I just finished teaching a five week non-credit WordPress class at Colorado Mountain College. Here is the reading and resource list I used during the class.
WordPress Resources
A great place to start is the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress and a living repository for WordPress information and documentation. Of special interest there is the Introduction to WordPress Terminology to help you learn the lingo. Additional Resources:
- WPBbeginner
- Simple WP Guide.com
- 25 Most Common WordPress Mistakes to Avoid
- The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For WordPress Sites
- A Blogroll: http://www.netvibes.com/trentblizzard
- Bookmarked WordPress Posts
Plugins
- WordPress hosts free plugins and is the best place to start.
- Codecanyon is a plugin marketplace.
- Akismet is a must have and typically already installed by default. Make sure you activate it to eliminate comment spam.
- WordPress SEO Plugin manages all of your SEO needs.
- Jetpack contains dozens of miscellaneous tools. Popular!
- Google Analytics installs Google Analytics code.
- AuthorHReview Review products or services on your website, Allow visitors to add reviews to your website, and add testimonials to your website.
- Revolution Slider creates slideshows.
- Wufoo is my favorite form builder. You get 3 free and they have a
- WordPress Plugin that makes it easy to add their super-powerful forms into your website. Consider also Contact Form 7.
- Snapshot offers site backups.
- Regenerate Images – Use this if you change your image size settings in the settings>media menu.
- ManageWP for handling multiple installs.
- Font Awesome Icons Redirection is for setting up redirected URLs (301s) for content that has changed addresses or disappeared. Very handy and very easy.
Theme Resources
- Themeforest is gallery of premium themes.
- ElegantThemes
- StudioPress
- WooThemes
- An article comparing theme companies
Miscellaneous
- How to put a Favicon in WordPress and the Favicon Creation Tool
- Gravatar (you must create a WordPress account to do this… follow their instructions)
- Netvibes is the RSS reader I used to share some good blogs.
- Feebly is my preferred RSS reader.
- LastPass and DataVault are password managers.
- Add Author Tags to your Website. Use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
Backup and safety
- BackWPup – free plugin
- Snapshot offers site backups
- How to Restore from a Backup
- FTP and Database Backup
Redirection helps you manage 301 redirections. MaxCDN or CloudFlare to speed up your website.
Barbara Clarke
I just finished Trent’s WordPress class, and I walked away with tools I can use. Next class will be about branding, and there’s a Google Analytics class after that. He’s a very good teacher, very approachable and certainly he knows his stuff. Learning from Trent Blizzard is time and money well-spent.