Intro to Jetpack

Shanta R. Nathwani

About Me• Instructor, Sheridan College

• Joint program with University of Toronto at

Mississauga: Institute of Culture,

Communication, Information and

Technology

• Web Design and Capstone Project

• Independent IT and Social Media

Consultant

• Clients include NPOs, Real Estate, Software

Development, Financial and Political

Sectors

• Bachelor of Commerce in Info Tech Mgmt.,

Ryerson University

Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa

JetPack

• A set of plugins installed by default with WordPress.org

• Turned off (Inactive) by default

• Typically tested on WordPress.com and then deployed

• Meant to be a simple set of the best of the best to operate a WordPress site.

• Current version: 3.4.1

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Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa - http://shanta.ca 4

Favourites

Yours and Mine

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Contact Forms

• Sends an email to the address

specified, by default

• Easy to set up

• Can change what happens on

“Submit”

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Contact Form Alternatives

MailChimp

• Can maintain a list of users, outside

of WordPress

• Easy to create a form

• Easy to create a widget

Contact Form 7

• 19 Million+ downloads

• Multiple forms

• Supports Akismet and CAPTCHA

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Tiled Galleries

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Gallery Alternatives

Flickr

• Upload once, multiple platforms

• Can organize the photos by set,

album, filter and more

Next GEN Gallery

• Paid upgrades to include email

support, lightboxes and social

sharing

• Easy to use and light on your

website

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WordPress Statistics

• Installed and active by default

• Connected using WordPress.com

• Gives highlights of Top Posts and

Searches

• Further stats can show number of

unique visitors and pages/posts

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Google Analytics (an alternative)

• Shows more detailed information,

such as the specific source, not just

the website

• Shows the path that someone took

to enter the site, as well as exit

• Gives more statistical information,

such as average page view

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Publicize

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Sharing

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Publicize vs. Sharing

Publicize

• Done at the time of Posting by the

website owner/administrator

• Can be done en masse

• Sometimes, doesn’t give the best

reach vs. manual input (i.e.,

Facebook)

Sharing

• Done by the visitors of the site,

one by one

• After posting

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What’s New?

New Additions to Jetpack

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Site Management

• Manages all of your WordPress

sites (both .com and .org) through a

single Dashboard,

WordPress.com/sites

• Update plugins, write your post

from WordPress.com and view

statistics from a single site

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Monitor

• Notifies you when your site(s) is not reachable via email

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[Jetpack Monitor] Bad news — your site http://jetpack.me is down!

[Jetpack Monitor] Bad news — your site http://jetpack.me is still down!

[Jetpack Monitor] Good news — your site http://jetpack.me is back up!

Single Sign On

• Allows users to login to your

website using their WordPress.com

credentials.

• Saves users from having to

remember different credentials.

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What Does It All Mean?

• It Depends

• On how much management you want to deal with

• Speed of the website

• What you want these specific things to do

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Questions?

Tweet Me:

@ShantaDotCa

Email:

shanta@shanta.ca

My Web Site:

http://shanta.ca

Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa

References

1. Jetpack – Main Website

2. Michele Butcher’s Talk on Jetpack – WordCamp Chicago 2014 (Slides)

3. Auto-Responder to Contact Form – WPTavern

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