(Part 4 in a series of 4)
In the previous three lessons, I’ve been covering WordPress. We started off with by installing WordPress. Then we talked about the best way to configure WordPress. And then in the previous lesson we talked about WordPress themes and plugins.
Today we’re going to take it a step further and look at how to customize a theme to meet the needs of your business…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
See video for examples of…
-Editing the colors, fonts, and other style in the CSS Stylesheet
-Adding an AdSense ad to the sidebar
-Editing the footer to take away a credit/footprint
-Changing the graphics
Action steps:
1) If you’re not happy with the look or function of your WordPress site, customize it!
Remember, if you need help there is a massive support forum at: http://wordpress.org/support/
In the next lesson, I’ll be talking about making money with your blog.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂 And if you’ve customized your WordPress theme, be sure to show it off to us!
Have a great day!
Hi Eric,
Fantastic lessons! My site is not created in WordPress, but I want to add a wordpress blog to the site. Can I customise the header of the blog so that it is the same as my existing web pages? Or is this advanced html?
Thanks Eric.
Yes you can customize the header of WordPress to match the rest of your site. It is not very difficult, especially if you choose a WP theme with a similar sized header as the one on your site (then you can just swap out the WP header with yours). But if you did have trouble with it, you could probably have someone do it for you for under $10 on rentacoder.
Thank You Eric, It works!
I feel rather stupid having lost so much time…
Anyway, you know, It’s the Journey that count, because it makes you a better person.
Hi Eric….
Thank…..
but,I speak english a bad.
Thank Na…
Eric
Erics Tips is a great course and I’ve been following it for months, and have just gone back to the WordPress lessons as I wanted to build a set of static sales pages for affiliate products. But I can’t work out where the pages are stored so I can edit them. offline.
That’s one thing about wordpress… it’s not really possible to edit them offline. They are stored in your MySQL database.
However, you could keep them as Word documents (or something) offline, and then paste them into WordPress when you’re creating/editing the pages.
Hi Eric!
What would you recommend to keep your wordpress blog safe from hackers? I just recently posted my first wp blog sites, and found out a week later that they were both hacked and malicious code has been inserted in the script! I deleted them both, and now I have to figure out how to repost one of them from backup, and the other one…I will have to reconstruct… It is a major mess for me to deal with this! Is there any software, like McAfee or Ad-aware are for PC, that would protect wp blogs (or any web sites) from attacks?
Here is some information about securing WP installations:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/20-wordpress-security-plug-ins-and-tips-to-keep-hackers-away/
Here are some plugins:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/antivirus/
http://www.seoegghead.com/software/wordpress-firewall.seo
While not specifically for WordPress, McAfee does have a service which will scan your site daily for hacker vulnerabilities:
http://www.ericstips.com/mcafee
The most important thing is to keep it updated with latest version.
Also it is good to run regular backs of your MySQL database. This can be done easily with 1 click from within your Cpanel. You could even make a macro to do it for you using a program such as ours: http://pushbuttonmarketer.com
i really need part of the show course, i really want to design my blog , to add image to the blog and also heasder to it.
Hi Eric,
Your tips have been awesome! I think I have my blog optimized pretty good, but now I need to drive traffic to it, that’s the hard part. I know that the key is to get backlinks, but I’m not sure how to go about it. Is there any advice that you can give me? It would be great if you could email it to me. Thanks!
I will be covering web traffic in depth from lesson #72 through 85. Thanks
Sounds great Eric! Do you know when approximately lesson 72 will start? Thanks!
It will be in May.
Hello Eric,
After viewing your tutorials on the 5 ways to create a website, it looks like WP is more interesting to me.
Recently I got all the files of a website downloaded to my HG reseller account. This website was from the previous host using the ASP/NET framework and cannot be replicated
on the Linux hosting server.
I was recomended to enagage a programmer to re-code this website.
Eric, may I ask is there an alternative do-it-yourself method to decode or any possibility using WP to tweak and modify this website.
Looking forward for your advie and opinion.
Johnny Pow
I doubt if there is a plugin or any easy way to recode the website from ASP.net to WordPress.
If you were very familiar with WP, you could probably re-create the site yourself.
But if you’re new to it and/or not real comfortable with HTML and PHP, then your best bet is probably to hire a programmer to rebuild the site in WP for you.
I think it will be well worth it, and you will really appreciate the WP interface.
However, I’m also not sure how complex your old site was. If it was very simple, you still may be able to do it on your own by creating the pages from your WP admin area.
Hi Eric – Once again your teaching style is awesome, thankyou!
Could You please advise Eric – are the same principles used when working with php scripting?
Kindest Regards,
Graham Price
Yes the same principles would apply to other PHP scripts. You can edit them in a text editor, and use some trial and error if you don’t know much of the coding. Here is a good site for learning PHP (and other stuff):
http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
Hi there great video but it keeps stopping at 6:01 minutes in
Please try these solutions:
Eric,
Firstly Thank you, for at least giving me some direction and no BS, I would of given in if i had not found your site. I am trying to enter this world and am starting with a simple landing page to get people to sign up. What is the best way to design this HTML, CSS styles or worpress landing page??? Does the way in which you write it affect traffic / SEO??? I really like the wordpress templetes however I notice no one seems to use them as landing pages, is there a reason why??
I cover squeeze pages in lessons #62-65.
for most of my squeeze pages, I just use basic HTML as I show in those lessons.
However, I think WordPress is great. There are some good WordPress squeeze page templates and other landing page templates.
Yes the way you write it affects SEO. I’ll be covering that too.
The reason a lot of people don’t use WP as landing pages, is because they don’t want a menu, navigation sidebar, etc. on their landing page. But there are WP templates to get around that.
Also, when it comes to Google AdWords, it can be beneficial to have your landing page integrated into your WP blog. (See lesson #65, #73)
Hi Eric
Really enjoyed your instruction, especially the recent instruction on WordPress.
Just a question about your theme for this site. Like you I prefer a minimalist theme. Is the theme you use on this site from WordPress.org and if so which one is it.
Thanks
Joe
http://www.UnlimitedWebhostingService.com
the theme I modified for this site was called ‘silverlight’
HI, Eric great lesson, you gave a good explanation of the alternative ways to customamize wordpress in a very simple way to follow.thanks again for the lessons. by the way, Eric what was that program that you launched about traffic
that one of your blogger mentioned.
Hi Eric! Thanks for sharing all of these free tips.. But I just have a question though, coz I usually using blogger for my blog post which is a wysiwyg editor. Now I am trying to use wordpress as per your advised. Im just having some difficulties on how I can upload my videos from camtasia to my blog post and how can I put some banner ads. Hope you can help me on how to do it.
Keep it up Eric and more power to you!
In lesson #41 I show how to put video on your site. In WordPress, I recommend turning the visual editor OFF before posting any video embed code. Otherwise it will get messed up.
Hi Eric,
Great stuff! WP used to seem like this big crazy mess of complicated code, but now I’m having a blast with my site!
Make it a great day,
‘Doc Seth’
~husband, dad, full-time ‘Elevator’~
Hey Eric, I have gone through your video training series several times and have really learned so much. Thanks. I have a question about putting a contact form on a wp site. What plugin would you recommend for this? Also, I want to put a contact form on a static web page, instead of providing an email address. what would be the best way to go about doing this?
Thanks.
Bret
Hello Bret,
Here is Eric’s lesson on setting up a customer list:
Eric uses Aweber for his list hosting:
http://toplevel.aweber.com/
HI ERIC THANK YOU, FOR ALL YOUR HELP, I REALLY NEED IT, AS I AM DISABLED, AND TAKE CARE OF MY 87 YEAR OLD GRANDMOTHER, AND MY DISABLED MOTHER, I BELIEVE IN YOU GUYS, YOU SEEM LIKE THE REAL THING, THANKS AGAIN, RICH.
THANK YOU.
Someone or something hss hacked into my wordpress blog, each time I try to go in a big rectangular red box comes up saying don’t open from web attack.
How can I get in safely to take wordpress off my domain and start again, Thanks in advance for your help. John
Hello John,
Here are some instructions for you:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-uninstall-wordpress-from-the-server
Hi Eric,
I’m following your lessons and trying to make a website for Amazon to sell products.I don’t know how to put content and reviews into the site.Can I please have instructions on how to put content.
Thank you,
WordPress is ideal for this. You can post your content using the standard “post” feature. Lesson #34 covers this. You can get banners and links for the products from within your amazon affiliate account.
Eric
The lessons are great, I have a website using wordpress, but only one problem, I can not view the site LIVE! The host panel shows up when I type my domain name in…did I miss how to launch somewhere, I review all the videos up to including installing and still when I type in my domain name I’m sent to host panel … help please!
thanks
Hello Darryl,
Your site should be live after the Domain Name Server information has propagated throughout the internet.
When DNS records have been changed it takes about 24 hours for the changes to propagate and take effect. Only after that you will be able to see the result of the DNS changes you have made.
If after 24 hours the DNS change has not taken effect yet, you can try clearing your browser’s cache, if you still can’t see your website.
Some of this stuff I have known for a while…it’s making money with it that isn’t sinking in. Can’t wait! You are very thorough, and very clear! Thanks so much!
Good Evening, Eric:
I am requesting that you send the supplement to
Lesson #36, which had to do with something on a
Membership website. I am unable to find this
supplement, and I must have deleted the link to
it by mistake. I was impressed by your article
on Gary Ambrose relative to a membership site.
I had already done research on Mr. Ambrose, who
came out with an hour-long video dealing with
membership sites. Anyway, I would appreciate
yyou sending me the supplement to membership
sites. Thank you.
Hello Lewis,
Here is the link to Eric’s lesson called, How to Build a Membership Website:
Is this what you were looking for? It has everything you’ll need to get going with a membership website!
Thanks, Eric, great instructions.
Mark
Hi Eric, Working my way through your great course.I am still with you, getting a little more technical now. Editing CSS Style sheets,here’s some recent info of 2013, windows recommends, http://www.freetextpad.com/
Seems like a pretty good & Free editor, well worth a look. Thank’s for all the help.
hi eric great information iam about to set up my website and i will be using what i have learned
learning all the technical stuff know .
look forward to the next tips
thanks for the knowledge .
Hi Eric:
I am making my way through Eric’S Tips. A big HELP to someone just Learning. Somehow I Missed No. 37. If you could resend it to me I would appreciate it. Thanks A lot!!!
Hello Ben,
Here is the direct link to lesson 37:
You may also simply change the number at the end of the link, to go to a different lesson number (example: /lesson1, /lesson2, /lesson3, etc…).
If your email happens to block some of the lessons, we recommend that you view this tip on whitelisting an email address:
Is there a downside to using the Hostgator site builder instead of WordPress? The Hostgator rep suggested their new one called Weebly which has been getting good feedback. This is probably a new alternative since you made your Erik’s Tips. Would I be locked into using Hostgator as my hosting company and later regret using them?
WordPress is a better long-term platform. I would also recommend WordPress over Weebly. No, you would not be locked into using Hostgator. It is possible to move to another host in the future. That’s another reason why WP is better than their site builder. WP can easily be transferred to any host, but their site builder would not.
Eric Thanks for the lesson, study and practice and practice to achieve a broader knowledge of all applications is the solution for me , a question do you know any specific course for the use of word press that you recommend me best wishes your friend Jorge
In addition to my lessons, there is so much free training on WordPress available in the web that you most likely would not need to invest in any WP course unless you need to learn something very specialized or technical in nature.
You can find a lot of helpful stuff on the WordPress site: http://wordpress.org/support/
And if there’s something you want to see demonstrated in a video, just search for it on YouTube and most likely you will find a video demonstrating it.
I have Adobe to open up files,but it does not open all of them.What else do I need to open up the files that Adobe does not and does it cost anything? Thanks From Texas
Hello Bill,
Adobe is used for opening .PDF files. Do you do what kind of files you wish to open? We can help you find the software needed to open that file type!
Eric,
I am looking into a product by Anthony Morrison (Fast Traffic Sniper).
I have been following your Eric’s Tips for a couple months and am making progress. But I need to make some money soon. Fast Traffic ic supposed to choose videos from Youtube , Vimeo and others to place an ad before the video starts. The platform they are using has a $1000.00 deposit as the beginning marketing budget.
Can you help me with making a decicsion?
Hello Ann,
Thanks for pointing out the product. We are unfamiliar with Fast Traffic Sniper.
If Eric feels that it would benefit his readers at this stage, he’ll be sure to do a review.