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Blog How To Set Up

Introduction to WordPress

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Based off of the best statistics, I’ve found, there are over 187 million blogs. People obviously love reading and writing blogs. There is little doubt then, that a business that doesn’t speak to its customers through blogging, is definitely alienating its customers.

In this day in age, it is very easy for any business owner, no matter how small, to create a website. These websites must build customer relationships, while pulling in business from all over the world. In the past, business owners needed to rely on extremely expensive web design companies to build them a site. Those days are now in the past, thanks to a fabulous program called WordPress.

WordPress, is a free blogging tool kit, that brings the power of internet blogging to the people. WordPress is the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day. The goal of this series of articles is to help people get started with WordPress. It really is quite easy.

There are two versions of WordPress. There is the blogging software you can use with WordPress, at wordpress.com. This operates in a way similar to most social networking systems like Myspace, Facebook, etc. There is another version, that you host on a hosting company, such as GoDaddy. This version can be downloaded from wordpress.org. If this is a bit confusing don’t worry. The video tutorials will show you exactly how to set up both of these versions of WordPress.

WordPress is so easy to use, because it takes care of all the technical stuff. This allows you, to spend all of your time writing. Whats better, is that WordPress allows you to easily create amazing tools and new web designs, with ease. We’ll get to them later.

A Few more Reasons why WordPress is Amazing

  • It installs easily! Normally, it will take you no more than 5 minutes.
  • It helps you organize all of your articles in a logical manor.
  • Search engines absolutely love WordPress websites.
  • If you follow this tutorial, your Google Page Ranking will probably be higher, than if you hired a web design firm.
  • WordPress is not just used for blog websites. You can use it to create a traditional site as well.
  • There are many pre-made web designs for you to pick from. If you want a new design for your entire site, you can have it in a few seconds, with no design or technical knowledge.
  • Your customers want to interact with your website. WordPress provides you with easy to use enhancements that allow you to add bulletin boards, calendars, RSS feeds, video, audio, shopping carts, etc.
  • It will block unwanted spam from your site.

The Difference between WordPress.com & WordPress.org Websites

As I mentioned before, a WordPress.com site is similar to a social networking site. It is hosted on WordPress computers. It is free, for the most part, and extremely easy to set up. Almost every technical activity is taken care of for you such as: saving your content, blocking spam, security, upgrading, and promotion.

Let’s go back to that free sort of comment. First, in my opinion, WordPress deserves every dollar they make. I just want to make that clear. Either way, if you want to gain special benefits at WordPress.com you must pay for the following (prices on December 2nd, 2009):

  • The Custom CSS Upgrade allows you to use your own CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) to customize the appearance of your blog. CSS allows you to change fonts, colors, borders, backgrounds, and even the layout of the blog. The cost is $14.97 per year.
  • If you want to use a custom domain name that doesn’t end with wordpress.com you can either pay WordPress $14.97 to both register and host your domain for a year. Or if you already own a domain name, they charge $9.97 for you to host that domain name on their servers.
  • WordPress gives you 3 gigabytes of space to use for free on their computer. If you want more, you get 5 GB for $19.97 / year, 15 GB for $49.97 / year, or 25 GB for $89.97.
  • If you don’t want WordPress to put ads on your site, you have to pay them $29.97 / year.
  • There is a limit to the number of private users you can have on your site. If you wish to buy the unlimited users, instead of staying at the standard 35, that will cost you $29.97 / year.

Now if you want to host your own site and control everything, the version of WordPress found on wordpress.org, is the way to go. You will gain access to a larger number of web site designs, called themes. You will only be limited in size by your chosen hosting company. You will also gain access to a larger number of tools, called plug-ins. Plug-ins, give you access to tools such as: e-commerce systems, a wide assortment of media tools, and basically anything else you can imagine.

The negatives of hosting your own site include: you must pay a hosting site to host your site (avg. cost: $7 to $15 / month), it is more complicated to set up (many hosting companies will set upWordpress for you), you are responsible for upgrading your software, and your sites up time will only be as good as the hosting company. I personally, use GoDaddy for hosting, but there are a large number of other great hosting companies.

The minimum requirements a hosting company must meet include having, PHP version 4.3 or greater and MySQL version 4.0 or greater installed. It’s also probably in your best interest to install on a Linux rather than a Windows server. The best hosting companies include: Blue Host,DreamHost, MediaTemple, and GoDaddy.

In the next article, I will go into detail on how to create a WordPress.com account. You should do this even if you plan to host on your own site to gain access to Akismet, a great anti-spam tool. An additional benefit to starting with a WordPress.com account is that it gives you the opportunity to see if WordPress is right for you. Whether you chose to host on WordPress or from your own hosting company, the interface of WordPress is nearly identical. So, if you learn how to operate a blog on WordPress.com, you’ll know how to run WordPress on a separate hosting plan as well.

I hope this clears up any questions about using WordPress. Next, I’ll dispel any beliefs that WordPress is complicated to set up. If I missed anything, please tell me how I might improve the post.

Blog How To Set Up

WordPress Media, Links, Pages, Comments, and Ratings Explained

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Finishing Up the Sidebar: Media, Links, Comments and Ratings

I’m assuming, you are logged into your WordPress.com account right now. At the top of your page, drift your mouse over the link titled My Dashboards. When you do, a drop down window will show all the blogs you currently have set up at WordPress.com. Click on one.

This article will cover, the rest of the left sidebar, not covered in previous posts. Pages will be the most complicated issue I’ll cover in this article; and I plan to cover it last.

If you click the link labeled Media in your side bar, you’ll be taken to your media library. Here you’ll see a list of all the different media types, you have uploaded to WordPress. You can sort or delete these files, either individually or as a group. If you click on the Add New link, which opened on your sidebar when you clicked Media, you be taken to a page, from which you can upload more media. For information on uploading media please refer to the previous post, Posting Articles in WordPress.

The Link hyper-link, if clicked will take you to a page that will list all the links you think are important. They are placed in a link category titled Blogroll. A Blogroll, is just a list of links. On the page titled Edit Links, which should be on your screen, you can delete and order those links currently in your blogroll.

If you click on the link labeled Add New, under the Links sidebar link, you are ready to add new important links. You can enter the following information on each link you add to your blogroll:

  • A short name that you want to associate with the link
  • The web address of the link your adding
  • A description of what a person will find if they click on the link
  • The category you wish the link to be associated with. You can create a new category here as well.
  • Under the Target Option, it’s probably better to always click _none. Most people, don’t like a website that opens windows all over their screen.
  • The Link Relationship area is were you describe the relationship you have with the person that posted the link.
  • In the Advanced area of the Add a New Link page, there are a few advanced subjects to cover! An Image Address, would be a small photo you would want to be associated with a link.
  • If you type in the address of a RSS feed for the link, WordPress displays the link to the site’s RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. With an RSS feed you can share the headlines from your blog. By adding the RSS feed to your blogroll, your users can easily gain access to this information at the same location as the link.
  • In the note block, you can add any additional information about the link. Now give the link a rating, if you wish. Go to the top right hand corner of the page, decide if you want to keep the link private and then click save.

If you click on Link Categories, on your left sidebar, you can now sort your links into different categories. Enter a Link Category Name, that would be descriptive of the links it will contain. Add a Description for the link Category. Now click Add Category. If you want you can go back to the Edit page under Links, in your left side bar, and move your links into your newly created link categories.

By clicking the Comments link, in your left sidebar, you’ll be able to Approve, mark as spam, or trash any comments, all in one place. There are Bulk Actions, you can use to handle many comments with just a few clicks.

By clicking on the Ratings link, in your left sidebar, you can give commenters the ability to rate their favorite Posts, Pages, and Comments. You can enable these rating systems, by clicking on the tabs across the top of the screen. If you enabled ratings, by clicking on reports, you’ll see the ratings your posts, pages, and comments have received.

There is an option to add polls to your posts. You do this by setting up either a free or pay account with a company called PollDaddy. You can find out more information on that here, polldaddy.com, or check back for a later post.

Making Traditional Website Static Pages

You can create pages, on your site, that do not change. These are called static pages. You create these pages by clicking on Pages, in your left toolbar. You are now looking at the familiar text editing tool you saw when you created posts in the past. Give the page a title. Refer to the previous post, to learn how to use the text editing tools if needed. Decide if you want others to be able to comment on your static page.

Now on to the Attributes part of the page. Each of the pages you create will be listed in a menu that goes across the top of your website, down the left, or down the right side depending on the template you choose for your site. Each of these static pages can be all alone or they can be associated with other static or blog pages.

If you want this page to be at the top of your page hierarchy, leave the select box, under parent set at Main Page (no parent). If however you want it associated under another page, in the select box, select the page you want it associated with. Under Template, you can choose what template you want associated with this static page as well. Finally, click on the order of your hierarchy of pages if you don’t want them to follow the alphabetical default.

Now, click on Save Draft, Preview or Publish after you decide if this page should be available for public consumption.

If you want your new static page set as your home page, being the first page people see when they go to your site. Click on Settings, in your left sidebar. Then click reading. Now, under Front Page Displays click in the circle, next to a static page (select below). Select the Front page, or home page you want displayed and then click Save Changes, at the bottom of that page.

The next article will be about styling the appearance, or theme of your website. Then will move on to adding users, and finishing up with a review of all the final settings available in WordPress. You’ll be an expert then.

I hope this article was helpful.

Blog How To Set Up

The Appearance Tools: How to Change your Entire Site with a Click

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Now for the reason most people use WordPress. You can change your entire site design with a few clicks. That’s right. The most daunting task a web designer faces, is handled in a few clicks.

I’m assuming you are logged into your account at wordpress.com and you have clicked on one of your blog names under the My Dashboard link at the top of your screen. Now, let’s change the design of your site. Click on Appearance, on your left tool bar.

The default theme is called Kubrick. You will see a preview of the theme, at the top of your screen along with a list of options.

What are Widgets

Widgets are tools that help your readers use your blog or website. Click on the link labeled widgets. You add widgets to your right toolbar, most of the time. You add them simply, by dragging and dropping them to the little box labeled sidebar on the right of your screen. You can then order them by continuing to drag and drop them inside of the sidebar. The most common widgets that everyone uses are Search, Archives, Categories, Pages, Top Posts, Links, and Akismet (a spam blocker).

Previous articles explain what each of these terms mean. I’ll briefly explain a bit about the widgets that are not easily understood.

Box.net file sharing: If you have an account at box.net (you can get 1 GB of space for free) you can create a folder, containing files that anyone you chose can access.

Category Cloud: Displays your categories in a list and increases the font weight/size to emphasize which categories are the most important.

Del.icio.us: del.icio.us, is an online service where you can manage and share your bookmarks with other people. With this plugin you can add a “Bookmark this page on del.icio.us” link to your posts or sidebar. This will allow your visitors to add your page directly into their del.icio.us profile and makes your blog more popular!

Flickr: This plugin allows users of WordPress to display their Flickr photos on their own site. Flickr, is a free photo sharing website.

Gravatar: A Gravatar is an image that represents you not only on WordPress, but can be used on most any social networking site. You can sign up for a free account at en.gravatar.com

Meebo: Meebo me lets you chat with your site visitors using your free Meebo account. Sign up for Meebo at Meebo.com.

Platial MapKit: Allows you to imbed a map lookup tool on your site. People have found it to be buggy.

RSS: RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The RSS widget will let you display entries from any RSS feed. If you want to share the posts made on other sites this is the tool for you. To find a large list of feeds go to http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/rss/. If you find a feed you like click on the orange square with 3 white lines in it. This will take you to the feed. Copy the link that is in the top of your browser. Then click on the downward pointing arrow to the right of the tool labeled RSS, that you just dragged into your side bar. Paste the link into the top text box, where it states Enter the RSS feed URL here. Assign a title if you like, as well as how many posts and what data associated with each post you’r like to be displayed and then click Save.

RSS Links: Are links you provide to others, to reach your RSS feeds.

SocialVibe: Places an ad in the sidebar of your blog, where readers can engage and help you earn money for charity.

VodPod:The Vodpod videos widget lets you display image-links to your favorite videos from around the web in your sidebar. To use this tool you must sign up with vodpod. Then paste links to videos into the VodPod drop-down in your right sidebar.

What are Extras

These are general extras that you can enable for your entire blog. There may be an extra that will put a snow animation on the list (seasonal).

The extra labeled, Enable mShots site previews on this blog, is a bit complicated.Media Shots (mShots) enable anyone visiting your site to get a glimpse of the sites you are linking to without having to leave your site. By rolling over a link a visual preview will popup showing the linked site without requiring any clicks or a visit to the linked site. This is a nice extra, hence it is checked by default.

The Display a mobile theme extra should also be checked. It will automatically create a mobile version of your site for smart phone owners. Another reason WordPress is amazing!

Finally, leave the last box unchecked. By leaving the Hide related links extra unchecked you will increase your overall traffic and when is that a bad thing?

The Custom Header, Header Colors and Edit CSS Extras

By clicking on the Custom Header link, you can chose to hide your title, change the text color, change back to the default color, or upload your own custom header. As it states, if you chose to upload a custom header image make sure the dimensions are 740 x 192 pixels.

If you click the Header Colors link, you’ll be able to change the font color of your title, your slogan, revert back to the original colors, or click on advanced an enter the hex code for the text color you want. If you know what a hex code is use it, otherwise just change the colors using the other options.

The last option is Change CSS. If you want to pay $14.97 per year to change your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) styling on your website, you can do that here as well in other ways. I’ll cover how to use CSS in a later post, because it is a little more advanced to cover it at this time.

Change the Theme Design Already

Now it’s time to change themes. It’s so simple. If you click on Appearance, in the left toolbar, you will be taken to a page listing the most popular themes. At the top of the page is your current theme. Probably Kubrick at this time. To see what your site will look like with another theme click on Preview under the name of each theme. There are 77 possible themes as of December 2009. If you like a design click on Activate and your done. To see your new design click on the Visit Site link at the top of your page.

That is everything there is to know about editting the appearance of your website at wordpress.com. In the next article I’ll cover every remaining topic being, Users, Tools, and Settings.