Chapter 5
IN THIS CHAPTER
Examining the different versions of WordPress
Doing your WordPress install
Kicking the Dashboard tires
Writing your first post
Customizing your blog
Searching for all things WordPress
If you spend much time looking at blogs or talking to bloggers, you can't miss references to WordPress, one of the best-known and well-liked blogging software options available today. WordPress comes in two flavors — hosted and installable. In this chapter, I provide a snapshot of working both with the installable version that you place on your own web server as well as the WordPress hosted version. You can learn more about selecting a web server in Chapter 3.
This chapter runs through an overview of how to install WordPress on your server, use the administration panel, play with themes and widgets, and find out where to connect with other WordPress users in your local community and online. Much like Chapter 4, this chapter also walks you through setting up a hosted WordPress blog so that you can hit the ground running for little or no cost while taking advantage of all that WordPress has to offer.
Some blog software is available as both a hosted service and a version that you can download and install. WordPress is one of those packages. (For a refresher on hosted versus server-based blogging software, see Chapter 3.)
References to WordPress (Figure 5-1) are uniformly about the version of the software that you download and install on your own server. You can check it out online at www.wordpress.org
. References to WordPress.com refer to the hosted version. Fortunately, you can use both types of WordPress for free.
When WordPress.com was launched, many bloggers rejoiced because WordPress had reached the blogging mainstream. Bloggers could now create blogs with ease and use the tools that they had come to love without having to tinker in the background or stress over how to maintain those blogs.
Table 5-1 breaks down the pros and cons of each version of WordPress.
TABLE 5-1 WordPress.com versus WordPress
Flavor |
Pros |
Cons |
WordPress.com |
A free and hosted service. The WordPress.com service deals with daily maintenance, such as backups and software updates. |
Some layers of customization come at an additional cost. |
Security is a little better than some hosting services: Your blogs are replicated in three different locations, thus keeping your blog posts safe. |
In order to remove WordPress.com ads from your site, you have to pay a fee. |
|
You gain the benefits of the WordPress.com community's featured blog postings and shared content. |
The ability to include eCommerce on your blog is only possible after a paid upgrade to your site. |
|
WordPress |
It's free. |
You must install and maintain the software yourself. |
You can fully customize the WordPress software; you can also use any theme you like or create your own. |
Needing your own domain and web hosting adds to your costs. |
Although choosing a version of WordPress may seem daunting, it really isn't. You just need to ask yourself these questions: How much control do you want to have over your site? Do you worry about not owning your content? Do you prefer freedom over ease? If your answers are positive, you should focus on reading the sections pertaining to WordPress.org! If not, the sections introducting WordPress.com may be the WordPress for you.
Much like Blogger (www.blogger.com
), WordPress.com is a great option for testing the blogging waters. It’s free and easy to dive right in. And once you become comfortable with the free tools available to WordPress.com users, you always have the option of upgrading to a paid version of WordPress.com or making the leap to self-hosted WordPress (discussed later in this chapter). As WordPress.com says, “Free to start, with room to grow.”
In order to create your very own WordPress.com blog, you need to sign up for an account following these steps.
www.wordpress.com
, shown in Figure 5-2.Share a word that describes your blog’s focus and click Continue.
Not sure what the focus of your blog should be? Check out Chapter 8, Finding Your Niche. Still not sure? Don’t worry, a keyword submitted at this point in your blog account registration will not force you to never write about another topic. In fact, bloggers change their focus all the time! Don’t let this step of the registration topic overwhelm you.
Create your blog’s domain name.
If you know the exact name you want, select Show Exact Matches Only by clicking on the gear symbol at the end of the search field, as shown in Figure 5-4.
If you have purchased a domain name (see Chapter 3), you can assign that purchased domain name to your WordPress.com blog at this point in the registration process. Please note that assigning a custom domain name requires a paid WordPress.com account.
Congratulations! You now have a WordPress.com blog! At this point, you have the option to take a number of additional steps, including creating a tagline and uploading an image for your site icon. You are not required to take these steps in order to begin blogging. However, you do need to select Launch Site, as shown in Figure 5-7, before your site can be viewed by the public.
Much like Blogger (refer to Chapter 4), your WordPress.com blog is customizable via your Dashboard, which is shown in Figure 5-7.
The vertical menu in the left sidebar provides you with access to the following features:
At the bottom of your left sidebar dashboard you will find a gear icon, which takes you to the Settings menu as shown in Figure 5-8. From this menu, you can change the following aspects of your WordPress.com site:
Now that you have created your WordPress.com site and made some initial choices about the name, style, and settings for your blog, it is time to write your first post! You have two options for how to create a new post:
WordPress.com uses blocks to allow bloggers to customize the look and feel of blog posts. You can get started immediately by simply typing what it is you’d like to say, or you can take some time to play around with the blocks as shown in Figure 5-11. If you are completely new to blogging, I suggest starting slow. Try out text boxes mixed with the occasional image, for example. Once you’ve gotten the feel of things, you may want to try adding an entire image gallery!
Once you are happy with the post that you have created, it’s almost time to publish! Before you share your writing with the world, take a moment to look at the right sidebar on the blog post creation page as shown in Figure 5-12. A menu of post options allows you to assign the post to a category (learn more about categories in Chapter 3), add a tag, select a featured image, and more.
When you’re satisfied that you’ve done all you need to do before inviting readers to check out your post, click on the blue Publish button at the top of the screen. Congratulations on writing your first WordPress.com post!
Ready to customize the look and feel of your blog? To get started, look to the left sidebar of your Dashboard to find the Customize button as shown in Figure 5-13.
After you have identified the Customize section of the left sidebar, begin by clicking on the Themes button.
One of the best aspects of a WordPress blog — hosted or self-hosted — is the ability to customize your blog’s appearance with themes designed specifically for the type of blog you’re creating. For example, there are themes that create the feel of an online magazine, others that focus on displaying your photography, and still others that resemble the original online journals from the early days of blogging. I suggest that you take some time to try out a variety of themes before making a final decision. And truth be told, no decision is final! You can always come back to this section of your Dashboard and change your theme entirely if you’ve grown tired of the current look of your blog.
Once inside the Themes page, notice the following:
But wait! There’s more! Return to the Customize button on the left sidebar and click on it to open the WordPress.com Customizer. Even the name sounds exciting!
My best advice is to take some time to click around the Customizer for your selected theme as shown in Figure 5-14. Every theme will provide you with slightly different options, but some areas where you can make design changes include the following:
While our exploration into WordPress.com is not exhaustive, I hope you have learned enough to get you started if that is the path you wish to take. If you have decided, however, that self-hosted WordPress is best for you, the rest of the chapter shows you how to get up and running.
You can get your WordPress installation up and running without a huge amount of difficulty, but in order to get your site going, you need to follow some very important steps.
Have you already chosen a name for your blog? Have you purchased the related domain? When you're itching to get your blog online and want to control every aspect, the domain is the first thing that you need.
As explained in Chapter 3, a domain is the name and brand of your blog, and the web address (or URL). It gives visitors an idea of what your blog is about and who you are. You can have some fun getting creative with your blog name! Before committing to a blog name, why not see what others have done? The following list gives you five examples of some of the world's top blogs and their domains:
www.mashable.com
): A news aggregation site with the purpose of informing and entertaining.www.techcrunch.com
): A technology-industry blog.www.gizmodo.com
): A blog that talks about almost anything.www.lifehacker.com
): A site that suggests ways that you can make your life better and more efficient.www.gawker.com
): A site featuring the most-talked-about stories on the Internet.The domains in the preceding list make quite an impression despite the fact that, at first glance, they don't necessarily tell the visitor much about the content. If you find and bookmark a blog that you like, you keep going back for the great content, not the domain name. In Chapter 3, I talk about acquiring domains in detail, in case you need a refresher about how to do so.
After you choose an appropriate domain for your blog, you need somewhere for your WordPress install to live. In Chapter 3, I tell you what to look for in web hosting and make some recommendations. Don't forget that you can also ask other bloggers what host they use and what their experience has been.
If you've read Chapter 3 of this book, you already know that web software such as WordPress has certain technical requirements. The requirements for WordPress are
Most web hosts have similar configurations and should be able to handle what you need, but you can review the official WordPress requirements page at http://wordpress.org/about/requirements
. WordPress also has a handy bit of text that you can copy and send to potential web hosts to see whether their services can handle WordPress. How cool is that?
www.bluehost.com
)www.dreamhost.com
)www.hostgator.com
)http://www.mediatemple.net
)www.godaddy.com
)www.siteground.com
)www.1and1.com
)Each of these companies offers well-known, quality web hosting, but if you want to continue looking, compare notes with other bloggers and refer to Chapter 3 for good advice about choosing a web host.
After you sort out your web host and site domain, you next need to install WordPress files from WordPress.org onto your server. Most, if not all, web hosting companies make this process simple. The cPanel (control panel) of your hosting account should have an easy-to-find button, such as the Bluehost WordPress installation button shown in Figure 5-15.
You also have the option to download and extract the WordPress files from WordPress.org and put them on your computer. Choose a place you'll remember, such as a Documents or Download directory. Follow these steps:
Point your web browser to www.wordpress.org
.
The main WordPress page appears.
Click the blue Download WordPress tab in the top-right corner.
The site takes you to a short instructional page that has download information on it.
Click the Download WordPress plus version number button.
Your web browser may ask you to select a location to place the files that are downloading. If it does, choose a place on your computer that you will remember. Your Desktop or Documents folder are decent choices.
After the compressed file downloads, double-click it to expand (or unzip) the files it contains on your computer.
The files are saved on your computer, as shown in Figure 5-16.
Do you have your files unzipped? Great! Now, the installation process gets a little more technical. You need to upload these unzipped files to your web hosting space by using an FTP (file transfer protocol) client. If you don't have an FTP client installed on your computer, you have plenty of free options that you can download and install. The following are my two favorite FTP clients:
www.filezilla-project.org
): Available for all computer platforms (see Figure 5-17)www.cyberduck.io
): Available for both Macs and Windows computers.Both of these programs have the capability to connect and transfer files to your new web host. To place the WordPress files on your web host, follow these steps:
Download and install the FTP client of your choice.
Look for installation instructions on the FTP software website.
Connect to your web server by using the details that your web host provided you for FTP access.
These details usually include a URL, username, and password.
The directory in which you store the WordPress files is normally the main directory that you see when you connect via FTP. Check with your web host if you're confused.
Using the FTP software, upload the WordPress files from your computer to the server.
In some FTP clients, you can drag and drop the WordPress files to the location on the web host. Others use arrow interfaces.
You're doing great! But don't rest on your laurels; this next step is probably the most technical. Take a deep breath and prepare to set up a database for your WordPress blog. You can do it!
Arguably, setting up a database isn't actually terribly difficult. However, each web host handles databases in different ways, so I can't give you straightforward instructions for accomplishing this task.
If you want to know more about MySQL, pick up a copy of PHP & MySQL For Dummies, 4th Edition, by Janet Valade (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). But take my word for it that after you set up your database, you won't need to know anymore about MySQL for the purposes of using WordPress.
After you know how to access your database setup tool, follow these steps:
Create the database.
You need to name your database something that makes sense. If you have a blog called Joe Smith's Wondrous Adventures, you can name the database joesmith. The length of database names and database usernames are normally limited, and you can't include special characters in the names.
Create a database user.
You can make the username anything, except the name that you used for your database. The same length and special character restrictions apply, though.
Because web hosting companies can choose for themselves which MySQL database system to include in their hosting packages, I don't know which of the following applies to your situation. But web hosts commonly use one of the following management systems:
The web host that you choose probably uses one of the interfaces in the preceding list. You can figure them out and use them fairly easily. If you're running only one blog, you need only a single database. If you're thinking of running more than one, you need to find out how to keep your databases healthy and separate by using tools that your web host provides.
After you put the WordPress files in the directory your web host recommends and write down the database information, you only have to run the WordPress installer. The installer is super simple. Things can go wrong, of course, but if the installer gets stuck, it does a very good job of letting you know exactly what you need to do.
Follow these steps to install WordPress:
To run the installer, point your Internet browser to
www.yourwebdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php
Remember to replace “www.yourwebdomain.com” with your domain name!
The installer checks to see whether you've created or edited the configuration file. If it doesn't find one, it will create it for you.
Click Create a Configuration File.
This creates your WordPress configuration file. Now all you need to do is enter the information the configuration file needs.
Enter the database information (see Figure 5-19).
You can usually leave the database host as localhost because most web hosting environments use that host without complaint. You don't have to change the table prefix, either.
Click Install WordPress.
If everything goes well, the installer displays the word Success
on the screen. The username and password of the administration user also appear on the screen. Keep a record of this information in a safe location because if your blog experiences any problems or you need to conduct any WordPress configuration or management, you will need to log in using the admin account.
Click Log In.
The log-in page appears, where you can log into your new installation.
That's it! You've done it! You can now log into your new WordPress installation and get busy publishing.
After you have your new blog software installed and running, you can log into your WordPress admin account and take a look around. The WordPress software does a lot right out of the box to make your blogging life as simple as possible. You have the ability to create blog posts; create static pages; add images and multimedia files; connect to social networking sites, such as Instagram and Pinterest; and chat with blog visitors by using the commenting system.
Either these functions come with the WordPress install, or you can add them by using a plug-in that you download and install. Each of these plug-ins typically has an administration page.
In the following sections, I introduce you to the administration section of the blog itself.
Before you can start posting, you need to head on over to the Log In page and enter the username and password that were provided to you during the installation process.
To log into your new website, you may want to bookmark the following link:
Remember to replace “www.yourwebdomain.com” with your domain name!
WordPress allows you to set up and maintain several levels of user accounts in addition to the administrative account created during the setup process. These account types are called roles. They are as follows:
Set up your Editor account by following these steps:
From the Dashboard, click Users.
You see the full list of users and their roles.
Click Add New.
WordPress loads the Add New User screen.
Fill out the user fields.
You see a listing of text boxes: username, first name, last name, email, website, and password. Only three are required: username, password, and email address. I recommend filling in the first and last names as well.
Click Add User.
The user is created.
Each time you log into your WordPress blog, you end up on the Dashboard page. Get to know this page well because you spend most of your blogging time here. You can configure the front Dashboard to your liking by moving panels around and turning panels on or off. You can see the Dashboard in Figure 5-20.
On the left side of the Dashboard, a series of menus points you to the various sections of the administration panel. You likely visit some of these menus on a daily basis and some only once in a while:
On the right side of the Dashboard, you see a series of panels. Each panel gives you access to parts of the administrative interface for WordPress. The default panels are
I'm sure you're bursting at the seams to get your first blog post online. The process is quite simple in terms of using WordPress. The real challenge is coming up with good stuff to blog about! Jump to Chapter 9 for a lot of tips and ideas on writing for your blog.
To start a new blog post, follow these steps:
Click the Posts menu in the Dashboard and select Add New.
WordPress opens the Add New Post page, shown in Figure 5-21.
Use any of the other option blocks that you want for this post.
WordPress gives you the following block options:
Click Publish to save your blog post and check out your blog to see how it looks!
If you're not ready to post your blog entry to the public, you can save your posting as a draft or preview it before you post it. Also, you can set a particular date if you want to schedule your post for publication in the future.
Look for a Visit Site link at the top of the Dashboard; the link takes you right to your blog.
After you've played around with a few of the WordPress features, you may be thinking, “How do I make this new blog pretty?” The answer is as simple as a menu click. Just follow these steps:
From the menus on the left side of the Dashboard, click Appearance.
The Themes tab opens, displaying a list of themes that you can install and allowing you to install new themes.
You can install several themes all at the same time and then take time to test which theme best suits your blog.
Now, do you want to get into the code even more? If so, get ready to dive into HTML. Only the brave venture into this territory because it requires knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, and WordPress's own markup language. The code editing for WordPress includes a little more than just plain old HTML.
Some bloggers love playing with HTML code; others run away as fast as they can. If you have the chops, however, the developers of WordPress have made accessing and modifying the theme files a fairly easy task.
Select Editor from the Appearance menu to get at the editing interface for the currently installed theme. The editor is simply a text editor in which you can manipulate the files in your theme without using any other technology (such as FTP) to access the files. It's simple to use and doesn't have too many frills.
The drawback to using the editor is that you really need to know your stuff when it comes to HTML code, CSS, and a little PHP thrown in for good measure. If you don't know what these technologies do, I don't recommend touching your theme without a little practice beforehand. Make backups!
You could spend a lot of time figuring out WordPress, and I just can't fit it all into a single chapter. (I tried!) But you're far from alone in your search for a better understanding of your new WordPress blog. A great many websites and blogs can help you further your WordPress education. Here are a few handy resources:
https://wordpress.org/support/
. You can find out about the latest functionality as well as see what's coming up in the future. The community offers a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, and you can get involved in this large and active web community.http://central.wordcamp.org
see whether a WordCamp is coming to your community. If not, you can start one!