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WordPress is a great way to learn about the web. You need very little experience… drive and enthusiasm will put you over the top! Andrew Caldwell -self-proclaimed Leader of the Free World – tells you just how it feels, to go from web zero to web hero, in about a weekend!
I’ve Just Wasted $53 on Hosting and a Domain, s***, What Now? HELP!?
-By Andrew Caldwell
If you’ve ever thought about a website or a blog, you want to sell a product online, tell the world what kind of car you drive, that you can play a death metal polyrhythm on the drums or are trying to setup a business, WordPress is definitely for you!
WordPress? A blog? A website? Possible, but daunting. It’s always been something I’d been interested in, earlier in the year armed with a credit card, I purchased a domain and some hosting, and had a go at a ‘website tonight/go daddy’ style web builder. Let’s say the results far from knocked me off my seat… So that was that, if I wanted a hot looking website with all the functionality of other cool sites I’d seen online, I was going to have to ‘obtain’ a copy of a web design program and learn how to drive that, or better still, pay someone a lot of dollars to design one for me, oh joy.
The second and more recent attempt at a website was far more successful, I’d set a date in my calendar that I decided I was going to be ‘sick’ from work, and my first ‘paid’ day as a web designer begun! Again armed with said trusty credit card, I purchased a domain, got a ‘bonus’ first month free of hosting and I was away…
I’d heard about WordPress a little bit but didn’t have a clue. My knowledge of HTML was that it was ‘some sort’ of programming and Java was the annoying thing that often stopped me being able to watch movies online. So it’s safe to say I was a web designing retard.
So after purchasing the domain and hosting and having a massive panic attack, I wrote a flurry of ‘Help me, what the eff do I do now!!!’ emails to my web host, Dave from Website In A Weekend, Ali from Aliventures and Jonathan from Illuminated Mind. Thankfully these people where in a different timezone to me so after I’d calmed down and consulted Google, the planets all aligned and I figured out what was going on. Once the day was over and I had a website, I received the replies from my panic attack email respondents and I was slightly embarrassed, although they were all very helpful!
People often ask me stuff, I don’t know why, I’m not smarter, I just type more things into Google! So a few ‘how to’ questions in a search and (not so shameless plug) looking around on Website In A Weekend and I had scratched together what looked like a website.
I already had some blog posts saved up in a word document, so that wasn’t an issue, but as you’re crawling around the internet, like I did, I had the following questions ticking over;
- How do I get one of those green ‘share this’ buttons at the end of my posts…
- How do I show my number of subscribers? (I left this counter up for two weeks until Ali suggested it probably wasn’t that impressive that it read ‘13’ subscribers!)
- How do I even get subscribers in the first place!?
- I don’t know what that orange RSS button is all about, but I want one!
- Steve Pavlina has a donate button, why can’t I?
- Some peoples ads look really good, suit there site and are actually decent products, I want them on my site too?
- All the probloggers out there recommend a contact page, well I’m snookered then, because I know bugger all about coding?!
I was relieved to find out (and am still always amazed) that WordPress has a massive community of developers. These people pride themselves on handy plugins and application for WordPress websites. I am also blown away that WordPress themes are FREE to use for your site!
I was under the impression that editing anything on my site would involve messing around with template files, too many of these “<>/wrong” and a whole lot of foreign symbols.
Again, back to google or the wordpress.org forums and a sigh of relief! I was pleased to know I wasn’t the only person who’d ever asked for a green ‘share this’ button at the bottom of my posts, and better still, someone had gone to the trouble of making a wordpress plug-in to fit the bill!
Anything you want to appear on your site is pretty much a search engine, download and a few clicks away! WordPress revolves around installing plugins onto your webhost server, then within your wordpress dashboard you activate the plug-in, then you’re away. Instead of putting together screenshots, and a lengthy instructional list, like everything else wordpress related, someone online has already had the same issues you are having! And more often than not Dave has written something about it! (Installing Plug-ins -> here).
I could go on for days about how ridiculous it is that WordPress is FREE! I’ve learnt a hell of a lot since getting involved with it three months ago, next time you’re checking out a website and you’re impressed with the layout, scroll down to the bottom and you’ll more than likely find ‘Powered by WordPress’.
Andrew Caldwell – Self proclaimed leader of the free world, recently embarked on a quarter life crisis and has resigned from the employed working world. Recently started leadersofthefreeworld.org, giving you an insight into the mind of the free, cynical, entrepreneurial and passionate.
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{ 18 comments }
Yup. Google seems to know the answer to everything I have ever needed to do with Wordpress.
Sean´s last blog ..The continuing saga of Block 5
Nice story and very encouraging, specially for those who have not yet started their journey. And so it seems that apart from your friends that helped you in solving some of your problems, Google is again there to the rescue or should I say the whole community of developers that feed the search giant with valuable information..
DiTesco´s last blog ..Forget Making Money Online – It Sucks #1
Not until recently did I really start using Google as well as Bing to look up even the silliest things, I use to really only use it for business.
Extreme John´s last blog ..5 Ways Blogging Can Kill You
Dave,
What a clever way of providing advice to new bloggers without
the appearance of a tutorial!
You give a lot of good advice in your article… what I took away is
that I should go around asking more questions… your call for
“Help” brought me here and I ended getting the help!
Thank you,
Fran
Fran Civile´s last blog ..Another 60’s hit: White Satin Nights – The Moody Blues
Sorry Andrew… I thought I was following Dave and instead I
have the pleasure of meeting you!
My comment still stands…
Fran
Fran Civile´s last blog ..Another 60’s hit: White Satin Nights – The Moody Blues
@Sean – A big hunk of the material I write about here is culled from Google. (A fair bit of it’s from banging my head too.)
@DiTesco – We’ve got another ambitious newbie out there (you know who you are), expect to see more of these articles.
@Extreme – It’s truly amazing what Google has in it’s index!
@ Fran – Nice to meet you! I’ve been working very hard on a next edition of Blog Posting… it’s very detailed, picky work and I’m really sweating it over the fill-in forms. Expect news on that front soon.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..A Trip Around The World – Another Week in Review
Wordpress is a life saver – I actually use it for designing my client’s websites and people actually thank me for making changing and adding things to their site so damn simple.
Josh Kohlbach´s last blog ..The Difference Between Shared IP and Dedicated IP Hosting
If you use WordPress, welcome to blogging paradise.
Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Atahualpa 3.4.4 Configuration Part 2
@Josh – In spite of how easy it is… I spend even more time because the of leverage I get on productivity!
@Dana – WordPress is going to be essential internet technology. Like Google, Twitter, etc. Bank on it.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..A Trip Around The World – Another Week in Review
Hello folks,
Thanks for reading, and I’m glad we all agree that wordpress is BRILLIANT! Wait until you discover the joy of a paid theme… Some of them are amazing.
A quick thanks to Dave for letting me guest post and to everyone for reading.
@Fran – My girlfriend has been playing Roy on the stereo all morning!
Andrew´s last blog ..Why You Don’t Need to Go to School to Be Successful
@Andrew – Looking to reading more of your adventures, hopefully again here in the future.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..A Trip Around The World – Another Week in Review
Andrew, I’ll say this: you have the patience of a saint. I understand the IDEA behind code, but it’s like….I ftp into my blog and start sweating. All these folders, no pictures, no instructions. I’m a visual person, so I sit there and go, “I want to move this THERE and that HERE. Wtf? How do I simply do these things?”
Of course, Googling “I want to move this THERE and that HERE in Wordpress” does nothing for me. At all. Except drive me to drink.
Susan´s last blog ..SEO and PPC: Bert and Ernie or Skywalker and Vader?
@ Susan – Atleast it gives you a reason to drink!
I find the wordpress forums are gold for information. And with all the .php files that are full of code & rubbish, i just make a copy, figure there’s nothing I can’t break that can’t be pasted over in notepad.
Andrew´s last blog ..Why You Don’t Need to Go to School to Be Successful
@Susan – Everything you need to know about file systems is in the picture here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_(data_structure) Once you grok that, there’s no more mystery.
@Andrew – Yep, you pretty much have it. There’s more you need to know, but later for that.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..A Trip Around The World – Another Week in Review
Great to hear about your experiences with Wordpress, Andrew – and glad it wasn’t $53 down the drain! I think there’s always a steep learning curve, but it’s definitely worth the ride. Like you, I’m amazed how many free themes and plugins are around, and while I occasionally like the chance to dig into some CSS and HTML files, it’s nice just being able to dabble with that!
Ali Hale´s last blog ..Why You’ll Never Be Finished (And How to Figure Out When You’ve Done Enough)
This was an amusing post, and as someone said, a clever way to write a tutorial within a personal experience. I definitely agree with you that WordPress has a lot of functionality and is pretty easy to work with once you’ve spent a few hours messing with it. I recently went through a similar process as you and even dared to edit some of the themes I was using. When something broke, I just re-uploaded the original file that I had edited and it was all back to normal again. I ended up using the Thesis theme, which I see is what you’re using too. It’s pretty customizable but I find that it’s hard to get it to look more impressive like something from Elegant Themes. And to Susan’s comment, I think she might just be using an FTP client that is not so user friendly. Sometimes, the right software can really bring you a better understanding of what you’re doing. I recommend CuteFTP, I think there’s a free version of that. Looking forward to more posts from you. -Mike
[Mike - I just sent you an email at your yahoo address and it bounced. I was going to ask about changing your byline... but I just went ahead and changed it in hopes of getting your attention here.]
Sorry my email bounced, not sure why that happened… It’s ok if you want to change my byline – it’s your blog after all
@Mike – Got your email, good to go.
Dr Wordpress!´s last blog ..WordPress Case Study: Bad Deacon Design launches Woodblock 101
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