(Part 3 in a series of 4)
In the previous two lessons, we’ve been talking about WordPress. Lesson #33 covers getting started with WordPress. Lesson #34 covers several of my recommended WordPress settings. And now we’re going cover the fun stuff!
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
-There are hundreds of free themes at: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
-A nice thing about selecting a theme from the WP site, is seeing if it is compatible with the latest version, seeing user comments, etc.
-Tip: If you intend to do very much customization to your theme, you might want to choose one that is NOT heavily dependent on graphical design.
-Advanced tip: web designers may submit their own theme to WP’s directory (see guidelines first). This could result in exposure from thousands of downloads and back links.
-There are also thousands of 3rd party themes for sale and for free.
Plugins that I currently use:
Akismet
All in One SEO Pack
Dofollow
Ajax Comments-Reply
Flickr Photo Album
ShareThis
UPDATE: I no longer use the ShareThis plugin, and now I use Simple Facebook Like Widget. For more information, see this post about Facebook plugins
There are three main ways…
-You could use an AdSense-ready theme (such as an AdSense template, or search the WP themes directory for one)
-You could use an AdSense WP Plugin, such as Adsense Manager (search the Plugins directory for AdSense). In general, this would be my recommendation.
-You could add it manually to your theme (for example you could insert your ad code into the header.php, sidebar.php, or single.php files)
Action steps:
1) Choose a theme for your WordPress site and install it.
2) If you’re going to allow comments, activate the Akismet plugin.
3) Explore the other plugins.
In the next lesson, we’ll look at how to customize your WordPress theme.
If you need help, please check out the forums at: http://wordpress.org/support/
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂 Feel free to let us know your favorite themes and plugins!
Have a great day!
Someone from HG did “help” with the transfer, at least the content. They said that I would have to reapply the theme myself. The same with the affiliate links, I am on my own with that!
I understood that this whole process was simple but it sure has NOT been. I am frustrated with being left alone to “figure out” how to accomplish these “simple tasks” that really are not in any way simple, just confusing. Even the control panel is complicated so it seems like translation of multiple languages to make anything work out at all. I thought that there was a way to pay WP or buy a “semiologic” program that ran on the same plane as WP does.
Right now, I don’t see any way to recreate what I had to start with except to hire an expert!
I have a back up copy, but that has been no use.
The affiliate links within the content is still there, but the banners and links along the sidebar are all gone no matter what I do here.
It will take weeks or months for me to figure out how to rebuild it from scratch now.
Besides, I can’t locate the same theme so far!
WP will NOT help and any new hosts that I have found don’t seem to understand what I ask them.
How come it seems like so many other people are using WP and getting away with everything from affiliate links to adsense ads on their blogs?
Are they using a different version of WP?
Relatively speaking, WP is simple to use. But it can be complex if you’re getting into customizing and re-creating a blog that had been hosted elsewhere. WP themselves don’t offer tech support, as it is a free open source program. You might be able to find someone to help you in their forums. And it sounds like what you are trying to do is outside the scope of what most hosts are willing to do for a site transfer. I think if you could locate the same theme, that would be at least half the battle.
If you need to hire some help, you might try http://rentalcoders.com or Odesk
I installed atahualpa… you can customize literally everything on the theme.. great for newbies
A plugin I use that I think is pretty important is WP DB Backup. It automatically and periodically sends you a backup of your blog by email.
Here it is: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/
I recently had a blog hacked and the database corrupted… had to spend many hours finding past posts in Google’s cache in order to republish them… and still lost hundreds of posts… which surely has hurt my traffic from the search engines.
Hi eric, I use WP’s free blog as well as my own hosted. I’ve had FREE blogs taken down without warning & communication as to reasons ‘why’ have been very blunt & not helpful. In the sidebar I was linking to a few of my own sites which also included ‘affiliate links’. This was the reason apparently that they were removed. The problem was, I also had a couple of other totally unrelated free blogs with WordPress, and to this day, about 6 months down the line, they won’t give me access to those.
I think WP is a brilliant concept, but it’s VERY difficult to stay within their terms & conditions as their interpretation seems to conflict with common sense.
I’m not a spammer, and I hate rule-breaking, but now I’m VERY cautious about even linking from WP blogs. I don’t know how they justify allowing google ads if affiliate linking is not allowed.
What are your thoughts on this Eric?
Pete.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for a great video. Plugins are easy to install, but there’s a plugin which makes installation and updating plugins extremely easy and I highly recommend it:
http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/10/19/one-click-plugin-updater/ You only ever need to install this plugin in the normal way ie FTP etc then after that its all select and install with one click and it notifies you of available updates of your plugins.
Do you have a recommended plugin to assist list building?
Ray
http://www.visiolo.com/t/156
I don’t recommend using their free blog on wordpress.com. I have heard of many people having their blogs removed. But I have never heard of any marketers getting in trouble with WP for blogs hosted on their own domains. So as long as you don’t do anything illegal, you should be fine using WP on your own domain for marketing purposes.
Thank you for the tip.
Thanks for that Eric. I’ll google it and see what comes up.
Alan
That’s cool. A lot of plugins now do already check themselves for updates and have one click updates.
For list building, I don’t use any plugins. There are some aweber related plugins though. For example this one signs people up for your aweber list when they make a comment on your blog. I haven’t tried it because I think it would be a bit redundant on my blog, but for some people it could work well.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/aweber-wordpress-plugin/
Will you be going over how to add video to sites? i.e. Ericstips.com
Shawn
Yes i will
Thanks Eric, i took action following this video to learn and change my wordpress theme. I now understand what plugins are. Hoping to get to more resources soon.
Erik, I can’t believe what great content you give away for free. Thank you. Something you haven’t covered (as far as I can recall) is: How do you get large audio/video files to upload? WordPress said my 23.9 MB file exceeded the allowed size. Also, how can I import my own header graphic. I did it once (a long time ago) but don’t recall how.
I never use WP’s uploader. I just upload the files via FTP into a directory of my choosing, and then link directly to those files from within my WP post.
I’ll show a demo of switching out a header graphic in the next lesson.
Nice gravatar!
Eric,
As you know, I am a multi-level-marketer with several thousand distributors below me in my success lines in VEMMA ( video proof currently running on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/TeddyFreeman )So I would like to think I know some things about marketing my self. I still find so much I can learn when visiting your site. I would give quite a bit of credit to you and your marketing advice to the success of my business. Since I feel that you have helped me on my journey to becoming wealthy I would like to return the favor a little if possible. The easy video producer is sure to become all the rage and used vastly in the Internet Marketing Industry. They are newly launched and as an established marketing coach you stand to make a small fortune on the commissions. Plus, It could have multible other uses in your marketing efforts. It absolutely does so much !!!. You owe it to yourself to check it out further. John has his affiliate link there and everyone has got to sign up under someone so you may as well help John make a few bucks. Also, Like I stated before. You will make a whole lot more than what you invested. Rather it be from commissions or from other streams of marketing income created or enhanced.
Thanks As Always,
Teddy Freeman
PS. Eric, Please do take a good look at the Easy Video Producer. It will only help you to help others more.
Hi Teddy, congrats on your success, and thanks for the comments 🙂
I took a look at the easy video producer. I have mixed feelings about it, so I probably will not recommend it. The strategy I teach is to build your own list, hosted on your own account using a service such as aweber.
In the case of EVP, you are building your upline’s list, and you don’t really own the list because if you quit, you lose it.
Quote from their site:
“Q. Can I opt out at any time?
A. Yes, you can, but you will lose the ability to use EasyVideoProducer.com and you may lose your contact list. We make it easy to cancel in your members area.”
I do realize that you can email those members and try to get them onto your real list, so it can have value as a list building tool, but it’s just not something I would focus on from a business standpoint.
THAT HAVING BEEN SAID…
I see Joel Therien is behind it, and I know he’s a good guy. And I don’t doubt that it’s a helpful tool. But as far as using it for list building, I think there are better methods for business owners to focus on.
It’s a brilliant marketing tool that they’ve created for their own company, and if anything I would recommend studying WHAT they are doing and seeing how Kiosk is benefiting from it. And then consider using similar strategies to create a viral tool for your own business.
Obviously it’s very effective because they have their users such as John and yourself making an effort to spread the word, partly due to the fact that it’s apparently a good tool, and partly due to the fact that you’re building a downline. That’s exactly the kind of viral effect that you want to see when you launch something like this.
Props to Kiosk!
Thanks Eric.
Does all these apply to wordpress free blog?
Hi Eric,
I’m getting hung up on Filezilla. I downloaded my WordPress theme and have it set up like you did ready for upload, but I don’t know how to set up my server side. How do I check where I installed the WP files. Currently it’s blank because I’ve never had to FTP anything (XSite does it for me). Could you tell me where to go to find out?
Filezilla is covered in lesson 29:
If you used the 1-click WP installer, then WP will be in your public_html directory, or within a directory within your public_html directory.
Hi Eric,
Terrific info in this lesson. I took the liberty of looking up “Akismet.” The developers say it is short for automatic kismet (fate, destiny), so I believe it would be pronounced uh-KIZ’-met. It works very well.
I really liked your suggestions for plug-ins and plan to try some.
We have started our business about 1 week ago and have slowed down to go thru Eric’s tips 1 at a time. The problem being-I want to go faster. We are really trying to be patient.
Thanks! I knew it was easy.
Checking to see if changing my email address will display my gravitar…
I have a question and I have no idea if anyone will be able to help but it is worth a shot. I just joined paydotcom and started to promote one of erics products. The monthly income formula. On the sheet it says raw hits and unique hits what is the difference. Is there a way to know where they are clicking from.because they are not buying and im trying to find out if it is something that I am doing wrong or something that I can make better. I would appreciate any help this is the first glimmer of life that I have had in my business.
thanks again eric none of this would be possible without your help
Thanks for that very informative and complete video about wordpress themes and plugins. From it I have understood that the all-in-one seo pack over writes the title of the webpage but will not change the permalinks of your post unless you manually edit it; all really for seo purposes. Looking forward to your next lesson…
Eric, I’m still stuck on Lesson #33. Can you please answer my qestion there. Thanks…
THANKS ERIC, IT LOOKS A GOOD BEGINNING!I WONDER IF WE CAN GO 3 LESSONS A DAY?
HOPE TO START SOON!
REGARDS TO YOUR FAMILY!
Hello Eric and Friends,
Got an email from Pushbuttonmarketer.com linking to the site listed above. Wasn’t sure if the email REALLY came from you Eric? So I’m just checking!:)
Thanks
Jeff
Yes it come from us 🙂
A little co-promotion we’re doing with some friends for a cool product they launched.
just answered your question on other lesson, thanks 🙂
I used the Share This to digg your video. 🙂 I hope you don’t mind but I also put you in my blog roll. I love your site. And I’m going to Tweet about it too. Thank you. I feel like I just went from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Hopefully by end of this series I’ll be graduating HS. 🙂
Much appreciated, thank you!
I’ve made it this far. I am part way into Lesson #35. I have two issues…1) When I go into my WordPress folder in my beyondgloom file on my desktop, there is no content file in the folder. So I am unable to download the theme I want into the folder. 2) In Lesson #34 I added a tag to my blog “Express Yourself & Heal”. I want to replace that tag with “Poetry on Depression & Spiritual Growth”. How do I do that? Thanks much…Jeanette
I have a 3rd problem with Lesson #35…I installed the All in One SEO Pack and put in “Poetry on Depression & Spiritual Growth” on the title line. But it doesn’t show up above like yours did in your example. Did I do something wrong?
It looks like you got it working:
http://beyondgloom.com/blog/2009/04/04/welcome/
I see it in the title bar.
1) just download it via FTP . you can download it anywhere you want.
2)You can edit the tag line in your WP admin panel… under blog settings.
You’ve done it again with concise accuracy. Just one problem I’ve been trying to overcome. I tried to add a plug in and word press keeps saying it’s downloaded. I can’t activate it or add tittle tags. There are 4,550 something help blogs. Do I need to look all day for one that explains my problem?
Which plugin is it? Is it showing as an inactive plugin in your WP admin panel?
Eric, I went back and tried to download my selected WordPress theme into my blog. It didn’t work. I downloaded the theme into my beyondgloom folder on my desktop. I couldn’t get into my wordpress file because there is no content file so I just downloaded it into the folder as a new file. But when I went into Filezilla to drag & drop it into the theme area on the right side, nothing happened in my admin theme area. It doesn’t show up. It does show in Filezilla that I physically put it where it was supposed to be, but it is not showing up in WordPress. What should I do?
Did you unzip it before uploading it?
If you uploaded it into the right place, it would should up in your WP admin panel in the theme area.
I can tell you that it currently is not in there, but you did apparently upload an html file and a rich-text (rtf) file into it:
http://beyondgloom.com/blog/wp-content/themes/
Eric, I’m sorry but I don’t understand. Yes I did unzip it before uploading it into FileZilla. I did contact WordPress Support a couple of days ago but have not heard back from them. I don’t understand what to do now.
Well you must not have uploaded to the right folder, otherwise it would be there. so I’d say try try again 🙂
you found the folder because you uploaded that other stuff there… just not the theme…
Eric…Success! I figured out the problem. I had two beyondgloom files – one in my documents & one on the desktop. I was trying to load my poetry document into the theme area of ftp. Boy do I feel silly. Now if I could only figure out why I don’t have a content file in the WordPress folder. That’s keeping me from doing Lesson 36.
when I installed the ajax comments plugin, it does not look like your comments area. Did you modify the code at all?
I may have modified it slightly, but I don’t recall what I did. But one thing to keep in mind is that your theme will affect what it looks like.
well I got my first website up and running I have a blog page and a forum page. It is still a work in progress but I think it looks good so far. If anyone would like to discuss erics tips or anything else that would help people out you can go to http://www.myoppsbusiness.com/business-forum/
I want to thank you eric because I would have never gotten this far if it hadnt been for you. I am getting the hits on the products that I am affiliating for I am just not getting the sales. This is why I wanted to create the forum to find people that might be able to help me out.
again eric thank you so very much.
Hay Eric
I’m jumping in. Watch for the splash!
Hi Eric.
Terrific series. I have already blog with pretty simple theme and would like to change it. Can I use any theme and how can I know will it be OK before I change. I am afraid that I could screw it up and will no be able to fix it. Is there a safe method?
Hi Eric.
I posted question last night but it disappeared. I would like to know if there is way to check if the new theme will work before you do the change.
I have blog already and would like to change the theme but I am afraid it might not work properly on my blog. How can I know which themes are compatible with my blog before switching?
BTW video series is fantastic.
Thanks,
Gord