Best way to learn wordpress

36 replies
What is the best/ quickest/ easiest/ most informative way to learn wordpress? Paid or free services...what has helped you?
#learn #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Motley
    start a blog and just start poking at wordpress. If you mess it up, big deal, reinstall. I learned more about wp by trial and error than anything else.
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    • Profile picture of the author nu1424
      First, I agree with Michael Motley that just poking around with the app is a great way to start. Sign up for a free account at Wordpress.com. It doesn't have all the features of a self-hosted WP installation (can't upload themes or plugins to name a couple) but you can easily play around in the back end to learn how it works.

      Not sure is the forum allows posting of links. If you want some good, free Wordpress tutorials, go over to YouTube and search for the user mcbuzzvideo. I have always found his tutorials informative.

      Good luck!
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  • pick one of your domains and install it in a /blog directory. I'd recommend doing the 5 minute install and NOT fantastico. That way you will take the time to see that making an MYSQL database is really pretty easy.

    I create a single text file to save my installation notes and settings. Then I cut and paste them into the config.php file.

    It's really pretty easy to install.

    Once you have wordpress installed find a few different templates and upload them and and activate them and play with the settings.

    Grab a few plug ins and install them. WP Spam Free and All in One SEO are good plug ins to get to know.

    Next write a few sample posts and see how they look in your different templates.

    I create a test site like this for anything I'm testing. I actually have a test domain just for this kind of thing... wordpress, drupal, joomla, cms made easy, scripts, anything I want to try out.

    Wordpress is actually pretty easy to pick up on. And the DOC at wordpress.org are very good.

    Most people will be up to speed with the basics including installation within a couple of hours.

    But it's the templates and plug ins that make wordpress so powerful.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Keith
    I agree with what everyone else is saying. The best way to learn is to just dive in and start playing with WordPress.

    To get you started though, you might want to go to WordPress.tv or YouTube and watch some of the various video tutorials available to help users. There is a ton of extremely valuable videos you can watch there.

    Just make sure when you search that you search for the version of WP you are playing with. Otherwise some things may not look the way they do in your site.

    Best of Luck to you!

    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Green
    Wordpress is great. if you dont want to do an install on your own try the wordpress.com site and learn there first. I would google free wordpress tutorials, because they are literally everywhere. A great place to get more information about wordpress is weblog tools collection, you can search their site and you will definitely find what you are looking for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fox30
    For SEO purposes WP is almost better because search engines like blog type formats, but only if you will be constantly updating it.
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  • Profile picture of the author alpalino
    Just dive into it. Don't expect to learn by reading manuals or tutorials. You got to make your hands dirty. Whenever, you have problems you can ask on the forums that are dedicaed to WP.

    Good Luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Graham Maddison
    I agree totally what everyone is saying here...trial and error is by far the best way to learn with wordpress.....once the site is up and running it is really just a question of finding the right theme and plugins...if you do happen to screw up, you can easilly start again.

    Graham
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  • Profile picture of the author bobmcalister
    well..that 'jumping in ' seems like a waste when there are so many all ready here that know and could teach ...make some videos ...we will buy them
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    • Profile picture of the author deanmoney
      I didnt know a thing about wordpress until I spent a couple of hours reading up on it online. Also just installing the defult templete and testing it out is the best option.
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  • Profile picture of the author bobmcalister
    where did you read about it ? etc...it astounds me that people, myself included, forget to explain the basics of a situation and just assume everyone else knows what you know ...the fact that not everyone else knows what you know makes what you know valuable.
    how is that for communicating clearly ?
    Free WordPress Tutorials : WordPress Themes : Business WordPress Themes, WordPress CMS Themes
    here is where i have been
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    • Profile picture of the author noelma
      If you really want to just play around with Wordpress ... complete freedom to do whatever ... a local install on the PC is a good way to go.

      I found instructions for doing that type of install here :
      ************************************************** **
      Ok... Sorry ... I attempted to post a link here.
      But, the forum disallowed it as I have only 6 posts so far.
      Workaround: Do a Google search on the terms
      Wordpress Install local WinXP

      Select the link that has build-your-website.co.uk in the domain
      and "Installing Wordpress On Windows (XP 2000) Part 1 -Apache Install"
      as the headline tag
      and description
      "Installing Wordpress On Windows (2000 and XP) -Part 1 -
      Overview and Installing the Apache server."

      ************************************************** **

      Moving on ...

      I know ... I know ...
      The "mantra" of the Warriors is to "Take Action ... Dive In"
      ... I know ...

      Nevertheless, I didn't want to be paying for hosting yet until I had some solid ideas for moving forward. I'm kinda' new at this ... Wasn't sure how long that would take. Have the same feelings toward being hosted on Wordpress' server.

      Another option, that's more closely simulates being served by Hostgator or BlueHost probably, is installing to a local-networked Linux Server ... which I've done also ... but it's more involved. Also, I can't seem set up multiple blog directories as easily as with WinXP. But, that's cool since when I travel with my laptop, all my Wordpress stuff goes with me.

      Drawback(s) I've experienced:

      (1) Some themes, a minor few, don't seem to work as well in Wordpress on Win-XP, yet they work just fine in Wordpress on Linux.

      (2) You can't really test out the SEO on your site until you actually host publicly and go online. So, there's incentive to get going and come up with something.

      Hope this helps.

      M. Noel
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  • Profile picture of the author kjfuller1
    I always learn by doing.. just keep on adding bits of wordpress knowledge.
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  • Profile picture of the author rhoda.pearl
    Learning WP is easy. You don't need any tutorials or ebooks for it. WP for me is a user-friendly platform compared to other platforms that I have tried. Do not be afraid to make test blog. As said in previous replies, you can learn WP through trial and error. Do not be afraid to explore WP.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheGrooby
    http://digwp.com/ Digging Into Wordpress Written by Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks.com. Check it out, he's a genius and it's a great eBook with GREAT information on Wordpress.
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  • Profile picture of the author lcookidl
    go to wordpress.com, there you can find available tutorials that would surely help you in webpage design. the best tool to learn wordpress on its site itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author AllyW
    If you have your site planned and have done your keyword research and are ready to build, then go get your hosting, buy a domain, download WordPress and get started and you'll have your site up and running the same day. Seriously, you can learn it on the fly, it is so incredibly easy. WordPress.org has plenty of tutorials if you want to look at them, but if you are fairly computer savvy, you will not need the tutorials. Just go do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author brendanwenzel
    YouTube is a beautiful thing
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      I just got a course from Paul Myers and its $27 and frankly the best no fluff course I've ever seen, it is dead easy for someone with no prior knowledge to implement. You can see it here

      The lessons are as follows...

      01: Organizing Your Site Info
      02: Keyword Research
      03: Choosing Domain Names
      04: Finding A Host for Your Blog
      05: Connect Your Blog To Your Domain Name
      06: Set Up Your FTP Client
      07: C-Panel Introduction
      08: Creating Sub-Domain Names with C-Panel
      09: Auto Installing Your WordPress Blog
      10: MySQL Database Creation
      11: Manually Installing Your WordPress Blog
      12: WP Versions Upgrade -- Manual & Automatic
      13: Added Security, Part 1 (WP Security Scan Plugin)
      14: Added Security, Part 2 (Directory access)
      15: Added Security, Part 3 (Login lockdown)
      16: Added Security, Part 4 (Keeping Everything Up To Date)
      17: Added Security, Part 5 (Regular Backups)
      18: Added Security, Part 6 (WP-Config file)
      19: Added Security, Part 7 (Strong Initial Login)
      20: Added Security, Part 8 (Member/Visitor Registration)
      21: Clean & Customize WP
      22: Themes: Intro and Installation
      23: Plugins: The Basics
      24: Installing Plugins
      25: Configuring The Akismet Plugin (Keep out spam posts)
      26: Configuring The All In One Seo Plugin
      27: Configuring Traffic Getting SEO Plugin
      28: Configuring Contact Form Plugin
      29: Configuring Google Anyliticator
      30: Auto-Posting Plugins
      31: Creating A New Post
      32: Creating New Pages
      33: Add New Users
      34: What Is A Widget?
      35: Backups - Auto & Manual
      36: How to Create A Salespage Template
      37: How To Use WP As Your Mini-Site
      38: How To Create A Static Front Page
      39: How To Add A Drop Down Box to Your Navigation Bar
      40: How to Stream Video from Your WP Blog
      41: How To Customize Your VIDEO Player
      42: How To Add Streaming Audio to Your Blog
      43: How To Customize Your AUDIO Player
      44: How to Upgrade to WP 3.0
      45: How To Customize WP 3.0 Menus
      46: How To Customize The WP 3.0 Theme
      47: How To Enable The Multi-Site Feature

      For the money I really think this is one of the best purchases I've made and Paul never plugs any crap at all and believe me I wish I'd seen this sooner.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave braithwaite
    some really good info here guys
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  • Profile picture of the author dawnbreaker
    Richard, what was the link of the site of Paul? I might buy his product soon... Cause I gonna make my site maybe by March of 2011... Now I am revising some articles for my future site...

    And Base on the list you provided... The course of Paul is a great tip from scratch to a fully furnish website/blog.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Hi Dawnbreaker,

      In the second line of my post where it says "You can see it here" the "here" is a link to the site. Here it is again for you http://talkbiz.com

      Good luck.

      Originally Posted by dawnbreaker View Post

      Richard, what was the link of the site of Paul? I might buy his product soon... Cause I gonna make my site maybe by March of 2011... Now I am revising some articles for my future site...

      And Base on the list you provided... The course of Paul is a great tip from scratch to a fully furnish website/blog.
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      Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...

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      • Profile picture of the author dawnbreaker
        Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

        Hi Dawnbreaker,

        In the second line of my post where it says "You can see it here" the "here" is a link to the site. Here it is again for you http://talkbiz.com

        Good luck.

        Wow, you have replied to my post quickly... This is the reason why I love Warrior Forum.... Anyways... Sorry for my mistake... I haven't seen the link you provided on your post.

        I need to check it now before its too late for me...
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  • Profile picture of the author cbjack
    The best way to learn Wordpress is to learn by doing. The simplest thing to do with wordpress is to create a blog by signing up for an account at Wordpress.com. There is no cost to this. This blog will be hosted under a subdomain by Wordpress.com such as (http;//example.wordpress.com). But you have the option of purchasing your own domain in the future. Although, if you already have your own domain name and web hosting, you can install Wordpress for free on that server.

    With this, you will be able to use Wordpress to learn how to make post, approve comments, learn about tagging, and so on.
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  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    Do a search on the Warrior Forum for Istvan Horvath.

    The man is a walking encyclopedia on Wordpress and a great teacher. You can learn a lot by watching his posts and even more by hunting down some of his offerings.

    I have a copy of Istvan's Wordpress Dreamtool Guide, and it taught me many little techniques, settings, and ideas I was not aware of before.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      I'll back that up to, Istvan is probably the most knowledgeable guy I've seen on this forum regarding WP. He has a great signature link I'd also recommend.

      Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

      Do a search on the Warrior Forum for Istvan Horvath.

      The man is a walking encyclopedia on Wordpress and a great teacher. You can learn a lot by watching his posts and even more by hunting down some of his offerings.

      I have a copy of Istvan's Wordpress Dreamtool Guide, and it taught me many little techniques, settings, and ideas I was not aware of before.
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      Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...

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      • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
        Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

        Do a search on the Warrior Forum for Istvan Horvath.
        You can learn a lot by watching his posts and even more by hunting down some of his offerings.

        I have a copy of Istvan's Wordpress Dreamtool Guide, and it taught me many little techniques, settings, and ideas I was not aware of before.
        Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

        I'll back that up to, Istvan is probably the most knowledgeable guy I've seen on this forum regarding WP. He has a great signature link I'd also recommend.
        Thank you, guys, for the kind words, I appreciate it.

        However, I would like to make a clarification to save some disappointment for newer members - in case they'd follow your advice.

        I do NOT cater for newbie WordPress users. If you never used WordPress and you are trying to install your very first WordPress blog/site - then my products are NOT for you.

        I don't provide products targeted to newbies for a few reasons:
        - WP has one of the best online documentations http://codex.wordpress.org; there is more info there than you'll ever need. Just don't be lazy, go and read it!
        - there are literally hundreds of free videos teaching you how to use FTP, how to install WP, how to do the basic stuff - if you are the 'visual' type of learner
        - there are books (offline and online) and courses, posts, web sites etc. that provide all the information you need to start with WP

        My WP related products are made for users that are already familiar with WordPress and want to take their blogging experience to new levels, like
        - adding widgets anywhere you want in a WP theme
        - creating multiple websites with one installation, i.e. building a blog empire from a single WP installation

        I just thought it would be good to clarify this before people jump into purchasing something they are not ready for it... yet!

        Happy blogging!
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  • Profile picture of the author Azlan
    i guess there are a lot of useful information in this thread already.... really really good info...

    - azlan
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  • Profile picture of the author dawnbreaker
    All those information gathered in thread are credits to the warrior forum users... Without them, we cannot gather this information...

    @Richard. I am planning to buy the ebook... But not now... I havent included that ebook for this month budget....
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by dawnbreaker View Post

      All those information gathered in thread are credits to the warrior forum users... Without them, we cannot gather this information...

      @Richard. I am planning to buy the ebook... But not now... I havent included that ebook for this month budget....
      Thats fine, it's not my product! As far as I know it's not going anywhere so I'm sure it'll still be there. You can also ask Paul if he plans taking it down but I don't see why he would. All the best.

      Ps. It's not an ebook either, its 47 or so video's that walk you through the whole process so it's really easy to follow along at the same time. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    what has helped you?
    My ass... I was sitting on it for hours during my trial and error sessions That's how I've learned WP.
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    I learn by doing things for myself too. It's why I still can't drive a car - nobody has ever been daft enough to give me a motor and a big field and just let me get on with it for a few hours unsupervised. I guess some people just can't follow instructions and do what's instructed at the same time. I know several traumatised driving instructors who can confirm this...

    For some reason my brain just dries up when I work on a local WordPress installation - weird, but it kind of feels like working in a cellar. It has to be live on the web somewhere before my brain will kick into gear, so I usually just stick up a WP installation online (a sub-domain will do) and do all my experimenting behind an activated 'Down For Maintenance' plugin, constantly uploading revised files via FileZilla. It's a good job the price of bandwith isn't what it used to be.

    I'd agree with all the votes of confidence in favour of Istvan. I'll always try to help answer new user WordPress questions if I see someone stuck, but if I see Istvan's name as the last poster then I won't even bother to open the thread a lot of the time as I can be pretty sure that the querent is already sorted. He's one of our WF stars
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  • Profile picture of the author jocaziggg
    Hi, i need to make a script fore visitors to register on my site,and to have a option to post a pictures on the gallery...I know that something like that cane be done in WP, but look like complicate.Did someone know where i can fount tutorials fore this purpose...
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  • Profile picture of the author jazzboy90
    Well, nothing is better than finding free instructional videos at YouTube. There are literally tons of videos taking you by hand how to start a blog from the beginning to the end. Just go there and starting learning.

    Jazzy
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  • Profile picture of the author virtualc08
    Create a free blog and learn it yourself. If you find anything that is hard to understand just google it or ask the warriors . They will surely help you out .
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  • Profile picture of the author Rsberg
    I'd say the thread has spoken....

    Dive in and learn it by doing it!

    WP is fairly simple once you get in it, at least the basics anyway and then you can track down someone like Istvan Horvath and take it up a notch or 3

    Good luck...now stop reading this and go do it!
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