Websites are amazing.
I really like writing things so that
other people can read them.
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I could write something on
a piece of paper and hand it
to you, but that's laaaame.
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Writing into s
is way cooler.
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Even cooler than that is saving
what you write to a database and
barfing it out onto a website. ❤
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https:/
/urls-are-way.cool
URL's are the best thing to happen
to the world in a hot while.
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Anybody in the world with internet
access can read what I wrote!
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I don't even
have to
directly tell
people about
it. They can
just find it.
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That's straight up amazing. It
makes all of us a zillion times
more resourceful.
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So. Writing.
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WordPress does writing and publishing
super well. Word. Press. Get it?
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Through the power of
computer programming!!
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WordPress is more
like this tho.
(because it's also a website.)
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If I do my writing on a
public website that makes
websites, how do I keep evil
villains out?
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This is perhaps one of the
most important things about
WordPress.
WordPress is an auth system.
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Bad Guy
Prevention
System
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If the only thing WordPress did
was be a nice auth system where
you log in and leave secret
messages for your friends, it
would still be amazing.
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But of course it does a
billion more things. Like
have a front end where
those things I type are
published at URLs.
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You know where I've
written almost every
single word I've ever
written on the internet?
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Right there.
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To be fair, it's a slightly nicer
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Some of my favorite
features of this fancy
textarea is that it saves
me from myself.
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[has 833 tabs open in web browser]
self: now seems like a pretty
good time to restart.
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Oh shucks I forgot to save.
NBDDDDD.
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FINE. it's a lot nicer
than a textarea.
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Automatic revision saving
is great. If you turn that off
because you think it makes
your database slow I think
you maybe probably have
bigger problems maybe.
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UNSOLICITED
OPINIONATED HOT TIP
For the long-term health and
happiness of your content:
1. Turn off Visual Editor
2. Write in Markdown
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bye bye
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yes plz
(This is the
awesome
Jetpack
plugin.)
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I think WordPress kinda
tries to fight the
"WordPress is for blogs"
thing. But whatever, it's
kind of a blog.
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It's really good for
blogging. Own it.
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1. You log in
2. You type some crap
3. You publish it
4. It looks fantastic at some URL
5. It barfs out to RSS
6. It's dated
7. It has an author
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The WordPress auth system
isn't just nice because it
exists and works, it offers
levels of authentication that
is wicked useful.
Named
Page
Templates
let you do
whatever the
heck you
want for any
given Page.
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✅ Posts are obviously useful.
✅ Pages are obviously useful.
But there is more!
Custom Post Types means you
really do whatever makes
sense for your site.
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Custom Post
Types can even
have their own
sets of
taxonomies.
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The real HOT CMS ACTION
starts when you customize
all the content types with
custom fields.
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A recent thing I've done is to
create a Custom Post Type of
"Guides", which are programatic
groupings of other content.
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Hand-crafted, hand-ordered
groupings of content!
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Surfacing (even evergreen)
content is a challenge.
Content recirculation is a
challenge.
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With blog posts, pages, custom
post types, customizations of
the admin, customizations of
one-off pages....
Clearly, WordPress is a CMS.
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Comments are yet another
thing you get out of the
box with WordPress.
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CSS-Tricks uses pretty
much run-of-the-mill
WordPress comments.
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Owning the comments feels
good to me. Having the
comments right in the HTML
seems right.
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To be fair the Disqus plugin is
pretty well done, also, because it
syncs the comments to your DB.
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I'm prettttty sure that's
good for SEO.
85,888 Comments
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Things I do in comments:
• Markdown / Preview (Jetpack + Plugin)
• Feature/Bury (Plugin)
• Heavily moderated and
encourage good behavior
• Offer notifications for follow ups
• Offer newsletter signup
• One-level threading
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Wishlist for WordPress
Comments
• Ajax
• Attached to Users
• Log in from front end
• Editability
• Voting / Sorting
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Forums!
bbPress is pretty sweet
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It's a plugin! You just
activate it and now you
have public forums. That's
extremely powerful.
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As much as we publish, there is
10✕ more forums content.
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Congrats your a publisher and
community manager now.
Time for dolla bills.
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WordPress makes you a
powerful publisher. You
can build whatever the
heck you want.
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• Primary Site Sponsor
• Sponsored Content
• BuySellAds
Some of the ways I monetize:
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Another obvious way
to make money is to
sell things.
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Members-only area of the site
called The Lodge.
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Restrict Content Pro
makes it trivially easy
to lock down any
content you like behind
a paywall.
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This content is restricted to active
subscribers. Probably sign up form.
Show video and stuff!
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Selling physical or digitally-
delivered projects is nbd too.
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What's bad about WordPress?
1. It's on you to keep it
performant and secure.
2. Default search is pretty bad.
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The best thing
about WordPress?
The future looks bright. The
last 10 years have been pretty
great, and it looks like the
next 10 will be even better.