WP Tutorials – Where Were They When..

13 thoughts on “WP Tutorials – Where Were They When..”

1. Hi Barbara – thanks for this. Video’s will be much easier to follow. I’ve tried changing the header on my blog following text instructions and it just went wrong. So, I’ll be checking out those great videos.

   When I first started blogging – I used a blogger blog. I tried many times to switch to WordPress but it all seemed so complicated. Then eventually I realised that if I opened a bluehost account I could do it all with the click of a button.

   Another mistake I made before I even had a blog was opening various different hosting accounts for websites. I didn’t realise that it is possible to host several domains on one account. And I still have a few to close down as some of them renew automatically and charge your card – so you need to be careful.

   CatherineL’s last blog post..Humor In Marketing – How Far Can You Push Your Luck?

2. I did a lot of searching. I’ve also posted a few how to tutorials in the past. I’ll be posting more, mainly on my technology website and the website I write for, when things slow down for me.

3. Thanks for this post, will book mark the site. I’m a word press newbie, so every little bit of help, helps.

   🙂

   Natural Woman’s last blog post..Meet the Bloggers

4. I’ve always wondered how people were able to figure out how to do everything. I had to find out piece by piece, making mistakes along the way, so I can imagine that people who are not technically inclined would feel completely overwhelmed.

   Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have put together some how-to videos on blogging at becomeablogger.com (click on “free video tutorials” at the bottom). I’ve just watched a couple of them, but the information I’ve seen so far about how to get a domain name and web hosting would have been very helpful when I started.

   Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..The Science Of Getting Rich

5. I’ve checked them out. They are useful only I wish they would make the screen a bit bigger so I could see what was on it.

   There is also one on You Tube that tells you how to change the header in your blog. I’ve been trying to do that for ages, so it will come in useful.

   Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Barbara – I did not realise that you could get these kind of things on You Tube.

   CatherineL’s last blog post..7 Must Do’s Before Starting An Online Business

6. Hi Catherine,

   I know you mentioned you wanted to wrap text around a photo, and that site has a video on that. Ian emailed me and did a step for step for me, which really helped. But then I uploaded a photo and the text automatically wrapped, so I don’t know why sometimes it wraps and others times it doesn’t. Hmmmm.

   I know the “screen” is small (put your glasses on Catheine 🙂 ), but I enlarged my screen (Crtl +) and that helped a little. I also watched one video a couple of times, so I could “get it”. If you used a split browser, that would help too, as you could have your dashboard on one, and the video in the other

   Catherine, I did the same thing. I got my first domain name on Yahoo, then when I opened my BlueHost account, I had to “point the domain name to BlueHost”. That was another “bang the head on the wall” moment. When I added my other domains, I did it with BlueHost, which was so simple.

   Opal,

   When you have your tutorials done, you’ll have to let me know so I can link to them in a post. I love to give my new bloggers as much information/links as possible.

   Natural Woman,

   Those videos will be a big help. Although WordPress is easy to use, as you get deeper into blogging, it ‘s always nice to have a good resource to turn to.

   BTW: Is my “subscribe by email” working for you?

   Hunter,

   You are talking about me…technically challenged. It was a real chore to learn all there was to learn, and I’m still learning new stuff everyday. Like you, I learned from my mistakes, from crashing my blogs, from lots of reading, and thank goodness seasoned bloggers were willing to share so much.

   I’ll check out the “becomeablogger.com” site and take a look at their videos too. I don’t think we can ever have too many sources.

   Barbara’s last blog post..WP Tutorials – Where Were They When..

7. I pretty much taught myself how to use WordPress. I was already familiar with XHTML and PHP (I tried to build my own blog engine first, that failed miserably), so everything I have been doing manually instead of using the wordpress editor (as in, I un-installed the WP “WYSIWYG” editor and just write straight code).

   I imagine it really helps that I have experience using other “CMS” type stuff before. A lot of them work the same way, especially with the creation and organization of content. I used to be a huge Joomla/Mambo fan, but their software is getting too bloated, and I am afraid that WP is headed in that direction too. Time will tell on that.

   For designing your own WP theme, the WordPress Codex (http://codex.wordpress.org/Blog_Design_and_Layout) was the most useful resource for me. In fact, aside from looking through the code from designs on themes.wordpress.net that is the only site I went to for help.

   This is just a personal style though, I like to learn things on my own. The same goes for my college classes, I prefer to skip class and instead teach myself from the books and resources on the internet.

   Oh, and I have crashed my blog and had to re-install from backup more than a couple times too. That is just a part of the process, like how I have nuked my computers hard drive more than a couple times because I played with a configuration file the wrong way (I’m running linux, so it is that much more interesting).

   Rashy’s last blog post..Anonymous gang-banging Scientology

8. Hi Rashy,

   Isn’t it fun though? We do learn so much from our mistakes.

   I’m sure it is a benefit knowing all of the technical stuff, and what is needed to create the correct end result.

   I think it would be awesome to design your own theme, and after reading through the php files, they do look similar (from theme to theme). My problem is time, but when the day comes that I’m not working anymore, I think that would be a great challenge. Did you design yours?

   Barbara’s last blog post..WP Tutorials – Where Were They When..

9. Barbara,
   Thank you very much for your post about Business Blogging 101. There’s nothing better than a sincere recommendation from one of your peers.

   You have done such a great job with your own blog. I spent about 30 minutes reading through it last night and have already learned a thing or two here! So I will be coming back.

   To address a couple issues raised by you and your readers: One reader above mentions that the video tutorial screens are too small. I would agree. Usually I try to enlarge the fonts using the browser text resize feature in Firefox (View > Text Size) but that’s not always helpful. I would point out that if you click on a video on the Business Blogging 101 site http://mcbuzz.wordpress.com and then click on it again while it is playing, you will be taken to the same video on YouTube, and the screens on YouTube are slightly larger than they are on Business Blogging 101.

   You also commented on BB 101 that you cannot give your website URL with your name when you comment. I think you need to create an account on wordpress.com (easy and free – just select the “Just an account please” option if you don’t want to create a blog there) and then login with that account before you comment on BB 101 or any other site hosted on wordpress.com. I have not actually tested this, but I’m pretty sure that’s what is going on. If you use Akismet anti-spam for your blog, you must (I think) already have a wordpress.com account, no?

   You also make a great suggestion on BB 101 about the need for a tutorial on “how to comment”. I will definitely make one. I have to admit that I am not all that clear myself on what a pingback is and how it relates to commenting. That, too, would make a good tutorial, but I will have to do a little investigation first!

   All the best and thanks again,

   Mark McLaren’s last blog post..Does Your WordPress Theme Allow Comments on Pages as Well as Posts?

10. I’ll have to take some classes. I’ve been lucky in that it was set-up for me, and I’ve picked up a bit from that – copying how other stuff’s been set-up.

    I’m a big fan of WordPress even though I don’t quite understand it! I’m more of a database person really, although even then, I just pinch code from elsewhere when I need to do something fancy.

    Quick point on screen size, we have a number of clients now – mainly accountants – who are using multiple monitors.

    Basically you need a graphics card which can run dual monitors. Means you can see an awful lot more and the mouse can literally move between monitors – really handy if you want to have a spreadsheet open on the right hand side, and oh I don’t know Solitaire on the other?

    Or have Excel open across two screens so you can see a whole year’s forecast without horizontally scrolling all the time.

    We don’t supply them by the way, but I could get part numbers so you can shop around and buy if anyone’s interested.

    I could do a step-by-step guide to installing for those brave enough to open uip their PC and slot in another card!

    Ian Denny’s last blog post..Customer Gets Lost In Jungle Of Chaos

11. Barbara,
    Just a follow-up to the question of why you weren’t able to insert your URL when you commented on the Business Blogging 101 site. It is indeed because you need to login with a wordpress.com account before you submit a comment.

    Otherwise, you can submit a comment, but because Business Blogging 101 is hosted on wordpress.com, it won’t allow you to give a URL. I replied to your comment http://snurl.com/1z7bu and as you will see, my username “mcbuzz” is a link to mcbuzz.com because that’s the URL I have listed with my wordpress.com account.

    Mark McLaren’s last blog post..Does Your WordPress Theme Allow Comments on Pages as Well as Posts?

12. Pingback: Does Your WordPress Theme Allow Comments on Pages as Well as Posts? « Business Blogging 101

13. Mark,

    You’re very welcome. I love to refer sites that do a great job.

    I appreciate you stopping by and sharing more with my readers. I’m sure they will appreciate that.

    I’ll be back on your blog again soon, so I will try what you suggested with WordPress.com which I do have an account on.

    When you have finished your video tutorial on commenting, I would love to use that as a post topic/review of sorts and let my readers know you have that available. If for some reason I miss the release of that, please feel free to come by and let me know it’s ready.

    Re: pinging and trackbacks. I do know you shouldn’t do both, but other than that, all I know is, if you link to a post in another blog, it creates a what I believe is a trackback?

    Hi Ian,

    You do have your IT knowledge on your side. I’m sure when you read about WordPress or any other blog platform, it comes pretty easy to you.

    Multiple monitors? I’ve heard of that, but how hard is it to add a graphics card to a PC? On my old computer I did replace the CD/DVD drive…but that got me pretty nervous. It worked,, so I must have done it correct. I’m up for a tutorial!

    Barbara’s last blog post..WP Tutorials – Where Were They When..

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