Create a WordPress Website & Blog In 15 Minutes Or Less

The 15 Minute Website Design - Introduction

Review the class tour video

Review the class tour and sketch out some of your goals for your website.
- Who is the audience you are targeting?
- What is your goal in taking this class?

Website Hosting & Domain Registration

Website Hosting Setup
Hosting Setup

Start-to-finish guide for setting up your website hosting plan.

Begin by visiting InMotion Hosting

Select "Launch Plan"

Select 12 or 24 Month Plan
- Register your domain with InMotion (new or existing
- Complete Contact Information & Billing Information
- Complete Registration
Custom Email Address Setup
To Create Your Custom Email Address, Follow These Steps:

1.) Log into your Account Management Panel (AMP)

2.) Access Control Panel

Click "Work in Your Control Panel"

3.) Log in to your cPanel

4.) Click "Email Accounts" in cPanel

5.) Complete User Information For Email Account

Select the username, password, and mailbox storage size.

6.) Log in to your email account

Access your email account by visiting your web URL (domain.com) and adding "/webmail"

Example: www.yourdomain.com/webmail

A small box will pop up asking for login information.

Your username is the full email you created.

Once logged in, select between 3 options for mail access: Horde, Roundcube, and Squirrelmail.

They all work - just choose the one you like the look/feel of the best.

That's it!

Website Installation

Complete WordPress Installation
Overview

We will be setting up a WordPress framework for your website using cPanel’s 1-Click Installation Process. Easy.

WordPress Defined

WordPress is one of the most popular frameworks to create websites with, although it originally started out as a platform for bloggers. Since it’s growth, you can now use WordPress (WP for short) to create fully customized websites for many uses, including corporate, eCommerce, blogs, portfolios, and much more!

Let’s Get Started…

Step 1: cPanel WordPress Installation
Click on the “WordPress” icon shown below from your cPanel.

“If you are using another web host, your cPanel may have different options, including: Softaculous, Fantastico, and SimpleScripts”

Step 2: Fill Out Site Information

Fill out the following information on the WordPress installation screen

Leave as-is: Choose Protocol, Choose Domain, In Directory, Database Name, Table Prefix

You can edit Site Name/Description once installed. Admin Username/Password will be emailed to the email you enter above

Click “Install”
WordPress Login
Log in to your newly created WordPress website

Website Setup A-Z

Adding Pages
Create a few pages on your new website.

Steps

1.) Click "Pages" in the dashboard

2.) Click "Add New"

3.) Add your title, content, and images to the new page.

4.) Uncheck "Comments" box on the bottom of the page

5.) Click "Publish"

Repeat for each page
Create & Add Main Menu

To create your custom main menu, follow these steps:
1. Go to "Dashboard"
2. Click "Appearance"
3. Click "Menu"
4. Create new menu
5. Add items to menu
6. Click "Save Menu"
7. Select new menu under "Theme locations" to use as main menu
Create Contact Page & Form
Add the contact us page to your website, including adding it to your main menu and adding the contact us form with the shortcode after you've installed the plugin:

Steps
1. Install "Contact Form" Plugin
2. Click "Settings"
3. Copy the 'shortcode' -
  [bestwebsoft_contact_form]
4. Paste the shortcode on your contact page
5. Click "Update"
6. Review Contact Form
Format Hompage
Format your homepage to show a custom page instead of the most recent blog posts.

Steps
1. Create new page "Homepage"
2. Click "Update" to publish page
3. Click "Settings" in the dashboard
4. Click "Reading"
5. Select "A static page" for "Front page displays"
6. Select homepage you just created
7. Click "Save changes"
Add Photo Gallery
Create a photo gallery in several easy steps

Steps
1. Add new page
2. Title page "Photo Gallery"
3. Click "Add Media"
4. Click "Create gallery"
5. Upload photos to gallery
6. Click "Create a new gallery"
7. Add captions to gallery images and set column number
8. Click "Insert Gallery"
9. Click "Update"
10. Review your gallery
Add Blog & Categories
Create your first blog article and add categories to your main menu

Categories
- Create one or more categories
  Click "Posts"
  Click "Categories"
  Click "Add New"
  Create new category
- Add to main menu
  Click "Appearance"
  Click "Menu"
  Add your category items to the main menu
  Click "Save Menu"
Blog
- Create new post
- Set featured image
- Select categories
Sidebar Widgets
Add custom sidebar widgets to your website

Steps
1. Click "Appearance"
2. Click "Widgets"
3. Select or remove sidebar widgets from "Main sidebar"

Bonus Section

Watch Bonus Videos
All of the bonus videos are optional and not required to complete the class - but I highly suggest you watch them all!

Additional Resources

Web Hosting Setup

Click Here to visit our preferred website host, InMotion Hosting
1-Click WordPress Installation PDF
Contact Form Info

To download directly, click below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-plugin/installation/

Contact Page Shortcode

[bestwebsoft_contact_form]
WP Google Maps

The easiest to use map plugin! Create custom maps with high quality markers containing locations, categories, descriptions, images and links.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-google-maps/
WooDojo

WooDojo is a powerful collection of WooThemes features to enhance your website.

http://woothemes.com/woodojo/
WooSidebars

Replace widget areas in your theme for specific pages, archives and other sections of WordPress.

http://woothemes.com/woosidebars/
All In One Favicon

Easily add a Favicon to your site and the WordPress admin pages. Complete with upload functionality. Supports all three Favicon types (ico,png,gif).

http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-favicon/
WordPress Shortcodes

An amazing free set of great elements for your site: SEO-ready tabs, sections, buttons, links to any content, author cards, lists, layouts and more!

http://wordpress.org/plugins/shortcodes-ultimate/
Easy Columns

Easy Columns provides the shortcodes to create a grid system or magazine style columns for laying out your pages just the way you need them. Using shortcodes for 1/4, 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 3/4, 1/5, 2/5, and 3/5 columns, you can insert at least thirty unique variations of columns on any page and even in posts! Quickly add columns to your pages from the editor with an easy to use "pick n' click" interface!

http://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-columns/
jQuery Lightbox For Native Galleries

Makes the native WordPress galleries use a lightbox script called ColorBox to display the fullsize images.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/jquery-lightbox-for-native-galleries/
Responsive WordPress Slider - Soliloquy Lite

http://wordpress.org/plugins/soliloquy-lite/screenshots/
Google Analytics

Enables Google Analytics on all pages.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/googleanalytics/
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP

This plugin will display Google Analytics data and statistics into Admin Dashboard.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-dashboard/
Akismet

Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. It keeps your site protected from spam even while you sleep. To get started: 1) Click the "Activate" link to the left of this description, 2) Sign up for an Akismet API key, and 3) Go to your Akismet configuration page, and save your API key.
Simple Share Buttons Adder

A simple plugin that enables you to add share buttons to all of your posts and/or pages.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-share-buttons-adder/
Quick Cache

Dramatically improves the performance & speed of your site! Also compatible with WordPress® Multisite/Networking.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/quick-cache/
Custom WordPress Themes

Check out ThemeForest for the best WordPress themes out there!

www.themeforest.net

Nate Ruben

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