Intro to Wordpress - Schipul webinar August 2010

Intro to Wordpress Caitlin Kaluza, Project Manager & Social Media Consultant Schipul – The Web Marketing Company

Wordpress - not for the faint of heart Just kidding.

What we’ll go over What is Wordpress? How do I use Wordpress? Content Management – posts, pages, and plugins Administering your site – users and comments Advanced stuff – themes What now? Maintaining your site

Why Wordpress? What’s all the hype about?

Why Wordpress? Usability “ Wordpress thinks like a writer” Standards “ Wordpress thinks like a designer” Open source Community Support, Passionate People

Who uses Wordpress? >> Wordpress is one of the most widely used blogging platforms >> As of August 2010, WP 3.0 has been downloaded 12.5 million times Big Guys Really Big Guys Academics Schipulites!

First things first: Logging in Go to yourdomain.com /wp-admin If you don’t host your own blog, you can register for a free blog at wordpress.com – your domain will be username.wordpress.com Login using your credentials This will take you to the dashboard

Steps to Create a Blog Post Click “Posts” on the left side Click “Add new” Enter title, body, category, tags Hit publish

Adding a Blog Post – Steps 1 and 2

Inserting an Image Choose file Title Alt text – for search engines Use words (defaults to image title) Caption Optional Styling depends on theme Description Optional Shows in media library Link URL If applicable You can add this later Size You have control over in settings Keep in mind the width of your theme

Editing Image Settings To edit an image, after you have inserted it into your post click on the image and choose the left button (the mountains) Choose “Advanced Settings” to edit size, border, spacing, etc.

Inserting a Video Go to YouTube or Vimeo Copy embed code Paste into HTML view For more on this, visit http://schipul.com/en/helpfiles/v/225

Adding a Blog Post – Steps 3 and 4

Saving as a Draft If you are not ready to publish, you can hit “Save Draft”

Publishing a Post Hitting “Publish” publishes immediately To schedule in advance or post date, hit “Edit” next to “Publish Immediately”

Categories and Tags Categories are the main way to organize information on a blog Keep your blog to 5-7 categories Keep your categories discrete Tags are a looser way to organize information Tags are not required The way these tags display (or whether or not they display at all) is determined by the theme

Categories and Tags Click “Categories” or “Post Tags” to manage categories or tags Fill out the form at left to add Edit details by selecting one at right To see a list of the posts in each category or tag, click the number next to the title Tags page also has a tag cloud of top tags

Pages Content that lives outside the chronology Same process as adding a post

Plugins Making Wordpress do more

Plugins Plugins allow you to extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine To find plugins, go to the Plugins Directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins and search for what you are looking for

How you know you have a good plugin Use Wordpress approved plugins – if you find a plugin by Googling, search for it in the official Plugins Directory as well When was it last updated – anything updated more than 6 months ago may be dead “ Compatible up to” to make sure it is up to date Ratings and Reviews Trial and error

Plugins I like Google Analytics - inserts Google Analytics code into site http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics All in One SEO pack http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ Sociable – great customizable sharing plugin http://yoast.com/wordpress/sociable/ Twitter Tools – for integrating Twitter http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/ Intense Debate - for comments http://intensedebate.com/wordpress

To Install a Plugin On the dashboard, go to “Plugins” and click “Add New” Click “Upload” Search for your plugin Activate and look for any settings

Users You can add additional users to your blog and give them various permissions depending on their role Built in Wordpress roles: Administrator - has full control of the site Editor – can publish posts and edit others’ content Author – can publish posts but can’t touch others’ content Contributor – can create posts but can’t publish

Contributor View Fewer options on the left sidebar Can Save Draft or Submit for Review – not publish

Comments By default Filter out spam (will not publish) Hold suspect comments for moderation Optional additional comment moderation settings include Each comment must be manually approved User must have a previously approved comment to automatically post Additional plugins like Intense Debate are useful for adding more features to comments

Appearance General Theme Editing

Theme Management In Wordpress the content is separate from the style of the site A theme is a skin – and controls the look, presentation of the content, and often the features A theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software Themes are highly customizable

Where do I find themes? There are lots of resources for Wordpress themes Many are free, some are paid (they are typically inexpensive) Some resources: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes http://themeforest.net/ http://www.woothemes.com

Customizing a Theme with Widgets Widgets let you drag and drop content without touching code To edit, go to Appearance > Widgets Drag and drop widgets to be in the order you like Each widget will have its own settings The most flexible widget is “Text” – you can enter anything, including HTML

Maintaining your Blog What now?

Important things to do after launch Post! This seems basic, but is essential Having a sad empty blog is worse than having no blog at all Determine what pace is right for you, once a week is good Monitor comments Respond to comments on your blog Comment on others’ blogs Watch the stats Tweak Check static content (About page, etc.) to be sure it is up to date Look for new plugins and features Update, update, update Wordpress frequently has updates to the system and plugins Update as soon as possible to avoid spammers exploiting known bugs For extra credit: follow the Wordpress development blog - http://wordpress.org/development

Questions? Caitlin Kaluza [email_address] Twitter @qcait

Intro to Wordpress - Schipul webinar August 2010

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