WordPress Questions and Answers Session

WordPress Q&A

July 14, 2013

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Best plugins for a beginner blogger?

Before you install a plugin, what functionality do you need?

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Best plugins for a beginner blogger?

SEO• All in One SEO Pack• WordPress SEO by Yoast

Spam• Akismet

Google Integration• Google XML Sitemaps• Google Analytics for WordPr

ess• Google Analyticator

Technical Functions• WP Super Cache• Wptouch• Jetpack by WordPress.com• WP-PageNavi• Broken Link Checker• W3 Total Cache • Redirection

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Best plugins for a beginner blogger?

Connecting with Visitors• Contact Form 7• Ninja Forms• Really Simple CAPTCHA• Are You Human• Fast Secure Contact Form• Digg Digg• Sociable• GTrans• WP to Twitter• AddThis• Buddy Press

Content Management• TinyMCE Advanced• NextGEN Gallery• Word Press Importer• Yet Another Related Posts Pl

ugin• Smart YouTube PRO• WP-Polls

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Best plugins for a beginner blogger?

Monetization

• WP e-Commerce• WooCommerce• Cart66• iThemes Exchange• http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-shoppin

g-cart

Sourcehttp://visual.ly/wordpress-most-popular-plugins

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Andy’s Default Plugins

• Akismet• Contact Form 7• Redirection• Are You Human• Pretty Link Lite• Digg Digg

• Google XML Sitemaps• TablePress• WordPress SEO

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Best Themes for a Beginner Blogger

• Twenty Twelve• Free WooThemes– http://www.woothemes.com/product-category/th

emes/?prod_cat[]=100&s=&post_type=product

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Free Themes vs Paid

• You get what you pay for– Expert Design– Functions and Capability– Support…Support…Support

• WooThemes provides 3 themes for $70

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Useful Resources

• What are 2-3 good resources to follow to learn as much as possible without suffering from analysis paralysis?– http://wp.tutsplus.com/– http://www.chrislema.com– http://www.wpbeginner.com

– Google / YouTube what you want to learn

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What do most people use WordPress to accomplish?

• Content Marketing and Promotion• Blogging• Corporate Presence• Membership Sites• Application Development– Software As A Service– http://www.betterbooktools.com

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Can you do self-publishing with it?

• Blogging• Membership Site• Kindle Ritual : Amazon Kindle self-publishing

solution

• Blog Series = Kindle Self Publishing

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Customize vs Template/Plugin

• How much effort should I devote on finding a developer to custom code my wordpress site VERSUS looking for a plugin or template that can do what I want?

• Approach1. Template the look and feel2. Plugin for features3. Customization

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Customize vs Template/Plugin

• How complex are your requirements?• Do you have a budget to work with a

developer?• Perception : Outsource to a $5 / hr developer• Get what you pay for

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Best Form Plugin

• How does Google forms compare with Gravity Forms or Contact 7 in WordPress?

• Google Forms (Free)– Excellent quick form to spreadsheet solution– Embed or link to a site

• Contact 7 (Free)– Simple form submission to email

• Gravity Forms (Paid)– Advanced Form features– Multi Form surveys, conditional logic, stores results– Action hooks

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Development to Production Workflow

• What is the best work flow for developing on a local machine and then uploading to a server?– Both web and database files– Avoid overwriting config files

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Development to Production Workflow

• www.yourdomain.com• dev.youdomain.com• Local machine (XAMP, MAMP)• PHP files and MySQL Database• Duplicator Plugin– http://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/– Exports files and database– Imports files, database and renames URLs

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How to setup Ping backs

• Ping Backs

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How to setup Related Blog Posts

• Contextual Related Posts• http://wordpress.org/plugins/contextual-relat

ed-posts/

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Joomla vs WordPress

• There are so many template out there. I am used to Joomla where we create the design and not use templates. Can you do the same with Wordpress?

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Joomla vs WordPress

• Joomla uses components in defined sections

• WordPress uses templates– Templates assigned by page– Edit template code to create

a different layout

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Theme Recommendations

• woothemes.com• http://my.studiopress.com/themes/genesis/• Themeforest.com

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Performing Art Themes

• http://themeforest.net/item/eventor-event-management-wordpress-theme/2437242?WT.ac=category_item&WT.seg_1=category_item&WT.z_author=themeskingdom

• http://themeforest.net/item/eventalist-events-wordpress-theme/2190231?WT.ac=category_item&WT.seg_1=category_item&WT.z_author=cssmania

• http://themeforest.net/item/music-musicians-theme-facebook-app/1541383?WT.ac=category_item&WT.seg_1=category_item&WT.z_author=Net-Labs

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How to take orders online and make payments

• WordPress plugins can be added to support order entry and payments

• May need a customized solution with Gravity Forms depending on complexity

• WP e-Commerce• WooCommerce• Cart66• iThemes Exchange• http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-shop

ping-cart

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How to minifying Javascript in WP?

• Enqueueing scripts in the functions.php is great– Would like to cut down on my js and css requests.– It seems like whenever you inspect wp-sites, the

head is full of scripts being loaded.• If (is_page( 42 ) ) { do_something (); }

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How do I create a permanent (static) home page?

• Settings - Reading

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What is a permalink and which should I chose?

• The URL for your post is ugly and unhelpful. You can turn it into a dated or undated named page in settings.

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Settings - Permalinks

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How do I get Twitter tweets to show on my blog?

• Plugins are used to display the Twitter feed• Jetpack• Real Time Twitter– http://wordpress.org/plugins/real-time-twitter/

• Use Twitter’s own widget tools– https://twitter.com/settings/widgets

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How can I hide my WordPress site when I'm working on it?

• Ultimate Coming Soon Page Plugin

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How can I hide my WordPress site when I'm working on it?

• Hide from search engines

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How to Create a Child Theme

• Why use a Child Theme– Child theme allows customization– Child theme prevents losing customizations when

the original theme is updates

www.amakar.com 33• http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

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How to Create A Child Theme

• Import the parent them• Activate your theme

• Copy and modify template php files– Without overwriting master files

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Functions.php vs Plugin

• You want to customize your website• Option 1: Add function to your functions.php

file– Quick and Easy– One single error crashes your site

• Option 2: Create a plugin– More overhead to create– May generate error but doesn’t crash the site

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What are custom post types?

• Custom post types are new post types you can create– Directory, Book, Recipe

• How to set them up?– http://wp.smashingmagazine.com/2012/11/08/co

mplete-guide-custom-post-types/– http://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui

/

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Additional Plugins and Resources

• PODS• Ultimate Maintenance• One Click Child Theme• Velvet Blue’s Update URL• P3 : Plugin Performance Profiler• Instant WP• Woosidebars• AMPPS• Backup Buddy• ServerPress• Display Widgets