Dropbox

Hello again class. Professor Dickens here with another handy service to help you do more with the web. Today I’d like to introduce you to Dropbox.

After signing up for a free account you download the Dropbox software on all the machines you want to connect and you are ready to go. Drop a document, photo, or any type of file in DB on one of your computers and those files will be available on all computers connected to that account.

This is very useful if you use a desktop but sometimes go mobile on a laptop or if you are working on a team project and want to easily share files.

Dropbox also has a nice feature if you want to share a file with the world. Just drop it in the “public” folder and you’ll have a unique URL that anyone can use to download the file.

Files you place in DB are also available through their website so you can get to your stuff anytime you can get on the internet no matter what computer you are using.

I’ve been using Dropbox for sometime now and it has become one of those services I could not live without. I use it to share documents with clients and colleagues almost everyday.

The service can also be used for backing up WordPress websites and blogs. I even taught a lesson on how to set it up a few weeks back: Backing Up Your WordPress Website

I recommend giving the service a try. For free you get 2Gs of storage and they have paid options if you need more memory than that. Sign up is fast and easy and you’ll be dropping stuff in your box in no time.

Head over to DropBox.com now and start working smarter!

What Is Dropbox? is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

Welcome back class, in this lesson we are going to learn the basics of creating a new page in WordPress. This lesson is one in a series on how to create a website using WP. You can find the complete course here.

This lesson is very basic and just goes over the fundamentals of making a new page in WordPress and adding an image to the page. I also cover the best way to copy text from a Microsoft Word document into WP. This is a good starting point for anyone new to WP. In other lessons I cover some of the other things you can do with a WP page.

Please watch the lesson on how to create a page in WP and let me know if you have any questions.

Some things to know about WP pages:

Pages can be organized in to subpages, allowing you to create a hierarchy of pages. For example you could write a page about the car maker Ford and make sub pages about various types of cars they make such as Mustang, Thunderbird, and Bronco. This helps you keep your menus and navigation under control.

Unlike posts pages do not and can not use categories and tags as a way to organize their structure.

Pages are not blogs and not included in your site’s RSS feed by default.

You can create a WP website only using pages and not posts thus creating a standard website and not a blog. More and more web users are using WP in this manner. I show you exactly how to do it in WP 101 Lesson Eight: How To Use WordPress As A Website.

Much of what you can with pages and how you can format and structure them has to do with what theme you are using. Some themes stick to the default WP options and some offer more complex features.

What did I miss? Have more questions? Needs something cleared up? Please contact me.

This lesson is part of a whole series on getting started with WP. You can find the complete course by clicking here.

How To Create A Page In WordPress is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

WordPress 101 Lesson Eight: How To Use WordPress As A Website

Hello class. In this lesson we are going to learn how to switch a newly installed self hosted WordPress blog over to a website.

Because WordPress started out as a blogging software many people still believe that blogs are all WP is good for. But the software has evolved over the years to become a fully functioning, flexible, and search engine friendly website building software platform or content management system (CMS).

But when you first install WordPress by default you still start out with a blog. Switching from using it as a blog to a more static website is very simple though. This video lesson will show you step by step exactly what to do.

If you are not a video person here are the steps:

1. Create two new pages and label one “Home” and one “Blog.” The names of the pages can always be changed later if needed.

2. Click the “Settings” tab in the main dashboard area.

3. Click the “Reading” option under settings.

4. Look for the two options “Your latest posts” or “A static page” and choose static page.

5. Make your newly created “Home” page the front page and the “Blog” page the posts page.

6. Click the blue “Save Changes” button at the bottom of your page and you are done.

That is the simple first steps you take in creating your company’s WordPress website. You can then go back to the “home” page you created and begin to enter content and build out your site.

If you have any questions or need further explanation of anything please send them using my contact page. I respond to emails Monday through Friday as fast as I can but please allow at least 24 hours. Thanks.

This lesson is part of a whole series on getting started with WordPress. You can find the complete course by clicking here.

Switching WordPress From A Blog Platform To A Website is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

In this lesson I am going to show you how to make sure your WordPress website is completely and automatically backed up on a regular schedule.

I believe this important step is something that should be taken early in the development of your site. I’ve made it a habit of putting this in place as soon as I have a new website installed. This system uses a plugin that connects your site or blog to a service called Dropbox.

Dropbox is a service that is designed for sharing files between computers or between friends and co workers. But it can also be used as a convenient back up storage destination for your WordPress website. Backing up to Dropbox allows you to create multiple copies of your site’s files in different locations. This redundancy insures you always have a copy of your site saved in case disaster strikes.

Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for free, which should be plenty for any new website. You can sign up for your free Dropbox account here.

You’ll also need to install the WP plugin “WordPress Backup to Dropbox” which can be found in the WP plugin directory. I explain how to install the plugin in the video lesson.

I recommend that you first head over to Dropbox.com and create an account if you don’t already have one. That way you’ll be ready once you have the plugin installed in your site.

Please click play to watch this lesson:

 

If you have any questions or need further explanation of anything please send them using my contact page. I respond to emails Monday through Friday as fast as I can but please allow at least 24 hours. Thanks.

This lesson is just part of a whole series on getting started with WordPress. You can find the complete course by clicking here.

Backing Up Your WordPress Website is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

Today’s lesson is on installing it manually using FTP. I believe that if you are going to be managing your own WordPress website you should have a basic understanding of how FTP works and how to access files on your site directly. Knowing this can really help you out when it comes to troubleshooting, securing, or backing up your WordPress site.

The video below is the first in a series on building a WordPress website for you business. In the series I am going to go through step by step the process of starting from nothing all the way through a complete and functional website.

If you have any questions about the video please use my contact page.

How To Install WordPress Using FTP is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

WordPress will let you know when there is a new version by displaying a large warning banner at the top of your dashboard. It looks something like this:

Thankfully it is easy to keep your WordPress site up to date.

ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR SITE AND DATABASE BEFORE UPDATING!

This video shows you just how easy it is to update your WordPress site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIWvQ3EaXT0

(Click here if you don’t see a video player to watch on YouTube.)

Please note that it is possible some of the plugins or the theme you have installed may not work with the updated version of WP. This is especially true of major updates like when the first number of the version changes. 4.0 will be the next major update.

Most updates are security patches and bug fixes and should not effect your site. And most quality plugin and theme developers stay on top of the WP updates and update their plugins accordingly.

How To Update WordPress is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

This video explains how to install a WordPress plugin.

This post and this video is the first in a series on “How to Set Up WordPress.” Here is a break down of what this mini course of WP tutorials covers:

1. WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – “Which is right for your business.”
2. Domain Names – “Why you need one and how to get one.”
3. Web Hosting – “What it is and where to get it.”
4. How to Install WP – “Using one click install to get your site launched fast.”
5. How to Design a WP Site- “Using WP Themes to instantly change the look of your website.”
6. How to Add Features & Functions – “Using WP Plugins to quickly boost your site’s power.”

How To Install A WordPress Plugin is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

There are thousands of themes available, most are free but some do charge for their use. This video shows you how to install a new WordPress theme on your website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLekuPWcccg

This post and this video is the first in a series on “How to Set Up WordPress.” Here is a break down of what this mini course of WP tutorials covers:

1. WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – “Which is right for your business.”
2. Domain Names – “Why you need one and how to get one.”
3. Web Hosting – “What it is and where to get it.”
4. How to Install WP – “Using one click install to get your site launched fast.”
5. How to Design a WP Site – “Using WP Themes to instantly change the look of your website.”
6. How to Add Features & Functions – “Using WP Plugins to quickly boost your site’s power.”

How To Install A WordPress Theme is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

I thought I would share with you some of the highlights from the 36 minute presentation.

The first important thing we learn is that unlike WordPress which keeps getting more clean cut, Mr. Mullenweg is starting to look more like a man from the 70′s.

Okay that is really not important but it is fun. What is important is just how much momentum the WP community is building and what that means to you. That momentum as seen some great features added recently:

• The admin bar
• Post formats
• Default theme Twenty Eleven – the first default theme with a screen size responsiveness
• Faster and leaner user interface
• Zen writing mode
• A lot of innovation from plugins and themes

This past year with the release of the JetPack plugin we got our first taste of “feature parity.”

This is WP working to bring the benefits and features of the .com and the .org versions together. Very exciting for both worlds.

Mr Mullenweg also talked about the survey the folks at WP HQ conducted to find out who uses WordPress and how they use it. Some very interesting and surprising data came out of  that survey.

• The best thing people like about WordPress is that it is easy to use.
• The second best thing is the community.
• The thing most people did not like is plugins. Either they don’t work, they break website, have security holes, or it is hard to find good ones.

So like any good community they’ve quickly addressed people’s pain by hiding all plugins that have not been updated in over two years from the WP plugin directory. This will go along way in cleaning up the 15,000 plugins in the directory.

Matt also stress what some of already know. That the only limit to what you can do with WordPress is your own imagination. The software has moved way beyond just being for blogging. In fact their survey showed that 92% of users use WP as a CMS and not just a blog. 92%!!

Here are some examples of sites that recently updated to using WordPress to stress that point:

• http://www.number10.gov.uk/
• http://techcrunch.com/
• http://boingboing.net
• http://www.consumerfinance.gov
• http://irrationalgames.com
• http://spacehack.org

The list could go on but you get the point. WordPress is powerful and limitless.

He also gave us a glimpse as to what is coming up with version 3.3.

• Responsive admin screen that adjusts to whatever device you are on.
• NUX – New User Experience that will help guide people who are new to WordPress around the dashboard.
• Better media handling through drag and drop uploading much like Google+.

This has been some of the highlights I found in his presentation. If you’d like to watch it yourself it is embedded below or you can find State of The Word 2011 here.

State Of The Word 2011 is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.

Activate Akismet

Akismet is a plugin that is included on all WordPress installations and is all you’ll need for spam protection. Click the “Plugins” link in your dashboard and you’ll find the 2 plugins that come with WP, Akismet and Hello Dolly.

Then click Akismet’s “Activate” link:

Once you activate the plugin you’ll see the message: “Akismet is almost ready. You must enter your Akismet API key for it to work.”

Getting Your Akismet API Key

The easiest way to get the API key you need is through WordPress.com. Sign up for a free account and make sure you are logged in and enter “apikey.wordpress.com” in your browser to obtain your API key.

Once you have that head back to your site’s plugin page where you will find the “enter your Akismet API key” link waiting for you. Click that and then enter the key in the box and push “Update Options” and you are all set.

And there you go! Your site should now be well protected from spam.

To help you walk through the steps I also created this video to show you exactly what to do for complete WordPress SPAM protection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH7OO_QUf-M

If you don’t see a video player you can also find the video here: http://youtu.be/KH7OO_QUf-M

I hope you found this post helpful. Please leave any questions you may have in the comment section below or contact me directly.

And if you’d like the latest news, tips, and advice on using WordPress for marketing and money making subscribe to my email newsletter.

Thanks for stopping by,

Daryle

Simple And Easy WordPress Spam Protection is from: DaryleDickens.com. Subscribe to the Dickens' Dispatch to receive more great content in your inbox.