WordPress Tutorials for WordPress 3.0 – Mark McLaren Recommends WP101

Results are in from my survey regarding what free easy WordPress tutorials you would like to see next on Business Blogging 101, and they are strongly in favor of an Introduction to WordPress 3.0.

While I’m working on a WordPress 3.0 tutorial, I want to bring to your attention another really outstanding resource for WordPress Tutorials: the “WordPress 101” site created and maintained by Shawn Hesketh.

I just signed up for WordPress 101 myself to see what’s covered. I was familiar with these tutorials already. Now they have been updated to cover WordPress version 3.0. And you can “Pay What You Wish”, meaning you pay what you feel is appropriate / what you can afford.

Shawn’s video tutorial style is exemplary. Unlike some other WordPress video tutorial makers I know 🙂 , Shawn does not shoot from the hip. His presentations are polished and precise. Think about the time and care taken to make these tutorials – and how much you will gain by following them – when you decide on an amount you want to pay. (Not to mention the fact that Shawn donates half to charity!) Paying a few dollars does not get much easier – and more win-win-win – than this!

So check out WordPress 101 Tutorials, and let me – and Shawn, of course – know what you think! After you have done that, I’m sure you’ll have some ideas about other things you would like to know about WordPress 3.0 – and Free, Easy WordPress Tutorials on Business Blogging 101 will be happy to deliver.

Free Easy WordPress Tutorials: Vote For a WordPress Tutorial Topic

Free WordPress Tutorials: Business Blogging 101 is getting more visitors than ever. WordPress 3.0 is out and flourishing (because it ROCKS). The new default WordPress theme, Twenty Ten, is more WordPressy AWESOMENESS. There has even been a recent resolution to an ongoing disagreement about the General Public License and Thesis WordPress theme.

With all this going on, I feel a need to create some more easy WordPress Tutorials that will add to the growing list and help more people discover and learn to use WordPress.

Use the Poll above to vote or nominate your own WordPress tutorial topic. I haven’t tried this kind of WordPress/Polldaddy poll  before, but I’ll add your suggestions if several people list the same one or something similar.

Feel free to include your own ideas for WordPress tutorials in more detail using the comment form.

UPDATE: Votes for the next easy WordPress Tutorial topic are already coming in. Thanks, everyone!
I need more votes, so tell a friend!

I’m using a PollDaddy poll, which is really easy to do on WordPress.com. There’s also a PollDaddy plugin you can use to create polls and surveys on a self-hosted WordPress site. My poll has an option for “Other” so you can write in your own topic if none of my suggestions sounds good. Here’s how the poll results look when you view them in the WordPress Dashboard. Pretty darn cool!

Dashboard view of WordPress PollDaddy Poll on McBuzz.WordPress.com

Seattle WordPress Event: Business Websites, WordPress 3.0 and SEO for WordPress

On Tuesday, May 11 in Bellevue (Seattle), Washington, you can hear me (Mark McLaren) and two other WordPress experts talk about 1) WordPress for Business Websites, 2) the latest version of WordPress (3.0), and 3) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for WordPress. It’s an evening event at Bellevue College, with plenty of time for Q & A and networking.

Anyone who wants to learn WordPress, or learn more about WordPress – definitely check it out!

I will be doing the WordPress Search Engine Optimization presentation. You’ll get all you need to take your WordPress website from the basic default level of search optimization to a truly optimized level using the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin for WordPress. The SEO techniques I’ll talk about work on any website. I’ll just be showing you how to apply them quickly and easily to your WordPress site.

To sign up now, visit the Seattle WordPress seminar website.

The event is called “Explode the WordPress Learning Curve: An Evening with the Experts”. Here are the highlights of this awesome WordPress seminar:

After An Evening with WordPress Experts, you’ll understand:

• why so may businesses are choosing WordPress for their websites and blogs
• how to leverage the power and flexibility of a WordPress website to increase sales
• how easy it is to make the move to WordPress
• 5 techniques for optimizing your WordPress pages for better search engine rankings
• the key features of 3.0, the newest version of WordPress

What’s Included in this Event:

• 3 “mini-seminars” from WordPress experts
• 15-minute break with time for networking as well as time before and after the event
• Extended Q & A panel discussion with the experts: Get your questions answered
• Opportunity to meet the experts at the conclusion of the event
• Time to visit the presenters’ tables and exchange information
• Copies of all presentations
• Additional information on useful tips, plugin’s, themes and resources for WordPress users

Feel free to contact me with questions about the event. For tickets and more information, visit the Seattle WordPress seminar website.

WordPress Tutorial – How to Make a Static Page Your Home Page & Hide a Double Home Page Link

UPDATE – PLEASE NOTE:
The latest version of WordPress, WordPress 3.0, includes custom navigation menus. They are built into the new default theme, Twenty Eleven. Many themes on WordPress.com support custom menus. If your site is hosted on WordPress.com or you are using a theme that supports the new custom navigation menus, hiding a double Home page link is easy. See the tutorial on WordPress 101 called Building Custom Menus.*

IF YOU HAVE A SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS SITE WITH AN OLDER THEME:
If you have a “self-hosted” site instead of one hosted on WordPress.com, you may be able to use the Exclude Pages Plugin for WordPress to hide your extra Home page link and any links that appear in your sidebar Pages navigation.

You can’t install plugins on sites hosted by WordPress.com. That’s one of the main drawbacks to hosting with WordPress.com. For those sites, this YouTube video tutorial (below) is still useful.

If you like this tutorial, you may also like: WordPress Tutorial – How to Make a “Child” Page (Subpage) and How to Hide a Link in the Pages Sidebar Widget

This beginner-level WordPress Tutorial shows how to make a “static” WordPress page your Home page (also called a “front page”), and how to hide the second Home page link that sometimes appears in your site navigation when you make that static page into a Home page.

By default, a WordPress website displays the blog page on the home / front page. For example, on the Business Blogging 101 website home page at https://mcbuzz.wordpress.com you see blog posts with the most recent post at the top of the page and earlier posts below that.

WordPress allows you to select a different page as your home page, so that you can display more traditional content like information about yourself or your business. You can also create another page to use as your blog page, with a link to that page in your site navigation. Watch the video tutorial below to see how to do this.

One problem you may run into when you make a static page your home page is that the link to that page now appears in the main site navigation, so that you have two links to the same home page – usually the page called “Home” in the main site navigation. The second part of this tutorial shows how to remove one of those links from your site navigation so that visitors to your site are not confused by the duplicate link.

WordPress Tutorial – How to Make a Static Page Your Home Page & Hide Double Home Page Link

*Note the “Pay What You Wish” pricing on WordPress 101. Business Blogging 101 is not an affiliate of WordPress 101 WordPress tutorials, meaning that I don’t get a kickback for referring people there.