Introduction to WordPress

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Introduction to WordPress Natalie MacLees founder + principal, Purple Pen Productions

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No content

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Meet WordPress Introduction to WordPress

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What is WordPress? • Customizable website creation tool • Most popular blog publishing and content management system on the web today • Powers over 74 million websites Meet WordPress

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CMS • Content Management System. • A computer application that allows publishing, editing, organizing, deleting, and maintaining content. Meet WordPress

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Top 1 million websites 34% 7% 6% 53% WordPress Drupal Joomla Other

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Why use WordPress? • Open source • User friendly • Flexible and extensible • Easy to ﬁnd support • SEO friendly • Own your own content • Community Meet WordPress

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What types of sites can you build? • blog • business • informative • review • personal • photo gallery • portfolio • community • ecommerce • membership • …and more! Meet WordPress

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The WordPress Showcase http://wordpress.org/showcase

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.com vs .org Introduction to WordPress

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WordPress.com • Like renting an apartment • Limited with what you can do • Maintenance and backups included • Customer service available to handle issues .com vs .org

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WordPress.org (self-hosted) • Like buying a house • Can do anything you’d like • You do maintenance and backups • You’re responsible for handling any issues that arise .com vs .org

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Installing WordPress • WordPress.com: done for you • Managed WP Hosting: done for you • Other hosting: nearly all have easy installation .com vs .org

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Help and Support Introduction to WordPress

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Forums & Online Groups • WordPress.org • LinkedIn • Facebook • WordPress Stack Exchange Help and Support

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Hiring Help • Classes and workshops • One-on-one tutoring • WordPress consultants, designers, and developers Help and Support

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The ONE Best Thing • Get involved with the WordPress community • Nicest, smartest, most generous people you’ll ever meet • 19 WordPress meetup groups in Southern California • WordCamps - Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix Help and Support

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Site Tour Introduction to WordPress

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Admin Tour Introduction to WordPress

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WordPress Basics Introduction to WordPress

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User Accounts • Create • Edit • Delete WordPress Basics

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Posts • Timely content • Social content • Categories: Table of contents • Tags: Index of keywords • Syndicated via RSS WordPress Basics

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Pages • Permanent content • Nesting • Included as the site’s menu by default WordPress Basics

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Sidebars or widget areas • Depends on theme • Add, edit, remove, and move widgets WordPress Basics

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Menus • Available in most themes • Allow you to organize your content as you’d like WordPress Basics

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Media uploader • Add photos, video, and audio to your site • Add media to posts and pages • Create galleries and playlists WordPress Basics

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WordPress Themes Introduction to WordPress

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What does a theme do? • Changes the way your site looks and works • Colors, layouts, typography, etc. • BEWARE: bloated ‘do it all’ themes. They’re often more trouble than they’re worth WordPress Themes

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Where should you get themes? • Free themes ONLY from the WordPress Theme repository • Paid themes only from reputable sellers • How to ﬁnd reputable sellers WordPress Themes

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Installing and configuring themes • Install themes from the Dashboard • Using the Customizer • Theme options pages WordPress Themes

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WordPress Plugins Introduction to WordPress

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What does a plugin do? • Adds some bit of functionality to your site • Examples: • Social media sharing buttons • A new type of widget • Image sliders • Add new capabilities: ecommerce, membership, directory, etc. WordPress Plugins

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Where should you get plugins? • Free plugins ONLY from the WordPress Plugin repository • Paid plugins only from reputable sellers • How to ﬁnd reputable sellers WordPress Plugins

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Installing and configuring plugins • Install plugins from the Dashboard • Plugin documentation • Finding plugin settings WordPress Plugins

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Settings Introduction to WordPress

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First things first • Settings > General • Site Title • Tagline • Timezone Settings

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WP for a website • Settings > Reading • Set a static page as the home page • Depends on theme, may have a special home page template Settings

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Media Settings • Settings > Media • Deﬁne default media sizes • NOTE: These do not apply to media that’s already been uploaded! Settings

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Permalinks • What are they? • What’s the best setting? • Resetting permalinks - ﬁx mysterious issues Settings

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WordPress Site Care & Maintenance Introduction to WordPress

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Back up back up back up back up!!!!! • Cannot over-emphasize how important regular backups are • A recent backup is the cure for nearly any ill • Not a question of if, but when the site will be hacked or corrupted • How often should you back up? • Two pieces to back up • How many backups to keep WordPress Site Care & Maintenance

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Backup Plugins • BackUpWordpress (free) • WordPress Backup to Dropbox (free) • BackWPUp (free) • Backup Buddy (paid) WordPress Site Care & Maintenance

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WordPress updates • WordPress tells you when there are updates available • Simple to do BUT • BACK UP FIRST!!! ALWAYS!! NO EXCEPTIONS WordPress Site Care & Maintenance

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Keep your site secure • Use secure passwords • Use least privilege • Set up salts • Use a security plugin - I like WordFence • Themes and plugins from reputable sources only! • Back up regularly - move backups to another server WordPress Site Care & Maintenance

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Resources Introduction to WordPress

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Online • http://wordpress.org/support/ • http://codex.wordpress.org/ • http://wpbeginner.com/ • http://chrislema.com/ • http://problogger.net/ • http://www.copyblogger.com/ • http://www.wp101.com/ • http://www.wpuniversity.com/ • http://www.lynda.com/ • http:// wordpress.stackexchange.com/ • http://bobwp.com/ • http://wordpress.tv/ Resources

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Offline • WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin Wilson • Meetups: Find your local group(s) on meetup.com • WordCamps: Find upcoming camps on wordcamp.org Resources

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Q&A Introduction to WordPress

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Bonus Items Introduction to WordPress

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Sticky Posts • Stick a post to the top of the front page Bonus Items

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Scheduled Posts • Set a post to go live at a pre-determined time • WP Cron warning Bonus Items

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Draft Posts • Posts only you can see • Not yet live on the site • Edit until you’re happy before you post • Can preview Bonus Items

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Page Templates • Availability depends on theme • Set diﬀerent layouts for diﬀerent pages Bonus Items

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Comments • Comment settings • Comment moderation • Handling spam Bonus Items

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Thank you!! Introduction to WordPress