Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink
Through my WordPress workshops, I’ve come to realize something. I’m doing things right. I don’t ever assume that those simple little techniques or hidden gems are obvious to everyone. Or that the seasoned WordPress user will become bored with the picky details I cover.
So where am I going with this?
It’s the aha moments…
There are a couple of features when creating a post or page in WordPress, that I have found not everyone knows.
Sure, you may be setting there, after reading it, saying, “no way.” But remember, not everyone is comfortable with technology. And for many, pushing an unknown buttom on your computer screen, well, that’s just damn scary. Who knows what will happen?
So, maybe you have just opened a WordPress.com account. Or you went as far as installing it on your own server. You are ready to do your first post. You click on “new post,” and the “compose a post” page opens.
Wow. Cool. Look at all those tools.
You start typing to your heart’s content. Things are going smoothly So far, so good.
But wait, didn’t someone tell you that you could highlight a word by giving it a different color? And wasn’t there some kind of tool to indent the paragraph you just did? Am I going nuts?
Ah, but you aren’t. It’s only because you didn’t click on the “kitchen sink.”
And, presto, yes, there is a whole other line of tools.
Now, you have suddenly realized that you were victim of the “kitchen sink.”
Don’t feel bad. Sometimes WordPress, when first opened, has only the one line as a default. I have heard from attendees of my workshops, that they have gone months without knowing this. No one ever told them. And heck, they were reluctant to start pushing buttons randomly. But remember, when doing a post or page, any stylization can be undone!
So, that brings me to another point. That box in the upper right corner where you preview posts, save drafts, publish—all that good stuff.
Again, at my workshops, I simple make people be aware of the fact that they can “schedule” to publish a post or page. Again, I see a few eyes open wider. A few more aha moments.
No, you don’t have to get up at 4 am to publish that post. Yes, you can write two or three posts, schedule them and enjoy your vacation.
So what’s the freakin’ point here? The WordPress dashboard is littered with great features. Some are more obvious then others.
Explore! Don’t be afraid to push a button. See what it has to offer you. Save as a draft, preview a page. And then when you are ready, hit “publish.”
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WordPress 2.9 Teaser
Okay, just a quick post to let you know a couple of features to expect in 2.9. I just uploaded the beta version and hope to come back soon with more to share.
THE TRASH CAN – When you delete a post, page, category, comment, or any bit of content, it is moved to the Trash where you can decide whether to pull it back at a later date.
IMAGE EDITOR – ALTHOUGH SIMPLE… Image editing will allow bloggers to crop, scale and rotate images from right within WordPress.
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Is WordPress the Answer to All Our Prayers?
WordPress has the reputation of being a simple and easy way to get an online presence. Proclaimers of its ease often spout that you can have a website done in a short amount of time, even a “killer” site.
Just go to WordPress.com and bam, you have a site before you know it.
NOT!
Okay, let’s back up. Yes, you can create a pretty simple website or blog on WordPress. Adding standard widgets is fairly easy, and creating posts, pages, inserting images…whoa, wait, did someone I know just send me an email and frantically ask, “How do I get my images to look good on my WordPress site? I’ve been working on it for two hours now!”
Okay, maybe it’s not the answer to our prayers.
At Cat’s Eye, we use WordPress as a content management system, which means we create a dynamic, customized website for you, and once we are done, you can go in and make simple edits without waiting for us to do them. Sure, learning some of the editing on WordPress can be done with some practice and it does give our clients more control over their own site.
But unless you have some marketing background, website development and copywriting skills, an understanding of some html and CSS, well, a “killer” website is not at your fingertips.
There are presenters of workshops out there who get people to flock to their event because they promise that even a complete novice can build that “killer” website. So they run through things, very quickly doing this and that and saying, “You can do this, too!” And, bam, they send you on your way.
You are excited! Amazed at what you will be able to do! Getting back in your office, you sit down, login to your account and anticipate the newfound energy that will escape from your fingertips. But whoa, you just tried to do something that the “WordPress expert” showed you, and it just doesn’t work. But it looked so damn easy!
Okay, in fairness, I will say that WordPress does allow you to create a pretty nice blog by yourself, no matter what your skills are. And of course, we know that blogs are driven more by content then by looks. But if your blog is a huge part of your marketing, then maybe you do need to take it beyond just “simple”.
So what are your experiences or thoughts on the ease of WordPress?
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Ending the Confusion: WordPress.com or WordPress.org?
It’s time to choose which WordPress option you’ll use for your blog or website. The only problem is, well, you’re kind of confused—and afraid you’ll make the wrong choice.
One of the most frequently asked questions from my clients is, “What the heck is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? And should I even care?” I always answer: “Put simply, yes.”
WordPress.com and WordPress.org come from the same place, and are run by the same open source software. But there are distinct differences, and understanding what they are will make a huge difference in which one you decide to use.
Let’s break it down in a side-by-side comparison of some of the basic features of WordPress.
The Cost
WordPress software is free in both cases.
Ease of Installation
WordPress.com – It’s free and easy to set up a simple blog or website. No installation necessary.
WordPress.org – The software is free. But you need to either host it on your own server or pay a monthly hosting fee to a third party provider, as you do with a website. Some hosting services, such as Bluehost.com, have one-click installations. If your host doesn’t, you will need some understanding of FTP (file transfer protocol) and database setup.
Updates, Back-ups and Security Features
WordPress.com – Everything is automatic: backups including your posts, updates, security and spam filtering.
WordPress.org – You need to back up your post and files, install spam filtering, and do your own updates. But there are plugins for most of these functions. For example, WordPress DB backup lets you schedule your backups and will email you the files. And WordPress versions 2.7 and above have one click updates on your dashboard. But before updating, I suggest you find a good resource to walk you through the process.
Choice of Themes
WordPress is based on Themes, or what you might consider templates.
WordPress.com – You are limited on choices of themes. There are about 70+ themes to choose from and more are added from time to time. You can search the available themes by characteristics through your dashboard.
WordPress.org – You have access to thousands of themes, both free and paid. With so many choices, you are more likely to find a theme that fits your needs, style and personal brand. And with the 2.8 version, you can upload the theme directly to your dashboard and even search themes by features.
A note on themes: There are several great, free themes out there, but understand that with paid themes you are likely to get more stable features, updates as new WordPress versions come out, and much better support.
Plugin and Widget Options
Plugins are tools to help you expand the functionality of your WordPress blog or website. Widgets are like plugins, but give you a simpler way to arrange the various elements of your sidebar content—without having to change the code.
WordPress.com – Comes with a limited number of widgets and plugins. The one widget you will find more useful is the text widget. It lets you insert html code to create a widget that otherwise is not available. For example, see this blog post I wrote on inserting a graphic image on your sidebar/widget with a link.
WordPress.org – As with themes, there are a ton of widgets and plugins available on the Web and on WordPress.org. And unlike WordPress.com, you are able to upload them to your site. A note: Research plugins and widgets on the Web to find reputable and stable ones. For instance, find out if they will still work when you upgrade to a newer version of WordPress. Also keep in mind that the more widgets and plugins you have on your site, the more it takes to run your site.
Ability to Customize
The beauty of WordPress is the ability to customize your blog or website to convey your unique brand. In both cases, your theme has its own features to customize (for example, custom headers and colors, etc.)
WordPress.com – You are limited to which customization options each available theme has (custom headers, font size, etc.) WordPress.com does have an advanced feature: for $15 a year, per theme, you can customize the CSS (cascade style sheet). This will allow much more customization options, but you must understand CSS editing.
WordPress.org – There are two parts to this. First, you can now upload so many more themes, including paid premium themes. Many of them have a wide array of custom options that don’t require CSS or html knowledge. The Thesis theme is a good example of this. The second part: If you do know CSS or html, you have complete control to change code, if you are technically minded.
There are additional differences between .com and .org, but this gives you a starting point as you decide which to use. Just remember to figure out your goals and needs and then find which option will best fit them. For simple blogs and some websites, WordPress.com will probably serve your purpose. But for more customized blogs and websites, consider putting WordPress on your own server, especially if you want the flexibility you’ll need to grow your site down the road.
A final word of caution. WordPress and other open source software has made it incredibly easy for anyone to put up a website in a short amount of time. You can make it look pretty, and feel you have created a “killer” website.
But what some developers and designers do not understand is that your website must be more than just a pretty face. Creating a site that attracts and engages your visitors involves much more. Getting traffic to your site means nothing if you do not keep visitors there, engaging them with compelling copy that gets them to click deeper and make a purchase or respond to your other calls to action. It is the combination of good development, superior design, effective SEO and warm, persuasive copywriting that will make your website capture customers and sales a in the end.
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Website Redesign: 5 Copywriting Questions to Ask Yourself
These days, especially if you have a WordPress website, you can easily make updates as your business grows and evolves. When your target client and message change, it’s a good idea to make sure the content of your website reflects that.
Sure, you want the details right. But you also want your site to reflect the heart of your business. Because that is what your clients and customers will respond to. When you engage their senses and emotions, they will stick around-to the end of your message.
5 Copywriting Questions to Ask Yourself in a Website Redesign
To get your content right, with a nice balance of facts and emotional appeal, ask yourself these 5 questions:
- Is the content focused on my needs or those of my clients? Are you talking too much about yourself: your experience, your degrees, your portfolio? Because your visitors don’t care about that. All they want is a solution to their problems.
- Do the words I use show that I know my audience? What works for accountants with MBA’s or company CEO’s would be disastrous if you are selling to teenagers looking for the best deal on a skateboard.
- Do I know my business’s brand and personality? Try narrowing your company’s brand down to three adjectives: Is it loyal, fun-loving, serious, friendly, trustworthy, playful, reliable, irreverent, or something else? Keep these descriptive words in the back of your mind as you write your website’s copy.
- Does my passion about my business show? Picture your copy as eyes. Is your visitor seeing them light up when you talk about your product or service? Don’t be afraid to get excited. Show in your copy that you deeply believe in what you do. It will shine through in your message.
- Does my unique “voice” come through in the website copy? Every website visit is a conversation. Visitors click to ask questions. The answers you give them show them who you are. It’s simple: Know your company’s brand and personality and put that voice in your copy.
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WordPress 2.8 is Officially Released
As of Wed., June 10th, WordPress 2.8 is out. There are some nice new features, nothing major, but worth checking out.
If you are on WordPress.com, you are updated automatically.
If you have your WordPress on your own server, when updating, remember to:
- Backup your database and files before updating.
- If you are using a free theme or a paid premium theme, find out if they have made it WordPress 2.8-compatible. If they haven’t, try the update, but again remember to backup. If your theme has issues, upload the old files again and wait till your theme is updated before going to 2.8 again.
- If you do need to update your theme, and you had someone customize it, talk to them before installing the updated version of your theme.
- After updating, if your blog or website starts having problems, deactivate any plugins one by one to see if that is what’s causing the issue.
- Check your widgets and make sure they are working with the new version.
And finally, don’t feel you have to update right away. Make sure you eventually do it, but you don’t need to be the first one on your block!
If anyone else has suggestions or insights, please feel free to comment.
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A Peek at Some WordPress Beta 2.8 Features
WordPress Beta 2.8 has been out for a bit and I have finally taken some time to look at the new features. There’s some good stuff there! I won’t take the time to go through them all, but here are some that are worth highlighting.
THEMES
Now you can upload themes through the admin panel. In 2.7 and older, you needed to use FTP clients. And since there are a lot of WordPress users out there that don’t get “ftp” they limited themselves to the preinstalled themes. And an added benefit: now you can browse themes and search via keywords, and also apply filters too based on width, colours and columns. In addition the management of themes has improved. Before, you had to select the theme you wanted, and then either press activate or close after viewing a preview of the theme. Now you get options to activate immediately if you want, and also to delete the theme if you want as well.
WIDGETS AND PLUGINS
Although there isn’t any major change to the widget view, it it a lot cleaner and easier to use. As far as plugins, you can now edit them from within your editor. If a plugin is not working well, and you have the know how in coding, you can tweak it in order to get it working correctly.
COMMENTS
The new option to edit individual comments from the edit post selection saves a bit of time to do the standard delete, spam and reply to comments.
DASHBOARD
Again, just a bit making things a bit easier, you can now change the look of your dashboard and can set the number of columns that you want to be shown. Anything from one to four columns is allowed.
NOTE: If you are on the free WordPress.com, some of the features are not available.
So that’s just a quick preview. There is a whole bunch of other changes and improvements, but for most WordPress users, these are the one’s that will be more obvious. Not sure when we are looking at for the full release, but the Beta version does seem pretty stable. In any case, it’s just around the corner.
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WordPress Themes – Free Vs. Paid
A couple posts ago I talked about the basics of a theme. Now let’s talk about the free versus paid.
If you use WordPress, you know how many free themes are out there —literally hundreds. There are a lot of good ones, and some that are okay. If you are using yours for a blog, the choices are endless, depending on your needs. But if you are choosing WordPress as a platform for your website, you may want to consider the benefits of a paid theme.
Now don’t get me wrong. Again, there are plenty of good free themes out there, and I’m not slamming any of them.
But, let’s look at what you may get with a paid theme:
You get what you pay for. Hey, that’s life. I don’t need to explain this one. In fact you will find that many of the “free” theme developers, have paid one’s as well. Get the point?
More bells and whistles. Yes, the paid themes will be more widget-friendly. They may already have a lot in place that you don’t even need to bother adding.
Support. Here’s a big one. Again, someone that offers a theme for free, how much time can they give to supporting that theme. Sure, they may have a forum on their site, but still the opportunity of being able to contact someone when you need them, is so much more beneficial.
Updates. Another biggie! When WordPress does its updates (and they can be often), this can send your theme into oblivion. I’ve seen it happen with clients. Sites that offer paid themes have a bit more reason to make sure that their themes will work with the next update. In fact, many get hold of the “beta” version of the next update, just so they can be ready!
So the choice is yours. Just give it a bit of thought as you choose your next theme. What do you want it to do for you? Think long term.
Of course you can always change midstream and that works will with blogs. But a complicated website — changing the theme can cost you time, money and several ongoing headaches!
Here are just a few links to some great paid themes:
Again, just a few. Look around, ask around. I’m sure you will find just what you need.
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