Archive for Word Press
Finally an hour or so to Learn more about iThemes Builder
Posted by: | CommentsIt has been awhile, I had hoped to get some of the initial learning done in the SandBox and then move on to starting to create the actual site where I will have the small business guides available.
The main thing to know is you can build you own website with WordPress and by using themes, plugins and widgets you can make you site look and act exactly how you want it to look and act. You do not need a webmaster to do this. As I experiment in the Sandbox, I am learning the Theme and starting to have some idea of what the Small Business Guide site will look like. At the moment it is really primitive – I have not done much with the actual site yet.
Are You Paying for Yellow Pages Advertising? Why??
Posted by: | CommentsIn the “old” days (actually 4-5 years ago) every business both small and large had at least one Yellow Page ad in their local phone directory. The reason of course was this was how people could find your and or your business.
The reality is the way people find your business has changed dramatically and is continuing to change. People just are not using the local Yellow Pages, instead they are using their computers and Google to locate and learn about local businesses. What that means is it has become far more important to have a web site than it is to have a Yellow Pages listing in the phone book.
Perhaps the most dramatic change is people are using their cell phones to find businesses. The number of people that have and use cell phones is growing every day and more importantly the number of people that have “smart” cell phones increases daily. The “smart” cell phones have internet access. The way people are finding local businesses is with their mobile phone. These phones not only can find local businesses they can give you a map that will take you directly to the business or they can call your business directly.
What this change means to business owners is you not only need to have a web site about your business, you also need to have the website optimized so that your information will be readable on mobile phones.
Web sites are something else that is changing. The “traditional” web site used to be done by a Web Master. It used to be that to make any change such as a price change, or put something on sale, or even changing the wording or a photo meant you had to contact your webmaster, explain what you want to change, review the changes and have them make the changes. The web master bills you for their time. This often is very slow and cumbersome and so the end result is that your traditional business web site is totally static. The information is probably out of date. It just takes too long to make simple changes.
A far better way to deal with your business website is to do it yourself. If you are doing your own website you can make any changes yourself and have them up and available instantly. Can you do your own web site? Probably not if you are using traditional websites and website software. That is why you are using a webmaster – the traditional web site requires knowing how to use some very complicated software. The reality is you actually can do your own website. The way to do this is with WordPress, a theme, some plugins and widgets and spending some time to learn how to do this. This site is a Word Press site.
There are some other guides here on how to do this and there will be more. The point of this article is to take a look at your Yellow Page advertising. Is this serving you at all? Perhaps it is time to evaluate your Yellow page ads.
It is also time to take a close look at your internet presence. Google your business type and town or city, do you show up on Google, what information is showing up. The next step is to see if your mobile phone can find your business. Are you showing up on mobile programs such as Google Places, Yelp, Around Me or Where?
The thing to be aware of is when people leave their house they always take three things with them. Their keys, their purse or billfold and their mobile phone. More than half of the mobile phones are smart phones and this number is increasing every day. More and more people are using their mobile phones to locate businesses or services and so business owners need to know if their business is visible on these devices.
Verizon just announced that the iPhone will be available for Verizon customers. This means there will be a lot more iPhones out there. Android and Blackberry and a lot more “smart” phones are also being sold by the hundreds. The number of people using these devices is increasing at a major rate and the people using the phone book to find your business is decreasing.
A lot of us when traveling used to stop at a payphone and look up businesses in the phone book at the payphone. When was the last time you even saw a pay phone?? How about a pay phone that actually had a phone directory? Another was to stop at a business and ask to see their Phone book – when was the last time anyone came into your business and asked to see your Yellow Pages? When you stay at a hotel or motel do you look at the local Yellow Pages?
Those with smart phones simply do not do that anymore at all. How many people actually have a road map when they travel?? I just got back from a drive across several states. I forgot to bring an important part for my laptop and so needed to get a replacement. All I did was go to “Around Me” on my iPhone – enter “computer store” and I had several choices nearby. Click on “take me there” and I get a map. I knew what exit to get off the interstate and where exactly the store was and how to get there.
I use my phone to find everything – restaurants, hotels, fuel, stores when traveling. Lots of other people are doing the same thing and that number is growing everyday.
I will be doing a number of guides on some of these advances and how to use them. Also while I am not a webmaster and have no desire at all to become one, I can help you set up a Word Press site, and get you started to where you can do your own web site. I can also help you set up and optimize the mobile sites so that your business will be visible to smart phone users.
New Word Press Install and adding a premium theme – Builder
Posted by: | CommentsHere is how to install Word Press – and a new premium theme in this case I will be covering iThemes Builder.
First of all WordPress can be installed directly to an empty domain or it can be installed as a sub directory of a domain. It does not matter if the domain is empty or not it just has to be active.
If you are new to WP it is best to install to a sub directory so you have a place to learn, experiment and play. You can always do a new install to where you actually want the site to be later.
How you name things is important for example one of my sites is yardgardenwindmills.com — That is the domain and for a very long time I actually had nothing there. Just a blank but active domain.
My Word Press blog in fact the 2nd Word Press blog I did when I knew very little about this is at yardgardenwindmills.com/blog – my WP blog is there and that is where I tell people to go. You will see this one in my emails and on my Google Profile. It is my main blog where I talk about windmills and weathervanes, after all that is what I do is sell windmills and weathervanes.
So you want to name the sub directory with something that is easy to type and remember when you install WP – also something that the Search Engines can easily find and index.
One of my new WP installs is on my domain ronaldheadley.com – there is nothing at ronaldheadley.com at all, however if you go to ronaldheadley.com/oxford you will be at a community site I did in WP and if you go to ronaldheadley.com/sandbox you will be at my site I just set up as a place to play with and demo WP
You can have as many WP sites as you want as add ons to a domain. You pay only the $10 a year to renew the domain. You could have hundreds of sites if you want on the one domain at $10 a year. (I am talking about Blue Host here – where I host all of my domains and sites – your hosting very well may be different)
So when you are first starting out, pick an active domain and decide what you want to call the add on file. Make is simple and something that is easy to remember.
Next go to your hosts control panel. Hopefully your host has CPanel – your host is where you have your domain name and present web sites. If you have no clue what I am talking about then you will need to see some ones instructions on how to get a domain name and choose a hosting service. I use and recommend highly Blue Host. Other people may recommend others. See my resource page on why I recommend Blue Host and there is a link that will take you there Geezer n Geek Resources
If you need to get hosting and or a domain name I can walk you through that. Plus I will be doing an intro to Blue Host as one the Guides here.
Note the address of the link – the address is the very top window of your browser – it is where on the internet you went to get to a site, or location on a site. In this case you will see geezerngeek.com that is my domain and in this case a full installation of Word Press is there. Next you will see /category/resources – what this means is on the Word Press install I have a category named resources. Categories are blog posts. I also have sub categories. The theme here is iThemes Flex by the way.
Now to step ONE Install Word Press- go to you hosting sites CPanel it looks like this on Blue Host
Go down to the bottom of your CPanel – you have a Word Press logo then installing WP will be amazingly easy. If not there are other ways to install WP – email me if you are not seeing this -
Click on the Word Press Link that says Install a brand new version
Next choose what WP version – actually leave this alone – you want to most resent version of WP that is Stable and that will be the default.
Choose your domain – the domains on this site will be in the drop down – if you want your WP install on the domain itself just choose it. If you want it as an extension (or add on) put that in the blank box – caution here if you already have a site on your domain and you install WP directly it will over ride you existing site. (over ride as in it can wipe out or damage your existing site. If the domain is just a blank – there is nothing there and this is where you want your new site then just go ahead.)
It is best if this is your first time with Word Press to put it in as an add on so add something to the extension IE blog or test or whatever. When you do it this way even if there is already something on the domain it will not damage it. And even if it is blank – nothing there if will give you a place to learn and experiment before you put up your actual site.
AND THIS IS IMPORTANT – Click on advanced Click the box – name your site – you can change this later – use something that is SEO friendly when on a real site. For now you could call it something like my first blog, or my test site whatever.
The really important step is the next box that has username and password. Once you enter a user name you cannot change it. DO NOT CHECK the box – IT WILL GENERATE A RANDOM ADMINISTRATOR USERNAME WHICH YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE!!!!
It is important to use something other than admin as a user name. admin is the WP default and so if you use it a potential hacker is halfway into your site. use something else such as yournameadmin remember Caps matter here.
Choose a password – you can change your password later.
Check again and make certain that you DID NOT check the check box – that creates a random user name and password.
Below is a check box to create a new data base – Make sure this is checked – you can create a data base later but it is not easy and you most certainly need one or WP will not even open.
Step 3 check the legal Information box and click on Complete
That is it – you are done – WordPress will be installed on your site and will be ready to go. The installer will tell you when it is done. There may be an activate button when it is done, or not whatever it will be obvious.
Open a new browser tab – go to you where you just put Word Press – yoursite.com/your new WP location and you will see your brand new site it will look like this.
There is something called meta and a link on the right that says site admin – open this in a new tab and you will see the WP login in screen. Or open a new tab and enter yoursitename.com/yourWPlocaton/wp-login.php
Something to learn, memorize, write down is wp-login.php – you add this to any WP site to get to your dashboard. You may not have the Meta and login on you site on the Home page once you install a theme.
Now if you forgot you new user name and or password to get to your new site – just go to the email address you have set up to get emails from your host site. Simple Scripts – the thing that just installed WP will have sent you an email – the subject is WordPress Access Information and it will have your new Word Press site location, your user name and your password
After you login you will be taken you to your WP Dashboard – this is where everything is done in WP
A good practice when working with WP is have one tab on your site and one tab on your dashboard. To see any changes you have made just click on the site and refresh it. To make more changes click on the dashboard tab.
BTW you can close your CPanel Window now – you will not need to use CPanel any more for the rest of the install and work with the themes. Now that you have a working WordPress Install and can log into your WP Dashboard all is well and so you can leave your CPanel.
WP will have a choice to view you site when ever you save anything – it is really faster and easier to just have the site on a tab – click on the tab and refresh to see your changes.
This ends installing Word Press – it is really easy and your can do it. Here at Geezer n Geek we say “You can do this we can help”
If installing WordPress seems to be a challenge, or intimidating, or you just do not want to do it or you are really uncomfortable with CPanel (I was terrified of CPanel for several years. I found a great training course on CPanel and now I am perfectly OK there.) Remember if you need or want help with installing Word Press – I can set up a webinar in a way that I can “watch over your shoulder” as you install WP and I will be able to see what you are doing and simply walk you through it.
A couple of people have asked do I teach WordPress and what is WordPress
Posted by: | CommentsAs I develop the Small Business Guides I will be able to help and teach you the basics – how to add posts – how to add pages – how to manage your site and your theme. I can help you get a domain name, get a hosting site, set up WordPress on your site for you and set up your theme for you.
If you have no clue what WordPress is or how to use it or if you have some experience with WordPress and REALLY want to learn how to work with WordPress – I highly recommend Christina Hills – She does a couple of classes on WordPress a year. Clicking on her name will get you to where you can sign up for her list so that you can be notified when she does her next class. I highly recommend her Word Press Creation Workshop!!! – I keep going back and reviewing what I learned there.
Builder – Page Layout and Style
Posted by: | CommentsThis is what the Builder and Astro Style looked like “out of the box”
What Builder lets me do is design a layout and to create a style- I can make every page the same or I can make every page different or any combination.
A really important note – this is all done in menus – I am not messing with the code – I am not a programmer – what I like to see in Premium Word Press themes is the ability to change things and never have to look at or mess with the code.
What I have done is designed a page – I put in an image – put areas on the left and right of the image that I can add things, I added a navigation bar, put in a place for content – added a right side bar – a widget area below and a footer.
Next I played with the style creator and changed some of the colors and so now this is what I have
So here we go – I am “playing” in my Sandbox
Posted by: | Commentsthe very first thing to know about DIY web sites is you need a place to put your site. This is called Web Hosting. I use Blue Host and on the Resource page is a link to Blue Host.
You also need to have a domain name. In this case I am using a domain name in my name. If you go to ronaldheadley.com you will not find anything – I do not have a site there. I do have some information on the Geezer n Geek site about domain names. For now all you need to know is a domain name is an address that the internet can find. You can get domain names from Blue Host – you have to renew your domain names every year and a good practice is to set up you domains so that they automatically renew. Blue host charges $10 for a new domain name and the renewal is $10 a year.
If your domain name is costing more than $10-$12 a year or less you are getting ripped off!!! There are lots of places that will charge you a lot more. Do not use these places.
So in the case of the Sandbox it is an add on to my domain ronaldheadley.com – I pay $10 a year for the domain. I have two add ons at the moment to that domain. ronaldheadley.com/oxford is a community site and the new one ronaldheadley.com/sandbox are addons, they are separate site, Blue Host does not charge extra for doing this and I pay only for the one domain.
The same thing is true for geezerngeek.com the Small business guides are an add on at geezerngeek.com which is this site and geezerngeek.com/sbg is the add on that I am working on.
Remember if you are following this just go to where I am working and be sure to refresh your screen to see the changes. Right now as I learn Builder I will be working in the Sandbox so bring it up and hit the refresh and you will if I am making any progress.
What I have done so far is put Word Press on my domain, uploaded the Builder Theme and a Child theme to make it look like it does.
Next I will be using Builder to set up some pages and layouts.
Small Business Guides
Posted by: | CommentsA few months ago I started with the Geezer n Geek site with the idea that there a lot of people out there that just do not know much about how to use their computer – while the site is really a TARL (Take Action Revise Later) site there is at least some material there – the tabs work to take you to various places. The Resource Page and the computer and internet tips tabs work – the menu tabs below the header (the thing that changes colors) work and there is some information there.
The idea of putting together some small business guides is a place where I will be sharing a lot of things, information, how to do things, places to go to learn things.
There a lot of things about the internet and about how to sell your products or services on line that as a small business person you probably do not know. I will be first putting the site together and then adding various guides to help you be visible on the internet.
My main focus is doing things yourself. In this modern age using a web master just does not work. If your web site is managed by a webmaster you are not in a position to make changes your self. You have to contact your web master, explain what you want changed, they make the changes, you approve or not the changes, you suggest more changes, and on and on – you webmaster charges you for the changes, even changing a word or a price or adding a sale or new product. This just plain is totally inefficient.
I am not a webmaster – I actually attempted to learn to use Front Page and Dream Weaver and found they are far beyond what I can do. I actually do have a site run be a webmaster. The content is stale, needs changed and updated and because I cannot do it myself just does not get done.
I learned how to put up a Word Press blog and since I have been learning a whole lot about working with Word Press. This is a Word Press blog site. I can do everything myself, that means if I want to change, add to, modify my site I can do it and it only takes a few minutes.
The small business guides on the new site are all about doing things yourself. I will not be teaching you much on how to use Word Press – I will recommend a couple of places for you to learn. What I will be doing are guides to doing things on the internet related to your small business.
You can put up your own site, or add to your present site, you are in control so if you want to add or modify a product or service you can do that.
The small business guides will consist of things that can help you move your business so that you are visible on line.
One of the main things to think about is being visible on mobile site. No one uses the Yellow Pages for anything other than door stops these days. They use their mobile device to find local businesses and to get local business information.
If you are not visible to mobile phone users they will not find you. Part of what I will be doing is helping local businesses become visible on mobile devices.
This entire site for example is optimized to be seen on your mobile device – if you come here from your computer it will have one look, if you come here from your phone it will have another look -
As we move into this new era we all need to focus on being visible from mobile devices. I will be helping you learn how to do that.
Need help? Have things you want to learn? Email me or comment here.
One of things I will be doing is webinars – where I go over how to do things. I also will be doing some one on one webinars. Let me know what you need and want to learn.
Something to know about the “new” internet actually called Web 2.0 is when you see something in a different color click on it – these are links that take you to other pages or sites – the “different color” a few word back take you to my “Sandbox” where I am learning and playing with various site building tools.
Using Word Press – Here is a site with some really great free tips
Posted by: | CommentsThis site has some really great tips on how to better use Word Press. The tips are free, are short instructional videos and are very easy to understand and use.
Word Press Training – Create you own website
Posted by: | CommentsWordPress is simple a great tool that you can use to create a blog site or a website or a product site. I had tried for years to do web sites with things like Dreamweaver and Front Page but just could not figure out how to use the software. I found that Word Press – which is a free blogging tool is really great. You can do some really amazing things.
I just finished a course done by Christina Hills on how to work with Word Press. This was a really great on line class. Lots of training and information and hands on help. I really recommend this class if you want to learn how to really use Word Press. Christina will be doing another Word Press Creation workshop in the fall. Click on the graphic for more information
What does the new Geezer n Geek site have to do with windmills and weathervanes?
Posted by: | CommentsI have been working on a new site Geezer n Geek It is pretty “rough” right now – however I do want to invite you to “take a look” as I put the site together.
What does this new site have to do with windmills and weather vanes? I get phone calls quite often from people who want a windmill or weathervane but do not know how to buy things on line or use their computer. I also get people coming into the store and also emailing me that they just do not know much about how to use their computer or how to connect and use things like their digital camera, video camera, iPod or other music playing device, iPhone and other smart phones and so on.
I have been asking my windmill customers if they would like to learn how to use their computer better, I have been asking people who come into the store the same thing – I keep hearing some of the same things. “computer illiterate” is something I hear a lot. So I am putting the Geezer n Geek site together to offer a place to learn about computers and some of the “new” technology.
I also get emails and have people asking me how to do things like get on Facebook, or put their photos in an email or on Facebook.
It just seems that a number of people are really struggling when it comes to computers, the Internet, application software, electronic gadgets and on and on. So I am putting together several things that will help people become a lot more comfortable with the technology and electronic gadgets and do that in a way that is in plain English rather than “tech or geek” speak.
As you watch me put the site together you will see I am really just learning how to do this type of site. Even though I have a couple of sales sites and a couple of blog sites already I am learning and experiment with this site. I will be posting more on this site as I make it work. I will be recommending a number of tools, classes, instruction that I find useful in learning.
Geezer n Geek will have a number of tips, ideas, tutorials, simple instructions and live webinars to help people learn to use their computers and or learn how to do more with their computers.
It appears that a lot of people my age (baby boomer) and older have gotten computers and can do some basic web searches, send email and maybe have gotten on Facebook but just do not know much about how to actually use their computer.
What Geezer n Geek is about is a place where people can learn to use their computer, and how to do things with their computer like bring digital photos from their phone or camera on to their computer.
There will be a number of free tips and tutorials and there will also be some courses and webinars designed to help people get much more comfortable with technology. You can overcome being “computer literate” and we can help.
Watch as I build up the site. There will be places where you can sign up to receive simple computer tips and tutorials and if you sign up you will be not only kept in the loop you will be able to tell me what you would like to learn to do with your computer. A lot of the upcoming classes will be based on what you want to learn how to do, or what is giving you problems with using and understanding your computer.
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