Session 1: Introduction and the WordPress user-interface

marc — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:35:04 +0000

The Workbook and Video recording of this session is available to free subscribers below.

Session 1 Content

Today’s session goals

First hour:

Using Adobe Connect web conference, how to ask questions and interact (2 min)
Goals of the 8-week course (5 min)
My story, what is WordPress (10 min)
Understanding hosting and domain + difference between self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com (10 min)
Demonstrations: Installing, configuring, navigating WordPress; theme configuration; sidebars and widgets (25 min)
Using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) (5 min)

Second hour:

Week-by-week – what the course includes
The various options and how to sign-up
Q&A

Goals of the 8-week course

Get clients, make sales, build your platform, or spread your message via the internet
Teach you the ins and outs of the WordPress platform for developing your own website(s)
Teach you basic internet marketing and social media concepts and practices
Expect to come out with an attractive website that converts to leads, clients, sales

How the course works

About an hour lecture / presentation each week followed by a practice period
A fast-paced, beginner to intermediate course on website development with WordPress (first 4 weeks)…
…plus internet marketing for small business (last 4 weeks)
Condenses hundreds of hours of research and experimentation on best practices
You can make yourself an attractive and effective internet presence (in fact, you can do just as good a job as most “professionals”. Why?)
Will teach you “everything you need to know” and show you where to find “everything that you want to know”
My Story
How I got started
Up until quite recently (last 2 years), you needed a web designer to make an attractive website
Problems and limitations of traditional web design methods

What is WordPress

WordPress is an open-source web-based software, written in PHP / MySQL, that runs on Linux-based hosting platforms
WordPress is, by far, the most popular Content Management System (200 million sites hosted) — other open-source CMS’s include Joomla, Drupal and DotNetNuke
Difference between self-hosted WordPress install and WordPress.com
WordPress is an excellent platform for small business websites
WordPress is an excellent platform for (paid) membership sites

Why WordPress

Can be configured as a blog (shows posts on home page) or as a static website
Simple to use yet infinitely customizable
Huge adoption guarantees availability of excellent themes (many free) and plugins
Publishes content to RSS for true “Web 2.0” compatibility
Optimized for search-engines out-of-the-box
Perfect for membership sites

Domains and Hosting

You need a Domain Name Registrar company (i.e. Godaddy) and a Hosting Company (i.e. BlueHost). Sometimes they are the same company.
Go to your Domain name registrar control panel, and from there set the Name Servers of your domain as instructed by your hosting company (i.e., NS1.BLUEHOST.COM, NS2.BLUEHOST.COM)
Go to your Hosting control panel, and from there:
Host your domain (if primary domain of the account, this is automatic), OR:
Create an “add-on” domain (if its an additional domain)
Then run the WordPress auto-installer
Hosting platforms

Your web server (or hosting platform) holds or “serves” your content to users over the internet

Hosting platforms are optimized for different purposes: online stores, selling on eBay, complex applications, simple websites, membership sites, etc.
WordPress (with additional Third-party apps) is so powerful it renders most specialized hosting platforms obsolete for creating small business websites (i.e. Site Built It or SBI)
One of the most popular general-purpose hosting platforms is called cPanel – it’s a Linux-based server
You want your hosting company to support multiple websites
Most hosting companies are very good and a few are terrible. Don’t risk it. Use the ones I suggest :). Use http://everymanmarketing.com/bluehost
Changing hosting when you already have a site can be a pain – best to choose right in the first place

Demonstrations

Installing WordPress on cPanel hosting
Configuring WordPress for a “normal” website
Sidebar Widgets
Installing and configuring plugins: PageMash, My Link Order, SI Captcha, Subscribe to Comments, TweetMeme, WordPress DB Backup
Installing and configuring Themes
Uploading files via FTP: changing your banner images

Content of the series

Week 2-5: Theme selection and customization. Work with Atahualpa, Thesis, Headway, and iThemes Builder. Making banners with Paint.Net. Publishing content with Windows Live Writer. Introduction to HTML and CSS.
Week 6: Keyword research and search-engine optimization. Market Samurai
Week 7: Newsletter management systems, autoresponders, shopping carts. Work with Constant Contact and Aweber. Paypal and WP-Ecommerce.
Week 8: Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin

Purchase options

Just get the videos ($99)
Attend the webinar ($299)
Attend the webinar and have me work on your site + get premium themes ($449)
Site subscription is $10/mth and kicks in after 3 months (cancel any time), gives you access to a growing library of bimonthly session recordings on topics such as membership sites, blogging for profit, advanced site SEO, etc.

The Workbook for Session 1 is available to free subscribers

The workbook is a complete step-by-step, WordPress Quick Start guide that goes into all the topics above in much more detail. To get it, register from the “Register” link below and select the option to get it during registration. (You will need to confirm your email address)

The Video recording is also available below

But you must be registered and logged-in. If you have not yet registered for this site, follow the “Register” link below. (if you are already registered but don’t see the video link below, login)

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Click the link below for the video

http://connectpro86967983.na5.acrobat.com/p55957706/

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