4. Meet Your Team
Introduction to WordPress
Co-Founder, GDI LA Chapter: Natalie MacLees
Teacher: Suzette Franck
Teacher Assitant: Alex Vasquez
Teacher Assistant: Karen McCamy
5. Suzette Franck
Introduction to WordPress
Front-end Developer & Designer at WebDevStudios
Lesson Plan Contributor for WordPress.org
WordCamp Speaker (25 of them!)
Teacher at Girl Develop It
Lowbrow Artist and Art Collector
8. What is WordPress?
• Customizable website creation tool
• Most popular blog publishing and content management
system on the web today
• Powers over 74 million websites
Meet WordPress
9. CMS
• Content Management System.
• A computer application that allows publishing, editing,
organizing, deleting, and maintaining content.
Meet WordPress
10. Top 1 million websites
34%
7%
6%
53%
WordPress
Drupal
Joomla
Other
11. Why use WordPress?
• Open source
• User friendly
• Flexible and extensible
• Easy to find support
• SEO friendly
• Own your own content
• Community
Meet WordPress
12. What types of sites can you build?
• blog
• business
• informative
• review
• personal
• photo gallery
• portfolio
• community
• ecommerce
• membership
• …and more!
Meet WordPress
15. WordPress.com
• Like renting an apartment
• Limited with what you can do
• Maintenance and backups included
• Customer service available to handle issues
.com vs .org
16. WordPress.org (self-hosted)
• Like buying a house
• Can do anything you’d like
• You do maintenance and backups
• You’re responsible for handling any issues that arise
.com vs .org
17. Installing WordPress
• WordPress.com: done for you
• Managed WP Hosting: done for you
• Other hosting: nearly all have easy installation
.com vs .org
19. Forums & Online Groups
• WordPress.org
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• WordPress Stack Exchange
Help and Support
20. Hiring Help
• Classes and workshops
• One-on-one tutoring
• WordPress consultants, designers, and developers
Help and Support
21. The ONE Best Thing
• Get involved with the WordPress community
• Nicest, smartest, most generous people you’ll ever meet
• 19 WordPress meetup groups in Southern California
• WordCamps - Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County,
San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix
Help and Support
25. User Accounts
• Administrator - all access
• Editor - publish and manage posts of other users
• Author - publish and manage own posts
• Contributor - write an manage but can’t publish
• Subscriber - manage their own profile
WordPress Basics
26. Posts
• Timely content
• Social content
• Categories: Table of contents
• Tags: Index of keywords
• Syndicated via RSS
WordPress Basics
32. What does a theme do?
• Changes the way your site looks and works
• Colors, layouts, typography, etc.
• BEWARE: bloated ‘do it all’ themes. They’re often more trouble
than they’re worth
WordPress Themes
33. Where should you get themes?
• Free themes ONLY from the WordPress Theme repository
• Paid themes only from reputable sellers
• How to find reputable sellers
WordPress Themes
34. Installing and configuring themes
• Install themes from the Dashboard
• Using the Customizer
• Theme options pages
WordPress Themes
36. What does a plugin do?
• Adds some bit of functionality to your site
• Examples:
• Social media sharing buttons
• A new type of widget (instagram feed)
• Image sliders
• Add new capabilities: ecommerce, membership, directory, etc.
WordPress Plugins
37. Where should you get plugins?
• Free plugins ONLY from the WordPress Plugin repository
• Paid plugins only from reputable sellers
• How to find reputable sellers
WordPress Plugins
38. Installing and configuring plugins
• Install plugins from the Dashboard
• Plugin documentation
• Finding plugin settings
WordPress Plugins
45. Back up back up back up back up!!!!!
• Cannot over-emphasize how important regular backups are
• A recent backup is the cure for nearly any ill
• Not a question of if, but when the site will be hacked or corrupted
• How often should you back up?
• Two pieces to back up
• How many backups to keep
WordPress Site Care & Maintenance
46. Backup Plugins
• BackUpWordpress (free)
• WordPress Backup to Dropbox (free)
• BackWPUp (free)
• Backup Buddy (paid)
• VaultPress (paid subscription)
WordPress Site Care & Maintenance
47. WordPress updates
• WordPress tells you when there are updates available
• Simple to do BUT
• BACK UP FIRST!!! ALWAYS!! NO EXCEPTIONS
WordPress Site Care & Maintenance
48. Keep your site secure
• Use secure passwords
• Use least privilege
• Set up salts
• Use a security plugin - I like WordFence
• Themes and plugins from reputable sources only!
• Back up regularly - move backups to another server
WordPress Site Care & Maintenance
51. Offline
• WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin Wilson
• Meetups: Find your local group(s) on meetup.com
• WordCamps: Find upcoming camps on wordcamp.org
Resources