ICT role in 21st century education and it's challenges.
WordPressInsider Meetup - Introduction to WordPress Meeting, June 8, 2015
1. Connect With Me:
Email: Michelle@SpotOnDigitalMarketing.com
LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook ( Feel Free to Like us )
Website: SpotOnDigitalMarketing.com
2. What is WordPress (Wikipedia)
Open source Content Management System (CMS),
often used as a blog publishing application, powered
by PHP and MySQL.
It has many features including a plug-in architecture
and a template system.
Used by more than 22.0% of the top 10 million
websites as of August 2013
The most popular CMS in use on the Internet – 74.6
Million installations
3. Why Wordpress
Very popular which means that:
Huge selection of off-the-shelf solutions. Wordpeess
functionality can be expanded or customized using
plugins, which are add-on software modules. There are
thousand of FREE plugin that can do anything you need.
Easy to outsource required changes
Does not vendor-lock you
Search Engine Friendly
You are in control ( If you want to be )
4. WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com
We are going to talk about the Self Hosted
WordPress, ( also referred to as WordPress.org ) With
WordPress.org, YOU host your own blog or website.
WordPress.org is where you’ll find the free WordPress
software that you can download and install on your
own web server.
WordPress.com, on the other hand, takes care of all
of the hosting for you. You don’t have to download
software, pay for hosting, or manage a web server but
there are several limitations
5. What can you do with WordPress
Blogs: ://www.starwars.com/new
Business websites: http://www.sonymusic.com/
Online Magazines: www.vancouverlatino.com/
Membership Sites: www.paleoplan.com/
Online stores: https://soulstem.com/
Government: JoinDelawareSchools.org
SalePages: http://wpinsider.org/fast-track-your-
business-website/
6. Setting Up your First WordPress website
Acquire
Domain
Name
Sign up for
Hosting
Point
Domain to
Server
Install
WordPress
Install
Theme
Basic
settings
Add
Content:
Post,
Pages,
Pics,
Videos
Add
Plugins
Add
Widgets
7. Acquiring a domain
There are several provider – The most
popular is GoDaddy
Picking a good domain name
If possible Use keywords that you
target market uses
Is it easy to say?
Is it easy to remember?
8. Hosting
Minimum requirements to run a wordpress website are:
PHP version 5.2.4 or greater
MySQL version 5.0 or greater
Our additional recommendations:-
Apache mod_rwerite ( Linux hosting recommended )
cPanel support – cPanel is a web hosting control panel that provides a
graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify the
process of hosting a web site.
Server Location – If your business serves a community in a specific
geographic location, it is recommended that you use a hosting service
that has servers in your target location. This will help improve your
SEO ranking in your area.
Disk space and bandwidth limitation – We recommend you choose
a hosting plan that is unlimited. These plans are so common and
affordable, there is no reason you will pick any other option.
9. Hosting Cont.
BlueHost A US Based hosting provider that offers an excellent web
hosting service. Simple signup process. $5.95/month = $71.4/year
Site5 – My favorite. Great customer support. .
$5.95/month = $71.4/year . They have servers in various cities around
the world which allows local hosting. Additional cost of $1~$2/month
WpEngine – Fully Managed WordPress hosting - $290/year
Not recommend : GoDaddy hosting
10. Point the domain at your hosting
Set up name servers –
The actual values are
provided by the hosting
company
The information should
be entered into the
domain registrant
database.
11. cPanel – Provided by the hosting
company
Manage email accounts
Configure domains
Install and uninstall
WordPress
Manage files in a user
friendly environment
12. Configure Domain In cPanel
Your main domain is automatically defines
If you add more domain to your hosting account,
use AddOn domain
Sub domains allow you to define domains such as
members.wordpressinsider.org
15. Essential Settings
Setting/General -
Set time zone correctly
Setting/Permalinks –
the permanent URL to your
Individual posts
It is recommended to use custom
structure :
/%category%/%postname%
16. Publishing content
In WordPress, you can write either posts or pages.
Posts are typically regular blog entries, you write a
post. Posts automatically appear in reverse
chronological order on your blog's home page.
Pages, on the other hand, are for content such as
"About Me," "Contact Me," etc.
17. About Categories & Tags
Each post must have at least one category
Tags are similar to categories, but they are generally
used to describe your post in more detail. Using tags is
optional
18. Plugins Overview
Plugins are software
add-ons that can
enhance and
modify the default
behaviour of
Wordpress.
Plugin are installed
from with the
WordPress
Dashboard
Example - AddThis
19. What you can do with plugins
Easily integrate with email marketing system such as
MailChimp
Convert your website to a membership site
Speed up your site
Event calendars
Add contact form
Implement eCommerce functionality
Social Media sharing buttons
20. Widgets
Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you
can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebar(s) or
any other “widgetized area” of your WordPress
website.
Widgets make it easy to customize the content of your
sidebar(s).
In may WordPress themes Widgets are used to
customize the home page
21. Themes
There are hundreds of free themes you can choose
from
Premium themes cost anywhere between $39~$300
Premium theme providers:
Elegant themes – $39 per 1 year access for 50+ themes
WooThemes – From $70/3 themes and up
DirectoryPress - $79
StudioPress - $99.5 for one theme/$400 for the entire
collection
22. Picking the right WordPress theme
Will the theme lend itself to the desired branding?
Will the new site have a lot of photos? Videos?
How much “sidebar” content will there be? An email opt-in
box?
Generally, can you visualize your content “fitting” the
theme?
Are there enough “widgetized” regions?
Are there multiple page templates?
Navigation structure
How many navigation bars are there?
Are custom menus supported?
23. Free themes
Pretty simple
Offer pretty minimal to none customization.
Most of them are designed to be blogs
Support and quality are no guaranteed
A good place to start:
The default WordPress theme , twenty twelve
Free theme that are developed by WooThemes
24. Premium Themes
Wide variety of layouts and purposes
Excellent support & a helpful community
Better quality
More customization options
More functionality such as featured slider, photo
galleries, short codes.
25. Picking a theme
Things to take in consideration.
Will the theme lend itself to the desired branding?
Are there enough “widgetized” regions?
Will the new site have a lot of photos? Videos?
How much “sidebar” content will there be? An email
opt-in box?
Does the navigation need to be especially flexible?
Generally, can you visualize your content “fitting” the
theme?
Also consider:
Code Quality
Support