/mo. Free hosting. WordPress.org WordPress.com
15. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M D O M A I N N A M E your-site.com ! Typical domain name registration costs are around $10/yr. your-site.wordpress.com ! Custom domains require premium upgrade ($99/yr) plus domain registration ($18/yr) WordPress.org WordPress.com
16. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M A D V E R T I S I N G Use any ad service you want and keep all of the proceeds. Selling your own ads is not allowed. ! WordPress.com ads are automatically inserted into your site. ! You can purchase the No Ads upgrade for $30/yr. WordPress.org WordPress.com
17. W O R D P R E S S . O R G V S W O R D P R E S S . C O M M A I N T E N A N C E & B A C K U P S Maintenace, upgrades, backups, etc. are your responsibility. ! Managed WordPress hosting with daily backups available for about $30/mo ! Daily backups alone available for $5/mo Maintenace, Upgrades, and Backups are managed by WordPress.com WordPress.org WordPress.com
18. D E S I G N & L A Y O U T
19. C H O O S I N G A T H E M E
20. D E S I G N I N G A H E A D E R • http://pixlr.com/express/ • http://picasa.google.com/ • http://www.photoshop.com/tools
21. A D D I N G W I D G E T S WordPress Widgets add content and features to your Sidebars. • Search • Categories • Archives • Twitter Feed • Many more…
22. C O N T E N T
23. M A K I N G A P O S T
24. T H I R D - P A R T Y A P P S Windows Live Writer Mars Edit
25. M O B I L E A P P S • iOS • Android • BlackBerry?
26. A D D I N G I M A G E S • http://unsplash.com/ • http://deathtothestockphoto.com/ • http://www.flickr.com/search/ advanced/ • http://www.istockphoto.com/
27. P R O M O T I N G Y O U R S I T E
28. S E A R C H E N G I N E O P T I M I Z A T I O N • WordPress is one of the best CMS when it comes to SEO. • The best optimization is having lots of interesting content. • http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
29. S O C I A L M E D I A • Social Sharing Buttons • WordPress.com automatically adds sharing buttons to each page. • http://wordpress.org/plugins/share-this/ • http://wordpress.org/plugins/addthis/ • http://blog.mainstreethost.com/a-hot-button- issue-do-social-sharing-buttons-work
30. O P E N G R A P H T A G S • WordPress.com automatically adds Open Graph tags to each page. • http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
31. M A K I N G M O N E Y
32. A D V E R T I S I N G • If you build up a good following, you can earn money through advertising • 250 unique visitors / day at a minimum • It can take 6 months to a year to build audience • WordPress.com does not allow selling ads, unless you break 25K visitors / mo at which point you can enroll in WordAds where you share revenue.
33. S E L L I N G P R O D U C T S • WordPress.com doesn’t have a e-commerce option, but you can sell your own products by integrating with a third-party such as PayPal. • http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/ • For self-hosted WordPress there are a wide variety of e-commerce plugins • http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/
34. P R E M I U M C O N T E N T • Allow visitors to pay a monthly or annual fee to get access to some or all of your content. This revenue model allows you to take a WordPress site and transform it into a recurring income- generating business. • https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/ membership/ • https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/pay- with-a-like/
35. T H A N K Y O U H A V E F U N !