Understanding WordPress Online Courses
These courses are offered through this website and can be considered a “self-study” which includes email support from the instructor.
Checkout http://www.understandingwordpress.com for more information and additional resources on WordPress.
Introduction to WordPress: ($25) Six lessons guiding you step-by-step through all of the basic aspects of WordPress development.
- Manual installation of WordPress software on a remote web server.
- Understanding the Dashboard interface
- Installing different themes to change your blog design.
- How to use plugins to extend the functionality
- How to market and monetize your blog
- SEO tips and tricks
- Review of WordPress template tags
- Learn the basics of PHP syntax.
- Creating a basic theme from scratch (including example files).
- Code review of basic theme (line by line).
View the complete first lesson (.pdf) to give you an idea of how topics are covered.
Intermediate WordPress: ($5) One lesson on how to setup and install a local ‘development’ blog on your home computer.
Once you creating your online blog, you will probably want to continue ‘tweaking’ it (themes, plugins, pages, etc.). Professional designers and developers always have a local environment to develop and test before it goes ‘live’. WordPress is no different.
- Easily install Apache, PHP, and MySQL on any Windows PC (or Mac)
- Setup a local installation of WordPress as your local ‘development’ blog site
Intermediate WordPress: ($15) Three lessons showing you how to create a theme from scratch.
- Blog design considerations
- Development of a 3-column HTML/CSS theme mockup
- Explanation and use of various WordPress template tags
- Breaking up mockup to various template files
- Understanding template files for use with static pages
- Creation of a Magazine format WordPress theme
- Debugging and troubleshooting best practices
- All files (JPG, HTML, CSS, PHP) included
View a partial third lesson (.pdf) to give you an idea of how topics are covered.
Intermediate WordPress: ($5) One lesson on learning more useful plugins that can be used with your blog.
- Speed up your blog’s performance
- Help you get more traffic
- Give better search results
- Display multiple posts more efficiently
- Add a forum to your site
When Do the Courses Start?
You can start the class anytime you want since after you sign up, I will send you all the materials for class (lessons in PDF format). When you have any questions about the material you can just send me an email.
Please let me know when you will doing the wordpress class, as I would like to sign up.
Thank you
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
You can sign up for it now.
This class is offered through my website and me personally (no 3rd party website) so you will get all my lessons in an email (PDF) after your signup. Since there are 6 lessons, I give student 6 – 8 weeks to ask me questions about the material.
But I never refuse a question, so basically you can ask me anytime afterward too.
Thanks
I have an existing website that I’d like to convert to a WordPress blog/site. Will your class help me to do that? My site is hosted on Yahoo and I don’t fully understand all the lingo. And are you available for questions and help throughout the course?
Thanks!!
Hi Desiree,
Basically, the class runs through how you create a WordPress blog from scratch. It starts from installation and finishes up with showing you how to create your own theme from scratch.
The site you have now on Yahoo!, where is your content stored? Just in the regular .html pages or in a database? Moving a site (non-CMS or blog) is time consuming because basically you will have to copy and paste all your content into your blog manually. It is a pain (I’ve done it a few times), but will make your life easier in the long run.
Yes, I can answer your questions about your existing site as well.
Thanks,
Frank
Just signed up and looking forward to the upcoming class.
Hi Steven,
I just sent you an introductory email about the class and a separate email(s) with all the class materials (.pdf and .zip).
Let me know if you have any questions in the upcoming weeks.
Thanks
Is this still something you are offering? Can I sign up anytime or do the classes start at a certain date? As for the requirements, I have a self-hosted Wordpress blog and cPanel. Is that all I need?
Hi April,
No it runs anytime, because I send you all the materials you need.
Students then can ask me questions about the materials whenever they want. I normally give students between 6 – 8 weeks to read over the 6 lessons (1 per week).
Since your webhost supports WordPress and incluides automatic installation, you can go right into Lesson 2 – Administration. If you already have a blog running with some content, then Lesson 3 focuses on using Themes (finding and customizing).
Thanks
I’m using a Mac. Will I be able to understand your class? Your requirements are for Apache, PHP and MySQL – I’ve heard of these but I have no idea if I have them or if I can run them on my computer.
Thanks!
Hi Leanne,
Yes of course, you can run WordPress locally on a Mac.
Here is a link to get you started:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress_Locally_on_Your_Mac_With_MAMP
After you install it, everything else is the same and you should have no problems.
Any other questions let me know.
Thanks
Hi,
I am interested in signing up for your class. When does it begin?
Thanks!
Kate
Hi Kate,
The class starts whenever you sign up. It is a self-study class and you get all the materials at once. You read the weekly lessons at your own pace and you can email me questions about it whenever you want.
Frank
I’ll be moving to WordPress with my new domain this weekend then I’ll get started. I’ll move my blog over at that point.
My questions are; once I move over to WordPress will FeedBurner bring over subscribers?
Also, should I learn basic HTML and CSS for the screen design?
Thanks
Bill Morgan
Hi Bill,
Yes, your subscribers should still be connected to your feed but you will need to update your new feed address under “Edit Feed Details”.
If you wish to customize your own WordPress theme (or create your own), you will need a good understanding of XHTML and CSS.
Basic XHTML and CSS is not hard to learn, just takes a little time. I have some other online resources on both topics on this site. Feel free to search in both those categories for more information.
The last lesson of the class (6th lesson), I show you step-by-step a very basic theme created from scratch.
Look forward to seeing you in class.
Hi Frank,
I really enjoyed the class lessons, it was a great introduction to getting WordPress installed and running. It also gave me an appreciation for the range of options and customization possible with the program, and the need to test themes to find compatible versions.
It also became clear that I will need to become more familiar with modifying php code to add or modify features.
Thanks again,
Ian
Thanks Ian.
Will this class cover WordPress for building websites, or just for blogging?
Hi Eric,
Do you mean using WordPress as a CMS? I do not specicially go into that topic in my classes so far, but I am creating a 6-8 week intermediate class that I can include that topic as well.
Stay tuned…
Frank
Hi. Is this class still active?
Thanks
Hi David,
Yes, of course. They run all the time, just need to sign up and I will send you all the materials.
Frank
Hi Frank,
Looking forward to receiving the classwork via pdf files. Thanks for offering the course.
Hi Kim,
Materials were just emailed out. Let know if you have any questions.
Frank