Product Description

There are many reasons to have a blog: to inform customers about new products and specials, to share information and expertise with a worldwide community, or to express oneself and communicate publicly. WordPress.com is a free and flexible set of web-based blogging tools that can be used to launch a new blog in minutes. The tools can then be used to personalize the blog and update and improve it continually. In WordPress.com 2.5 Essential Training, Maria Langer walks through the entire process of building and maintaining a blog, from setting up an account to using advanced customization techniques. She explains how to create and organize posts, pages, and links, and also offers tips on how to become a better blogger. Exercise files accompany the course. Topics Include:

• Understanding the WordPress.com Dashboard interface
• Setting basic options and choosing a theme
• Composing posts and pages
• Including and managing images, videos, audio, and other media
• Working with categories and tags
• Building link lists
• Working with comments and dealing with spam
• Managing user accounts
• Customizing themes with widgets
• Promoting a blog

Duration: 4.25 hours On 1 CD-ROM System Requirements Macintosh Requirements

• OS 10.3.9 or higher
• DVD-ROM drive
• 1024×768 resolution
• 24-bit video support
• QuickTime 7 or higher

Windows Requirements

• XP or Vista
• DVD-ROM Drive
• 1024×768 resolution
• 24-bit video support
• PC sound card/speakers
• QuickTime 7 or higher (included)
• .NET 2.0 or higher (included)

From the Publisher

Each lynda.com CD/DVD course offers hours of training movies that you watch on your computer. The movies are recorded in pixel-perfect quality, and include the authors’ narration and movements as they teach the subject matter. Courses include the same project files that the instructors use, so you can follow along at your own pace. lynda.com tutorials are great for visual learners and people who like to learn by doing. Topics include software applications, workflow optimization, tips and techniques, and much more. Play, fast-forward, and rewind for easy learning.

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Review

“Both authors are successful and profitable probloggers and here they reveal at last some of their secrets.” (The Bookseller, Friday 14th March 2008)

Product Description

Problogger.net is where bloggers worldwide go for advice and information on enhancing their blog’s presence. Whether you’re just starting out or have been blogging for years, these two professional bloggers show you how to turn your passion for blogging into extra revenue. This practical guide to creating and marketing a blog with the potential for generating a six-figure income shows you how to choose subject matter that works for you, handle technical issues, and evaluate your blogs success so that you can use your blog to generate income indirectly.

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Review

“I absolutely loved your videos. I can’t believe how simple you made it to learn from your tutorials. Thank you for such an excellent product.” –Vickie C.

“I uploaded a new header image to my WordPress site but it was a little bigger than the one already in there. I spent days trying to find out how to make it fit and your video showed me in minutes. Thank you:” –Chubby

Product Description
10 Advanced WordPress Videos That Will Help Drive More Traffic, Make You More Money and Have a Better Looking Site.

Blog popularity is due in large part to blogs simplicity. Hosting companies have made setting up a personal site easy. Every one on the Internet no mater what level of technical proficiency is capable of setting up a blog.

But what if you re a little further along in the blog experience and are ready for a change? The more advanced steps are usually so technical and most people want to know how do I do it, not why.

As a trainer of WordPress we hear comments like this everyday

How do I change the link colors?

I want to put a different graphic in my header!

How can I play with the CSS code without a huge learning curve?

Can I post to my blog from my desktop?

How can I set up WordPress as a CMS site?

Well now all these and more are answered on 10 short 10 minute videos covering most of the different aspects that are usually answered with lots of technical jargon.

Watch over the shoulder of a professional WordPress Blogger as he shows you exactly how to do some of the more advanced techniques. No technical jargon, no hype just good old how to training videos.

Contents and video tutorials

Page 3 Changing a header graphic Sample
Page 5 Playing with CSS Style Sheets

Page 7 Inserting code and scripts

Page 9 Content Management CMS

Page 13 Auto Blogging and Content

Page 15 Graphics and logins

Page 17 Desktop Blogging

Page 19 RSS uses and stats

Page 24 404 pages Customize your error pages

Page 28 Widgets

Page 32 Resources and summary

Sample:

We believe in trying before you buy so here is a sample video you can download and watch or click here to stream it in your browser. All videos are downloadable and a free viewer is provided so you can watch the tutorials any time whether your online or not.

WordPress is not just blogging software any more but a complete website management tool that can allow anyone to create an attractive website.

With just a little extra knowledge you can make your average WordPress site into the professional web site that draws in customers, prospects and makes you look like a true professional. These tutorials are to give you the confidence to have a go. This CD contains 10 video tutorials plus a workbook to teach you advanced techniques with wordpress.

These 10 Video Tutorials Will Teach You:
1. Changing a header graphic
2. Playing with CSS Style Sheets
3. Inserting code and scripts
4. Content Management CMS
5. Plugins
6. Graphics and logins
7. Desktop Blogging
8. RSS uses and stats
9. 404 pages Customize your error pages
10. Widgets

Product Description

WordPress is an open-source personal publishing platform that is easy to use, flexible, and highly customizable. Although used primarily for publishing blogs, WordPress can easily be used to create and maintain complete Web sites.

Taking the average blogger further than blogspot can, WordPress allows bloggers to create more complicated sites with their open-source technology, rather than blogger which is limited by HTML changes to their templates.

This easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide shows you how to install, use, and customize WordPress to get the most from the software. Includes tips that explain why certain techniques are better than others, how to watch for potential problems, and where readers can find more information.

About the Author
Maria Langer has written dozens of computer books, including best-selling Visual QuickStart Guides for Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, Word for Macintosh, and Excel for Macintosh. Her current bestseller is Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Visual QuickStart Guide. Miraz Jordan is a New Zealand-based writer and consultant who focuses on plain-language writing, for websites and print, and the design and maintenance of standards-based websites. She is one of the organizers of Webstock 2006, a conference featuring world-class speakers on best practice in Web design. Her site, MacTips.info, contains a wealth of tips, articles, reviews, and tutorials for using the Mac.

Product Description
In Detail

If you can write WordPress plug-ins, you can make WordPress do just about anything. From making the site easier to administer, to adding the odd tweak or new feature, to completely changing the way your blog works, plug-ins are the method WordPress offers to customize and extend its functionality. This book will show you how to build all sorts of WordPress plug-ins: admin plug-ins, Widgets, plug-ins that alter your post output, present custom “views” of your blog, and more.

WordPress Plug-in Development (Beginner’s Guide) focuses on teaching you all aspects of modern WordPress development. The book uses real and published WordPress plug-ins and follows their creation from the idea to the finishing touches, in a series of carefully picked, easy-to-follow tutorials. You will discover how to use the WordPress API in all typical situations, from displaying output on the site in the beginning to turning WordPress into a CMS in the last chapter. In Chapters 2 to 7 you will develop six concrete plug-ins and conquer all aspects of WordPress development.

Each new chapter and each new plug-in introduces different features of WordPress and how to put them to good use, allowing you to gradually advance your knowledge. This book is written as a guide to take your WordPress skills from the very beginning to the level where you are able to completely understand how WordPress works and how you can use it to your advantage.

What you will learn from this book

• Get to know the WordPress code base, WordPress’s plug-in architecture, and the plug-in application programming interface (API) and learn how to hack it
• Master the WordPress database and the API - access and manipulate data, handle user roles and permissions, posts, and so on
• Hook into the rest of WordPress using actions and filters
• Change the way your WordPress backend looks by customizing menus, submenus, and the plug-in admin panel
• Integrate AJAX and jQuery into your plug-ins to dynamically generate content
• Hook directly to WordPress edit pages and use AJAX to generate fast searches
• Integrate your plug-in with WordPress panels and the tinyMCE editor
• Access and work with third-party APIs like Flickr
• Implement localization support for users of other languages
• Maintain and manage your plug-in using SVN and publish it to the WordPress Plugin Repository
• Handle security issues and make your plug-ins safer to use

We cover the development of six plug-ins from start to finish:

• Digg-this: Adds a Digg This button to each post.
• Live Blogroll: Adds a recent posts popup for each blog in your blogroll.
• The Wall widget: Displays comments on the sidebar without reloading the page.
• Snazzy Archives: Presents your site archives in a unique visual way.
• Insights: Access your articles and Flickr images from within the WordPress edit page.
• Post Types: Provides pre-defined post templates to quickly add a photo or a link to your blog.

Approach

This is a Packt Beginners Guide, which means it focuses on practical examples and has a fast-paced but friendly approach, with the opportunity to learn by experiment and play. Each chapter builds a practical plug-in from the ground up using step-by-step instructions. Individual sections show you how to code some functionality into your plug-in and follow up with a discussion of concepts.

Who this book is written for

This book is for programmers working with WordPress, who want to develop custom plug-ins and to hack the code base. You need to be familiar with the basics of WordPress and PHP programming and believe that code is poetry; this book will handle the rest.

About the Author

Vladimir Prelovac is a WordPress consultant and Internet marketing specialist best known for his numerous contributions to the WordPress community. He specializes in solving web site publishing challenges using the WordPress platform.

For Vladimir, WordPress-based development is a full time job about which he happily blogs.

Product Description

This book focuses on the nuts and bolts of the initial setup of your WordPress website. It is a clear and comprehensive approach with color screen shots of the entire setup process. Using WordPress version 2.6, you will learn how to install and use WordPress, add themes, plugins, import and export files and how to uninstall WordPress. This book includes full instructions on how to choose a WordPress template and create your own website quickly and easily.

Product Description

Wordpress is a simple and powerful way to start blogging. If you’re not an IT expert but want to use a state of the art blogging system to give your blog the best chance of success, while giving you the time to focus on content and your readers, WordPress is the right system for you, and this book is the right place to start. It will give you a rapid and straightforward introduction to the rich and powerful features of WordPress and get you up and running with a state of the art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible.

WordPress is an open source blog engine released under GNU general public license. It allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing blogs and though it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. Its versality and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users.

If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will help you explore WordPress showing you what it offers and how to go about building your blog with the system.

You will be introduced to the main aspects of a blog - users, communities, posts, comments, news feeds - and learn how to manage them using WordPress. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content, be it text or images, on your blog, and also understand how users interact with the blog. In working through the book you’ll be inspired as well as informed, and have the capability and the ideas for make your blog cutting edge and exciting to maximise its impact.

From this book you’ll learn about:

• Installing and configuring WordPress on a local development machine or a web hosting service

• Managing posts and comments

• Working with Image galleries, calendars, etc.

• Organising users and Communities

• Creating and Installing themes to control the page layout

• Linking to the outside world - Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting

• Customising Widgets and Plugins

• Using WordPress as a regular CMS

Written in a clear, easy to read style, the book takes you the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book.

This book is a beginner’s guide to WordPress, for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.

The table of contents is:

• WordPress and the World of Blogging

• Getting Started with WordPress

• Choosing and Installing a Theme

• Blog Your Heart Out

• Non-Blog Content

• Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting

• Getting the Theme Tailor-Made for You

• Managing Users and Building Communities

• Widgets and Plugins

• Administrator’s Reference

About the Author

Hasin Hayder graduated in Civil Engineering from the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) in Bangladesh. He is a Zend-certified Engineer and expert in developing localized applications. He is currently working as a Technical Director in Trippert Labs and managing the local branch in Bangladesh. Beside his full time job, Hasin writes his blog at http://hasin.wordpress.com, writes article in different websites and maintains his open source framework Orchid at http://orchid.phpxperts.net. Hasin lives in Bangladesh with his wife Ayesha and his son, Afif.

Product Description

WordPress Foundations 2.7 is your essential guide to WordPress. All you need to know to be online in minutes. A quick and easy guide to get you started right now. WordPress Foundations covers from A to Z (with no fluff or filler) everything you need to get started using WordPress today. I’ll show you the exact steps you need to know to get you going. You will not get lost. Each chapter contains exercises that you need to accomplish prior to proceeding to the next chapter. By the time you finish the book, you will have your site up and online.

Product Description

This practical guide will show you how to make your business blog different from the crowd and attractive to your target audience by implementing the features of WordPress. This book is for current users of the WordPress platform who want to get the most out of WordPress to manage business/professional blogs; it is not an introduction to WordPress and does not cover basics such as installation or creating posts and pages, configuring blog settings, etc. Readers are expected to have a WordPress blog or to be in the advanced stages of planning one. The book is aimed at managers of business/professional blogs, which broadly fall into four categories: Professional Expert Blogs ? owned by individuals who blog in their area of expertise to increase their personal exposure and standing. Corporate Blogs ? owned by companies that blog to reach customers and encourage closer relationships, sales, and referrals. Online News Sources / Magazines ? blogs that provide content on particular topics, funded by ads. Campaign Blogs ? not-for-profit blogs run by charities or “causes”, designed to promote ideas or encourage certain behaviors. Non-business bloggers will also find the book useful if they want to take their WordPress skills beyond the basics.

Product Description

Expert guidance on designing a great theme for one of the most popular, open-source blog systems available for the Web today! This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you’ll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.

About the Author

Tessa Blakeley Silver’s background is in print design and traditional illustration. She evolved over the years into web and multi-media development, where she focuses on usability and interface design. Prior to starting her consulting and development company hyper3media (pronounced hyper-cube media) http://hyper3media.com, Tessa was the VP of Interactive Technologies at eHigherEducation, an online learning and technology company developing compelling multimedia simulations, interactions, and games that met online educational requirements like 508, AICC, and SCORM. She has also worked as a consultant and freelancer for J. Walter Thompson and The Diamond Trading Company (formerly known as DeBeers) and was a Design Specialist and Senior Associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ East Region Marketing department. Tessa authors several design and web technology blogs. Joomla! Template Design is her first book.