WordPress.com: Creating Your First Site

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1 MNC Nonprofit Technology and Communications Conference April WordPress.com: Creating Your First Site Presented by Peter Fleck, President, PF Hyper LLC Gary Leatherman, Creative Director/Producer at Digital Watershed Presentation Notes What you will learn: How to navigate the WordPress.com environment and how to build a site. Differences between.com and.org Wordpress.ORG is open source software that requires installation on a server and then configuration. It s very flexible and is used for all types of websites, large and small. Wordpress.COM runs the same software (basically) on the Automattic servers and provides free accounts. We are learning the.com version today! It is a cheap and easy way to get your first web site or to create a blog for an advocacy or marketing campaign. wordpress.com pros It s free and much easier to setup Hosted at the WordPress.com server farm Everything is taken care of: setup, upgrades, spam, backups, security, etc Your blog is on hundreds of servers, so it s highly unlikely it will go down due to traffic Your posts are backed up automatically Your login is secure (SSL) so no one can get into your account if you use wifi wordpress.com cons Can t add widgets or plugins Use only themes provided (about 100) Limited code hacking (no php, some css) Much less customization No ads unless high traffic then 50/50 with WP Helpful Links

Using Wordpress.com to Create a Website http://en.support.wordpress.com/using wordpress to create a website/ Support http://en.support.wordpress.com/ Forums http://en.forums.wordpress.com/ Creating the Site We won t be doing this today!

2 Using Wordpress.com to Create a Website wordpress to create a website/ Support Forums Creating the Site We won t be doing this today! Go to Wordpress.com and create an account. In the process you will be asked to supply a blog address Note that Wordpress.com will try to sell you to upgrades as you go through the process. This upgrade would purchase the domain mcntech2014.com for $18 to replace the default address of MCNTech2014.wordpress.com You can ignore the upgrades and safely scroll to the bottom of the screen to the Create Blog button. Login! Find the Dashboard

3 Settings: Configure your website 1. Settings General a. Site Title b. Tagline c. Time Zone d. Date Format e. Time Format f. Language 2. Settings Reading a. Front Page Displays

if you are allowing comments, check the other settings, you can have it set to approve each comment. DO NOT ALLOW OPEN COMMENTS!! 4. Appearance Themes We are using the Twenty Ten Theme for this class.

4 If you choose static page, you select your front and posts pages from the dropdown. b. Site Visibility You can have a private site 3. Settings Discussion Default Article Settings Turn off commenting (or not) Choose early on if you want comments! Otherwise you will have to go to each page/post and turn them off. if you are allowing comments, check the other settings, you can have it set to approve each comment. DO NOT ALLOW OPEN COMMENTS!! 4. Appearance Themes We are using the Twenty Ten Theme for this class. Please keep that theme in place. If there is time to play at the end, you can swap out themes. Search for themes at where there are filters for types of themes (including responsive) and much more information about each theme than you can find in the dashboard. Some themes will cost money. It is a one time fee. WPC has a 30 day refund policy.

5 Once you have found a theme you want to try, search for it in the dashboard area. 5. Posts/Blogging/News Posts vs. Pages Posts are part of a continuous stream (RSS or ATOM) and allow you to subscribe via some kind of reader or have the stream appear on another web site (very easy to do with WordPress). Posts are the bedrock of blogging and blogging is simply the ability to easily add new content to your site. Pages are static documents and generally appear on the navigation menu. In Settings Reading you can select if you want the posts page to be your home page or if you want a static page as your home page. Posting Find an Add New link button relating to posts. (There are a few.) a. Type a title in the title field. b. Add content in the content field. c. Pass your pointer over the formatting bar to see the tool tips attached to the icons. This one will open several more editing tools: d. Publish

This will take you to the site display in the browser with a messaging area to the left. You can close that. Find the Edit button to return to the editing area of the post.

6 This will take you to the site display in the browser with a messaging area to the left. You can close that. Find the Edit button to return to the editing area of the post. WordPress allows you to keep an article as a draft (or pull it from public display back to draft status), set visibility for each post with Public as default, and post date your publication for later. The Publicize option connects to your social media accounts. e. Add a picture i. Use this URL option or upload one from your drive. (google shortened) ii. Add a caption iii. Add the ALT text (very important!) iv. Align URL option is limited. If you upload an image, you will be able to choose the size to display and other options. f. Create a link i. Highlight the linking text. (Click here is not good linking text.) ii. Click link icon (It s partner is unlink.)

7 Type your link in the box. Decide if you want a new window or tab. You can also drop down a menu of existing content to link to. 6. Pages Pages have an almost identical editor as Posts. Create a Contact page. You can refer back to the Posts section of these notes to create the new page. 7. EXTRA Credit: Create Home Page and Blog Page and change Settings Reading to use your Home page for home and your new Blog page for Posts. 8. Widgets Appearance menu Primary Widget Area is visible on your blog.

8 Check your pages/posts and you will see these widgets. You can remove any by clicking the arrow. Find the Contact Info Widget on the left a. Click on it

It should map out the address you filled in. 9. Menus Appearance Menu a.

9 b. choose Secondary Widget area c. ADD WIDGET d. Fill in the information for the contact info widget e. Check in browser. It should map out the address you filled in. 9. Menus Appearance Menu a. Pages (not Posts) are auto added to Default Menu b. Use the Create Menu button to create a custom menu c. Once you create the custom menu, the Manage Locations tab appears at the top.

Make sure to check Auto add pages if you would like all of your top level pages to appear on the menu. 10.

10 d. You can set your custom menu as Primary. This theme only supports a single menu but some themes support more. There is also a custom menu widget to use with the widget areas. e. Make sure to check Auto add pages if you would like all of your top level pages to appear on the menu. 10. Invite User From the Users section, you can invite a new user to your blog. You can specify the role for the user that you invite. EXTRAS Depending on time Header images Appearance Customize Check for sizing if you are going to add your own Twenty Ten calls for 940 x 198 pixels Visual/Text tabs Templates Categories

11 Format page choices for posts Image EXTRAS Featured images Settings media Tags Widget visibility, page to page Sharing setup your social media accounts accounts

Getting Started: WordPress UBC Blog

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