LESSON #33: Getting Started with WordPress

By | March 4, 2009

(Part 1 in a series of 4)

Throughout the previous several lessons, I’ve covered a handful of different ways of building a website. Now it’s time to talk about my favorite method!

Today we’re going to use WordPress…

(Watch this video…)

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Main points:

  • WordPress = blogging platform and content management system (CMS).

  • A CMS is basically a system of organizing data for a website.

  • WordPress is not the only CMS, and it may not be the best one for some types of websites. But it’s my favorite CMS because…

    1) It’s free.
    2) It’s open source.
    3) The plugins!
    4) It’s easy to install and use.

  • If your web host uses Cpanel with the Fantastico add-on, you can use the “one click” WordPress installer. (If you want a web host with the one-click feature, please click here – and use coupon code: ERICSTIPSCOUPON)

  • If you want/need to install WordPress manually, it’s still pretty easy (see video for full step-by-step walkthrough)

  • WordPress site (where you can download the zip file): www.wordpress.org

  • WP Secret key generator (as referenced in video): https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/

    The best WordPress theme

    Action steps:

    1) Decide if you’re going to use WordPress for your website.

    2) If yes, install it!

    In the next lesson I’ll show you what to do with WordPress AFTER you install it.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂

    Have a great day!

  • 300 thoughts on “LESSON #33: Getting Started with WordPress

    1. mike

      Great lesson Eric as always, thank you. This was the one i have been waiting for. Good work.

      Reply
    2. Michaela

      Hello! Good lesson Eric, have a question: Do you have a affiliate link for Monthly Income Formula? it is in ClickBank?

      Thanks
      Michey

      Reply
    3. D.T.

      A little confusing at first but like anything study it and it will come to you,Thanx

      Reply
    4. Eric Post author

      I do not currently have an affiliate program for it, but that’s a good idea. I’ll set one up and post it here.

      Reply
    5. Brett Simpson

      Eric,

      Another great lesson – I can tell we’re coming up on a long section on WordPress… I hope you’re going to cover the plugins you find most useful, as well as the themes that work best for monitizing content : )

      Thanks for the lesson,
      -Brett
      http://www.profit-internet.com
      Internet Marketing and Product Creation To Earn You Money

      Reply
    6. Paul

      Thanks Eric,
      Wordpress does rock I built the blog listed here using a simply plug-in theme in about half an hour.
      Paul

      Reply
    7. Gary Pettit

      Hi Eric,
      Will you be covering at some point how we can offer buyers of our products an opportunity to advertise our items as an affiliate? 😉

      Reply
    8. Eric Post author

      Yes I will, but it won’t be for awhile. It will probably be somewhere around lesson #85.

      Reply
    9. 6clix

      Good tip. I also use wordpress for most pages on my website. Great thing about wordpress is they have lots of themes which you can edit and customize. I customized one of the free themes on wordpress to match the color and layout of my website.

      Reply
    10. Helmut

      Hi Eric,
      This video came just in time. Only a few minutes before I was thinking about to install WordPress on my new hosting account but was a bit unsure how to do it.
      Thank you very much.

      Reply
    11. Sherif

      I knew it when you said “my favorite way to building a website” 🙂
      Guess what, it’s my favorite way too. I prefer however the manual way over fantastico. With the manual way, you have more control over securing your installation. Also upgrading works better.
      Regards.
      Sherif

      Reply
    12. Luca

      Hi Eric,
      I love WordPress. I’m getting the hang of it but do want to learn how to modify the themes a little. For instance how do people put adsense ads in their headers? Looking forward to the next lesson

      Reply
    13. Connie

      They say ‘When the student is ready the teacher appears?’
      I was straining my brain all day over this very topic and your email appeared!
      You are such a dear for providing all of these straightforward, information packed lessons.
      Good thing the Universe rewards you ten-fold, actually you deserve a kazillion-fold!
      Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou!

      Reply
    14. Fauzi

      Hi Eric,
      I’m just doing wordpress now. A new comer on this category. It’s interesting and very suitable for the newbie. Now I’m thinking of adding the content as the beginner on the internet. Hope some more news ahead. Thanks for everything.

      Reply
    15. Eric Post author

      Yes I’ll be covering plugins and themes in the next lesson, and it’ll be a long lesson 😉

      Reply
    16. Kwame

      Great lesson. Hey, what the difference between CSS templates and wordpress? They kind of look the same to me.
      Stay bless.

      Reply
    17. Eric Post author

      Good idea, I’ll make a note to make sure I talk about adding ads in the next lesson.

      Reply
    18. Henry

      As always, Great post Eric! Can’t wait for your next lesson on this topic about wordpress.

      Reply
    19. Edwin

      Hi Eric,

      Great lessons on my favorit sitebuilding tool.
      A few years ago I build sites with notepad in a pure php and mysql the hardcore way….But when I found WordPress I hardly do that anymore and only use that because of the clean code, seo benefits and free plugins and templates that make it such a valueable cms.
      Even created several templates and plugns myself because I like it as a cms but the blogy look is not always what I want for my site.

      Reply
    20. Michael

      hi Eric, great lessons and hints, but i would like to find out if there are low bandwith versions of your videos? liviing in a developing country, i miss out on most of your lessons because of the bandwith, with access to the videos i am confident i can gain much

      Reply
    21. Anonymous

      Hi Eric
      Iv’e gone with Joomla. Ive also managed to hook up with a webmaster of a fansite who is giving me lessons.
      Im starting to get the hang of this only taken a year LOL

      Reply
    22. Vasile

      Thank you for the entire effort and support. I am looking for a solution to protect my videos, in other words I want to embed them in a site and be watched but not downloaded, like you did with your lessons. How can I follow your example, please? Thank you!

      Reply
    23. Bill Johnston

      RE Your first step: “1) Decide if you’re going to use WordPress for your website.”
      What would you say is the determining factors in this decision? Advantages, etc.

      Reply
    24. Eric Post author

      A CSS template would just be a website template using CSS (cascading style sheets… sort of an advanced component of HTML). WordPress is an entire CMS (content management system), which actually does include a CSS stylesheet by the way.

      Reply
    25. Eric Post author

      I compress them as much as I can while keeping the quality… for example the above video is only 17MB. But I understand that could be difficult for some people. I realize it won’t help you at the moment, but when I am done with the 100 lessons I am planning on releasing them on DVD.

      Reply
    26. Eric Post author

      If your videos are visible on the web, technically someone can download or at least capture them if they know what they’re doing. But you can prevent most of that simply by converting it to flash (SWF or FLV) and not offering it as a download. I use Camtasia Studio 6 to create my videos and convert them to flash.

      Reply
    27. Eric Post author

      It depends mostly on personal preference. In lesson #28, 29, 31 and 32 I’ve talked about other ways of building sites. Some people may prefer to build it with a web authoring software, or a site builder such as XSite Pro.

      It may also depend on the type of site you’re building. If it’s a blog or article site, then WordPress is probably an optimal choice. If it’s a sales letter, it may or may not be the best choice.

      I personally like to make my sales pages from scratch with HTML and/or PHP. WordPress works fine for sales pages too, but you would probably need to tweak the theme files, because you probably don’t want all the navigation links on your sales page, and might not want a sidebar at all. Additionally, WP has some formatting idiosyncracies, and I prefer to have 100% control over the formatting of my sales letters.

      The advantages of WP are many. It’s more dynamic than an HTML site. It’s easy to build and manage. It’s interactive, with commenting. The search engines tend to like it. It’s PHP driven, so you can use PHP plugins. You can change the look of your entire site, just by tweaking the theme or using a different one.

      Reply
    28. Innocent

      Another great lesson, Eric. I also use WordPress, it’s great. With the numerous plugins I can make my blog looking how I want it.

      They also have great tutorials and forum to help out when one is hitting a brick wall.

      But Eric, hope you have not forgotten your promise some time ago to treat creation of e-book covers. When should we be expecting the lesson?

      Thanks, you are the best!

      Reply
    29. Eric Post author

      It helps to have the HTML basics down either way.

      Thanks! That’s exactly right, which is why I covered HTML first. There’s a method to my madness 😉

      Reply
    30. Rhino

      Eric, I absolutely love these tips – great info that is concise and easy to follow. Please do a tip sometime on how you make your videos. I am always wanting to show my other offices etc how to do something on the internet and I always wish I could make a video demo like the ones you make for us on your Eric’s Tips. I need to learn how to do this just like you do.

      Reply
    31. Larry

      Thanks again Eric for another awesome lesson.
      I think with wordpress I might finally get some stuff built.

      Reply
    32. stan

      Eric,
      I am a member of: arbitrage conspiracy.

      I want to use wordpress to create landing pages for affiliate offers.

      Do you recommend which of the following:
      – wordpress
      – xsitepro
      – dreamweaver

      I have few adsense blogs in wordpress also. But I feel it takes lot of html, css tweaking to customize for affiliate offers.

      What is your suggestion

      Thanks.

      Reply
    33. Eric Post author

      It sort of depends on what you’re comfortable with. If you need a WYSIWYG program, go with Xsite. If you’re comfortable tweaking the WordPress themes to fit your needs, go with WordPress. The nice thing about WP is it’s easy to log in and change stuff on the fly. But if you’re going to follow the AC methods as closely as possible, you should consider their recommendations (ie. LPG). I don’t use it personally right now, but if I was focusing more on PPC I would definitely use a dynamic landing page generator.

      Reply
    34. Michaela

      Hi!
      I am interested in Gary’s question as well.
      Now, thanks for affiliate link, do you have a graphic as well, cover, banner something

      Thanks Eric

      Reply
    35. Michaela

      The comments are very useful as well.
      Just reading the comments, looks like the next lesson is a “key” one, since then I am learning membership sites building, from Eric’s MIF, thanks for affil, do you have graphics?, a cover is enough, or as you promise me long time ago, a package to create 3D covers, and I’ll do it myself. Also it will be useful if in MIF you will put a name, looks strange that you don’t have a name on it. I know how “we” are but a new person doesn’t.
      Thanks
      Michaela

      Reply
    36. Eric Post author

      sorry I don’t have any graphics for it. But I am still planning on showing you how to make e-covers. In fact, I may be able to talk about that in lesson 37 or 38.

      Reply
    37. stan

      Thanks for reply Eric,
      I am planning to use LPG.
      But once the campaign is shown to be profitable, shouldn’t we be using something like XsitePro to build bigger sites than one page Landing Page.

      Can we insert keywords dynamically in xsitepro.
      Thanks.

      Reply
    38. Eric Post author

      Ideally yes you would want to build a site behind a highly profitable campaign, but it just depends on your business strategy and whether that’s something you want to take the time to do. Generally you need to use PHP or other dynamic programming if you want to insert keywords dynamically, and last I checked XSite did not do that. Now, technically, you could design a site in Xsite, export it as an HTML site and then turn the pages into PHP pages.

      Reply
    39. Summit

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks for the great lessons!

      Just one quick question here? Can WordPress be used to host E-Commerce Websites? If Yes, would you be showing us how to do that?

      Thanks once again! And yes, your India Pics were Great!

      Summit.

      Reply

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