Wordpress, @mor10 & Blogs talk...

Welcome to class #5 in Social Media for Web Dev. I had a request for more guest speakers and I am happy to oblige as today we will have @mor10 joining us for the middle part of class. Morten, who started his own company in 2008, Pink and Yellow, is a bit of a Wordpress wizard. Today he will be telling the class about Wordpress and his business, how he came to be successful and what he does to keep it up.


*Currently watching this video and so stoked to get started.* Pure Awesome by @mor10.

Morten's Wordpress Blog and some posts:

Wordpress 3.0 Essential Training
Simple Yet Powerful Wordpress Hacks

Be sure to ensure your client owns and understands hosting and domain ownership. This should not tie or tether your clients to you in the long run.

Take advantage right now of Google Places! Register your customers here to take advantage.

ExpressionWeb: Windows Only. Use VMWare to run it on Mac. Like Adobe Dreamweaver

Bitnami: The Wordpress+ offline viewer. The self hosted option is free. Like WAMP or MAMP. Download the "NATIVE" app from here. It's WordPress on your computer!

Mashable: Top 10 Wordpress Plugins to promote your Social Profiles
SoloStreamTop 10 Wordpress Plugins for 2010

Blogging is a word that has had it's day. The word originated from it's initial meaning of "web log" which was shortened to "Blog". A blog is a for ideas, opinions and thoughts. Some people blog about their personal life or interests while others use blogging to discuss ideas in their work and bring together insights gathered from others. The name of the game is, provide it. Don't know what it is? Ask your audience. The largest blogging platform isWordpress.com and it is the starter's recommended option. I use Blogger :(for now... because it's what I am used to and it works for my purposes. Advanced users or those with access to capable technology professionals should useWordpress.org. The major differences between Wordpress.com and .orgare listed here by Wordpress>. Ultimately if you have a strong grasp of Wordpress.org you can create entire websites and custom designs.

Blogging is now just a part of a website and most important it's the part of the website that is updated the most and provides the most content for Google, Yahoo! and Bing to index. This is one of the main reasons that a blog is so essential. The blog also trumps Twitter (too short) and Facebook (too social) in that you control the user experience. You decide what the experience will be like: simple and clean like Thomas' Tumblr site or widget filled and full of processing errors like my Blogger site.

A blog compliments your other efforts on social networks and can lead to revenue and writing work for other publishing mediums whether online or print. This is an important way to leverage the content you write on your blog to publish in other places whether you blog for a business or yourself. Your blog also feeds other online efforts by backing up your insights and ideas with more concrete examples with links and references to supporting documentation.

Today I want you to really dig in and explore your own blog. Install Google Analytics, install the Facebook like buttons, install Twitter's @anywhere feature. Try installing all kinds of things to see what changes are made. Be sure to install a Spam filter on your wordpress.org blog. Please spend the rest of the class working on and messing with your blog.

Homework:

1. Setup a 'test' blog: This can be a test blog or your real blog.
2. Write one post with a video embedded in it
3. Write one post with a Creative Commons licensed photo on it with proper references.
4. Look up and understand Hyperlinks if you haven't yet.