Building Your Website – The Right Plugins

Now that you’ve set up your WordPress site and chosen a theme, there are a few things you will need to do to make your website run more efficiently.  And this starts with adding some features using plugins. Plugins are small chunks of computer code that enhance the functionality of your WordPress-based website.  And don’t worry… you don’t need to be a computer programmer to understand how to do this.

Here is my list of plugins you absolutely need to have installed on your site:

  • Akismet – handles spam comments so your blog doesn’t get overwhelmed
  • All-In-One SEO Pack – adds features to make sure your blog shows up in the search engines
  • WP-DB-Backup – backs up your blog so if there is a problem, you can recover

Here’s the video tutorial (or click the image on the right):

Next up… Settings, settings, and more settings:

  1. Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
  2. Set up your WordPress installation – done!
  3. Pick a theme and apply it – done!
  4. The right plugins for your website – done!
  5. Settings, settings, and more settings
  6. Organizing  your site – writing pages
  7. Writing posts and adding images
  8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  9. Wrapping it all up

You may have noticed I removed a few items from the list – Getting a Google account, Creating a graphical header, and Setting up an email subscription list.  This is because these are much more advanced topics and I thought it would be difficult at this stage of the game.

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Building Your Website – Picking a Theme

The next step in building your website is to pick a theme, which controls the look of your site.  And in WordPress, there are 1,000s of themes available for free, and some premium themes that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Next up… The Right Plugins for Your Site:

  1. Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
  2. Set up your WordPress installation – done!
  3. Pick a theme and apply it – done!
  4. The right plugins for your website
  5. Getting a Google account
  6. Settings, settings, and more settings
  7. Creating a graphical header
  8. Setting up an email subscription system
  9. Organizing  your site – writing pages
  10. Writing posts and adding images
  11. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  12. Wrapping it all up

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Building Your Website – Wordpress Dashboard

After creating yesteday’s video, I realized it would be a good idea to include a quick tour of the WordPress Dashboard in order to familiarize you with what you’re going to see when you log into the backend.  So, I created this quick video tour:

Next up… Selecting a theme:

  1. Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
  2. Set up your WordPress installation – done!
  3. Pick a theme and apply it
  4. The right plugins for your website
  5. Getting a Google account
  6. Settings, settings, and more settings
  7. Creating a graphical header
  8. Setting up an email subscription system
  9. Organizing  your site – writing pages
  10. Writing posts and adding images
  11. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  12. Wrapping it all up

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Building Your Website – Step 2

The quilting website tutorial was derailed for a bit, but I’m getting it back on track right now!  Here’s Step 2 – Setting Up WordPress.

From this point on, I’m going to be using a sample site called www.QuiltingBlog.com.  You’ll be able to go and check it out as the site progresses.  At some point, I will post all the videos on that site as another reference.

PLEASE NOTE: The first minute or so of the video has a blank white screen with some activity going on at the top.  Don’t worry… the video is working, it is just the part where I’m logging into the control panel!

Here’s the link to the video:

And here’s the updated list of tutorials:

  1. Register your domain and set up hosting – done!
  2. Set up your WordPress installation – done!
  3. Pick a theme and apply it
  4. The right plugins for your website
  5. Getting a Google account
  6. Settings, settings, and more settings
  7. Creating a graphical header
  8. Setting up an email subscription system
  9. Organizing  your site – writing pages
  10. Writing posts and adding images
  11. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  12. Wrapping it all up

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Building Your Website – Step 1

domainnameI’m almost ready to start putting up the In A Good Way website (just waiting for some content and images), but I realized that the very first steps in getting your own website up and running were not covered – registering your domain, securing hosting, and changing nameservers.

So, I’ve put together three short videos on how I would handle this portion of the process.  I use www.GoDaddy.com to register all of my domains, and I use www.HostGator.com for my hosting.  In the video, I’ll show you how to find a domain name, and once you have registered, what  you need to do to have your hosting set up at Host Gator or GoDaddy.  There are other domain name registrars and hosting companies (including GoDaddy.com’s own hosting), but since I can’t show every option, I’ll show you what I use.  Then, I show you how to change the Nameservers so the Internet can find your site.

Here are links to all three videos:

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Watch Me Build a Website

www.inagoodway.orgA lot of you helped out Teddi with In A Good Way, the charity that works with Native Americans looking to get their lives back on track.

Teddi has been working on getting a website developed for the charity, and now I’ve decided to help out and work with Teddi to build the www.InAGoodWay.org website.  And, you get to watch the entire process!

Since Teddi has already registered the domain – www.inagoodway.org – with www.GoDaddy.com, I don’t need to do that.  In addition, Teddi is hosting his website with GoDaddy, so that’s taken care of as well.  But, there’s a lot left to do and you get to watch the process over my shoulder.

So, over the next couple of weeks, here’s what you’re going to see:

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Q&A: Stay Away from eBay

I received this question from Eileen Keane about selling on eBay and making a decent living…

Good morning Chuck,

Thank you for including me on your mailing list for your ezine! I’m finding lots of valuable information on it.

I’ve been reading the selling on eBay article and checking out other machine quilters on eBay. I have to admit, I’m very leery about listing there. Most of the longarmers I’ve talked to have told me that I’d be giving my work away.

If you look at my website, you’ll see that I’m reasonably priced for my part of the country/state. I honestly don’t know what to do; I want more business but not at the cost of making a decent living.

Thanks and I hope I hear from you,

Eileen Keane
www.DesigningQuilts.com

Over the years, I’ve found that eBay is a great place if you want to pick up some unusual item – a vintage toy or script from a favorite movie – but I haven’t really seen much for selling services that seemed like a good deal for the seller.  It seems that everyone searching eBay is looking for the lowest price, and it can be tough to make enough money to make it worthwhile.  So, here’s my answer to Eileen:

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