This article assumes that you have installed your WordPress blog per the instruction in the article How To Create a Blog. This follow-up article builds on that instruction, and takes you deeper into how to get and select WordPress themes, define and install plugins, use widgets, and how to add content to your blog.
Selecting a Theme
By default, WordPress comes installed with two themes: WordPress Default and WordPress Classic. Both themes are very basic and plain looking. For some, this is all that is required for their blog. All you have to do is select the one you want, activate it, and start adding content to your blog.
For others, like myself, may want to have more flexibility on how their blog site looks. That is where themes come in. You can find a theme for just about any subject, topic or genre of your blog. Many of these themes are free and very easy to install and activate. All you have to do is go to a website like http://www.freewpthemes.net/ or http://www.freethemelayouts.com/ and download a theme you like, unzip it, upload it to your WordPress themes folder, and then activate it within your WordPress dashboard. (Video below shows how this is done).
As you become an experienced blogger, what will become quickly apparent to you is manipulating the look of your blog exactly the way you want it is not easy. More importantly, is optimizing your blog so that Google loves it. In other words, making your blog Search Engine Optimized (SEO). And, to do so quickly.
Well, you are not going to find many free or paid themes that give you that kind of flexibility except …
Thesis is the best WordPress theme out there hands down when it comes to modifying the look and layout of your blog without having to know code. Not only that, the Thesis theme that lets you modify just about every aspect of your blog layout at the click of a button. No other theme can do that. Thesis was made for Search Engine Optimization.
Now, Thesis is not free but it is well worth the $87.00 investment. It will make laying out and administering your blog site easy and a pleasure. You will love it! So, if you are able, get the Thesis theme and forget the rest.
Video 19 – Selecting, Downloading and Uploading a WordPress Theme To Your Server
Activating Your Theme
Once you have downloaded and selected your theme. You must unzip it and upload it to the Themes directory of your WordPress folder on your web host server. Next, log into your WordPress dashboard and click on the Themes link. You should see the theme you just uploaded. Click on the Activate button next to your theme to activate it. That’s it! You can go your your domain to see how it looks.
Video 20 – How To Activate WordPress Themes
Installing & Activating Plugins
Plugins are little programs that can do almost anything you can imagine in you blog. There are plugins for Google Adsense, SEO, database backup, forms, etc. I am going to give you my personal list of plugins I recommend that you install on your blog site. But first, let me show you how to install a plugin. Installation of a plugin is almost as easy as installing a WordPress Theme. All you have to do is download the plugin you want, unzip it, upload it to the WordPress Plugins folder on your web host server and then activate it by logging into your WordPress dashboard. Don’t worry, I have videos that show you how to use these plugins.
Here are the plugins I recommend:
- all-in-one-seo-pack (Do not install this plugin if you use the Thesis theme)
- broken-link-checker
- cforms
- export
- fckeditor-for-wordpress-plugin
- google-sitemap-generator
- maxblogpress-ping-optimizer
- recent-posts-plugin
- share-this
- simple-tags
- thesis-openhook (Used only with the Thesis theme)
- tweet-this
- wp-cumulus
- wp-db-backup
- wp-dbmanager
- wp-spamfree
- yet-another-related-posts-plugin
- wp-SpamFree
- wp-ExLinks – If you want to start a link exchange on your blog.
- my-Link-order
- wp-exec
You can find the above plugins and many others by going to the Wordpress Plug Directory.
Video 21 – How To Download, Unzip, Upload and Activate WordPress Plugins
Settings
Within your WordPress Dashboard you can tweak many blog parameters under the Settings link. The following videos (Four Parts) explores these settings.
Video 22 – The WordPress Dashboard (Part 1 of 4)
Video 23 – The WordPress Dashboard (Part 2 of 4)
Video 24 – The WordPress Dashboard (Part 3 of 4)
Video 25 – The WordPress Dashboard (Part 4 of 4)
How To Create Categories and Why
This video will show you how to create Categories and why they are useful for organizing your blog content.
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How To Create Pages
This video shows you how to create pages for your blog and why they are useful and a smart thing to do.
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How To Create Link Categories
This video shows you how to create LinkCategories and how to use them effectively within your blog.
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How To Use Widgets
This video shows you how to use widgets within your blog.
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How To Post To Your Blog
This video shows you how to post content to your blog.
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How to Use The Thesis Theme
This video shows you how to use the Thesis theme (hopefully you are) and it’s many features to make your blog site look the way you want.
[Video Here]
