Understanding WordPress

The following is a bunch of links I’ve gathered over time about WordPress. You don’t need to go through every link or every page. But, going through some of them will be helpful in you knowing what the capabilities are for WordPress, and in knowing how you can set it up and get started. To make things easier for you, each section is divided into  categories:

  • Essential information includes things you need to know, or learn, before being able to really install and work with the software. It includes basic information necessary to building a website or blog, and learning to use WordPress
  • Supplemental information is certainly helpful, but is not a prerequesite to getting started. You can review this information after you’ve begun working with the software.
  • Informative incorporates things that certainly are helpful to know, especially as you become an experienced user.

Before You Start


Keep your own records of WordPress changes, themes, and plugins that you commonly use. This will help you as you create multiple WordPress websites.

1. Installing / Getting Started


1A. Esssential


http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/

This is a great starting point fow understanding how to use WordPress. It teaches you how to do most of the things you will need to know to manage a WordPress website. If you know very little about WordPress, this should be your starting point.

1B. Supplemental


http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress_installation.htm This training covers how to install WordPress manually, if you need to. Most website hosting companies provide  control panels that allow you to install WordPress automatically. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes.

               http://www.jonasblog.com/2008/11/tools-i-use-wordpress.html             Video you should watch about why use wordpress and some of it’s capabilities for powering marketing and business related websites.

http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start   The official WordPress “how to get started”. It’s the definitive reference point for WordPress (since it’s published by WordPress).

2. Configuring WordPress


When you install WordPress, there are usually configurations required to make the site function the way you want or need. Typically you must change basic options, install a few plugins and change a few basic options.

2A. Essential


 

http://www.scribbledesigns.co.uk/2007/04/04/how-to-configure-wordpress-post-installation/        Short checklist for what to do after setting up wordpress. This is a very good, and important, list of things to do.       http://www.hmjohn.com/video/jing/configuring-wordpress/configuring-wordpress.html            Configuring wordpress

2B. Supplemental


http://www.killersites.com/wordpress       Great resources on setup/configuring/tweaking.  Also great community resources.
http://www.hmjohn.com/video/jing/using-wordpress/using-wordpress.html        Setting up wordpress video

 

 

 

3. Plugins


Plugins are tools that extend the functionality of WordPress. Nearly all WordPress installations require some PlugIns to fully function as an operable website. PlugIns range in capability from adding photo galleries, music or video players, to integrating wtih other services such as Facebook or Twitter, or even allowing WordPress to function as an ecommerce or membership/subscription based website.
Whenever you’re thinking “I wish WordPress did this…” search for a Plugin. As you use plugins, remember that you really need to ensure they are updated and sometimes you will find conflicts with plugins so don’t use more plugins than necessary to make the site function the way you need.

3A. Essential


http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/     This is a directory of all the wordpress plugins that exist. It’s worth it to spend an hour just browsing to see what kinds of plugins exist.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/browse/popular/These are the most popular WordPress plugins (hint: they’re probably the most popular for a good reason!)

3B. Supplemental


http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/category/wordpress-plugins/   Interesting info on different plugins
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress   Good plugins by one of the experts on wordpress
http://mashable.com/2008/09/08/rss-plugins-for-wordpress/   Plugins for RSS

3C. Informative


http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/29/wordpress-plugins-tutorials-your-pick/   Great list of good plugins to use. It has good references to plugins that everyone wants to use.
http://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/wiki/PluginDirectory   Another list of plugins

 

4. Themes


Fundamentally, the WordPress Theme system is a way to “skin” your WordPress site. Yet, it is more than just a “skin.” Skinning your site implies that only the design is changed. WordPress Themes can provide much more control over the look and presentation of the material on your website.

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a WordPress site. In other words themes are what make WordPress websites look great.

4A. Essential


http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes/Theme_List     Official “how to use themes” tutorial by WordPress.org.  At the bottom is also a huge list of websites where you can get themes. http://www.themeswiki.org/Configuring_WordPress_Themes Great article about choosing/designing/configuring themes

4B. Supplemental


http://training.myprojectplans.com/module2/Wordpress_Theme_Resources.html   A collection of resources for finding free and paid WordPress themes, as well as theme frameworks.

5. Permalinks


Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual weblog posts, as well as categories and other lists of weblog postings. A permalink is what another site will use to link to your article (or section), or how you might send a link to your story in an e-mail message. The URL to each post should be permanent, and never change — hence permalink

5A. Essential


Read more about permalinks here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
http://dameian.com/photographers-seo/seo-permalinks-structure/ This is a great article about the importance of considering search engine optimization (SEO) when creating permalinks. It includes a step by step guide to changing the permalink structure.
http://wordpresstraining.com/videos/install-and-configure/configuring-wordpress-options-permalinks/  Configuring warders permalink options

5B. Supplemental


http://bloggingbits.com/wordpress-permalinks-seo/   Good stuff for wordpress seo/permalinks http://www.optiniche.com/blog/?s=tweaking+wordpress   Changing wordpress permalinks without messing up all the previous links. This is useful if you need to change the permalink structure after the WordPress site has already been established.

6. Tweaking WordPress


6A. Essential


http://www.jonasblog.com/bloggingtosell/    WordPress checklist for plugins/configuring/actions to take.  Also an audio on wordpress theory for setting it up. You should listen to the audio.

6B. Supplemental


http://www.dailyblogtips.com/manipulating-wordpress/  Good info on making wordpress do certain things with php http://wordpress.jdwebdev.com/plugins/tweaks   Specific plugin that makes “tweaks” according to the developers liking (and maybe yours)
http://www.amitbhawani.com/blog/important-wordpress-tweaks-improve-your-wordpress-blog/   Good plugins to make your blog better