getting the most out of wordpress.com
DESCRIPTION
No coding experience? No problem! With WordPress.com, you can have a great looking site up and running in just a couple minutes. We’ll go through the basics of using WordPress itself, and what WordPress.com specifically can offer you as a beginning blogger or site builder. Presented at WordCamp Chicago 2014TRANSCRIPT
Getting the most out of WordPress.com
I am Mel Choyce
• Design Engineer at Automattic
• WordPress core contributor
• Live in Boston
• @melchoyce | choycedesign.com | melchoyce.com
Introduction to WordPress.com
• Open source project
• Need to pay for hosting
• Completely customizable
• Total control
• Great if you know some code or feel comfortable experimenting
• Hosted WordPress service
• Free hosting
• Partially customizable
• Paid upgrades
• Great if you’re new to site building/blogging or want to make something fast
Lots of blogs. Lots of readers.
Users produce about 41.0 million new posts and 54.0 million new
comments each month
http://en.wordpress.com/stats/
Over 409 million people view more than 14.0 billion pages
each month
http://en.wordpress.com/stats/
Used by big brands
Used InternationallyPosts written in over 120 languages
Top 10 Languages
66%English
1.4%French
2%Italian
1.1%Russian
1.8%German
3.5%Indonesian
1%Swedish
1.1%Vietnamese
6.5%Portuguese
8.7%Spanish
Getting Started
Setting up Your Site
Themes
https://cloudup.com/cyDViQbXK4J
Video Demo:Changing Your Theme
Tips for picking themes
Figure out your site’s purpose
PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE
BUSINESSBLOG
Determine your budget
150+Free Themes 110+
Premium Themes$18
LowestPrice
$70~Average
Price
$125+Higher end
themes
Pick a theme with the layouts you want
Customization
Header Images
Video Demo:Adding a header image
https://cloudup.com/cuInvKCikzv
Background Colors or Images
Video Demo:Changing your background color or image
https://cloudup.com/cyj8B5Faec8
Design Upgrades
Custom Colors
Video Demo:Using custom colors
https://cloudup.com/c0i5gn-Ag71
Custom Fonts
Video Demo:Using custom colors
https://cloudup.com/cM6k9PoSV9V
Custom CSS
Video Demo:Using custom css
https://cloudup.com/cOj_XhIpzRU
Widgets
Text Widgets
Video Demo:Adding a text widget
https://cloudup.com/cxc9zfAU3So
Contact Info
Social Widgets
Twitter Timeline
Facebook Like Box
• About.me
• Bandpage
• Box File Sharing
• del.icio.us
• Eventbrite Event Calendar
• Flickr
• Goodreads
• Gravatar/Gravatar Profile
• tlk.io
...and others!
Follow Widgets
Follow Button
Follow Blog by Email
Widget Visibility
Menus
Creating Content
Pages vs. Posts
• Chronological — publish date matters
• A single entry in a blog, can stand on its own
• Can add tags + categories
• Display in a list on your blog page
• “Static” — No sense of time or publish date
• Hierarchical — can nest and relate pages together
• No tags or categories
• Display in your menu
Posts Pages
Front Page
Page on frontvs.
Blog homepage
Posts
Tags vs. Categories
• Higher level topics(food, travel)
• Usually only one per post, maybe two
• “Table of Contents” of your blog
• Hierarchical
• Granular topics(burritos, santa cruz)
• As many as you want per post
• Like your blog’s index
• Not hierarchical
Categories Tags
Featured Images
Video Demo:Adding a featured image
https://cloudup.com/c25uXMPsoYf
Post Formats
Video Demo:Different colors/icons for different post formats
https://cloudup.com/codFplB2TiY
Excerpts
Scheduling Posts
Video Demo:Scheduling a post
https://cloudup.com/cw2HYRJRNGn
Copy a Post
Writing Help
Pages
Page Templates
Password Protected Pages
Video Demo:Password protecting a page
https://cloudup.com/cS-N_xoUurl
Display Posts Shortcode
Copy a Page
Custom Content Types
Portfolios
http://en.support.wordpress.com/portfolios/
Testimonials
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/motif/
Recipes
[recipe title="Simple Steak Marinade" servings="1lb of steak" time="5 minutes" difficulty="easy"]
(your recipe)
[/recipe]
http://en.support.wordpress.com/shortcodes/recipes/
Media
Video Demo:Your media library
https://cloudup.com/cq2C84_QkMi
Images
Video Demo:Adding an image to a post
https://cloudup.com/c6ZlaMWF-WV
Galleries
Video Demo:Adding galleries to a post
https://cloudup.com/cDB7y96ewp3
Audio
Video Demo:Embedding audio into a post
https://cloudup.com/ceOYPkHeURO
Video
Video Demo:Embedding video into a post
https://cloudup.com/c-4-yGcTWsN
Playlists
Interactive Content
Contact Forms
Polls
Presentations
Video Demo:What a presentation looks like
https://cloudup.com/cezyl_TBxhx
http://en.support.wordpress.com/presentations/
Documentation
Sharing Content
Publicize
Sharing Buttons
Likes & Reblogs
Settings > Sharing
Tracking Content
Stats
Notifications
Fine-tune your Settings
Screen Options
• Reading
• Writing
• Discussion
• Media
• Privacy
The only settings you need to worry about
Tools
Import
Export
Getting Serious
Domains
mysite.wordpress.commysite.com
Domains
1. Register a new domain on WordPress.com(through your site’s “store” section)
or
2. Point a domain you already own to your WordPress.com site
or
3. Point a subdomain you already own to your WordPress.com site (blog.mysite.com)
Emails
1. Forward to an existing email address(like [email protected])
or
2. Connect your domain to another email provider(http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/add-email/)
Connecting with Other WordPress.com Users
Follow Blogs
Follow Tags
Likes
Reblogs
Comments