WordPress Workshop

Class Description Have you ever thought about building your own website? WordPress, one of the most popular content management systems today, is not only free but is also one of the most-user friendly and powerful. We’ll show you how to get an online home for your website, install WordPress, and set up your own theme. […]

Class Description

Have you ever thought about building your own website? WordPress, one of the most popular content management systems today, is not only free but is also one of the most-user friendly and powerful.

We’ll show you how to get an online home for your website, install WordPress, and set up your own theme. Most importantly, we’ll also cover how to plan the success of your site: it’s layout, content flow, and purpose.

Does your business or organization already have a WordPress website? Maybe you’ve had a really nice site built for yourself, and it’s languished since then, or maybe you want to spruce it up a bit.

Either way, we’ll show you how to maintain every aspect of your site – from menus to sidebars – while simultaneously developing a long term plan that will keep your site alive, looking great, and healthy: kind of like a work out plan for websites.

Course Outline

This schedule will include plenty of time for questions and practice. If you’re attending on Saturday only, we probably won’t have time to go over what we covered on Friday, so please make sure you’re familiar with what we will cover, or schedule some time at Out of a Jam so you’re up to speed. Also, you can use your two hours of support after the workshop to go over anything that wasn’t crystal clear.

Day 1

Needs and desires
– Determining your needs
– Marketing
– Information
– Utility
Content – the foundation
– The principles of good content
– SEO and content
Design – your message
– The principles of good design
Tools of the trade
– CMS – Content Management System
– Reduce your workload via CMS
– Empowering your employees
– Helping Google love you more
Making a home for your CMS
– Getting a domain name
– Picking a web host
Building your site
– Installing WordPress
– Picking a template
– Choosing and customizing a template
– Your online home is ready to be moved into!

 

Day 2

WordPress content geography
– Content and categories
– Where these things go – headers and sidebars explained
– Posts vs Pages
WordPress editing tricks
– Adding content
– Formatting text
– All about Images – editing, choosing, and placing
Wide World of Widgets
– What is a widget and when would you use it
– Menus in action
– Creating and placing menus
– Menu tricks
The Power of WordPress Plugins
– Installing and configuring your plugins
– Updating and troubleshooting plugins
– Top plugins to save you time and improve your site
Your roadmap to the future
– Keeping your site updated
– Maintaining your design aesthetic
– Interact with your visitors
– Manage visitor statistics

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What you need to bring

Please bring the following items to the workshop. Yeah, it’s homework. Yeah, it’s before you even get your first taste of your website. These things might take some time, but they’re worth it!

  • Your laptop with wireless access
  • Power cord/adapter
  • USB drive with your name on it
  • Business/organization name
  • Business/organization tagline – one phrase or sentence that describes what you do
  • Business/organization logo and typeface (if you don’t have one, bring a sketch or a sample of what you would like to use)
  • 3 colors that define your business or organization. Check out kuler.adobe.com or colourlovers.com- don’t forget black and; white
  • Images of your products, services, events, staff, and location
  • Your business/organization contact information and preferred way to be contacted
  • Statement of what you want people to know about your business/organization in 500 words
  • List of your local, national, and/or international competitors or similar organizations and their websites
  • List of organizations or other businesses that relate to yours – friends, family, suppliers, etc. – and their websites

If you already have an email account, a website or have purchased any of the following, please bring the user names, passwords, and any other communications about them as well:

  • Your email address and login information
  • Your website address (domain)
  • Who you purchased the website from (GoDaddy, Google, etc.)
  • Domain login information
  • Your hosting company (GoDaddy, BlueHost, ToastHost, etc.)
  • Hosting login information

Added bonuses:

  • Cookies for the hosts – just kidding! We’ll feed YOU this time.
  • Smartphone, iPhone, or iPad to check out your new site on your mobile device. We’ll also have these available for testing.

Optional extra costs

  • Your own domain: about $10/year
  • Your own hosting: typically $5-10/month
  • A pro theme of your choosing: approximately $60

While none of the above is required, if you intend to launch your website, we’ll recommend purchasing these items during the class. We’ll walk you through it step-by-step.

What we provide

An internet connection, coffee and tea both days, lots of talking and a lot of coaching. Michael and Heidi will be presenting on the concepts that will be taught, and working with groups to move them through the steps in the class. Our goal is to walk you through the entire process: planning and implementing a WordPress site with a basic theme, customizing that theme according to your plan, and then becoming comfortable with maintaining and customizing WordPress.

Workshop Instructors

Michael Miller owns and operates Out of a Jam Solutions, where he works to make customers’ lives simpler with repair and consulting for computers, websites and related technology. He specializes in CMS and Web strategy.

Heidi Weiland currently owns and operates Sound Web Solutions. She has been a web and graphic designer for over 10 years, specializing in design and SEO.

michael-headshot-200px
heidi-headshot

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Dates

March 31 & April 1, 2017

Can’t make it this time?
Sign up for updates on future classes here.


Location

Out of a Jam / SWS Office
642 S. Alaska St, Ste 200, Palmer, AK

We’re just above Vagabond Blues.


Praise

“I took a wordpress course from you in Homer last fall and created this: www.wildernessbirding.com. It was the best 2 days of training that I’ve ever had, saving me scads of time and money. Thanks!” – Aaron Lang, Wilderness Birding

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