building a website the easy way with wordpress

Building a Website the easy way with

By James Tryon

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What is WordPress

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.


A Little About WordPress

Wordpress is used on Millions of sites, and and is seen by tens of millions of people every day.

Wordpress was created by and for the community. Under the GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license


What do you need to run wordpress?

1 - a web host2 - you need a domain3 - a little know how

PHP version 4.3 or greaterMySQL version 4.1.2 or greater


Big Names that use WordPress

Nikon - Pepsi - Nokia OnStar - Best Buy - Ford Logitech - Samsung - GE ebay - Xerox - PlayStation The Wall Street Journal yahoo - CNN - Wired


Cool Facts on WordPress

Plugs8,038/8,058/8,063

Downloads71,388,637

Themes1,111/1,114/1,114

Downloads11,390,735


Flavors of WordPress

.COM

.COM | VIP


Making a Plan• Website Host Requirements Checked and Verified

http://codex.wordpress.org/Hosting_WordPress

• Versions of PHP and MySQL Checked & Verifiedhttp://codex.wordpress.org/Hosting_WordPress

• Web Host Compatibility with New Versions http://codex.wordpress.org/Core_Update_Host_Compatibility(stay away from godaddy - they over sell there servers and the bandwith suffers)

• Your Website Username and Password






http://codex.wordpress.org/Core_Update_Host_Compatibility

http://codex.wordpress.org/Core_Update_Host_Compatibility

Famous 5-Minute Install1 - Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven't already.2 - Create a database for WordPress on your web server.3 - Create a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.4 - Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.5 - Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details as explained in Editing wp-config.php to generate and use your secret key password.6 - Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server:

If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.

If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory wordpress to the name you'd like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress installation in a subdirectory called "blog", you should rename the directory called "wordpress" to "blog" and upload it to the root directory of your web server.

Hint: If your FTP transfer is too slow read how to avoid FTPing at : Step 1: Download and Extract.Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.

If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php

If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

That's it! WordPress should now be installed.


http://example.com

http://example.com

http://example.com/blog/




http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php

http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php

http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

Create your Data Base

Database Name: wordpress

Default character set: utf8

Default Collation: utf8_bin


Create your User

user name: wordpress_admin

host: localhost

password: iE8-MQG1DRPIOeVDYYSk_EMRR5Rfu&7Y

confirm password: iE8-MQG1DRPIOeVDYYSk_EMRR5Rfu&7Y

http://www.sethcardoza.com/tools/random_password_generator/




Link your Userto the Data base

Just set the privileges for the user on the database you created. I set it so the admin can do anything to that data base.

Once you have everything uploaded to your server, simple to go the url


Oh No! what do I do now?


We can do 3 things


We can do 3 things

• let wordpress do all the work


We can do 3 things


• Set up the wp-config.php your self


We can do 3 things


• Set up the wp-config.php your self

• We can stop here and go get a beer


We’ll Let WordPress Give it a Try


Still have errors?


Still have errors?

Why do you hate me!


OK this is a easy fix


Are you sure your ready for this?


First thing’s First, lets change the

password to something we can remember


I like "password"


lets take a look at our new WordPress site


Yep - that’s good old "Kubrick"

but it's still a blog


Time to start customizing WordPress


Create a new user with administrator rights


logout from your admin account and login as that new user.


logout from your admin account and login as that new user.

Then delete the old admin user and all his posts and links.


WHAT!


It’s for Security

admin is to common and it is the first account hackers will try

Then delete all comments from test user, post, links, and Blogroll


Now you have an almost empty site to work on.


Lets start to go through the settings tabs


General


All your basic stuff in here, you can change it as you see

fit. I'm ok with it.


Writing


I never change anything on this page.

You can set it up to post via e-mail but why


Reading


Reading• you can set the number of post that show up on the blog

home page

• you can also change the amount of post that show up in your rss

• they even give you the option to change the rss feed from full text to summary.

• this is were you change the settings for use a static page or a blog page. (more lator)

• This option may not work if you use some premium themes as they will use the file home.php for the Home page layout. In those kind of themes you will find a separate template for a blog page.


http://wpsitebuilding.com/wordpress-setup/wordpress-options/




Discussion

• I never change any of these Settings

• To reflect the way you want to handle comments, if you want to have people commenting or not.

• For a static business website without a blog you can disable commenting here. (I do this on the Template level)


Media

• you can change the size of the images hear but I would weight tell you have the design done so you know what size to change the sizes to


Privacy

• lets you pick if you want search engines see your site.


Permalinks

• Pretty urls

• /%category%/%post_id%/%postname%/


Miscellaneous

• I leave this alone


Remove or rename the default post category

• The standard post category in WordPress is set to “Uncategorized” with the same for the Slug.

• Set this to something that make since to you and your site


Delete or rename default and create new link categories

• The default for links in WordPress is “Blogroll".

• I never use this part of wordpress.

• Never had a need


Install, Activate and Configure Plugins

(most good plugins have very ugly sites)


First off Remove "Hello Dolly" I really like Photo Matt but this plug-in is just dumb


List of plugins we use almost all the time

All in One SEO Pack• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/• http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-

seo-pack/#more-59contact form 7

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/• http://contactform7.com/• Simple but flexible. Just another contact form plugin.

WordPress.com Stats• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/• Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. • Requires a WordPress.com API key.

Google XML Sitemaps• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/• http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-

generator/• This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines

like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.Akismet

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/• http://akismet.com/• 14,163,866,845 spams caught so far

10,256,853 so far today83% of all comments are spam

• (4pm on jan 21st 2010)• Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look

like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under "Comments." To show off your Akismet stats just put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin.

Google Analytics for WordPress• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/• http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/• This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics with extra search engines and

automatic clickout and download tracking to your WordPress blog.pageMash

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagemash/• http://joelstarnes.co.uk/blog/pagemash/

WP-DB-Backup• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/• http://ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/• backups should be done on the server, but this is also nice to have

Favatars• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/favatars/• http://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/wiki/favatars• A system to show favicon.ico files as avatars: "Favatars". Entire recode by Jeff Minard

(fixes for 2.5.x by Carlo Perassi). Previous Versions care of: Joen, Paul James, and Matthew.

WP Favicon• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-favicon/• http://geekthegathering.com/wp-favicon-add-a-favicon-to-your-blog/• The "WP Favicon" plugin add a favicon to your site. Most of the themes just forgot to

manage this small but nice feature.Feed Subscriber Stats

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feed-subscriber-stats/• http://www.allancollins.net/368/feed-subscriber-stats-3/• This plugin will show the number of subscribers according to FeedBurner.

Subscribe to Comments• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/• http://txfx.net/wordpress-plugins/subscribe-to-comments/• Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Based

on version 1 from ScriptygoddessWickett Twitter Widget

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wickett-twitter-widget/• Display Tweets in the sidebar of your blog

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/• http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/• Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and

RSS feeds. A templating feature allows customization of the display.W3 Total Cache

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/• http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/w3-total-cache/• The fastest and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the

speed user experience of your blog by adding: page caching, database caching, minify, content delivery network (CDN) functionality and more...


http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/#more-59




http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

http://contactform7.com

http://contactform7.com

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/


http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/




http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

http://akismet.com

http://akismet.com

http://akismet.com/get/

http://akismet.com/get/



http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/

http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagemash/


http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

http://ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/

http://ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/favatars/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/favatars/

http://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/wiki/favatars

http://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/wiki/favatars

http://www.thecodepro.com/

http://www.thecodepro.com/

http://perassi.org/

http://perassi.org/

http://www.noscope.com/

http://www.noscope.com/

http://www.peej.co.uk/projects/favatars.html

http://www.peej.co.uk/projects/favatars.html

http://www.somefoolwitha.com/

http://www.somefoolwitha.com/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-favicon/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-favicon/

http://geekthegathering.com/wp-favicon-add-a-favicon-to-your-blog/

http://geekthegathering.com/wp-favicon-add-a-favicon-to-your-blog/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feed-subscriber-stats/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feed-subscriber-stats/

http://www.allancollins.net/368/feed-subscriber-stats-3/

http://www.allancollins.net/368/feed-subscriber-stats-3/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

http://txfx.net/wordpress-plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

http://txfx.net/wordpress-plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

http://scriptygoddess.com/

http://scriptygoddess.com/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wickett-twitter-widget/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wickett-twitter-widget/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/

http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/w3-total-cache/

http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/w3-total-cache/

Creating a Static Page

• Lets start by creating a basic page in WordPress. We will call it home.


Install a new theme

• http://getk2.com/

• Supports Child themes

• http://code.google.com/p/kaytwo/w/list


http://getk2.com

http://getk2.com

Set up a child theme

• Create a new folder in the WordPress themes folder (wp-content/themes/) to contain your child theme files.

• For example: wp-content/themes/k2-custom/


Create a style.css file with the following content:

/*Theme Name: your child theme nameTheme URI: the-theme's-homepageDescription: a-brief-descriptionAuthor: your-nameAuthor URI: your-URITemplate: K2*/

Note: Make absolutely sure whatever you have in Template: matches the folder name that K2 resides in. This is case-sensitive. For example: if K2 resides in the path wp-content/themes/kaytwo-1.0/, you would use: Template: kaytwo-1.0


A child theme needs

• style.css

• screenshot.jpg

• what ever files you want to overwrite


Working on creating a Static home page

• Now that we have our child theme set up, we can start to create our static pages.

• Copy page.php from your parent theme and rename it to page-”your call”.php

• add the template tag to the top of the file

<?php/*Template Name: Home*/?>



• Save all changes and upload

• Then go back to settings->Reading

• Change the radio button to static

• Pick your Pages



• Next you can start to customized your templates.

• This is almost plan HTML and CSS

• Some cases no HTML just CSS



• Then your going to have to go to:pages: edit

• Set your template

• Check out your hard work


Extra Folders

• I like to create basic folders in the root of my site:

• js

• img

• flash


JavaScript Tricks <script type="text/javascript"> jQuery(document).ready(function(){ jQuery("#slider").easySlider({ auto: false, continuous: true, nextId: "slider1next", prevId: "slider1prev" }); });</script>

The nice thing is wordpress comes with jQuery installed,but you have to write it a little different.

The $ like most jQuery code needs to be switch with jQuery


Navigation

• combination of hard code

• wp_list_pages functions

• pageMash

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagemash/






API Key

• http://en.wordpress.com/api-keys/

• WordPress.com has what’s called “API keys” which allow you to use services like Akismet and WordPress.com Stats built on the WordPress.com platform. This allows you to leverage the power of WordPress.com while still hosting your blog elsewhere.


http://en.wordpress.com/api-keys/

http://en.wordpress.com/api-keys/

How do I get a API key

• For Akismet users: They have free keys and commercial keys available.

• For all other services: When you sign up for a WordPress.com account we will email you an API key. If you already have a WordPress.com account, your API key is listed on your profile page, which you can get to by clicking the “My Account” link in the top left when you’re logged in.


Work Smarter not Harder

• Newsletter system - MailchimpCompletely Free AccountStore up to 500 subscribersSend up to 3,000 emails a monthhttp://www.mailchimp.com/

• Even works with eventbritehttp://www.mailchimp.com/campaign/eventbrite/home


http://www.mailchimp.com

http://www.mailchimp.com

How to Get Involved with WordPress

IRC chats weekly for every flavor http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wordpress-ui

mailing list http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists

forums http://wordpress.org/support/

wordcamps http://central.wordcamp.org/


http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wordpress-ui




http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists

http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists

http://wordpress.org/support/

http://wordpress.org/support/

http://central.wordcamp.org

http://central.wordcamp.org

building a website the easy way with wordpress

Self Improvement

static home

child theme

data base

k2 resides

mqg1drpioevdyyskemrr5rfuamp

api key

web server

wordpress