Getting the Most out of WordPress.com

Getting the most out of WordPress.com

I am Mel Choyce

• Design Engineer at Automattic

• WordPress core contributor

• Live in Boston

• @melchoyce | choycedesign.com | melchoyce.com

http://melchoyce.com


Introduction to WordPress.com

• Open source project

• Need to pay for hosting

• Completely customizable

• Total control

• Great if you know some code or feel comfortable experimenting

• Hosted WordPress service

• Free hosting

• Partially customizable

• Paid upgrades

• Great if you’re new to site building/blogging or want to make something fast

Lots of blogs. Lots of readers.

Users produce about 41.0 million new posts and 54.0 million new

comments each month

http://en.wordpress.com/stats/



Over 409 million people view more than 14.0 billion pages

each month




Used by big brands

Used InternationallyPosts written in over 120 languages

Top 10 Languages

66%English

1.4%French

2%Italian

1.1%Russian

1.8%German

3.5%Indonesian

1%Swedish

1.1%Vietnamese

6.5%Portuguese

8.7%Spanish

Getting Started

Setting up Your Site

Themes

https://cloudup.com/cyDViQbXK4J

Video Demo:Changing Your Theme



Tips for picking themes

Figure out your site’s purpose

PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE

BUSINESSBLOG

Determine your budget

150+Free Themes 110+

Premium Themes$18

LowestPrice

$70~Average

Price

$125+Higher end

themes

Pick a theme with the layouts you want

Customization

Header Images

Video Demo:Adding a header image

https://cloudup.com/cuInvKCikzv



Background Colors or Images

Video Demo:Changing your background color or image

https://cloudup.com/cyj8B5Faec8



Design Upgrades

Custom Colors

Video Demo:Using custom colors

https://cloudup.com/c0i5gn-Ag71



Custom Fonts

Video Demo:Using custom colors

https://cloudup.com/cM6k9PoSV9V



Custom CSS

Video Demo:Using custom css

https://cloudup.com/cOj_XhIpzRU



Widgets

Text Widgets

Video Demo:Adding a text widget

https://cloudup.com/cxc9zfAU3So



Contact Info

Social Widgets

Twitter Timeline

Facebook Like Box

Instagram

• About.me

• Bandpage

• Box File Sharing

• del.icio.us

• Eventbrite Event Calendar

• Flickr

• Goodreads

• Gravatar/Gravatar Profile

• tlk.io

...and others!

Follow Widgets

Follow Button

Follow Blog by Email

Widget Visibility

Creating Content

Pages vs. Posts

• Chronological — publish date matters

• A single entry in a blog, can stand on its own

• Can add tags + categories

• Display in a list on your blog page

• “Static” — No sense of time or publish date

• Hierarchical — can nest and relate pages together

• No tags or categories

• Display in your menu

Posts Pages

Front Page

Page on frontvs.

Blog homepage

Tags vs. Categories

• Higher level topics(food, travel)

• Usually only one per post, maybe two

• “Table of Contents” of your blog

• Hierarchical

• Granular topics(burritos, santa cruz)

• As many as you want per post

• Like your blog’s index

• Not hierarchical

Categories Tags

Featured Images

Video Demo:Adding a featured image

https://cloudup.com/c25uXMPsoYf



Post Formats

Video Demo:Different colors/icons for different post formats

https://cloudup.com/codFplB2TiY



Excerpts

Scheduling Posts

Video Demo:Scheduling a post

https://cloudup.com/cw2HYRJRNGn



Copy a Post

Writing Help

Page Templates

Password Protected Pages

Video Demo:Password protecting a page

https://cloudup.com/cS-N_xoUurl



Display Posts Shortcode

Copy a Page

Custom Content Types

Portfolios

http://en.support.wordpress.com/portfolios/



Testimonials

http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/motif/



Recipes

[recipe title="Simple Steak Marinade" servings="1lb of steak" time="5 minutes" difficulty="easy"]

(your recipe)

[/recipe]

http://en.support.wordpress.com/shortcodes/recipes/



Video Demo:Your media library

https://cloudup.com/cq2C84_QkMi



Images

Video Demo:Adding an image to a post

https://cloudup.com/c6ZlaMWF-WV



Galleries

Video Demo:Adding galleries to a post

https://cloudup.com/cDB7y96ewp3



Video Demo:Embedding audio into a post

https://cloudup.com/ceOYPkHeURO



Video Demo:Embedding video into a post

https://cloudup.com/c-4-yGcTWsN



Playlists

Interactive Content

Contact Forms

Presentations

Video Demo:What a presentation looks like

https://cloudup.com/cezyl_TBxhx

http://en.support.wordpress.com/presentations/

Documentation





Sharing Content

Publicize

Sharing Buttons

Likes & Reblogs

Settings > Sharing

Tracking Content

Notifications

Fine-tune your Settings

Screen Options

• Reading

• Writing

• Discussion

• Media

• Privacy

The only settings you need to worry about

Import

Export

Getting Serious

Domains

mysite.wordpress.commysite.com

Domains

1. Register a new domain on WordPress.com(through your site’s “store” section)

or

2. Point a domain you already own to your WordPress.com site

or

3. Point a subdomain you already own to your WordPress.com site (blog.mysite.com)

Emails

1. Forward to an existing email address(like [email protected])

or

2. Connect your domain to another email provider(http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/add-email/)

http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/add-email/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/add-email/

Getting the Most out of WordPress.com

Small Business & Entrepreneurship

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