Using Wordpress

For Business

In Today’s Training …

• How to set up a free Wordpress site for free in 5 minutes flat

• Logging into your new Wordpress site

• Setting up the basics (Title, Tagline, Gravatars and Permalinks)

• The difference between Pages and Posts

• Your first Wordpress page

• Your first Wordpress post

• Adding images

• Finding and changing themes

• Wordpress widgets - what they are and how to use them

• Wordpress menus - how to set them up and change them

• An introduction to Wordpress plugins

Find Out More …

If you’d like to find out even more about Wordpress, please

check out ‘Using Wordpress For Business’

http://getbook.at/wp001

http://paulteague.com

I’ve been blogging since 2008

My blog started life as a trial run

http://alexa.com

At its peak it’s had an Alexa top

1% ranking, making it one of the

top visited websites in the world!

Why Wordpress?

CMS

• Wordpress is what’s known as a CMS

system ... which stands for ‘Content

Management System’

• A CMS is a database driven system

(usually) that doesn’t require any technical

knowledge once it’s been installed

• CMS is very widely used these days and

most people don’t use static websites any

more

Why Wordpress?

• Before Wordpress came along you were

shackled to HTML, php, FTP and all the

rest of those techie horrors

• Whenever you wanted to make a change

to your website, you had to pay your

webmaster lots of money to do it

• You would never have dared to change

even an image on a static website let

alone the entire design!

Why Wordpress?

• Wordpress is easy to install and simple to

maintain

• Once installed, updates and complete

overhauls take minutes

• It’s a WYSIWYG interface and no

technical skills are needed (if you can use

eBay and Facebook, you can use

Wordpress!)

• It’s used by 74 million+ other people!

Why Wordpress?

• It has an extensive range of supporting

plug-ins – many of them free – which allow

your to do virtually anything that you can

imagine ... and then a bit more

• You can add multimedia to Wordpress and

it integrates seamlessly with popular social

media services like Facebook, LinkedIn

and Twitter and affiliate programs like

Adsense, Amazon and Clickbank

Why Wordpress comes as a pair

• There are two versions of Wordpress and

it’s important that you use the right one!

• http://wordpress.com/ is a hosted version

of the software ie you don’t have to install

it

• http://wordpress.org/ is the self-installed

version of the software and it’s the option

that you should use

http://wordpress.com/

http://wordpress.com/ is free, very popular and

extremely impressive but if you’re serious about

blogging long term you’ll find it restrictive quite

soon and it’s not best for SEO

* Don’t worry if

you use this,

you can easily

export your

work and

import it to

Wordpress.org

http://wordpress.org/

http://wordpress.org/ is free and quite amazing.

Since it moved into version 2 – in my opinion –

it’s had no competitors ... it is quite simply the

way you should now make your websites*

* My personal

opinion.

Detractors will

warn you of

security

problems. I’ll

show you ways

around that

Blogs vs Web Sites

Basic identification of a website:

• A homepage that displays content from several sections of

internal website pages

• A design portfolio of work

• A blog might be a part of a website, but not the only thing

• A Frequently Asked Questions page that readers can browse to

get more information.

• A page of client testimonials and feedback

• Company’s terms and privacy statements pages

• A contact form that allows visitors to get in touch

• A services/products page that displays what they have to offer

for the visitors

• Put simply: It’s usually made up of basic information and is

seldom updated

Read more: Whats Is The Difference Between A Blog And A

Website

Blogs vs Web Sites

Basic identification of Blogs:

• A chronological listing of blog posts

• A commenting system that invites readers to participate in the

communication and leave behind comments

• Blog posts are archived by date, category, author, tags and

sub-categories

• RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for posts and/or

comments for feed-readers like Feedly, etc.

• Put simply: It contains the same information that a web site

might use, but it changes very regularly and has new updates

and articles added at regular intervals. It is also more

participatory, with readers adding comments and sharing on

social media

Read more: Whats Is The Difference Between A Blog And A

Website

Put Simply …

A Wordpress blog can do everything that a

web site can do – and much, much more –

but a web site can do only a small fraction of

the things that a Wordpress blog can do.

Simple Wordpress

Installation

http://hostinger.co.uk

http://hostinger.co.uk

Registering Your Free Hostinger Account

Step 1: Go to http://hostinger.co.uk

Step 2: Click on Create Account in the top,

right hand corner of the site.

The Best Method …

• You need to have a proper URL (ie http://myblog.com)

as this is much better for SEO purposes

• Look for web hosting with cPanel and head for

Fantastico or QuickInstall

• You do not need to pay a lot of money for web hosting

• I have used Hostgator for many years now, I started

with their cheap ‘Hatchling’ plan, now I use their

advanced VPS service to use over 25 web sites

• Go to http://paulteague.com/hostgator25 and enter the

code ChamberDiscount for 25% off

Fiverr.com

Don’t want to do it

yourself?

Freelance Sites

Don’t want to do it

yourself?

Use a freelancing site …

You’re ready to be a blogger!

You’re now ready to start

blogging …

WordpressBasics

Wordpress Posts

Posts

• Posts are entries listed in reverse chronological order on the

blog home page or on the posts page if you have set one in

Settings → Reading.

• If you have created any sticky posts, those will appear

before the other posts.

• Posts can be found in the Archives, Categories, Recent

Posts, and other widgets.

• Posts are also displayed in the RSS feed of the blog.

• You can control how many posts are displayed at a time in

the Reading Settings.

Source: Wordpress.com

Wordpress Pages

Pages

• Pages are static and are not listed by date.

• Pages do not use tags or categories.

• An About page is the classic example.

• Pages can be displayed in the sidebar using the Pages

widget, and some themes display pages in tabs at the top of

the blog.

• If you have 50 pages and you use the Pages widget, then all

pages will be listed all the time.

Source: Wordpress.com

Themes

What is a WordPress Theme?

• A WordPress theme provides all of the styling of your

WordPress site

• Themes can be free or paid. The better themes tend to be

paid, but there are many brilliant free themes.

• Most WordPress themes provide:

1. the overall design or style of your site

2. font styling

3. colors

4. widget locations

5. page layouts (or templates)

6. styles for blog posts and blog archives

7. additional stylistic details

Source: iThemes

Themes

Themeforest.com

ithemes

Woo Themes

Plugins

Source: iThemes

• WordPress plugins are bits of software that can be uploaded to

extend and expand the functionality of your WordPress site.

• Note: One of the primary advantages of using the self-hosted

version of WordPress from WordPress.org is the ability to upload

and use plugins on your WordPress site.

• Plugins can be free or paid. There are many excellent free plugins

which do all sorts of amazing things – SEO, social media buttons

and so on. You definitely do not need to pay to get great plugins

• Plugins are the ‘game changer’ with Wordpress – they allow you to

do amazing things in your site – for free – and without the need to

get coders involved

• I’ll show you lots of great plugins in a later session

Plugins

WordpressWidgets

Wordpress Widgets

WordPress Widget

• A WordPress Widget is a small block that

performs a specific function.

• You can add these widgets in sidebars also

known as widget-ready areas on your web

page.

• WordPress widgets were originally created to

provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving

design and structure control of

the WordPress theme to the user.

Source: wpbeginner.com

Wordpress Widgets

WordpressMenus

Wordpress Menus

WordpressPlugins

Plug-in power!

• One of the many reasons that I love WP

so much are the plug-ins

• You can literally think of anything you want

to do on a blog and there’ll be a plug-in

available to help you

• Many great plug-ins are free!

• Each plug-in function would cost you a lot

of money to code if you wanted to add it to

a regular/static web site

What are plug-ins?

• The simple way to think of a plug-in is that

it is something that does a job on your

blog ie it captures email addresses, it

shows your Twitter feed, it lets you put

adverts on your blog etc

• A plug-in is just a bit of code in a .zip file

(to compress the size) which you simply

download from a website – upload to

your blog – install on your blog ... it’s

simple!

Essential WP Plugin

Plugin: JetPack (Free)

Plugin: JetPack (Free)

Plugin: JetPack (Free)

Don’t want to do it yourself?

Remember fiverr.com!

Jetpack

JetPack Essentials

JetPack Essentials

Essential and free plug-ins

• These are free plug-ins that I use myself

• I would describe these as essential plug-

ins on any blog

• It’s not a comprehensive list – and I’m

saving some for the security section and

the SEO part of the coaching

• They’re all exactly the same process:

Plugins > Add New > Search Plugins >

Install Now > Activate > Configure

SEO Plugins

What is SEO?

• Put simply, SEO (Search Engine

Optimisation) is giving your blog the best

chance of showing up in the search

engines (Google, Bing etc)

• Most people find it really hard to rank their

static website in the search engines ... but

Google loves quality blogs!

• I’m not an SEO expert!

• These are simple, basic, effective

strategies that cost nothing

Install the AllInOneSEO plugin

Why? It makes sure that your blog –

and each post/page – is correctly

keyworded

Simple SEO Tips

• Always write with human readers in mind

• Don’t ‘cram in’ your keywords

• Never try and cheat the search engines –

quality content that your human

readers love and value is the best,

evergreen SEO technique period ...

whatever your expensive SEO adviser

tells you!

• Use headers and sub-headers which

feature your keywords

• Label your images descriptively

Making your blog secure

Security issues

• All websites have security and technical

issues - even simple, static websites

• Wordpress is very vulnerable to malicious

attack because of its popularity

• Make sure you use at least the simple

security measures that I give you

• In context, my site has remained intact for

6 years ... so far

• I pay for Sucuri to monitor and protect my

most important WP installations

Simple Security Measures

• Always update to the latest version of

Wordpress

• Do not use the default 'admin' username

• Use a secure password (use a free service like

LastPass to make it really secure!)

• Keep your themes and plugins updated

Simple Security Plugin

Simple Security Plugin

Simple Security Plugin

Spam is an occupational hazard of using

Wordpress

Just delete it or use a spam blocker.

Don’t want to do it yourself?

Remember fiverr.com!

But be careful who you give admin access to

Next Steps

A Note About Mew Domain Names

• Due to DNS propagation, it can

take up to 12 hours before your new

domain/subdomain will start

working.

• Only contact your hosting service

support desk if your site hasn’t

appeared after 24 hours

The Best Method …

• You need to have a proper URL (ie http://myblog.com)

as this is much better for SEO purposes

• Look for web hosting with cPanel and head for

Fantastico

• You do not need to pay a lot of money for web hosting

• I have used Hostgator for many years now, I started

with their cheap ‘Hatchling’ plan, now I use their

advanced VPS service to use over 25 web sites

• Go to http://paulteague.com/hostgator25 and enter the

code ChamberDiscount for 25% off

cPanel

Wordpress takes – literally – a minute to install

There is a longer, manual, more techie way – but I’d avoid

it if I were you!

Look for web hosting with cPanel and head for

QuickInstall

Open Source Software

QuickInstall gives you access to many

fabulous open source softwares,

Wordpress being one of them. They’re

all one-click installs

One-Click Installation

Just click on the Continue link to get

started ... you can install as many as you

want and they’re all free.

You’re only limited by how much space

your web host gives you

Simple Installation

Just fill in your info – it’s all basic stuff – click

on Install Now! and you’re away! The

database and all the file uploading is taken

care of for you – phew

Installing Wordpress is ‘point and click’ simple

You don’t need to understand what’s going

on ... so long as you’re happy to complete

the process!

Email the details to yourself!

You automatically email yourself the

details of the installation – don’t lose

your password!

There’s you new blog!

Your basic blog info …

This is how it looks ‘live’ …

Here’s the new blog – it is installed with

a default theme, so it looks pretty good

from the start

Here is your blog URL …

Make a note of your new blog URL ...

Wordpress Help

https://wordpress.org/support/

… the official Wordpress

support site. Please make this

site your friend

http://learn.wordpress.com/ …

an amazing free site with step-

by-step guidance. Well worth a

look.

http://en.forums.wordpress.com

/forum/support ... Need help?

Post a question on the official

forum.

Find Out More …

If you’d like to find out even more about Wordpress, please

check out ‘Using Wordpress For Business’

http://getbook.at/wp001

See The Slides …

Access all of the slides from today, as well as

lots of useful URLs and resources, via this link:

http://paulteague.com/wp-teague