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WordPress 102Shanta R. Nathwani
Agenda
• About Me & Introduction
• Review of 101
• Hosting
• Backup
• Theme selection
• Plugin selection
• More on hiring someone
Shanta R. Nathwani - http://shanta.ca - @ShantaDotCa 4
About (A boot) Me• Instructor, Sheridan College
• Joint program with University of Toronto at Mississauga: Institute of Culture, Communication, Information and Technology
• Web Design and Capstone Project
• Independent Consultant
• Clients include NPOs, Real Estate, Software Development, Financial and Political Sectors
• Bachelor of Commerce in Info Tech Mgmt., Ryerson University
• Serial WordCamper. Went to 7 last year and crowdsourcing my tour this year.
• Co-organizer, WordCamp Hamilton and Toronto 2015
Disclaimer
• Please excuse all the text. I’m used to using this for my students, but they make great notes!
• I’m going to upload these after the session to my website. So you don’t have to write this all down.
• Please ask questions! I’ll try and add them to the slides after the fact.
1. Review of 101
• We gave the differences between .com and .org and why you would choose one or the other.
• A quick idea of what plugins and themes are.
• When to know when you’re in over your head.
2. Hosting
• Shared hosting• GoDaddy
• BlueHost*
• Managed hosting• WPEngine
• Siteground*
* - I’m an affiliate
3. Backup
• Most hosting companies will offer a backup system of some kind
• Jetpack has one now
• WordPress.com doesn't need one
• I recommend Backup Buddy by iThemes because of its options, it's easy to use and to migrate, especially those in the room hoping to do their own development business
4. Contact Information
• Contact forms rather than publishing your email address
• Mailchimp signup form. Integrates with WordPress and can be done as a widget
5. Themes
• The “Look and Feel” of your website
• Might include some functionality
• The “Front End” or what people see
From Graph Paper Press
5. Theme Selection
• Start with the repository• Can be accessed through your Dashboard > Appearances >
Themes
• Directly at wordpress.org/themes
• If not, go outside and use the authors in the repository as a start
• Do not Google “free WordPress themes”!• These could contain malicious code
5. Theme selection (con’t)
• Where do I start?• Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of the website?”. Many of the
themes are categorized by purpose (i.e., photography/portfolio, business, blog, etc.)
• Ask yourself, “What do I want it to look like? Do I want a big header? Do I want columns? Main content with sidebar?”. A good way to familiarize yourself with these is to look in the repository.
• Make sure that the them you choose is mobile-enabled/responsive!
6. Plugins
• Plugins extend the usefulness of your website
• Some examples are Backup Buddy and Jetpack
• The “Back End” or what people don’t see
6. Plugin Selection• Just like the themes, best to check the repository
(http://wordpress.org/plugins)
• Don’t overload your site. Choose your plugins carefully.
• First, by function. What do you need it to do?
• Is there a plugin that does multiple functions, such as memberships AND payments? This is such a wide area, you need to research it. It will depend on what functionality you need.
7. More About Hiring a Professional
• Educate yourself• Not only about the terminology, but also have an idea of what you
want. This saves everyone a good amount of time and effort.
• Expect to give a deposit of some sort, whether you’re working with a student or a professional. Don’t expect any of this for free.
• This is not a cookie cutter process, nor is it an overnight one.
Extra Resources
• WordPress.com: This is where you can learn almost everything I’ve just talked about! There is also one for .ORG, but this will get you about 90% of the way there. Skip the “Getting Started” part if you are using the .ORG
• WordPress.tv: Most of the talks given at WordCamps are recorded and archived here. You can find my talks there!
• Lucas Cherkewski: Great advice on hiring a developer!
WordCamp Tour 2015
If you like what you’ve seen today, and would like to donate to my WordCamp Tour, please visit my Tilt Campaign. Every little bit helps!
The more I tour, the more info I can bring back and share with you.
https://www.tilt.com/campaigns/wordcamp-tour-2015
