When I finally decided that I was going to document my progress I wanted to get everything set up really quickly and get going. The problem was that when I had built sites a few years ago I always had someone else do it for me, so I had no idea how to get started!
I knew that I would be using WordPress but that was as far as my knowledge went! Luckily for me my mentor had something that would solve that problem, WordPress Mastery Video Series! Seriously, I have no idea if I would have been able to get everything done so quickly (I think) had I not had the videos to guide me through.
Once I had decided on my domain name, which took me almost a day to settle on, I hadn’t got the videos or anything and went through to the help desk at Hostgator to help me get things set up and running. My domain name was with NameCheap and I had to set up all the nameservers etc and although it was nerve racking, I got it done.
Hostgator were spot on through the whole process and have a great support desk. Once I had the WordPress tutorials though in the ‘bonus’ section there are videos that guide you through domain name set up! It would have been a total breeze if I’d had them.
Once I had the tutorials everything became really simple.
Within the hour I had WordPress installed and that included watching the videos! Once I logged into my blog I saw a notice telling me that my WordPress install was outdated and I needed to update it. It was just a click of the button and it did it for me, WordPress is now my new best friend! It’s really important to keep your blog install updated (and also the plugins too) as it can leave you vulnerable to attacks from nasty hackers and such.
My mentor (Kelly Stone) had sent me a list of important changes to make and a list of plugins that the site would need (yes, there was a video for these too) to get installed and running.
Update Core WordPress Install (if needed)
Change Permalinks
Install Plugins
Find/Install Theme
Create About/Contact/Legal Pages
Write 1st Post
Each one of these came with instructions so I’ve had a massive help understanding the why/hows etc. Although I have a long way to go to fully understand everything, it’s all a learning curve.
The update was done so I moved onto the permalinks. By default, WordPress uses a rather ‘ugly’ structure. By changing the permalinks it not only ‘looks’ better, it has SEO benefits by having more of your ‘keywords’ in the urls.
It’s also a really good idea to do this part straight off as you can end up with a real headache changing an established blog as you could end up with lots of ‘page not found’ errors etc.
Using the /%category%/%postname%/ structure is perfect for SEO and it looks much nicer for readers who find you in the search engines. (There is a video in the WordPress Tutorials showing you all this too.)
Next I moved onto the plugins and on here, so far I am running:
Platinum Seo
Google Anylitics
JV Press Go Pages
Google XML Sitemaps
RSS Footer
Sexy Bookmarks
Subscribe To Comments
WP Super Cache
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Each of them do important jobs that WordPress doesn’t do by itself or if it does, these make it better/easier for users to control/use.
Finding a theme was a really hard choice and took me hours. I wanted it to be perfect and this is something that I had been warned about. “Never spend hours trying to be perfect – get on and do something that you can learn from!” is what my mentor told me. Regardless, it took me ages to find what I was looking for.
I settled on this theme (Woo Theme) because I liked the look of it on Kelly-Stone.com. I wish that I could say something more about it but the truth is I wanted to get a premium theme to make my blog look more professional and Woo Themes have a great reputation.
Watching the videos meant that getting it all set up was a total breeze which I am pleased about because I have heard horror stories about people losing all the work and stuff when they changed themes. It’s vital to back up your blog regularly to avoid situations like that.
I knew that I would be using WordPress but that was as far as my knowledge went! Luckily for me my mentor had something that would solve that problem, WordPress Mastery Video Series! Seriously, I have no idea if I would have been able to get everything done so quickly (I think) had I not had the videos to guide me through.
Once I had decided on my domain name, which took me almost a day to settle on, I hadn’t got the videos or anything and went through to the help desk at Hostgator to help me get things set up and running. My domain name was with NameCheap and I had to set up all the nameservers etc and although it was nerve racking, I got it done.
Hostgator were spot on through the whole process and have a great support desk. Once I had the WordPress tutorials though in the ‘bonus’ section there are videos that guide you through domain name set up! It would have been a total breeze if I’d had them.
Once I had the tutorials everything became really simple.
Within the hour I had WordPress installed and that included watching the videos! Once I logged into my blog I saw a notice telling me that my WordPress install was outdated and I needed to update it. It was just a click of the button and it did it for me, WordPress is now my new best friend! It’s really important to keep your blog install updated (and also the plugins too) as it can leave you vulnerable to attacks from nasty hackers and such.
My mentor (Kelly Stone) had sent me a list of important changes to make and a list of plugins that the site would need (yes, there was a video for these too) to get installed and running.
Update Core WordPress Install (if needed)
Change Permalinks
Install Plugins
Find/Install Theme
Create About/Contact/Legal Pages
Write 1st Post
Each one of these came with instructions so I’ve had a massive help understanding the why/hows etc. Although I have a long way to go to fully understand everything, it’s all a learning curve.
The update was done so I moved onto the permalinks. By default, WordPress uses a rather ‘ugly’ structure. By changing the permalinks it not only ‘looks’ better, it has SEO benefits by having more of your ‘keywords’ in the urls.
It’s also a really good idea to do this part straight off as you can end up with a real headache changing an established blog as you could end up with lots of ‘page not found’ errors etc.
Using the /%category%/%postname%/ structure is perfect for SEO and it looks much nicer for readers who find you in the search engines. (There is a video in the WordPress Tutorials showing you all this too.)
Next I moved onto the plugins and on here, so far I am running:
Platinum Seo
Google Anylitics
JV Press Go Pages
Google XML Sitemaps
RSS Footer
Sexy Bookmarks
Subscribe To Comments
WP Super Cache
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Each of them do important jobs that WordPress doesn’t do by itself or if it does, these make it better/easier for users to control/use.
Finding a theme was a really hard choice and took me hours. I wanted it to be perfect and this is something that I had been warned about. “Never spend hours trying to be perfect – get on and do something that you can learn from!” is what my mentor told me. Regardless, it took me ages to find what I was looking for.
I settled on this theme (Woo Theme) because I liked the look of it on Kelly-Stone.com. I wish that I could say something more about it but the truth is I wanted to get a premium theme to make my blog look more professional and Woo Themes have a great reputation.
Watching the videos meant that getting it all set up was a total breeze which I am pleased about because I have heard horror stories about people losing all the work and stuff when they changed themes. It’s vital to back up your blog regularly to avoid situations like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment