ecommerce

WordPress for Beginners: Part 1
3 hours
$80
Minimum to make a class: 8
Maximum: 20
Instructor: Randy Hoyt

If you’ve been planning to build your own website but have been intimidated by the software and terminology, WordPress may be the right solution. WordPress is free, open-source software that makes it easy to build a web site with no coding.

In this first WordPress class, you’ll learn the basics needed to launch a web site or blog powered by WordPress on your own domain name and web hosting account. We’ll also talk a bit about the nature and history of WordPress, and you’ll gain a conceptual knowledge of internet technologies like HTML and JavaScript — but you won’t be required to write any code.

What You’ll Need:
You can bring a laptop to follow along, but you can also learn by watching the live demo and taking notes. A handout will be provided with links to all the resources mentioned as well as books, web sites, and community groups. WordPress is free, but after class you will need to have your own domain name and a web hosting account to implement the techniques we’ll discuss. (We’ll cover where to get those in the class, but you should plan on spending about $100/year.)

• Introduction: What is WordPress? • How is it free? • Who uses it? • What’s a “blog” and how is it different from a regular “web site”? • What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
• WordPress Basics: Writing a blog post • Adding tags and categories • Uploading images and PDFs • Creating links • Creating pages and subpages
• Internet Basics: What’s a domain name? • What’s a web host? • How do I connect a domain name to a host? • Acronyms you’ll need to know: HTML, CSS, PHP, JPG, FTP, DNS • JavaScript vs. Flash
• Installing WordPress: The famous 5-minute installation • One-click installations offered by some hosts • Things to double-check with one-click installations
• WordPress Themes: How themes work • Where to find themes • Tweaking your theme • Adding widgets