Here is my basic list of plugins I integrate in every WordPress website that I build.

Basic WordPress Plugins List

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
FD Feedburner Plugin
Flexi Pages Widget
Google XML Sitemaps
HeadSpace2
My Page Order
NextGEN Gallery
Related Posts
Robots Meta
Secure Files
SEO Slugs
Subscribe To Comments
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade
WordPress Database Backup
WordPress File Monitor
WP-DBManager
WP-SpamFree
Fancybox
WP Security Scan
W3 Total Cache

Yes, you counted right, those are 20 different plugins… and if you have ever installed a plugin you know what it takes to install all those plugins.

Search for the plugin on the wordpress.org site, click the install button, see if the installation went well and activate the plugin.

Plugin nr 21 to the rescue, meet Plugin Central!

Plugin Central is a plugin created by Vladimir Prelovac and it is a great time saver.

This is always the first plugin I install by using the standerd process via Plugins -> add new -> Search -> Install -> activate process.

Once you have done the same, the magic begins. Go to the option Plugin Central in je Plugins menu.

The next screen gives you the option that you are going to use. Pay special attention to the field were you can paste the list shown above.
You can of course just type the names of other plugins you want to install.

Once you are satisfied with your list click the “Install Plugins” button.

Depending on your hosts security settings it might ask you for your ftp data like ftp site, username and password or it starts to work directly.

The whole process of installing the plugins depends on your hosting environment, but with my Just Host based websites it takes even under two minutes for the 20 plugins.

After the whole process ran, you need to active all those plugins which takes about four clicks.

Go to the installed plugins page, click the top checkbox (Plugin) choose from the dropdown menu “Activate” and then push “Apply”.

Now all of your plugins are active, some of them need some configuration (Google xml sitemaps, Wp Super cache and Askimet, etc) but most of them are running right of the bat.

Configuring the plugins will take some time but you just saved a lot of time, so go ahead and set all the options that you want and need. I will be writing more about some of these plugins, but for now its time for you to take action!

Most people will tell you that WordPress is for Blogging, wich is true, but not the only way you can use it.

For me, WordPress it the best blogging tool you can get for free but you can also use it to build lightning fast websites…

WordPress functionality can be greatly extended by using Plugins, little programs that can help you with specific functions like special comments forms or improvements for you search engine ranking.
For some of these plugins I will show you why you need them and how to use them.

Theming WordPress means you can very easily get a different look and feel for your Blog or webiste, there are lots of free WordPress themes avaiable and af course there are themes you can buy.

I will show you what to look for in a theme and how you can tweak it to get a better perfomance or how to get that functions you wanted into the code so it really works.

As for the main part of this site I will focus on showing you how to use WordPress to write posts (time dated articles) and pages and take you through some setting to really get the most out of your installation.

If you are completely new to this blogging thing, you could start out with a free account at www.wordpress.com and try the backend of this software for free.

P.s. If you are more into Video instructions you could checkout WordPressTutorials.com who offer a decent priced membership based website with lots of informational videos.

The help you do the necessary steps for a secure upgrade you can use a plugin called WordPress Automatic Upgrade.

What is does is that it upgrades your wordpress installation by doing the following steps.

1. 1.Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. 2.Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
   3.Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
   4.Puts the site in maintenance mode.
   5.De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
   6.Upgrades wordpress files.
   7.Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
   8.Re-activates the plugins.

The plugin can also can be run in a automated mode where in you do not have to click on any links to go to the next step, but I prefer to have more control and it is as simple as clicking through the next step and downoad the backup files as the plugin suggests to do so.

So this website is upgraded to version 2.9.1 in about 5 minutes without leaving the WordPress Dashboard and without writing down which plugins were active and which were not active and even without doing any FTP uploads etc, etc…

So if you want to have your website down and upgraded in a minimal amount of time, use that plugin for a fast and easy upgrade to WordPress 2.9.1

Pre- Installation Check

First of all, before you start with your installation you need to have these items in place:

• Your own domain en domain hosting package, this is were your installation will take place.
• The information from your database meaning: Name, Username and Password.
• Downloaded WordPress from wordpress.org , unzip it and upload it via FTP to your domain hosting root (mostly public html of www)

Once you have that in place, its time to start your installation.

Start the Installation

To install WordPress on your site you need to call your domain in you web browser, for example:

http://wpsitebuilding.com

Notice I did not use http://www.wpsitebuilding.com ? WordPress, after the installation, will redirect that www. to the non-www. version automatically. If you want www. in front of your domain start your installation with the www. and the non-www will be redirected to the preferred domain URL.

Creating the configuration file

If you call the URL of your preference you get a screen like the one below:

Next step, click on the option to “Create a Configuration File”

The WordPress Notice

The second screen is to tell you what you need before proceeding, so again check if you got the following items:

• Database name
• Database username
• Database Password
• Database Host
• Table prefix (if you have full access to the database you don’t need it right now)

Using the Installation Data

In the next screen you are going to need the data mentioned before, this is also where you need to do one different from the default installation guide…

You change the default values to0 the ones you got/created for accessing the database you want to use for your installation. On the last field it says Table Prefix and it has the standard wp_. Change that value! Make it something different than wp_. Most hacker scripts will target the table called wp_users and/or wp_options, bij changing the prefix you prevent being targeted with those basic attacks.

The values in this screens are of course not from a life site.

Run the Installation

If the data you entered in the previous step is correct you should see a screen that tells you that you can run the install, if so, push that button. If not, you get an error and you need to recheck if you entered the connection data correctly.

Finishing Up Your Installation

In the finishing screen you need to write the name of you blog and fill in your email address. This email address is to send you a mail with your username and password so make sure it is a correct mail address!  You will get an admin password assigned in the step following this one.

Succes! Your installation is done!

If al run well during the installation process, you get a screen with the user name “admin” and a system generated password.

Copy and post that password into a text editor like Notepad so you can use it to login to your fresh WordPress installation.

Accessing your WordPress Website Dashboard

Once your installation is done, you can click the “Log In” button in the previous screen, but you will only see this screen once.

If you want to login later on, you need to go to write after your main domain URL either /wp-admin or /wp-login.php for example http://example.com/wp-admin

You should that get the login screen of WordPress.

Your Dashboard awaits you

Once you are logged in you can start to explore your dashboard and all the options WordPress gives you to start using and extending your basic WordPress installation.

Now where to go to from here?

After Installation Options

Start with the WordPress Setup to make sure to get all the options in the settings and more setup the right way.

Below is a video that shows you the steps to take from getting WordPress, setting up your database and using FTP to upload the WordPress software. The installation process in this video is different because it starts with the creating and editing the configuration file.

If you are building your wordpress website you want it to be found be the search engines right?

Well one thing that you need to think hard about is the title of your website. That title will show on every search engine search result page that shows the link to the homepage of your website.

The title should not only contain the keywords you want to target, but it should also invite searchers to click on that title.

The WordPress Title

Most themes will show the title as the title of your post or page, with or without the title of the site as you have set it under -> Settings -> General.

What I use for most of my and my customers sites is a pluging called Headspace2 which give you the possibility to write different “HTML Titles”. Those HTML Titles are the titles that are shown in the title bar of your browser and are also the ones used by search engines.

With Headspace you can set different titles for your homepage, and for several other pages like archive and category pages. It shows a separate field under your writing panel where you can put that special title.

On this page you see the title “Use the Right Title in Building a WordPress Website” but if you look at the top of your browser you see the title “The Importance of Using the Right Title when Building a WordPress Website”.

The WordPress Theme Header

But there is a little catch for Headspace2 to work the right way…. you need to check the way you theme uses the Title function in you header  file.

To check that go to Appearance -> Editor > Select the file called Header (header.php) and look for coding like:

<title><?php if (function_exists(‘seo_title_tag’)) { seo_title_tag(); } else { wp_title(”); bloginfo(‘name’);} ?></title>

In the example above you could use a plugin called seo title tag that will do the same as Headspace2, but has some limitations. You can also see that the name of the site is appended at the end of the title. You need to change that code for optimal use of Headspace2 and you need to replace it with:

<title><?php wp_title (”); ?></title>

For branding purpose you could add something extra in the that code like <title><?php wp_title (”); ?> | WpSiteBuilding.com</title> where the last text is always appended to the title. The only problem with this is the fact the the title will get to long for the search engine listings. Search engines will cut the title at this moment to about 60 positions.

So, did you install the plugin and changed the title function in the header of your theme? Then it is time to read up on how you can write those great visitor attracting Title over at Copybloggers How to Write Magnetic Headlines

P.s The code wp_title is taken from your database table, if you have another table prefix you have to change the prefix to match your installation (WordPress Installation)

Brain Gardner, WordPress Theme designer extraordinary, just announced the release of a new theme specifically targeted to Real Estate Agents.

This Theme comes with some great features like automatic thumbnail creation and special pages for your real estate listing.

There are separate writing panels for your listings with fields for price and other items of the property. You write the data, the theme will handle the layout so every listing has the same layout.

For Google maps code there is a special field where you just need the location code.

It comes if four different color schemes that will give you the possibility to use the one that fits to your company. You also get the PSD files so you can have is changed yourself or you can hire the theme of AgentPress to do further customization for you.

Different ideas for usage

Although this theme was developed by Brian Gardner together with Nicole Nicolay, of My Tech Opinion, it looks to me that you can adapt this theme by some simple changes to make it work for different agents like car dealers, motorcycle companies and even Custom Car builders.

In fact every company that needs to showcase their products with several photos can benefit by using this theme.

So if you want to build a professional website for product marketing in the high end consumer market this search engine optimized Agent Theme might be just what you need.

I decided to move this WordPress website from the “old” subdomain located under www.hummerbie.com to a new domain and a new hosting company.

The main reason was that I am currently not so happy with the hosting provider of the main site. Recently they moved to faster servers and a better internet backbone but after moving there are some  outstanding issues with other sites that run there.

The second reason is that I want to see how well Google and other search engines will pick up the 301 redirects (permanently moved page) and hold my current rankings in the search results. An other part of this SEO exercise is to see how the rankings of this site and the number of visitors are influenced by the move of a Dutch Hosting provider with servers in Amsterdam to a USA Based Hosting Company. (Geo Targeting in Search Engine Optimization)

I will write a page / post about the process on how to move a WordPress site in a couple of days after the dust settles… I already found one mayor problem that is fixed now, but I need to do some more testing and tweaking. After that I will give you a complete overview of all the pitfalls and snake holes that you should avoid in such a process and how to handle it the right way. Subscribe to the eMail or RSS updates in the right side menu to get those updates.

So why then this separate manual for WordPress site building? There is one simple reason for that: You need to start somewhere to learn how to use this beautifull piece of software to get the most out of it and that means learning the basics first.

You know the old saying “You have to learn to walk before you can run” and that is exactly what you will learn, the first steps in using your WordPress site.

We will go over several basic things like:

• the difference between WordPress Posts and Pages
• the how and why of tagging your posts
• using excerpts in WordPress
• using images in your posts and how to upload them
• allowing and managing comments and pings (trackbacks)
• and what ever comes to mind when working on the content of your WordPress website

So stay tuned for more to come…

The thing here is that in version 2.6. of WordPress the order of those two changed, first it was the Post and then there is Page…
As WordPress is heading to a more CMS Like software the Dashboard from 2.7 and up the order has changed.

But one thing remains the choice between Pages and Posts…

It is simply a matter of knowing what to use for what purpose.

WordPress Posts

Posts are really what makes WordPress so great for Blogging, Post will be presented in a time-line.
This means that the latest post will show up first before the rest of the Blog entries.

Posts can also be attached to categories, pages can’t (unless we use a special Plugin)

In the archive pages there will be Posts that are labeled to belong to those Category or Tag.
You can also have Monthly archives and even Author Archives, but the are always in a Chronological order.

WordPress Pages

Pages are more static and that means you can use them any way you want to structure your WordPress website.
Pages are the way to go if you want to Build a Static WordPress website

Really, you need to focus on pages, as they are the static part of you website!

Pages can also be placed as a subpage to a Main page and otther pages, we will go into more details once we get started on how to structure your website.

You should install this great Plugin called My Page Order that can help order your pages.
 

Managing page orders is with this Plugin as simple as dragging and dropping, but don’t forget the hit save afterwards…

I also write about Magazine style and News style themes and how you should change your WordPress Themes to get a less dated site.

I just recently realized that the site needs an upgrade to reflect more of the process of building, configuring and installing things like Themes and Plugins.
This was not the initial intend of the site as I mentioned before, but there seems to be a clear need for that kind of information so in the next couple of days, weeks and months you will see this site grow in that direction,

It takes time to write clear and understandable articles to show you where you want to go, so please stay with me as I will help you build your website with WordPress.

There are some pages already done, a new one about The Process of Building a WordPress website that will become one of the corner stones of this site and I will create links on this page to point you to the new pages.

I want to Thank Milan for pointing out this flaw in this sites setup as it is today. I will start working to make this site one of the best resources around for Building a WordPress website.