Wordpress For Authors

Before you begin the process of creating your blog or website, there are a number of things you need to consider. Things like your purpose, your message, your content, your customer, etc. This Lecture details all the things you should consider before you begin.

Before you can create a blog or website, you must decide where to host your site and what domain name would be best suited for your. There are free WordPress hosting options out there, but most lack support and don’t give you the array of options you get with a professionally hosted WordPress system, which you can get for just a few dollars a month. This lecture will walk you through the things you should consider before registering a domain name and choosing a host for your site.

As mentioned in the previous video, you can host your WordPress blog wherever you like.  I personally use and recommend Bluehost (I’m a customer and an affiliate).  This lecture details setting up a new Bluehost hosting account. If you are not using Bluehost to host your WordPress blog, you can proceed to the lecture “Login To WordPress” now.

This video details installing WordPress in a Bluehost account. If you are not using Bluehost to host your WordPress blog, please refer to your hosting system’s help files to install WordPress. The process should be very similar to what’s shown here. 

Once you have your hosting account established and WordPress installed, login to your WordPress system using the user name and password you established at sign up. Your hosting company should have sent you an email with this information. If not, contact them directly.

Overview of the WordPress dashboard.

There are two ways to add content to your new blog or website. You can add Posts or Pages. This lecture explains the similarities and differences between the two.

One of the great things about WordPress is how easy you can add new content to your blog or website. If you’re doing a blog with regular updates, you will do so by adding a new Post. This lecture teaches you how to add, edit, and delete Posts

One of the great things about WordPress is how easy you can add new content to your blog or website. If you’re doing a blog with regular updates, you will do so by adding a new Post. This lecture teaches you how to add, edit, and delete Posts. Thjs is part 1 of 2.

Creating a Page is very similar to creating a Post, and the screens can be customized in the same way using drag and drop, the Screen Options tab, and expanding/collapsing boxes as you choose. However, pages are used for static content, like an About Me or Services page. This lecture demonstrates how to add, edit, and delete a page.

You can create an unlimited number of categories to help keep your site orderly and make it easy for readers to find the information they want. Think of your blog as a file drawer and posts as pages that go into folders inside the drawer. Those folders would be the categories. For example, if you’re blogging about cooking, categories might include desserts, entrees, veggies, etc.

What’s the difference between categories and tags? Normally, tags are ad-hoc keywords that identify important information in your post (names, subjects, etc.) that may or may not recur in other posts, while categories are pre-determined sections. For example, if you’re blogging about baking a cake, tags might include baking powder, flour, sugar, sweet, savory, vanilla, etc.

Comments are a feature of blogs which allow readers to respond to Posts. Typically readers simply provide their own thoughts regarding the content of the post, but users may also provide links to other resources, generate discussion, or simply compliment the author for a well-written post.

Plugins are self-contained programs that “plug in” to your WordPress system and expand the functionality of WordPress. For example, you can install free plugins that let you email your users, add audio or video, improved search engine optimization, insert Facebook like buttons and more.

This lecture demonstrates how to install a plugin that allows you to quickly and easily send single or mass emails to users who have registered with your site.

This lecture includes an overview of the Aweber plugin that you can use to build an optin list from your blog or website. You may choose another optin plugin, but they all basically are setup and work the same.

Overview of the Yoast SEO plugin that you can use to make sure your blog or website is optimized for search engines.

This lecture includes an overview of the Ultimate Social Media PLUS plugin, which you can use to add social media icons and links to your site, as well as subscriber optin forms and popup messages.

This lecture includes an overview of the Ultimate Social Media PLUS plugin, which you can use to add social media icons and links to your site, as well as subscriber optin forms and popup messages.

Overview of the YouTube plugin and how you can use it to add individual YouTube videos or entire YouTube channels to your website.

This lecture will teach you how to install and setup the Membership2 plugin that will add a free or paid membership section to your site. This is part 1 of 2.

This lecture will teach you how to install and setup the Membership2 plugin that will add a free or paid membership section to your site. This is part 2 of 2.

The WordPress “theme” determines the visual and navigational aspect of your site. There are thousands of themes you can install, some free, some paid. This lecture discusses how to choose the theme that words best for your site.

You may choose to replace the Site Identity text at the top of your website with a graphic header image. This video details how to do that in the Suits theme. Depending on the theme you’re using, the process may be slightly different. Refer to your theme’s instructions for specific directions.

The WordPress Media Library lets you upload and store images, video, and audio that can be inserted into posts, pages, or used elsewhere on your site.

Widgets are independent sections of content that can be placed into any widgetized area provided by your theme (commonly called sidebars). This video demonstrates how to add widgets to sidebars and footers (depending on the theme being used).

Menus consist of links to pages or other content on your site. Menus can be displayed in locations defined by your theme, even used in sidebars by adding a “Custom Menu” widget on the Widgets screen.

Users are individuals who help administer, contribute, or simply read your site’s content. This video demonstrates the various user roles and how each interacts with your WordPress system.

The tools menu is used primarily to import content from other blogging platforms into WordPress, or to export WordPress data into a data file. Tools also include the “Press This” bookmarklet and the “Categories and Tags Converter”.

This tutorial will teach you how to create a page to display your books for sale and link them to Amazon, Kobu, Smashwords, and other sites.

The Settings menu is where you manage the settings for: General, Writing, Reading, Discussion, Media, and Permalinks.