SO…

I decided to get back to basics and do more of a fundamental training on WordPress for everyone who isn’t ready to ‘Dive Into Genesis‘! (although after the Splash class you’ll be ready to Dive In! Ok… just realized the splash and Dive kind of go hand in hand… TOTALLY didn’t mean to do that, was just looking for a fun summer name! )

Join me this Friday for a ‘Splash into Summer with WordPress’ webinar!

Just sign up below to get the webinar details! Look forward to seeing you there. And feel free to email me questions BEFOREHAND – although I do have an outline, I want to make sure you get a value packed session! The webinar will be recorded and the replay available, but only if you register!

After a fantastic first round of this course, I knew it was something I had to continue doing and wanted to do frequently! I really had a ball with this group. They were really fun, totally involved and sent me GREAT questions! It’s SO helpful to find out where people are stuck, what WordPress basics people need help with and what you’re doing with your business.

After going through the first round of classes (none of the webinars were only an hour long- think we went at least an hour and a half with each one? And the bonus webinar was almost two hours! )- I’ve got a better idea with which specifics of Genesis (and each child theme) people want more time or focus on.

This round will be a little different…

You’ll get a sneak peek during the webinar at what we’ll be focusing on this time. Obviously, the Genesis Framework…but we’re going to use the latest and newest child themes for this class. I’ve also got a super exciting BONUS webinar- just like last time (last time we focused on shortcodes- but don’t worry, you didn’t miss that! Members gain access to ALL previous trainings too).

But I’ll announce that on the webinar this week.

C’mon… I can’t give away all the goodies in the post, right?

Besides setting up and customizing the new child themes (Midnight and Tapestry for starters… I think there’s another one on the way out SOON!), we’ll cover the different Genesis plugins and how to integrate video into your StudioPress Genesis site!

Here’s a super quick video showing you how to use the Genesis Simple Edits plugin. This is just one tiny tip that is included in the training.

NOTE: WEBINAR SIGN UP IS BELOW THE VIDEO

Pretty fun, huh? I think so….but I know, I’m a bit of a geek.

I’ve got two webinars this Thursday, May 12th. One at 10:00am and one at 5:00pm (both PST),

Look forward to ‘seeing’ you then!

Sign Up Below!

There are a couple of ways you can approach this solution- depending on what it is you want to accomplish overall. If you have multiple categories that you want to have show on only one page, then the easiest solution is to use the custom menu feature that was built into WordPress 3.0. There are also a couple of options within Genesis ( remember- Genesis is a theme framework, so if you’re using one of the StudioPress ‘classic’ themes, this won’t apply) .

The first video is going to show you how to utilize the custom menu feature built in WordPress (this applies to ANY theme, not just StudioPress).

The second video shows you how to utilize the blog page template in Genesis, how to exclude categories from the blog page template and how to combine custom menus with Genesis.

Video 1- Custom Menus in WordPress

Video 2- Genesis Category Menu options

I was working on a site for a local non-profit that I am wrapping up and was setting up new Users for some of the people on their staff when I decided to try the BM Custom Login plugin. I also used another plugin that allows me to dictate what each user can see when they log into the dashboard (hardly need them getting into Genesis, tools, settings, appearance, plugins, etc.), but more on that in another post.

When I went to set this up (it really is super easy)- the steps on the plugin site weren’t super clear, so when I sorted it I thought it would be a great plugin to create a post and video about.
Here’s the video- let me know if you have any other questions!

Oh, and just to give you a heads up- I’m a little chatty at the beginning of this. Sorry about that- out of practice I guess.

I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook ‘like’ box on many sites now. Facebook has changed to the ‘like’ box from the fan box. I wish I could give you a lovely, detailed explanation as to the why for this…but…sorry (any social media experts out there? Feel free to add a comment if you know ‘why’ ). What I do know is that I definitely knew I needed and wanted to add this to my WordPress sidebar!

There are two ways to add the ‘like’ box to your sidebar. I’ll show you both options in the video, but keep in mind that it’s better to run with less plugins- so any time you can do something on your site without a plugin- use that option instead. However, many people prefer using plugins- so  I thought it would make more sense to show you both options. And feel free to ‘like’ my page while you’re here!

OK..no more more grovelling….back to the post. There are plenty of different ways to incorporate Facebook into your WordPress site. One thing you need to be aware of though is doubling up on things. Meaning- if you are already pulling your tweets into your Facebook account and have also installed a Twitter plugin for WordPress that automatically sends your posts as tweets…that’s all you need. Which is why I don’t have another Facebook plugin which pulls my posts into Facebook- I just let them get there via twitter. Makes sense? (kind of seems like a mouthful, huh?)

The next thing will be on adding the Facebook share button to my posts. I still haven’t gotten around to adding a few social media buttons to my posts via code and getting rid of the sexy bookmarks plugin…but I will. It’s a BEAUTIFUL plugin- and I have to admit I feel guilty for deleting it because I know the developer, but as Google has now decided that site load time will be taken into consideration when ranking sites…I need to do everything I can!

Ok..enough said. Enjoy the video and feel free to retweet or share your comments. It’s ALWAYS appreciated!

Before showing you the video- here are some of the great new functions that are coming with WordPress 3.0! (Screenshots and videos will be on the way soon). You can also check out the complete list of version 3.0 on the official WordPress site here.

• Custom Menu’s (I know, kind of obvious considering the video I’ve mentioned)
• The dashboard is getting a clean new look…looks like it will be easier to focus on YOUR content
• Bulk upgrade of plugins! WOO HOO! No more needing to upgrade individual plugins one at a time
• The ‘Install Themes’ tab has been moved to the top of the themes page (will make more sense when you see it)
• New default theme- it’s called Twenty Ten…so long Kubrick! You can easily upload custom headers AND custom backgrounds
• Advanced Menu’s – this relates to the dashboard. Not your theme menus
• Network all your WordPress sites- from ONE dashboard
• Security Updates: upon installation you’ll get prompted to change your ‘admin’ username. Security keys will also be generated which improves security.

So…there’s a sneak peek into what’s coming. As far as when to upgrade to WordPress 3.0, I’d probably wait a couple of weeks until after it’s officially launched. There’s some big changes coming with this release, so you might want to wait until you’ve seen some videos on 3.0 or install it on a practice site and get a feel for it. And so I don’t forget- StudioPress is of course testing everything with 3.0, so Genesis will be fully compatible with the new version.

Here’s the great video by Nathan Rice on the custom menu’s!

This may seem SUPER basic to many of you- but one thing I’ve started to realize is that there are SO many different skill levels with WordPress and it’s easy to get caught up assuming that most people probably already know what I know. My goal has always been to help the EVERYDAY user with WordPress….hopefully that’s what I’m doing.

Here’s the video….hope it helps!

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Here’s the link to SEO Blogger by WordTracker.

Anyways, the video will explain everything you need to know about installing this microaudio player plugin for your WordPress site. You’ll also see how I’ve created the thumbnail image and am using headspace….all in one little tutorial. I’d love some feedback in the way of comments….hope this helps!

Here’s the link to download the plugin directly:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/microaudio/

Here’s the link to the audio added using the audio player plugin:
Test Audio

[pro-player width='500' height='400' type='video' image='http://thewordpresschick.com/wp-content/uploads/WPchickVideoImage.jpg']http://wordpresschick.s3.amazonaws.com/MicroAudioPlayerTutorial.mp4[/pro-player]

Keep in mind the difference with adding the icons and linking them to your profile as opposed to utilizing a plugin is that this will just allow people to follow you/friend you/connect with you on whichever social media site you’ve listed.  This will NOT make your post or page shareable. If you want to make it shareable- then you’ll need to install a plugin that utilizes a script to do that. If that’s what you want to do, both of the above mentioned social media plugins allow you to select ONLY the sites you want to show (ex: just twitter, facebook, linked in, youtube, etc.).
Hope it makes sense…

And as always, leave a comment if this helps or you have more questions.

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