I have greatly expanded the WordPress 101 Quick Start eBook (version 1.00!) and added three, 10-minute video tutorials in HD on styling the Atahualpa theme.
The eBook is available by subscribing to our mailing list.
I love the free image editing software Paint.Net. It’s a serious competitor for Photoshop CS4 ($799!) in the do-it-yourself market. Another (reputedly) more powerful, but harder to use free software is Gimp. But Paint.Net does the job for me. Here is a typical application: making a banner for a website. Below is a step-by-step guide.
This is useful not just for capturing screen elements, but also for measuring the pixel-width of items on websites.
Note: you don’t need to use screen-capture to capture images on websites. Just right-click > Copy. You can also get the image dimension through right-click > Properties.
This is so easy it will knock your socks off. It took me 10 minutes, but that was because I wasn’t clear on mySQL security – it should take 3 minutes, so this article could save you 7 minutes. I did it because I was doing a lot of development with short testing cycles and was tired of the server lag-time of my remote server.
We covered an introduction to the course (what you can expect to learn), WordPress installation and configuration for a business website, the user interface, and theme installation.
The course registration deadline is Tuesday 2/16 (for the Tuesday evening session) or Thursday 2/18 (for the Thursday afternoon session). For pricing and registration click here.
There are two parallel sessions (come to either one or both, plus access the video recording):
7 Tuesdays starting Feb. 16, 7:30-9:30pm EST (the last hour is a practice and group coaching session – optional but highly recommended)
7 Thursdays starting Feb. 18, 3-5pm EST.
If you would like to discuss the various packages with reference to your needs, please reply to this email or call (215) 376-4345.
The course curriculum is below. This is going to be the best course ever, with expanded practice and coaching time, a more interactive web conference system, and new theme frameworks getting demonstrated (some of which are included in the Platinum package).
Warm Regards,
Marc Beneteau – Everyman Marketing
Websites, blogging, video, social media for ordinary people http://WordpressAcademy.biz
W: (215) 376-4345
WordPress 101 Curriculum
Note: Session 1 already complete – see above for the recording link
Session 1 – Course introduction and WordPress installation, configuration, and basic content creation
Opening a hosting account
Installing WordPress
Configuring WordPress for a business website
Understanding the difference between Posts and Pages
Image and text alignment are a very frequent source of frustration for website owners. Unfortunately, mixing text and images in HTML isn’t quite so simple as in Microsoft Word.
A common problem is horizontal alignment of images and / or positioning new paragraphs after a left- or right-floating image. See for example:
Sometimes you want to spice-up your WordPress pages (especially sales-letter pages) to replace the standard list-bullet dot or square with a custom images, for example compare:
There is a superior visual editor for WordPress that you can install and configure to your site in 2 minutes. It’s called TinyMCE Advanced. It offers a rich expansion over the default editor, particularly:
Imports all CSS classes from the main theme stylesheet and add them to a drop-down list.
Support for making and editing tables (with a very cool context sensitive menu to add, delete and merge columns and rows, set table properties etc).
In-line CSS styles.
Advanced link and image dialogs that offer a lot of options.
Search and Replace while editing.
Support for XHTML specific tags
Add/remove (div based) layers, with relative or absolute positioning via drag-and-drop etc.
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
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 Thesis theme for WordPress truly is a great theme for a business website, for the following reasons and more:
It installs “out of the box” with a clean, professional look
Wide range of configuration options
Easily customizable through custom CSS and with a large support community
Add content anywhere with the Thesis open hook system, which plays very well with OpenHook plugin.
Thesis does, however, cost $87, and so several people have attempted to create a theme similar to Thesis (emulate the Thesis look-and-feel). The limitation of these is, of course, the lack of customizability — Thesis is much more than “just a pretty face”, there is a tremendous amount of thinking that has gone “under the hood” as well for changing the layout to your needs. For more on themes vs. theme frameworks, see Choosing a good WordPress theme for your business or corporate website
Short of buying the real thing, however, you now have a better solution. There is another excellent theme framework that offers an overlapping (and in some ways superior) feature set called Atahualpa. What’s more, it’s free, and it can be downloaded directly through your WordPress site’s dashboard. Only problem is, the default styling of Atahualpa is a bit clunky.
No problem — CSS to the rescue. After procrastinating on this for some weeks I finally “bit the bullet” and styled Atahualpa to a Thesis look-alike. Here is the result:
I deliberately left the banner image (which is not provided by default in Thesis) since I find the need to write custom CSS to put a banner image in Thesis a bit tacky (Atahualpa comes with a dashboard option to display a rotating banner).
Update: I have now got the styling of the page menu bar right as well and, thanks to the brilliant contribution of Larry Wilcox, a top right widget area that can be used for rotating image, video etc.
As always, the first session of WordPress 101 is free. Hope you can join us – just choose one of the times below. If you can’t make it, I will send out the video link afterwards. This is going to be the best course ever – see below what participants of the previous class had to say (this is enough to make me blush, but hey, I didn’t pay them to say this, I swear…)
If you are already registered for the course, you can get a jump-start by signing up for hosting from Bluehost and replying to this email – I may be able to install WordPress and a basic plugin set on your site during the webinar as part of the demonstration.
“Excellent course to get started with building a website and web presence. The course was well paced, full of great information, and easy to follow. Marc has a knack for hitting the key points necessary to get a quick start across the wide spectrum of relevant topics.”
“Marc is such a delight to work with. With his expertise and instruction, I now have a beautiful and adaptable website for my business “In The Garden, Design, Care & Workshops.” Quite amazing – workable pages up within 2 weeks; looking good in 6 weeks! After many years of procrastination….
I’m enjoying learning “how to” and so excited to finally say “YES, I have a website – www.inthegardendesign.us.”” — Charlotte Kidd
“I started Marc’s training program with little knowledge of Wordpress and within a few weeks had a functional, clean site up and running. Anyone with an average knowledge of tech and the willingness to put in a few hours will find the rich underbelly of Wordpress much more accessible. Mark tells you all you need to know to avoid the big mistakes saving hours of time, and pre-screens all the “ingredients” you need for a successful Wordpress site, such as Themes, Plug-ins, and the like, so you don’t have to”. – James Moche, www.premiumeldercare.com
“Marc’s enthusiasm for and understanding of Wordpress is infectious, and helped navigate my own confusion, fears and frustrations. I’m so proud of my new website, and it’s comforting and empowering to know that I now have the skills and confidence to design, build, and maintain as many websites as my little heart desires… look out world!” — Amy Childs, www.unschoolingsupport.com, www.whateveramen.com, and www.amychilds.com“(not yet a WordPress site… but it’s ONLY a matter of time…)”
“This course is amazing. It’s gotten me started in all the topics I’ve always wanted to know more about –creating web sites using WordPress (including themes, plugins, widgets, sidebars, pages, and posts), RSS feeds (and FeedBurner and FeedBlitz), newsletters and contact management programs like Constant Contact, auto-responders, shopping carts, keyword research and SEO, creating video content and YouTube, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. We covered so much material. Marc has the knowledge and experience to make any and all of these technologies make sense.
I had thought about improving my small business’s web site for years, but this course actually had me do it. Marc is patient and able to explain complex subjects in ways that are easy to understand. With Marc’s help, I see how each tool can benefit me and my site. I recommend this course to anyone who wants to create their own web site but has been afraid to attempt it, or to anyone who simply wants to gain a better appreciation of what’s out there so they can tell a web site developer what they want.” – David Horowitz, www.soundsidesoftware.com
“Marc’s extensive knowledge of web development and marketing helped me to see that there is really no need to spend thousands of dollars on a fantastic website. Hiring a web developer to design a single site would have cost much more than the class and now I have the knowledge to do it myself. I highly recommend this class for anyone who wants to have a web presence” — Geoff Young, www.goorganics.com
“Until I retired seven years ago, I was developing websites professionally. I’ve been “out of the loop” for many years now, and Marc has brought me up-to-date in a short time on the latest methods and strategies. Marc has done his homework. His course is thorough, well-rounded, and full of helpful tips. And Marc is a great teacher! Highly recommended.” –- Stephen S.
“I’m very happy with my website so far, and I really appreciate the time Marc spent working on it. It’s just what I need and wanted. I learned sooo much from his class! I was kind of a ludite about things like hosting accounts, using templates, and choosing and installing the various necessary software. I dragged my feet a little at first, but as I watched Marc build classmates’ websites from week to week, I gradually felt inspired to learn. My website isn’t finished yet, but his class gave me the information and inspiration I need to continue building a fabulous website for my freelance editing business!” –- Linda Huff-Paul
The rest of this article is available to WordPress 101 Club members only. Registration is free, it takes 15 seconds, and we’ll send you (if you opt-in) the eBook WordPress 101 Quick Start: Your first site in 2 hours. Login now or Register for free
This coming Tuesday February 2nd at noon EST, I will be interviewed by David Steele with the company Building Your Ideal Practice on the topics of WordPress website development. There will also be a 30 minute webcast / demonstration in which we’ll build an attractive website in half an hour! See below for call-in information and the full announcement.
David has been a prominent relationship coach and “coach for coaches” in the Bay Area for more than a decade. His sites are a rich resource for private-practice marketing on a budget, conscious dating, relationship coach training, and relationship building for coaches and entrepreneurs, and contain a bunch of free downloads. Click on the links to the right for more information.
Also mark your calendars for two important upcoming events:
On Tuesday Feb. 9th at 7:30pm (and also Thu. Feb. 11 at 3pm EST) begins the next 8-week series for the WordPress 101 course. With new content, a new web conferencing system that doubles the screen resolution and makes the presentation much easier to follow, and professional WordPress theme giveaways, this is going to be the best course ever. Click here for information about our affordable training packages starting at $99.
Starting Monday March 15th WordPress 101 will be offered at Drexel’s Baiada Center for entrepreneurship! This will be a 6-week x 3 hour course, perfect for those who live in the Philadelphia area and prefer a face-to-face classroom. There will be lots of time for individual assistance / tutoring. Expect to come out of this course with a nice site and an internet marketing plan.
Warm regards,
Marc Beneteau
215-376-4345
______________________
Learn how to create your own website easily and affordably. Your invitation to a private webinar.
On Tuesday February 2, at 9:00am pacific/Noon eastern I will host an interview and webcast (live demonstration) of how you can use WordPress to create your own professional website. You will learn how easy it is to create an attractive, effective and affordable website using this technology.
I’ve invited Marc Beneteau, who runs a training company called WordPress Academy to give us a presentation and an actual demonstration (via webinar) of how to create your own website in WordPress. We will create a simple but functional website before your eyes in real-time in this demonstration.
In this program you will learn:
* What is WordPress?
* Benefits of WordPress as a web development platform
* Blogs vs. static websites
* WordPress as an ideal SEO (search-engine optimization) platform
* Demonstration: installing WordPress on your web hosting account
* Creating pages and posts
* Selecting and and configuring a theme
* Configuring side-bars, adding newsletter subscriptions and social media links, etc
* and more…
In this session, Rob will teach you all the why’s, how’s and where-to’s of professional web video for self-employed people. Inlcudes topics such as:
Why web video
Effective uses of video, with samples
Production
Editing
Distribution
Using with Wordpress
Equipment
And much more.
Introduction to Rob: “For nearly 20 years Kates Media has produced videos for everything from national TV shows to local commercials. We are experts in web video. Let us apply that experience to make you a video that will increase your revenues and get you more exposure”.
Windows Live Writer is a marvelous tool for putting rich content (images and video) into a blog post and pasting / cropping / resizing images mixed-in with text. It only suffers from one limitation that I can see: when pasting an image from the clipboard it always generates a .png image which tends to be at least 5 to 10 times larger than its .jpg equivalent.
Of course for small images this is not so much a problem. I have a problem though when it creates 300-400kb images that ought to be 50 or 70kb.
Here is a solution: save the file to .jpg in your image editing software. Then in Windows Explorer just Right-click > Copy the file name. Now when you paste it into Live Writer, it creates it as a jpg!
Bringing it all together: WordPress meta-tag optimization (SEO): Using “All in one SEO” plugin
Link-building strategies & Affiliate programs
Marc’s simplified Keyword Analysis
Research competition – jot-down keywords and descriptions that they are using
Find popular keywords using Market Samurai
Restrict geographically (if necessary)
Look at SEO competition, and restrict yourself to “viable” keywords (not necessary if you have geographic restrictions). A “viable” keyword is one where you have a shot at getting on the first 3 search-result pages.
Set site meta-tags to a mix of “viable” keywords and brand-names (your company or product name)
Always be mindful of Title and Tags as you write new content, especially new posts. The Title is the most important meta-tag and adding “Tags” to your posts creates very highly-indexable content.
Summary: This articles discusses the benefits of using a Content Mangement System (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, DotNetNuke, etc, for creating your website; and compares the new technology to the old way of creating a website, that involved using a web designer and a static html site that went through various stages (mockup, conversion to html or “slicing”, feedback / review, and publication). In particular, it discusses the benefits of the WordPress platform for creating a small business or professional website; and the basic procedure for getting a WordPress professional or corporate website up and running.
Summary: Choosing the right theme for your WordPress business or corporate website is probably your most challenging first task. You should choose your theme fairly soon after you begin your site, since it does have an impact on how you create your content (i.e., two or three-column layouts, screen width, etc); however, note that in WordPress, content is mostly separate from presentation, so you can always change your theme later. This article discusses the process I suggest to my customers, including some wise choices to start, some of which are free.
Summary: Windows Live Writer is a marvelous tool for creating rich content on WordPress offline. It is much more powerful than the built-in web-based WordPress editor and is particularly useful when publishing text with a lot of images or video. With Live Writer, you create your content offline and publish it using WordPress’s built-in XML-RPC protocol (this must be enabled for your blog – see your Settings menu). This articles discusses how this can be done, step-by-step,and the advantages.
Summary: This article discusses using the Feedburner or Feedblitz services, in conjunction with your WordPress blog, to publish / manage your company newsletter (mailing list management system). It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this system, compared to competitive newsletter management systems such as Constant Contact, Emma, Aweber, Vertical Response, etc.
“Marc is such a delight to work with. With his expertise and instruction, I now have a beautiful and adaptable website for my business “In The Garden, Design, Care & Workshops.” Quite amazing – workable pages up within 2 weeks; looking good in 6 weeks! After many years of procrastination….
“I started Marc’s training program with little knowledge of Wordpress and within a few weeks had a functional, clean site up and running. Anyone with an average knowledge of tech and the willingness to put in a few hours will find the rich underbelly of Wordpress much more accessible. Mark tells you all you need to know to avoid the big mistakes saving hours of time, and pre-screens all the “ingredients” you need for a successful Wordpress site, such as Themes, Plug-ins, and the like, so you don’t have to”. – James Moche, 
“Marc’s enthusiasm for and understanding of Wordpress is infectious, and helped navigate my own confusion, fears and frustrations. I’m so proud of my new website, and it’s comforting and empowering to know that I now have the skills and confidence to design, build, and maintain as many websites as my little heart desires… look out world!” — Amy Childs, 
“This course is amazing. It’s gotten me started in all the topics I’ve always wanted to know more about –creating web sites using WordPress (including themes, plugins, widgets, sidebars, pages, and posts), RSS feeds (and FeedBurner and FeedBlitz), newsletters and contact management programs like Constant Contact, auto-responders, shopping carts, keyword research and SEO, creating video content and YouTube, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. We covered so much material. Marc has the knowledge and experience to make any and all of these technologies make sense.
“Marc’s extensive knowledge of web development and marketing helped me to see that there is really no need to spend thousands of dollars on a fantastic website. Hiring a web developer to design a single site would have cost much more than the class and now I have the knowledge to do it myself. I highly recommend this class for anyone who wants to have a web presence” — Geoff Young, 
