Wordpress Resources
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Setting up a new blog can often be difficult, but if your platform of choice is Wordpress, I’ve got you covered! I’m going to outline some really helpful resources in this article to try and help get you started off in the right direction.
Whether you’re looking for themes, tutorials, plugins — whatever, I’m gonna try and help you out. I’ve been there, believe me… If there’s nobody to aid you, it’s a pain, so I’m hoping that this post can help you out.
Ground Zero
Just starting out? We’ve all been there. This section isn’t for experienced bloggers just setting up a new branch to their ever-expansive network — this is for the newbs who are just getting their foot in the door and want to know a little bit more before they get started.
Now, if the whole interface is alien to you — if you can’t tell a tab apart from your elbow — then you’ll want to start here. With very nice visual aids, that guide will get you publishing posts in no time! Once you follow the instructions there, goof around a bit and figure some of the ins and outs out all by yourself — that’s the best way to learn.
If you’re looking to jump right in with some more in-depth guides, ranging from setup to plugins, check out the official Wordpress “Getting Started” links. Albeit without visual aid (which I am a fan of), it is quite a helpful resource.
Themes
Ahhh, themes. One of the most important part of any blog, your theme is often what readers use to judge your worth. No lie. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s a reality nonetheless. We all judge books (and blogs) by their covers.
To remedy this situation, you’ll need a good theme, and… They’re everywhere. There are lots that are free, but don’t immediately dismiss paid themes — again, they’re incredibly important, and paid themes often look better than their free counterparts. Lucky for you, I’ll provide resources of both the “free” and “paid” nature.
Paid
- Themeforest
- WooThemes
- Elegant Themes
Another great resource is any freelance forum. For instance, DigitalPoint’s “Templates” forum has generous offerings.
Free
- Free WP Themes
- Wordpress’ own “Free Themes Directory”
- Google
And, luckily, some freelance forums even help you out here! The “Freebies” section of DigitalPoint has some awesome free themes available for anybody to download, and a search on most freelancing forums will turn up tons of results as well.
Plugins
Plugins! They make the inter-world go ’round!
The best place to get them is probably Wordpress’ own directory, although there are some other sites that will cater to your needs…
- Wordpress Plugin Database
- This helpful SmashingApps article
Can’t really help you out much more there without you finding a bunch of duplicates… There are plenty of plugins in the resources listed, so you should be able to find whatever you need (or didn’t know you needed, which is often the case).
Finishing up
I truly hope this post could help you out, because I know what it’s like to be stranded without a paddle… Sure, with a bit of research you could have found all of these on your own, but I’ve tried my best to separate the crap from the good stuff.
tagged under: free.plugins.premium.resources.themes.tutorial.WordPressABOUT THIS AUTHOR
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