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This video training shows you how to create and edit sidebar widgets in your self hosted WordPress website. A summary of which is as follows:

Open 3 Tabs in Firefox

1. Your home page or WordPress front-end.
2. Design > Widgets and
3. Write > Post

Having these 3 tabs open at the same time allows you to switch between them, and refresh the pages you’ve changed. Remember, WordPress is a dynamic system and when you press Save changes are instant, BUT you have to reload the page to see them.

The exception to this is if you have a caching plugin installed that stores html pages on your site for extra speed. If this is the case you will have to turn this function off before trying to refresh a page.

The new post is used as a way to edit or create the code we need to paste into the text (HTML) widget in the second tab. We will not actually be publishing a post. This allows us to edit in a visual environment rather than a code or geek way.

NOTE: If you have more than one sidebar you will need to select the correct one from the Current Widgets selector and press Show.

For information on how to maximize your video sharing efforts click here.

Here is the process summarized:

• Go to the page on YouTube (or other video sharing site) where the video displays.
• look for the EMBED: text and Copy the code (Command+C on a MAC and ALT+C on Windows)
• You can in some cases do some customizing of the player before you copy the code.
• Open a page or post in WordPress and type PASTE CODE where you want the player to appear.
• Switch from the Visual mode to HTML mode in the WordPress Post window.
• Find the PASTE CODE text within the HTML and Paste the Video embed code here. (Command+V on a Mac and ALT+V on Windows.)
• Press Publish or View This Post to see how it looks!

First, a YouTube.com video.

And now a video from www.Revver.com.

And now a Playlist from YouTube.

Subscribe to our free newsletter and download all our free trainings as full Quicktime files with chapters.

The Quicktime chapters are:

1. Intro and Log-in
2. Title, Categories and Pasting from Word docs
3. HTML Editor Buttons and Formatting
4. Uploading and Adding Images
5. Adding an MP3 Download
6. Uploading a PDF for download
7. Tags and Previewing a Post
8. Publishing & Status Sidebar
9. SEO Considerations – (Search Engine Optimization)
10. Advanced Options

Download this Quicktime Screencast now and benefit from the power of detailed video training.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us here. Thank you and hope this empowers you to take charge of this awesome web platform

Getting Started

1. Get clear on what your page or article is about and jot down some keywords and/or body text that gives you an outline. One of the strengths of the article based format is that it encourages small bits of focused information.

2. Prepare any resources you want in your article, such as images and videos. This includes uploading movies to YouTube and optimizing your photos so that the files are small enough to load quickly on your web pages.

3. Log on to your site with your username and password. You should arrive at the WordPress dashboard.

4. If you are editing a page or post, click on MANAGE, then POSTS or PAGES. This page will display a list of the current pages or posts. Click on the title of the article you want to edit.

5. If you want to write a new post or page then go to WRITE, then POST or PAGE.

The Basics

1. The Title - If possible your title should:

• Describe what the article is about,
• contain some of your strong keywords,
• evoke some curiosity in the reader,
• and/or describe a benefit that makes it clear why they should invest their time reading your article..

2. The Body Copy – This is the main story or copy for the article. You can write this in an external editor and then copy and paste it in or you can write it within this very window. If you write your copy in a Word doc you might like to use the Word import button. Click the Show/Hide Kitchen Sink button then the Paste from Word button.

3. Choose a Category – If you’re editing a page this step does not apply, but every article must be assigned a Category. Categories give you and your visitors way to group your articles in terms of their interests. Make them succinct and descriptive.

Categories are the new Pages on the web.

You can break information down into digestible articles by assigning a category and then you can provide ongoing value AND people are more likely to keep coming back, and/or buy your product.

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