Introduction

Blogging has been booming for years, and it shows no sign of slowing down. It is an easy and organized way to deliver news, tutorials, and podcasts; it’s even an easy way to share personal thoughts and stories. It was the social network before other social networks existed. Like blogging, WordPress has grown over the years to a mature platform that is accessible to everyone, including you. Starting your own blog can be a fun and rewarding experience, but getting there might take a little work. Navigating your way through installation, profile accounts, themes, and plug-ins will be easier after you complete the lessons in this book. You will have all the knowledge you need to start your own blog right away.

About This Book

As part of the Sams Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes guides, this book shows you all the caveats of setting up a blog with WordPress either as a hosted blog or on your personal website. All the topics are separated into easy-to-handle lessons that you can complete in 10 minutes or less. The lessons cover the following tasks and topics:

• Creating a blog at WordPress.com or installing your blog on another server

• Configuring and customizing your blog

• Writing blog posts and pages

• Mapping your way around the WordPress Dashboard

• Adding media to your posts

• Installing themes and plug-ins

• Customizing widgets

• Drawing attention to your blog

• Making your WordPress blog search engine-friendly

• Blogging on the go

Who This Book Is For

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes is for individuals who want to create and operate a personal weblog or website for an organization using WordPress. WordPress is one of the most popular blogging systems, but uninitiated users might need help getting started with it. There are a lot of options and choices to be made within the software. Do you want to host a personal blog or a blog for a business? Maybe you want to show off your photography, or maybe you want to use WordPress to start a podcasting site. WordPress can do all these things, and it includes something for everyone. The advice in this book can make your foray into blogging with WordPress more satisfying.

Each lesson focuses on a particular subject such as installation or managing comments. You can skip around from lesson to lesson or follow through the entire book from beginning to end.

What You Need to Use This Book

To use this book, you first need a can-do attitude and the curiosity to learn something new. You probably already have the tools you need to start using WordPress: an Internet connection, a computer, and a web browser. If you have those, you are ready to go.

You might also need a credit card or some other payment type to purchase your own domain, and you might need to subscribe to hosting services if you want to host your own WordPress site. You can learn more about these things in Lesson 8, “Setting Up Hosting.”

Conventions Used in This Book

Whenever you need to watch for something in particular or are directed to click on something, those items will appear as bolded text, such as “Click on the orange Download button.” There are also some special sidebars that call out Tips, Notes, and Cautions.

Screen Captures

The screen captures in this book were taken using the Firefox web browser. If you use a different web browser, your screens might look slightly different.

Also keep in mind that the WordPress developers are constantly at work, and new releases and updates are frequently available. Often new features are added or pages are slightly redesigned. These updates mean that the screen captures in this book might differ a little from what you see when using WordPress. Just remember: Don’t panic. Even though things change regularly over time, the basic principles and functionality are the same.