WordPress 3.0 Improved Features

Multi Site Support – Now a single code base supports both single blogs and multiple blogs. I first tried out WPMU in 2008 to easily manage my client’s blogs in one spot.

Following Richard’s instructions for WordPress Mu with Domain Mapping, I was able to get it setup in a weekend where I had different domain names connected to the same WPMU install but dishing out different sites for each! I was stoked! I documented my steps in Google Sites along with all the plugins I was using and began setting up “business blogs” for clients. Over time, WPMU fell behind in development where new features were months behind the single WordPress version.  I broke my clients out of WPMU into individual blogs.  One of the big benefits of WPMU for multiple domains is I only had the update WordPress and the plugins in one place.  When WordPress introduced automatic mass plugin updates in 2.9, it made WordPress site management so much easier!  Now, you can enjoy the 7 years of WordPress development on one blog or on 4,000 as they roll out!

Update: Andrea_r points out in the comments that multiple domains can now be controlled by a plugin.  w00t!

Improved Taxonomies and Post Types - A taxonomy is a way of organizing content. Posts in the past have been text but now can mean an image, a video and more! Categories and tags are for posts but imagine you wanted attended conferences and made videos at each one. You could create a custom post type for “video” and then a taxonomy called “location” and it would be easy for your visitors to find videos created at SXSW, BlogHer or the Web 2.0 Expo without making them look through non video posts. Justin Tadlock wrote a great piece last year on understanding WordPress taxonomies. I’ve been using his taxonomy “series” plugin for a while on one of my sites to list out content.

Menu Management – Tired of using 3 plugins to create custom menus? Find your WordPress website customers are frustrated they cannot change the navigation? Say hello to built in menus which will allow you to list posts, categories, pages and more any way you like! I use Exclude Pages From Navigation, My Page Order and another one I can’t think of right now to control the primary navigation of a WordPress website. At Zendesk, they’re already using 3.0 because we have a “menus” option in the dashboard.

Loose Change

• If you design for WordPress, there are a TON of new functions available including child theme calls to help you make your sites even more awesome (How much more awesome can WordPress get?)
• Want to have the login box show up on the lower left hand corner of your site? No problem! You can easily call the login form and place it anywhere you like.
• Find yourself adding an account in WordPress as a place holder for later integration or assignment? You can now create a user with no role or permissions.

There are a ton more of great improvements and features which you can read about over on the WordPress Codex (aka WordPress Documentation).

Looking to setup WordPress.org and leave WordPress.com?

I’m back from presenting at Wordcamp NYC, Wordcamp Atlanta and Wordcamp Boston now and I will be holding another round of the popular 4 week, live WordPress training at Freshworkshops which starts February 2nd.

If you attended one of these Wordcamps, you get 50% off!

WordPress For Busy People

You will learn how to setup your very own WordPress blog or website from start to finish.  We’ll cover everything from picking a great domain name to how content affects your SEO and Google search rankings.

WordPress Training Agenda

• Register a domain name
• Sign up for website hosting
• Download website editing tools
• Install WordPress
• Configure WordPress
• Manage your cPanel account
• Add power blogger plugins
• Keeping your WordPress blog safe
• SEO and content strategy
• Monetizing your blog

Getting Started With WordPress

We’ll also cover the essentials of running your WordPress site:

• Full tour of the WordPress dashboard
• Creating your first post
• Creating your first page
• How to add themes to your WordPress Install
• How to add plugins to your WordPress Install
• Widgets and Sidebars
• 5 Essential plugins to turn WordPress into a Website (CMS)
• What to look for when buying a WordPress theme
• Discussion of WordPress Security, Backups, Ecommerce, Upgrades

Hands-on WordPress Training

And of course, the “roll up your sleeves and get dirty” parts:

• Download and Install WordPress
• Download website development tools for WordPress
• FTP upload of WordPress with Filezilla
• Creating a database for WordPress

As always, there will be plenty of time during each session for questions and answers

Testimonials

Here are recent stories from people just like you who took the “Build Your Own WordPress Website” workshop:

“While I have worked with a few WordPress installs already, this workshop gave me the opportunity to ask questions and get instant feedback. Adria does a great job of answering questions and showing what is possible.”

Bill, Meet Me Where I Am

“She is “techie” to the max. She knows her stuff, but she speaks English and has a certain amount of respect for those she is speaking to. Many techies do not. They overwhelm their audience with tech lingo and do not communicate. Not Adria, she is good at making technical concepts understandable and organizing the material. Do I recommend Adria’s workshops to anyone who is wanting to learn more about technology? Absolutely! I didn’t have a clue about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or CMS (Content Management Systems) but now I feel quite confident about these subjects.”

Janine, Omsah

“This DIY Series was info-packed and detail orientated. Spreading it out over a few weeks helped to not suffer information overload. I
enjoyed hearing other people’s questions too, as they brought up questions I had not thought of at the time.  I encourage anyone wanting to create their own website to save time and frustration and take this workshop.”

Jacque, JacqueBona.com

Something Special

This time, I’ve added in a few treats:

• Recording of each 2 hour session
• WordPress 101 Guide How To Setup WordPress
• Over 50 links to resources, blogs and tutorials to get you started with WordPress
• 1 Month of Unlimited Access to Adria Richards

This way you’ll have information afterwards that you can refer to PLUS know that I will be available if you have questions.

Registration

Missed Something?

As always, you can retake any training at Freshworkshops anytime in the next 3 years to get a refresher.

Current Clients Get Free Training

If you are a current client of mine via IT technology services, website development or Personal Technology Training, you are eligible to take this training for free. All you have to do is send me an email to get added to the training of your choice.

Questions?

You can read more about Freshworkshops over on the site. My goal is to empower people through technology and online training is an excellent way to deliver real-time, hands-on training on topics like WordPress blogging, social media, website development and SEO strategies. I’ve been training adults on technology topics in a classroom environment since 2007. I’ve been in IT for 11 years now so much of that time has involved showing people how to use something after they broke it!

If you have questions, feel free to contact me via email, phone 612-246-4568, Skype or Twitter @adriarichards.

References are available.

See you next week!

4 WordPress Workshops 50% off, For You!

Training Coupon

Use coupon code: wcnyc09 by Friday December 11th, 2009 for 50% off for all Wordcamp NYC attendees!

Workshop Details

These foundation workshops will show you how to master WordPress.

I’ve been teaching these all summer and just added, “WordPress 101 Training”, due to requests from new people starting to learn WordPress as they build websites and blogs for their businesses.

• Build Your Own WordPress Website: The DIY Series
• Captivate Your Readers With Beautiful High Quality Photos
• Google Analytics Demystified: Understand Your Website Traffic!
• WordPress 101 Training – Adding Links, Images and Videos

(You must be listed as an attendee on this page or your order will be cancelled)

Sign up to learn:

• WordPress and build an amazing website
• Google Analytics to make money with your blog
• How to start a Geeky business and hit the ground running

There are also a great bunch of free trainings coming up including

• Install Joomla From Scratch
• 10 Essential Things About Starting A Blog
• What The Heck Is Twitter?

photo credit: Premier Packaging

There’s a whole slew of trainings for WordPress, Joomla, Google Apps and more over at Freshworkshops this month so head over and check them out!  I’m proud to announce this will be our first month in full swing.  Back to school for bloggers and website folks too!

Free Workshop: Installing Joomla! from Scratch

We will install Joomla locally on our machines using XAMPP, a tool that allows you to run a stand alone web server on your computer for testing purposes. No hosting account needed!
September 4, 2009 – 4:00 pm

Free Webinar: 10 Essential Things About Starting a Blog – FULL

Everyone is hopping online these day and talking about blogs, social networking, and cloud computing for business…But where to start?  Save 40% until noon Thursday!

September 8, 2009 – 1:30 pm

Build Your Own WordPress Website: The DIY Series

Do you want to build a website but don’t know where to start? No need to learn difficult programming languages!  This hands-on workshop has a limited class size of 12 so you are guaranteed to get help.
September 8, 2009 – 6:00 pm

How To Setup Google Apps Domain Email

Setup professional domain email with Google Apps yourself! Learn how to register a domain name, register with Google Apps and get your domain email up and running
September 10, 2009 – 1:30 pm

Learning Microsoft Office Word 2003

Do you need to learn the basics of Microsoft Word? We will cover creating, editing, saving and printing documents. We will review the menu bar and basic document formatting.
September 16, 2009 – 2:30 pm

Captivate Your Readers With Beautiful High Quality Photos

Have you ever wondered where bloggers get those amazing photos from?  Learn how to include beautiful, high quality photos in your blog posts to captivate your readers.

September 17, 2009 – 1:30 pm

Google Analytics Demystified: Understand Your Website Traffic!

Do you have Google Analytics installed but have no idea how to read the reports? I’ll take you through the process and show you real, live, visitor traffic from websites and how to make this data work for you!
September 25, 2009 – 1:30 pm

I’m also doing a special webinar at the end of the month, What Every Geek Needs To Start A Company for those of out there technically minded who need an outline of what it takes to start a business.

Have you started thinking about launching your own company? Want to be in charge your day? Learn the essential ingredients to launch yourself into entrepreneur geek success!
September 24, 2009 – 7:00 pm