Without further ado, I love plugins.  They are what make wordpress.org so great.  With pretty much any plugin you can imagine, your website will be great in no time.  There are 2 categories of plugins I want to talk about first – for blogs and for CMS/Websites.  Since I previously posted about using WordPress as a CMS, I would like to start there.  Since I’m new to all of this myself with the exception of having a little bit of hands-on experience, I’m going to point you into another direction…that is, another blog:

One Extra Pixel: CMS - this link will bring you to a wonderful article on using WordPress as a CMS as well as some plugins that would work great in doing this.  Key point: Don’t overuse plugins.  While Plugins are great, don’t go all crazy and use a plugin for everything.  This article will explain why and which ones are best to use.

One Extra Pixel: Blogging - this link brings you to that same website but offers up some great plugins for bloggers.  I have some of these mentioned plugins on my blogging website and they work wonderful. 

And finally, this is an alternative way to create your website into a CMS (as opposed to how I told you to do it in previous posts).  I am hoping to try this method on my website as well.

Here is what I did for mine:

1) Go to Appearance: Custom Header

Find the picture by browsing to it on your computer.  Click on Upload.  The next screen will show you how to crop your header:

Once you get it to where you want it, click on “crop header”.  Your page will now have a whole new look.  You can also edit the header by hiding it or changing the font colors.  You can’t move where the header is, but for basic editing, this is a good choice.

Besides changing the header, I’m going to edit the widgets or the sidebar.  Go to Appearance: Widgets.  Here you can remove items from the sidebar by dragging new items from the middle section to the right side of the screen.  You can add HTML or text to a “text” box or maybe a Bible verse or an important upcoming event.  If you know HTML code, you can add all sorts of fun stuff, like graphics or music.   I added a few simple items and now my page looks like this:

Now I’m going to add a few pages by going to Pages: Add New.  You could add a Contact page  or an About page or maybe even a page about your Services.  The sky is the limit and adding pages is very simple.  So create as many pages as you wish. Be sure to deselect the bottom where it says “allow comments” and “allow trackbacks”.  Here is what my website looked like after I added a few more pages:

Now I have a 4 page website.  Lastly, I am going to show you how to add content.  You need to edit the post or delete it and add a new one.  Go to Posts: Edit and write whatever you want that is applicable to a home page.  Something that introduces yourself or your ministry/organization would be ideal.  Turn the comments off, if you haven’t done so already. I added a graphic.  If you know how to use Microsoft Word, you can easily learn how to use WordPress.  You can expand the settings on the WordPress Posts Screen by clicking on this:

This will give you more options, like copy and pasting something from Word or embedding media.  The best way to work with WordPress is by trial and error.  Play around with it and you will soon be a WordPress Pro.  Here’s a final look at the end result:

Of course, your website can look much better with some time and effort.  Add some plugins, learn a little HTML, and search the internet for WordPress Themes and tutorials.  You will have a great website!  (Note: if you change your theme, you also lose many of the changes you made like removing footers, dates, or comments.  Be sure to find a good theme first and always backup your website).

First of all, if you do use WordPress, know the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.  WordPress.com is free and not very customizable.  You can’t do much with the theme or add plug ins (handy little gadgets to spruce up the website).  It’s basically a blog and that is all it ever will be.  WordPress.org, on the other hand, is a work of art.  You will, however, need to obtain a domain name and hosting in order to go this route.   Be sure the hosting is compatable with WordPress.org.  You also may want to look for a hosting account that has the ability to get WordPress installed with a click of a button (like Bluehost or GoDaddy).  Here are some tutorials and reading I found helpful (and believe me, that wasn’t easy…there’s a lot of stuff online that wasn’t!)

Creating a Church Website with WordPress

Make WordPress Look like a Website

How to Create a Website Using WordPress

From the last link, I thought this tip was very useful: 

If you do not want the comments and the “posted by… on…” displayed to make your website not look like a blog, just delete the following from the index.php (and also delete the same in the files page.php and single.php – if there are these files):
 

• <?php the_time(’F jS, Y’) ?><?php edit_post_link(’, Edit’); ?>
• <div class=”comm”><?php comments_popup_link(’Post Comment’, ‘Comments (1)’, ‘Comments (%)’); ?></div>

Note: Backup the files of your theme before editing it, so that you have the original files in case you do something wrong.

You might also like to edit some images of the theme like e.g. the header image. I have done both of these modifications on the theme of this website – I removed the comments and added the text “wordpress.lexty.com” into the header image.

Here is a simple, pictorial way I created a website (http://crossdrivenhome.com/wdbasics/).  I used a sub-domain to publish this “test” website with WordPress.  You can publish yours directly on your domain.  I already have another blog on my domain that is why I used a sub-domain instead.  After getting the hosting and WordPress set up on my account, I logged in to WordPress admin Control Panel.  My Website (really just a blog at this point) looked like this:

It’s pretty blah, right?  Right.  So then I went and found a customizable theme.  Just go to the left sidebar and find “Appearance: Themes”.  There is a ton of them.  You can even search the internet for “free WordPress Themes” and find pretty much anything you want.  For simplicity’s sake, I found one called K2.  I installed and activated it.

Then my page looked like this (note: I added a text box to the side which is not there when you create a new WordPress blog.  I forgot that I added it when I made this tutorial):

There are a few things you will notice.  It looks very much like a blog.  We are going to try to eliminate that.  The date, “posted by” and “comments” sections make this look even more like a blog.  I did mess with the categories on the side before I put this here, but on yours, you will probably see even more blog features, like categories or a blogroll.  We will be eliminating that look as much as possible. 

First thing I want you to do is download a plugin called “Date Exclusion SEO” from the plugin screen.  This will remove the dates.  You simply search for it, install it, and activate it.  This will remove the date feature on your blog.  My page doesn’t show a date as is, but if yours does, it will be removed by activating this plug in.  Here is a screenshot of my page, the date from the post section is gone:

Secondly, I want you to remove the code (as mentioned above) from the single.php, index.php, and page.php files.  To do that, you need to look under the Appearance tab on the left and then “Editor”.  This will allow you to edit the theme template.

Here is a screenshot: (I highlighted the important links in Yellow)

You simply just click on the appropriate page (index.php, page.php, and single.php – you will have to do each one at a time) and remove the code that is mentioned above.  Please backup your website if you plan on editing.  What I do is I highlight the code, right click or press CTRL + C and then delete it.  That way, if it looks funny, I can always add it back, but its best to create a backup copy.  See WordPress documentation on how to backup the theme. 

If you decided to use K2, you will not have to do any of this!  You simply go to Appearance: K2 Option and you can edit it all right there.  First thing, delete the “top meta” data.  This will remove that line on your blog that shows the author, date, time, ect.  Secondly, scroll down to where it says “Header” and change the word “blog” to “Home”.  Be sure to save your changes.  Your page should look something like this:

Next you will want to add pages, change your widgets, and remove the footer.  If you chose to use K2, this template is highly customizable and will be very easy to work with.  There are many other themes that are also customizable.  My next post will talk about how to do all of this.  Here is a video to learn more about adding posts/pages:

You Tube: WordPress Video

How to Activate a website using Publisher

How to create a website using Publisher

Microsoft Office: Prepare, Publish, and Maintain your Publisher Website

Network Solutions

BlueHost (I use this one and so far, so good)

GoDaddy

1and1

HostGator

Do a search and look for other hosting service providers.  Most of them are similar in price.  Use the booklet to help you select one that works best for your type of website.  If you plan on using WordPress, find a Linux hosting.  The best type would be one where you can simply download WordPress (like bluehost or GoDaddy).  If you are looking to use web page builders, find a hosting account that has that built in to the hosting fee.  Some even have demo’s you can “try before you buy”.

What topics will go on each page (each page should reflect a new topic)?

Are the topics too long?  Should I split them into sub-topics?

What forms of navigation should I use for this website?  What links will I use to navigate from page to page?

What will be on my first page (the home page)?  Remember, first impressions.

What are my goals and do these answers reflect my goals?

Planning is key in website design.  The more thought you put into your website, the better it will be.

Simply write out some statments about your website.  Here are some ideas to get you started:

I want this website to reflect…

The main purpose of this website will be…

I hope to attract these kinds of readers…

This type of information will be useful to others…

I want others to know this about our ministry/organization/business….

Be sure to think through this step.  It will help you in the long run to keep your goals as the focus of your website so you don’t get carried away with other small or insignificant details.  Be sure to use the worksheet in the booklet in the Appendixes

Do you understand what a web browser is?  Why is it important?  What type of web browser are you currenly using?  Feel free to leave your comments below if you would like to interact or discuss this topic further.

Here is a video that I found both insightful and funny, but hits on some main points of this section:

[Youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZoMbBzqxyc"]