This will show you how to upload and install a new WP theme that you have downloaded. It also covers how to browse the WordPress.org themes site as well.

NOTE: This guide shows the interface from WP 2.8 but also features an admin navigation plugin called “Ozh’ Drop Down Admin Menus” Find out how to install that right here.

1. Start by Logging in to your WP site.
2. Click on the Appearance tab then select Add New Themes.  (To preview themes already installed click Themes)
3. Now we can choose to browse the WordPress.org site by using Search or selecting layout elements like Black, Left Sidebar etc, then click on the Find Themes button. Or we can click the Featured | Newest | Recently Updated to see those options as well.
4. To upload a theme we have downloaded to our computer already click the Upload link.
5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the sopt of your PC where the ZIP file is located. Press Install Now.
6. Once it has been uploaded, WordPress will ask if you want to Preview | Activate | Return To Theme Viewer.
7. Pressing Preview will show you what your site would look like to visitors.
8. Click Activate if you want the new look to go “Public”.
9. You have a new theme for your site!

Screencast Tutorial – Installing Themes in WordPress

Take the time and follow this guide step-by-step and WordPress will be only 2 clicks away!

First you need to make sure that all the following elements are downloaded and functional. (links open in a new window)

Downloads:

1. Firefox – make sure that first you are using the very latest version of the Browser (3.0.7 19th March 09). Mozilla often release security updates that you should allow.
2. Secure Login Add-on – This Firefox extension makes logging in to websites a simple matter of clicking once.

Click to Enlarge

Security Note: This add-on makes it very easy to login to any sites that Firefox has stored passwords for. This extension is not recommended on a public computer.

If you have a private machine but want an extra degree of security you can designate a master password by going to (on a Mac ) Firefox > Preferences > Security > Use a Master Password. Make sure you remember this!

Once you have updated your browser and have the Secure Login addon installed we need to put our WordPress links on our Firefox toolbar for quick access.

1. Open the email you would have received when you installed WordPress that contains your account login details. it will look something like this:
2. Click on the Admin URL link.  This is the link that contains /wp-admin/.
3. Enter your username and password. Allow Firefox to remember it.
4. Once you are successfully logged in, drag the URL in the top of your browser onto your toolbar (assuming you have space – you may need to create it)
5. You can right-click on the link in the toolbar and choose Properties to customize the name that appears.

Now next time you want to login to your WordPress website, all you need to do is click this new link, then click the Key icon (when it lights up) and voila, you’re in!

WordPress Screencast Tutorial

This short video Screencast will show you how to upload plugins (or anything for that matter) using Cpanel.

Cpanel is a very common admin backend system that comes with most hosting packages.

In this case we want to upload and install the WP-Easy Uploader plugin. This one plugin gives us the ability to upload anythign to our WordPress blog. Plugins, Themes and anything in fact.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-easy-uploader/

This one plugin allows you to upload and install many other plugins and themes from within the WordPress admin interface. Very cool!

Grab the full quicktime downloads of the latest version of WordPress Screencasts. Subscribe to our free newsletter now. (look up!)

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.

Every time you create an article or page it is an opportunity to:

• Create value for your readers and/or customers.
• Reinforce the keywords that target your topic or media.
• Create a stronger presence in the blog and search engines for higher visibility online.

Keep in mind that search engine optimization is just one way that you can attract the right people to your post, page or offer. There are more active ways to bring people to your website but in this article I will cover the basics of SEO within WordPress.

Before we get into the WordPress specific steps there is one thing you must create:

A well presented article or media that provides some real value or entertainment to your visitor.

Its surprising how many articles on the web say close to nothing about the topic you searched for. Even if the post ranks high on the list in Google you’re not likely to return are you?

Sometimes you only get one chance.

THEN you ask for their email and/or sales!

WordPress SEO Basics

1. The Article Title

The article header must be clear, descriptive and contain your main keywords. If possible the title could also evoke curiosity or make an offer to your target audience.

2. The Body Copy

The main content must be informative, concise and with a natural use of your main keyword phrases.

If you upload images or media and want them to be visible on google image search you will need to add the alt tags when you upload them to WordPress. Alt tags come into play for links, images, and media as well.

3. The URL

In WordPress 2.6.2 you can customize the url or the slug of your article page. Initially the url will be created for you in this format: http://www.yourwebsite.com/category/post-slug/

This is just above the Post body copy and HTML editor. You can edit the url and remove all the at,so,the, words as well as making sure that your keywords are there as well.

4. The Title Meta Tag

The title meta-tag is the most important element of your search engine ranking and it must be efficient and contain only your main keywords. This is the title that shows up on the very top of your browser and is different to the article title.

NOTE: This content is entered in the All in One SEO Pack tab below the main post/page edit window. YOu can download this WordPress plugin right here.

The title tag should contain the main keywords with no filler. They should be in order of importance as well. Often I find that hyphens make them more presentable. For example:

WordPress Training – Video Screencast Tutorials – How To Manage Your Media Uploads

You are allowed up to 67 characters for this meta-tag.

Note that here the “How To” section is not obsolete because this is part of a phrase that people use in search very often. Generally you would remove all instances of but,and,the,at, etc etc

Oh and don’t think that adding copies of a word are going to make more of an impression. Also don’t add words that are NOT related to the article or use more keywords than is relevant.

5. The Description Meta Tag.

This is also very important and generally shows up underneath the clickable blue title in the Google search results. If the searched for keywords are not in the description, Google grabs a section of your bopdy copy that contains them.

e.g. A search for “Classy Websites” returns my website at no3 in the results as shown.

This should read like a proper sentence that outlines why this article is worth someones time and energy to read ,listen or watch. It should contain your main keywords and early in the description if possible. For example:

SEO or Search Engine Optimization steps in a WordPress post or page.

You are allowed up to 160 characters for this tag.

6. The Keyword Meta Tag.

This tag is not often used by many of the main search engines but is still worth doing in most cases. Keep them simple on your main words. For example:

WordPress,Training,Tutorials,SEO,Google,Search

HOT TIP: In Firefox you can find these 3 meta tags on any web page by selecting View > Page Source.

You will see something like this:

<title>Effective Classy Websites - WordPress Screencasts & Tutorials - Web Development - Security</title>
<meta name="description" content="Wordpress screencast video training, website design, marketing tools and carefully filtered information that you can use now!" />
<meta name="keywords" content="Wordpress,Training,Tutorials,Classy,Websites,Classy Websites,Themes,Plugins,Web Design" /

This will give you a look at the meta-tags for any web page.

Some additional tips and ideas:

• Use bold to emphasize ideas and if possible your main keywords.
• Add the alt keywords for an image or link that relates directly to the media. Separate the words with dashes. In WordPress you can enter this when you upload the image.
• Use the “more” tag in your articles and place it early in your article. Not only does this make your blog page more reader friendly and scannable, it also minimizes the duplication of content. Google doesn’t like duplicate content. Which means no copying and pasting from other websites!@#

Some important plugins for SEO in WordPress:

• All in One SEO Pack
• SEO Post link
• Google XML Sitemap
• Sitemap Generator – to see an example of this click here.

One of the best ways to create higher search engine rankings is to build incoming links to your site from other well read and high ranking websites such as Digg.com.

But that is a whole new article.

Happy surfing!

If you find this training useful, visit the subscriptions page where you can download all our free video screencasts via iTunes.

There are 4 Chapters in this Quicktime movie. They are:

1. Adding Images
2. Managing Galleries
3. Adding a New Gallery
4. The Next Gen HTML Button

New and revamped in version 2.6 the Dashboard gives you quick access to all your main links and resources.

NOTE : If you are running WP 2.7 this will be outdated.

Why not subscribe to our free newsletter and download all our free training as full quicktime files, with chapters for skipping to the part you need.

Widgets are blocks of content that make up your sidebar or sidebars depending on the Theme you are using. To re-arrange the order of sidebar Widgets click and drag them then press Save.

Adding plugins will add more widgets. Explore more widgets on the WordPress website right here.

If you find this tutorial useful and want to receive more practical web training, sign  up for newsletter updates in the sidebar.

A summary of the steps are as follows:

1. Open Photoshop and choose File > Open.
2. Navigate to the image file you want to optimize and press Open.
3. in the top menu choose Image > Image Size.
4. Make sure the Contrain Proportions button is selected, then change the highest value in the Width or Height dimensions box.
5. Usually 640 pixels is a good high value but you may want to vary this depending on the image and context.
6. Press OK and Photoshop will resize the image.
7. Select File > Save for Web & Devices. This will open a preview window that will show you what the image output will look like.
8. Select an image format. The choices are GIF, JPG, PNG and BMP. Usually JPG is the best choice.
9. Move the Quality slider to find a compromise between quality and size. The preview window will update automatically.
10. Press Save and put the file somewhere ready for upload to WordPress site or image gallery.

This is the optimized image used in the video tutorial.

NOTE: All the links in this article open a new browser window.

Download Applications & Plugins.

Firefox 3 – The most secure and fully featured browser.

Quicktime – An essential internet plugin and player.
Flash – Used everywhere on the net so get the latest.

Download Firefox Add-Ons.

• Google Gears – Allows you to use the Turbo function in WordPress and speeds admin functions.
• Live PageRank – Shows you the page rank for the current URL. This is an SEO tool that shows you how popular a website is. NOTE: PageRank is a meaure of inbound links.
• PDF Download – Gives you control of PDFs on the web.
• Save Complete Webpage – Downloads a whole webpage to your computer correctly.
• Explore more Firefox Add-ons here.

WordPress Admin Details

Find the adminstration links for your WordPress website.

They would have been in an email created when you first installed WordPress or sent to you by your Webmaster. They should look something like this:

Your WordPress Website Account

Public URL: http://yourwebsite.com/
Admin URL: http://yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/
Username: yourname
Password: someobscurestring

Firefox Bookmarks Setup

1. Click the Admin URL shown above, enter your username and password and press Login.
2. Allow Firefox to save the password if you haven’t already. This is only something you should do if this is a private computer. As an added level of security you can also create a master password (Options on Windows or Preferences on a Mac then Security). You will arrive at the WordPress Dashboard.
3. Open the Bookmarks menu by selecting Bookmarks (in the top menu) then Bookmark This Page. Or you can use the key stroke (Command+D for Mac and ALT+D for Windows).
4. Click the top arrow on the right of the Bookmarks window. This will open up the Bookmarks folders.
5. Highlight the Bookmarks Toolbar at the top (by clicking on it once) then create a new folder by clicking on the plus symbol at the bottom left.
6. Name the folder MyWebsite or anything you like.
7. Click Done and this will put the link to our WordPress Dashboard in this new folder that will be accessible from our Firefox toolbar.
8. From the Dashboard, click the Write a New Post button.
9. Bookmark this page to gain quick access as described above.
10. Repeat this with any other pages you want quick access to. For example I like to check out my drafts page often. Manage > Posts > Drafts.
11. In the right hand sidebar find the Shortcuts section. Right-Click on the link that says Press This and select Bookmark This Link. Navigate to the folder we just created and save the Bookmark.
12. Now we should have a folder in our toolbar with our quick links and, with your password saved, your WordPress website is just a click away!

NOTE: Select Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks to move and rename items to make things display the way you prefer.

Hot Tip: You can right click on any link and select Bookmark This Link.