7

How To Use WordPress

How-to-use-WordPress

Like every other post I make, this one is being written based on my own experience. Like everything else, Wealthy Affiliate training thought me how to use WordPress.

A few years ago I heard about WordPress and had opened an account, but I never gave myself a chance to figure it out. Now I know that it is the best tool for managing blogs and websites. And it is so simple when you have great teachers around.

It is a tool that we use for making websites and building an online business within the Wealthy Affiliate platform.

 

How-to-use-WordPress

 

 

Let’s see what’s inside of this great feature


Dashboard – a back office 
Once you log into your account, you will open the door of your back office. From here you will manage everything from the technical to the creative side of your website/blog.

WordPress-dashboard

 

Themes 
There are over 2000 different WP themes in a store, which present a layout of your blog. You can always switch from one to another until you find the one that fits your needs. Each time I start with a new website I change the theme until I find some that perfectly fits my idea. For me, it is imperative that I love it! Of course, there are many options for each of them.

 

How-to-use-WordPress-themes

 

Plugins
They are small code programs that improve the functionality of your website. They can help you both in the technical part of your work and the artistic side of your soul 🙂  Some of them are required (those are pre-installed by the Wealthy Affiliate team), and some of them are there just if you want them to improve your work.

HTML
Even though there is a bunch of plugins to be used for free, it’s not recommended to have hundreds of plugins installed. That’s why HTML is a computer language that is an awesome tool to be used within WordPress. It’s very simple although it looks scary at the first sight.

Media system
Besides typing text, a WP supports images and videos, and audio which makes it beautiful and open for creation.

Users
A manager of the site is by default an admin, but you can add other users as well:

  • Subscriber – an audience
  • Contributor
  • Author
  • Editor
  • Administrator – a partner

By now I’ve learned how and when to assign these two roles (Subscriber and Administrator) to other people visiting my sites. As you know, I am still learning, and I believe I will make an update on this topic very soon 🙂

Pages and Posts
Pages are the basic structure of the site. You can find them within the site’s menus.
Posts are an update of the blog from day today.
I use them like this:
For example, the content that you are reading now named ”WordPress” is written as a page. I consider it as an announcement for future posts related to it (“Using HTML in WP,” “What is the WP dashboard” etc.) which appears on my landing (main/home) page when you open my site. Some people call that BLOG.

Comments
One more excellent feature which allows interaction between the site’s creator and an audience

WA-comments

 

As you can see, WordPress is a great tool for building an online business. Some people use it just for fun, for sharing some ideas, life experiences.

Whatever you use it for, it’s very straightforward and easy to navigate. Especially if you host your site here at the Wealthy Affiliate which you can do for free both as a starter member (2 free websites) and a premium member (up to 50 on your domain, and 20 on siterubix.com domain).

The best of all is that Kyle and Carson (co-founders and owners of the WA) do all the hard work related to hosting and site protection.

Your job is just to follow their guidance and build your success.

 

Now go ahead and check my review page and find out what is Wealthy Affiliate and why it’s good to join it today!

 

Best-Online-Home-Business-logoI will be more than happy to hear what you think and to read about your online experience. Should you have any questions or concerns or you need my assistance please let me know in the comment section below.

Don’t forget to come back to get my reply to your comment! 

 

4

What Is The WordPress Dashboard

WordPress

WordPressThe WordPress dashboard is your back office. You manage everything from here. Your content, site’s appearance, layout, plugins.

Everything related to your site:

 

  1. The technical part of a dashboard
  2. Creating content with tools provided within the WP dashboard
  3. Making your site beautiful – done from this excellent back office

 

 Log in page


To use your dashboard, you have to log into your WordPress blog. You can do that from the WordPress site (as shown in the image) or if you are a Wealthy Affiliate member,  just click on the login button

 

WordPress-Login-for-the-Wealthy-Affiliate-members

 

 

 

Welcome to WordPress Dashboard!


WordPress-Dashboard

 

Once you log in you will find everything you need for your website development.

I would like to emphasize that this article shows the simplest way of using the WordPress dashboard. I am going to show you the features I use after my WordPress site is up, installed, and ready to use.

Why?

Simply because as the Wealthy Affiliate member, I don’t have to worry about the technical part which involves the website protection, managing the All in One SEO, and coding. The wealthy Affiliate support team does this for me.

My job is to write and make my content attractive and useful for my audience.

 

Creating content with tools provided within the WP dashboard


WordPress is super easy to use. Let’s say your website is installed and up. On the left vertical frame of the WordPress dashboard, you will find different buttons. I will elaborate on each of those in later articles. For now, let’s see what are they.

Dashboard


It is the home button with shortcuts to the WordPress features. See the photo

Welcome-to-WordPress

All In One SEO


With General settings, performance, XML sitemap, feature manager, and an upgrade option. I wouldn’t worry about any of these just yet.

 

Content


Posts – This is where you will manage all your website’s posts, add new ones, create categories, and add tags.

Media – Photo, video, and audio files

Pages – Managing the website’s pages

Comments – It is essential to have constant interaction with your audience. Allowing comments on your posts helps your website trust, SEO, and ranking. Eery content written on your website counts, including the comments. You can allow comments only on your posts, not pages.

 

Appearance


Themes – WordPress has thousands of pre-installed themes you can choose from for your website. They are divided into categories. Once you find the one you like it is very easy to activate it.

Customize – This is a great option that allows you to manage your website from the viewer’s perspective. The changes you make are visible to you as you make them.

Widgets – There are tens of widgets you can add to your website. They are usually placed in the Header, Sidebar, or Footer part of your WordPress blog.

 

WordPress-widgets

 

Menus – Here you classify your articles into menus. It is essential to provide a neat frame menu on your website adding posts in a way it’s easy to navigate.

Theme editor  – I wouldn’t go for this one. It’s risky for your website’s health especially if you are a newbie.

WordPress-Theme-editor

 

Plugins


Plugins are tools you add to your website for better performance, SEO, appearance.
The most common ones are social media share icons, translator, different side effects, decorations, font styles
You can always use your plugin editor to install new free plugins or upgrade them to the paid ones.

Users


Your blog can be managed by one or more people.
Here you will manage their usernames, photos, contacts.

 

Tools


WordPress-ToolsYou will import, export, back up your website from here. Also, check if there are any site health issues to be fixed. I found some recommendations on what is to be done, but since I am a Wealthy Affiliate member, I referred these to the WA support team. One more reason why I love that company!!!

 

 

Settings


Besides managing your website’s information and general settings, in this section you can change and edit your writing and reading preferences, this includes your audiences and their information as well.

 

WordPress-General-Settings

 

As you can see, the WordPress website builder is a great and very easy-to-use tool for your online business. I hope that now is clearer what is the WordPress dashboard and what you will be using it for. I will keep posting about the WordPress tools and benefits you have as a Wealthy Affiliate member. So please, stay tuned!

 

Best-Online-Home-Business-logoI will be more than happy to hear what you think and to read about your online experience. Should you have any questions or concerns or you need my assistance please let me know in the comment section below.

Don’t forget to come back to get my reply to your comment!