I'm Planning to Offer WordPress Training -- Are You Interested?

by Tom Johnson on Mar 26, 2008
categories: blogging • technical-writing • wordpress

April 20, 2008 Update: If you're interested in the WordPress training, see the course announcement about the 2-hour session I'm giving on April 26.

I'm planning to offer some WordPress training, and I'd like to know if you're interested. By WordPress I mean the self-hosted WordPress blogs that you create with WordPress software from Wordpress.org, not the freely hosted blogs at WordPress.com.

WordPress is software that can be so easy a first-grader can publish posts (see Avery's blog here). At the opposite end, you can be a PHP enthusiast, such as Alex King, creating plugins that extend WordPress's functionality. Or a theme designer creating cool-looking themes. Or you can sidestep the blogging features altogether and just use WordPress as a mini content management system or website, such as what Scott Deloach did with Clickstart. (By the way, did you also know that the New York Times and Business Week were both created by WordPress?)

I'm a technical writer, but my extensive involvement in blogging and podcasting has branded me as someone knowledgeable about these two areas. That's fine, because I absolutely love WordPress. It's the only software I'm truly passionate about. I can spend my Friday nights tinkering around in the code, adjusting my theme (by the way, I'm getting tired of my theme and want a new one), adding more plugins (I wonder what's new that I can incorporate ... ), and trying to figure out how to make my podcasts more web 2.0-ish (see thoughts in previous post).

In the next couple of weeks, I'll announce official training that I'm offering for WordPress. It won't be free, but it will be worth it. The training will probably involve several sessions that move from beginner to advanced, focusing on different aspects of WordPress. I'll explain the basics, such as how to install WordPress, activate Akismet, what all the options and tabs mean (by the way, WordPress 2.5 is coming soon and everything will be different on the admin side). Then I'll move into essential plugins and how to integrate them. I'll also recommend attractive themes and explain how to adjust the designs using the stylesheet. Finally, I'll explain different PHP tags and parameters and how you can dynamically alter the content of your blog, as well as create category templates to completely customize the look and feel of your site.

I'm not a WordPress developer, but I am comfortable with WordPress. If you've been thinking of moving away from Blogger (don't worry, WordPress will easily import all your content), or if you're tired of other blog software you've been using, think about moving to WordPress. You'll save yourself hours and hours of time by going through my course. Additionally, if you're already using WordPress but want to become more expert, this course will help you move from novice to geek in an efficient way.

To gauge interest in the course, can you respond to this short survey?

Take the survey

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