Step-by-Step: Setting up a

WordPress.com Site

But FIRST…

We’re going to talk about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

Yes, Virginia, there is a difference.

WordPress.com

● Sites are hosted by WordPress. This arrangement is like Blogger, Wix, Weebly, Webs, and many, many others

● Free: You can upgrade to a Premium plan

● Themes: Lots of free themes, but you can purchase themes for a modest one time fee

● Domain name: If you own a domain name already (www.yourdomain.com) - you can attach it to the WordPress.com site for a modest yearly fee.

● This is a self-install hosted elsewhere - like with GoDaddy, Blue Host, Host Gator and dozens of other hosting services.

● Not Free: There are monthly or annual fees associated with these hosting services.

● Themes: Lots of free themes available through WordPress. There are themes you can purchase as well.

● Domain name: You must have (or purchase) your own domain name.

WordPress.org

There are pros and cons to each set-up

WordPress.comPros: A lot of the work is done for you● No backend maintenance required● WordPress.com does backups● Free● Can add-on extras

Cons: A lot of the work is done for you● Cannot use outside plug-ins● Themes can have limited

functionality● Limited Monetization (i.e., having

ads on your site)

WordPress.orgPros: More control over your site● Use whatever WP themes you’d like● Can customize themes and CSS● Can use whatever plugins you’d like● Monetize whenever you’d like

Cons: More of the burden falls on you● Must do WP updates● Must do your own maintenance:

backups, spam control, etc.● Cost $$

So, which one do I choose?

It depends on what you want to do.

WHAT?!!

That’s not meant to be misleading

Ask yourself: What’s the site for?

● Is this a personal blog?● Are you developing a site for your bricks and mortar business? For your non-profit?● Are you showcasing materials, like a portfolio of photography or artwork?● Are you selling products from your site?● If you are selling products, are they digital only or things like t-shirts?● Are you only planning on one site or more than one?● How much experience do you have already with website creation and maintenance?

I know, this Meetup is about setting up a

WordPress.com site, right?

Yes, but how the questions are

answered will help fill out the picture

regarding the template you should

select and the type of services you

may need.

This isn’t important right now, but it might be down the road. Keep it in

the back of your mind.

You’ll be relieved to know you can always upgrade from Free or migrate your site from WordPress.com to

WordPress.org.

On to the meat of the evening.

We’re doing WordPress.com Free tonight, so we’ll walk through the steps.Step 1: Go to WordPress.com and select ‘Create a Site’. Type in a site address.

Step 2I can’t stress this enough:

Write everything down!

Site addressEmailUsernamePassword

It will save you oodles of time (assuming you remember where you put the piece of paper with all the info!)

Step 3

Look carefully!

You do NOT have to select a custom address.

Step 4:Select a FREEtheme.

Step 5

That was easy, wasn’t it?Now it gets a little more tricky - at least to my mind. WordPress presents the user with “Reader”, a plain vanilla place to add content: post and pages.

I hate it. This is a personal thing I realize, but it feels very limiting. I much prefer working with the Administrative Dashboard; it gives more detail and options, but can be overwhelming to to new user.

Note:

Pages are static. The content on these pages shouldn’t change much. Maybe it’s an About or Mission page for your site, or Directions.

Posts are not static - this is where you’d put content that changes frequently but doesn’t go away. So for example, if you’re writing a blog you’d create a new post for each blogged item.

Reader

Administrative Dashboard

Either way, you add contentPages: StaticPages can be ‘Parent’ pages or ‘Child’ pages. Parent pages are at the top of the navigation hierarchy and Child pages are under them. So if you have an ‘About’ page and a ‘Directions’ page under it, About is the Parent and Directions is the child. Pages do not have categories or tags.

Posts: ChangingPosts have Categories and Tags. See note to the right.Posts represent changing content. So if you are writing a daily diary blog cataloging daily emotions, for example, you would write a blog post every day and attach it to a category - Happy, Ecstatic, Sad, In Love - whatever. You, and your blog visitors, would find your different types of blog posts by its category, in this case different emotions.

Note:

Categories for posts help people find items you’ve posted. It’s kind of like a table of contents. You shouldn’t have too many categories - just main topics or broad areas.

Tags for posts are kind of like an index in a book and you can add as many of those as you like.

ImagesImages illustrate your content in either Pages or Posts. Images can be added where you type in your content through “Add Image”. These are usually uploaded from your computer and added to the post or page as a featured image or embedded into the content.

Images can be a powerful tool and some templates are really driven by images. Photographers, for example, will select a portfolio style template that helps display their visual content better.

TemplatesYou may not love the template you first selected or you may find that it doesn’t really suit your purposes.

YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT.

Don’t get too caught up in the template hamster wheel. There are lots of other free templates to choose from.

So, play with it a little!

● Add some posts, pages and images. ● Seek out and change the theme to see if

something works better.● Add some widgets! (We haven’t talked about

this yet, but we will…)

WidgetsWidgets are the little add-ons that make your site more interesting. Widgets can be in a sidebar (right or left), in the footer, or in the header. Much of where these go depends on the theme selected.WordPress.com gives you a pre-selected bunch of widgets - you can’t add any news ones. (Nor can you add any plug-ins. What you see is what you get.)

That’s probably enough for tonight and will give you lots to think about and work on.

Do you want a Part IInext month?