Creating WordPress Websites II

About This Course

Create a website that can do just about anything, without any technical coding! In this course, you'll learn how to build content management websites and blogs with WordPress.org, the world's most popular Web page publisher.

Content management lets you control your own site by providing an easy-to-use online administrative area that makes creating and updating content as simple as sending an email. Your online visitors will be able to comment on your articles, fill out forms and applications, buy your products, and even make appointments.

You'll master each step, from selecting a domain name and a hosting company to installing WordPress and creating pages. You'll discover how to insert images and multimedia, create a user-friendly navigation system, and take advantage of the dynamic add-on features known as plug-ins. You'll explore how to turn your website into an ecommerce powerhouse and improve search engine page results. And you'll also learn some HTML and CSS coding to customize your site's look and feel.

If you want to build or maintain a professional WordPress website with all the bells and whistles, this course is for you.

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be John Agress.

John Agress has been active in the computer world since the 1980s and has been developing and designing websites for more than a decade. He was among the first designers to recognize that WordPress, which was originally created as blogging software, can also produce content management websites that can be updated as easily as sending an email. He loves helping his Web design clients take control of their WordPress blogs and websites. John graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Communication Studies and spent many years as a radio and television news anchor, writer, and producer.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In this first lesson, you'll find out why WordPress is among the world's most popular Web publishing platforms and how it's designed to help nontechnical people create good-looking, dynamic websites. I'll discuss what it takes to set up a self-hosted WordPress site, and you'll learn how to choose a domain name, find a hosting company, and access your piece of the World Wide Web!

Friday - Lesson 02

Today, you'll learn how to upload files to your website, and we'll tour the WordPress administrative area and configure some basic settings. I'll also show you how to organize your site so your visitors will get the most out of it.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

A WordPress theme gives your website a professionally designed look with a single mouse click. In this lesson, we'll discuss how themes work, where to find them, and how to install them. We'll compare free themes with those you have to pay for, and we'll also talk about the theme we're using for our class website project.

Friday - Lesson 04

Today's lesson is all about organizing written content! We'll discuss how to enter and organize the information your visitors are looking for, and how to create pages and posts. You'll also find out how to put together a custom menu to guide your guests around the site. You want to arrange your articles so they're easy to find, and that's just what we're going to discuss today.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Now you're ready to start adding to your website—the details that will give it that extra-special touch! In today's lesson, you'll learn how to add photos, videos, maps, and documents to your Web pages without leaving the WordPress application. And we'll also discuss how to manage these files and create an image gallery to display your photographs.

Friday - Lesson 06

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use plugins, the features that you can add to WordPress with a single mouse click. I'll show you where to find thousands of these free mini-programs and how to use them.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

You likely know a bit about HTML and CSS, but today we'll cover HTML and CSS coding in more detail. Don't worry if this is foreign to you. I'll introduce you to the basics of each language, and you'll quickly discover how to change font styles, sizes, and colors; create lists; and work with margins. With this knowledge, you can customize your website so it'll look just how you want it to look!

Friday - Lesson 08

As we continue exploring how to customize WordPress websites in this lesson, you'll discover an application that will spare you countless hours of drudgery. You'll also find out more ways to change the way your site looks, and you'll learn how to create a custom WordPress theme without learning the basic scripting language. Then you'll learn how to set up widgets, which fill your sidebars with information and features.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

So how can you use your WordPress website to make money? That's what this lesson is all about. You'll learn ways to create pay-per-click, advertising, and affiliate marketing programs. And we'll also discuss PayPal and credit card processing and set up a shopping cart.

Friday - Lesson 10

Today, we'll focus on the details that'll make your website stand out. You'll find out how to create a consistent style and set up an eye-catching slide show on your home page. We'll also discuss how to market your site using social networking plugins designed for WordPress.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Search engines love WordPress websites! In this lesson, we'll talk about how to get higher search page results, and we'll explore ways to collect and analyze data to ensure we're attracting and informing our target audience.

Friday - Lesson 12

In our final lesson, you'll learn to use the WordPress Loop to customize your website. We'll also discuss some time-saving tips and tricks about handling contributors, bolstering security, and making your pages look great in mobile browsers!

Requirements

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

The WordPress.org software is free; but in order to use it, you'll need to register a domain name and set up an account with a hosting company for a minimum of three months, at a cost of around $10 per month. We'll show you how to find a host and install the software. You'll need a computer with broadband Internet access, running any recent version of the Windows or Mac operating systems. We recommend using the Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer 9, or Safari browsers.

If you don't have prior experience with either the WordPress.com hosted version, the self-hosted WordPress.org, or other Web publishing tools, you should have a strong familiarity with the Internet and very good computer skills. Otherwise, we recommend the introductory course, Creating WordPress Websites.