Book: WordPress- The Fast and Easy Way to Learn

Bought 5/19; Started 6/10/19; Finished 6/13.

Ray’s Notes:

P11 You can schedule posts for future release. This allows you to write enough ahead so you can go on vacation (or whatever).
P 11 Posts calendar – may not be useful
P 11 Links to other sites: always try to like to fellow (aging) bloggers
P 11 Keep notes on what your customers are interested in
P 14 Can try to snag website name when expires
P 19 WordPress admin page: wp-admin
P 26 Look & feel links: to different memes
P 27 Reader menu: Blogs I follow
P 27 Freshly pressed = noteworthy blogs from WordPress
P 27 Recommended blogs by topic
P 27 look at trophy links under profile; shows the ‘trophy case’ of WordPress achievements
P 28-9 General settings: set to AK time zone
P 31 When you make comments on other people’s WordPress blog it will link to your blog if you set it in personal settings
P 32 I should create a public profile
P 42 FTP program: http://filezilla-project.org
P 62 Want theme to have a menu system
P 62 Want SEO done in a plug-in, not in a theme
P 62 Different themes have different ways to admin the site
P 62 Theme frameworks with parent and child themes, where parent does the work and child sets format
P 63 Want responsive theme (format for device)
P 72-3 WordPress hides boxes on admin screens to decrease clutter. Click screen options to see the and make them show
P 74 You can post by email (writing settings: my blogs)
P 76 Discussion settings (in admin menu) for comments control
P 78 Passwords can be required to read posts
P 80 Do not change any permalinks settings because it will break outside links to your site
P 80 You can create a directory structure
P 81 You can not add plug-ins to a WordPress.com site
P 84 Every time you save a draft WordPress keeps a copy of original
P 84 All posts must have a category
P 85 You can request feedback on a post before publishing (under writing helper).
P 85 Shares & likes: to show them or not to show them
P 85 Putting tags on your blog
P 85 Assigning thumbnail to a blog post
P 85 Turn on excerpt to write a summary for the post. Used in some themes or in RSS feeds
P 85 Send trackbacks (lets you notify non-WordPress blogs when your post has linked to them)
P 93 Do not use text color because it interferes with theme and if you change themes you have to find and fix every one
P 95 Linking to own site: a shortcut WordPress provides
P 98 Put read-more in text collapses text until click

P 100-1 Can set page to have “parent” page
P 101 You can choose a sub-theme if allowed
P 102 WordPress.com saves 25 revisions of your blog
P 110 One image/page minimum. Try to include faces. Pets are good too.
P 111 Use infographics. See sumopaint.com or use PowerPoint, etc. to create
P 111 Clear text is good. Break it up: headers, bullets, paragraphs, 1 sentence minimum, subheadings, etc.
P 112 Take the time to resize and fix up images
P 113 Make images 1,000 pixels
P 113 Save for web function to save web pictures
P 113 Use .jpg for photos, .png or .gif for graphics and MP4 for movies.
P 115 Change uploaded image names so descriptive
P 116-7 Editing images (also p 120-1)
P 125 Add featured image
P 134 Audio is often overlooked. Upload as MP3.
P 138 Categories are the table of contents for a blog, and tags are the index terms. Categories can have sub-categories and are hierarchical, tags are not
P 147 You should use both tags & categories: better SEO will result
P 147 Creating descriptions of categories and tags not too important
P 148-9 Convert categories to tags and vice versa.
P 152 Quick edit allows you to add categories and tags to current posts
P 158 Use widgets to convert blog to social media
P 159 Widgets are determined by your theme
P 159 You can restrict which pages show widgets
P 160 To access widgets, click appearance: customize
P 168 Website needs to have clear and complete navigations
P 169 Default menu
P 169 Custom menu widget
P 170 Every element of your content can be potential menu item
P 172 Creating a menu
P 194-5 Mobile friendly; make adaptive content (under appearance: mobile options)
P 196 Links to learn more about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
P 206-29 Plug-ins. Don’t seem to be available on WordPress.com unless pay for higher grade site
P 224 Jetpack has post-by-email, publicize, related posts, site verification, video press & others I might like.
P 226 WordPress admin plug-ins
P 234 Sharing on WordPress.com & sites using jetpack
P 235 I like their “it is only fair to share”
P 238-9 Add feeds from social media
P 240-1 Publicize posts on social media
P 242 Email server & mailing lists
P 243 Offer free stuff when people join email list
P 243 Email people at least once a month
P 244 Email subscriptions: enable on jetpack (instructions)
P 246 Add a mailing list manager
P 248 Allowing comments
P 249 Look into 3rd party comments
P 256 Akismet highly effective for spam
P 258 Displaying testimonials
P 262 Create a front page & blog separate
P 263 Can put blog category on the menu
P 266 Edit content for search engines
P 266 Write enough content. 300 words minimum
P 266-7 Keyword needs to be in title & 1st sentence
P 267 link to websites that are pertinent to your page
P 267 Break up longer content with headings
P 267 put useful alt tags on images
P 268 SEO. Use Yoast?
P 272 Using site stats to improve website.
P 273 What search terms are being used to find page
P 273 Are visitors fulfilling goals? Things to increase visits
P 274 Followers = subscriber on WordPress.com
P 274 Subscribers can be shown content public can not access
P 275 You can invite people to be users
P 278 One backup a week best idea
P 279 Do a backup before doing update of either WordPress or plugin
P 280 WordPress.com continually backs up
P 284 WordPress.com handles software updates. WordPress.org does not.
P 290 Check for broken links
P 290 Google webmaster tools does link checking
P 293 Use SSL. Google may give ranking credit to SSL.
P 294 Force strong passwords
P 295 Limit log-in attempts
P 296-7 Troubleshooting tips
P 297 Web says “Page not found”: chck at http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com
P 297 Schedule posts
P 298 WordPress.org  support  forums: good place to check for optimum organization
P 299 WordPress.com check out learn.wordpress.com
P 301 Should have support on WordPress.com