Wordpress Books

WordPress Bible (Paperback)

WordPress Bible (Paperback)$31.49

Product Description

Install WordPress and go beyond blogging

WordPress is so flexible that developers are now tapping it to create robust applications for content, contact, and e-mail management. Whether you’re a casual blogger or programming pro, this comprehensive guide covers WordPress from the basics through advanced application development. Learn how to use custom plugins and themes, retrieve data, maintain security, use social media, and modify your blog without changing any core code. You’ll even get to know the ecosystem of products that surrounds this popular, open-source tool.

  • Enhance your blog’s findability in the search engines and beyond

  • Discover hooks and leverage the WordPress event-driven programming interface

  • Create WordPress widgets in only a few minutes

  • Explore alternate uses of WordPress

  • Enhance your blog with WordPress MU

  • Ensure your plugins maintain future compatibility

  • Create highly customizable and dynamic themes using template tags

  • Learn best security practices as a user and developer

Companion Web Site

Visit www.wiley.com/go/wordpressbible for all of the author’s example files from the book.

Install, secure, and maintain WordPress

Extend WordPress with plugins and themes

Enhance your blog with WordPress MU

About the Author

Aaron Brazell is a leading WordPress and social media consultant, with clients ranging from enterprise software companies to small- and medium-sized businesses. He has worked on large-scale WordPress installations from both a technical/scaling perspective to complex deliveries involving extreme leveraging of the software plugin API. He maintains a large business and technology blog in the Washington D.C. area, Technosailor.com.

Mark Jaquith is one of the lead WordPress core developers and an independent Web services consultant. He has consulted for major clients through his company, Covered Web Services, and is the author of several popular WordPress plugins, including Subscribe to Comments and Page Links To.

A Step by Step Wordpress Tutorial For Beginners (Paperback)

A Step by Step Wordpress Tutorial For Beginners (Paperback)$17.95

Product Description

A Step by Step Wordpress Tutorial for Beginners is written for people who want to create a blog with as little technical mumbo jumbo as possible. This book explains WHAT you need to do, WHY you need to do it, and exactly HOW to do it in a thorough, step by step tutorial written in simple English. In this easy to read book, you’ll learn how to create a self-hosted blog, how to install Wordpress with just a few clicks of your mouse and how to change the themes and personalize your blog.

It demystifies concepts like pinging, trackbacks, widgets and plugins, gravatars and wavatars, RSS and email subscriptions, and it also tells you how to get people to discover your blog, what to do about spam, and more. By using this simple tutorial to create a self-hosted blog with Wordpress, you’ll be able to set up your blog in almost no time, with ease and accuracy, and your final result will be a professional looking blog that people will be able to find just minutes after you write your first post!

WordPress For Dummies (Paperback)

WordPress For Dummies (Paperback)$16.49

Product Description

Bloggers love WordPress! If you’re ready to start using this free blogging software, WordPress For Dummies, 2nd Edition is just what you and your blog need to make a splash.

Professional blog designer Lisa Sabin-Wilson shows you how to use all the latest upgrades to WordPress and helps you decide whether to use the Wordpress.com hosted service or self-host your blog with WordPress.org. Whether you’re just venturing into the blogosphere or you want to shift an existing blog to WordPress, WordPress For Dummies, 2nd Edition will help.

Explore theme development and learn where to find free WordPress themes Extend WordPress through plug-ins, CSS, custom fields, and more Find out about archiving, interacting with readers through comments, tracking back, and handling spam Get the scoop on domain registration, Web hosting providers, basic tools like FTP, and more Create a unique blog theme and presentation by using template tags with CSS Sign up for WordPress.com, log in, set options, and create a profile Install WordPress.org, set up a MySQL database, explore RSS feeds, and organize a blogroll Discover the secrets of creating a blog that draws readers Get tips on wonderful widgets, upgrades, and plugins you can add to make your blog extra cool Learn how to use the Dashboard, manage comments, and make permalinks work with your Web server With WordPress For Dummies, 2nd Edition on hand, it’s easy to make the most of the free software and build a blog that stands out in a crowd.

From the Back Cover

Discover why bloggers love WordPress and make your blog the best it can be

Blogs are as much a part of life today as the evening newspaper was fifty years ago, and for much the same reason: Inquiring minds want to know. WordPress powers some of the most popular blogs on the Web, and with this guide to help, it can work for you, too. Here’s what WordPress does, how to set it up and use it, and some cool bells and whistles to make your blog stand out.

  • Pick your flavor — decide whether to use the WordPress.com hosted service or self-host your blog with WordPress.org
  • Customization — discover CSS and template tags and how to use them to create your own unique style
  • Blogging 101 — find out about archiving, interacting with readers through comments, tracking back, and handling spam
  • Host with the most — get the scoop on domain registration, Web hosting providers, basic tools like FTP, and more
  • Do it yourself — install WordPress.org, set up a MySQL database, explore RSS feeds, and organize a blogroll
  • Beef up your blog — insert audio, video, images, and photos
  • Think theme — discover where to find WordPress themes, explore various options, and work with template tags to create a unique look

Open the book and find:

  • Advice for creating a blog that draws readers
  • Tips on managing comments, trackbacks, and spam
  • How to use the Dashboard
  • Wonderful widgets and plugins to add
  • How to make permalinks work with your Web server
  • The standard templates and how to tweak them
  • Ten popular WordPress themes
  • Where to find help when you need it

WordPress 2.7 Complete (Paperback)

WordPress 2.7 Complete (Paperback)$31.57

Product Description

Create your own complete blog or web site from scratch with WordPress

  • Everything you need to set up your own feature-rich WordPress blog or web site
  • Clear and practical explanations of all aspects of WordPress
  • In-depth coverage of installation, themes, syndication, and podcasting
  • Explore WordPress as a fully functioning content management system
  • Concise, clear, and easy to follow; rich with examples

In Detail

Using WordPress you can easily create dynamic blogs and web sites with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing blogs and although it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. You can customize the features, incorporate your own design, and even write your own plug-ins with ease. Its versatility and ease of use have attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users. While it is easy to get started with WordPress, its full power is not obvious.

If you want to create a powerful, fully-featured blog or non-blog web site in no time, this book is for you. It will give you a rapid and straightforward introduction to the rich and powerful features of WordPress and get you up and running with a state-of-the-art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. It will help you learn everything WordPress has to offer, from the ground up, so you can build your complete web site. You will see many of WorPress’s hidden powers that will help you build a fully functioning web site.

You will be introduced to the main aspects of a blog – users, communities, posts, comments, news feeds – and learn how to manage them using WordPress. You will learn to install WordPress and customize the look-and-feel of your web site. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content, be it text or images, on your blog, and also understand how users interact with the blog. By working through the book you’ll be inspired as well as informed, and have the capability and the ideas to make your blog cutting edge and exciting to maximize its impact.

More advanced users will also pick up tips on creating your own themes and plug-ins, and such technical steps as backing up your WordPress web site and moving it from one server to another.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Upgrade your WordPress from older installations
  • Add tags and images to your posts and manage the comments on those posts
  • Personalize and control the content of your web site using feature-rich widgets and plug-ins
  • Manage the look and feel of your WordPress web site with customized themes and templates
  • Share a blog with multiple authors and give them differing levels of control over blog administration and content
  • Manage different levels of privileges for your users in a particular community and create custom roles for them
  • Link your web site to the outside world through feeds, syndication, and podcasting
  • Explore how you can take WordPress beyond blogging and use it as an effective CMS tool

Approach

Written in a clear, easy-to-read style, the book takes you through the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book.

Who this book is written for?

This book is a guide to WordPress for both beginners and those who are slightly more advanced. It’s for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner, and it’s also for people who want to learn how to customize and expand the capabilities of a WordPress web site.

It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.

About the Author

April Hodge Silver

April has been designing and developing new web sites from scratch since 1999, just before her graduation from Columbia University. Early in her career, she worked for several web companies and startups, including DoubleClick and About.com. Since 2004, she has been self-employed through her company Springthistle Design and has worked with a staggering variety of companies, non-profits, and individuals to realize their web site dreams. In her professional work, April’s focus is always on usability, efficiency, flexibility, clean design, and client happiness. WordPress is the best solution for many of Springthistle’s Clients, though April also develops custom web applications using PHP and MySQL.

In her free time, April enjoys developing recipes in the kitchen, bicycling, and relaxing with her daughter, dog, and darlin wife.

Hasin Hayder

Hasin Hayder graduated in Civil Engineering from the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) in Bangladesh. He is a Zend-certified Engineer and expert in developing localized applications. He is currently working as a Technical Director in Trippert Labs and managing the local branch in Bangladesh. Beside his full time job, Hasin writes his blog at hasin.wordpress.com., writes article in different websites and maintains his open source framework Orchid at orchid.phpxperts.net. Hasin lives in Bangladesh with his wife Ayesha and his son, Afif.

WordPress 24-Hour Trainer: Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites (Book & DVD) (Paperback)

WordPress 24-Hour Trainer: Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites (Book & DVD) (Paperback)$29.69

Product Description

Don’t let WordPress intimidate you. WordPress 24-Hour Trainer is a unique lesson-based book that walks you through the essential parts of WordPress. Each lesson is streamlined to teach a specific aspect of WordPress, helping you to focus on just what you need in order to get the task accomplished. If you learn better visually, this book provides you with a video to accompany each lesson.

This book is the perfect guide to

  • Planning and preparing your site for WordPress
  • Installing WordPress
  • Writing, tagging, and publishing a post
  • Working with the text editor
  • Styling paragraphs and creating lists
  • Working with media files
  • Linking, aligning, and sizing an image
  • Working with image galleries
  • Adding video and audio
  • Naming, scheduling, and managing posts
  • Making your site stand out
  • Helping others connect to your site
  • Becoming search engine friendly
  • Optimizing your site
  • Backing up your site
  • Installing and activating plugins

From the Back Cover

A unique introduction to building web sites with WordPress

WordPress is today’s most popular open source blog publishing application, but its powerful features, simple interface, and easy expansion make it a great content management system for all types of web sites. This unique book-and-video package provides you with beginner-friendly tutorials for building and maintaining a WordPress web site. You’ll discover how to customize WordPress to meet your needs and you’ll see how critical—and simple—it is to expand and update content in order to make your site as effective as possible.

  • Walks you through installing the software, provides an overview of the administration interface, and covers the basic settings you’ll need to get started
  • Examines the ins and outs of uploading images, video, documents, etc., and using them on your site
  • Demonstrates how to customize the look of your site using cascading style sheets
  • Reviews helpful techniques for optimizing your site and making it search-engine friendly
  • Explains how to track your site’s statistics, keep your plugins and themes up to date, and practice smart backup habits
  • Addresses installing, activating, and troubleshooting plugins

Wrox guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think. Written by programmers for programmers, they provide a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

On the DVD

Don’t just learn—do!

The lessons within the book are each accompanied by an instructional demonstration on the DVD.

You’ll learn to:

  • Plan your site for WordPress
  • Write and add a new post
  • Handle revisions
  • Add new pages & sub pages
  • Work with image galleries
  • Manage media files, posts, categories, and widgets
  • Link to other sites
  • Approve, edit, and delete comments
  • Customize the design and layout
  • Optimize your content
  • Extend WordPress

Please see the DVD appendix for details and complete system requirements.

WordPress: Visual QuickStart Guide (Paperback)

WordPress: Visual QuickStart Guide (Paperback)$19.79

Product Description

This book gives readers the tools they need to create beautiful, functional WordPress-powered sites with minimal hassle. Using the WordPress user interface as a baseline, authors Jessica Neuman Beck and Matt Beck walk new users through the installation and setup process while providing valuable tips and tricks for more experienced users. With no other resource but this guide, readers can set up a fully-functional and well-designed WordPress site that takes advantage of all the features WordPress has to offer.

WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes (Paperback)

WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes (Paperback)$31.57

Product Description

In Detail

This title will take you through the ins and outs of creating sophisticated professional themes for the WordPress personal publishing platform. It will walk you through clear, step-by-step instructions to build a custom WordPress theme. From development tools and setting up your WordPress sandbox, through design tips and suggestions, to setting up your theme’s template structure, coding markup, testing and debugging, to taking it live it reviews the best practices. The last three chapters are dedicated to additional tips, tricks and various cookbook recipes for adding popular site enhancements to your WordPress theme designs using third-party plugins.

Whether you’re working with a pre-existing theme or creating a new one from the ground up, WordPress Theme Design will give you the know-how to understand how themes work within the WordPress blog system, enabling you to take full control over your site’s design and branding.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Set up a basic workflow and development environment for WordPress theme design
  • Create detailed designs and code them up
  • Enhance your sites by choosing the right color schemes and graphics
  • Debug and validate your theme using W3C’s XHTML and CSS validation tools
  • Customize and tweak your theme’s layout
  • Set up dynamic drop-down menus, AJAX/dynamic and interactive forms
  • Download and install useful plug-ins and widgetize your theme
  • Improve post and page content using jQuery and ThickBox
  • Add interactivity to your themes using Flash
  • Includes a reference guide to WordPress 2.0’s template hierarchy, markup, styles and template tags, as well as include and loop functions

Approach

Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it’s quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it.

The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site’s theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you’ll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other WordPress themes.

Who this book is written for?

This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors.

Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you’ll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.

About the Author

Tessa Blakeley Silver

Tessa Blakeley Silver’s background is in print design and traditional illustration. She evolved over the years into web and multi-media development, where she focuses on usability and interface design. Prior to starting her consulting and development company hyper3media (pronounced hyper-cube media) hyper3media.com, Tessa was the VP of Interactive Technologies at eHigherEducation, an online learning and technology company developing compelling multimedia simulations, interactions, and games that met online educational requirements like 508, AICC, and SCORM. She has also worked as a consultant and freelancer for J. Walter Thompson and The Diamond Trading Company (formerly known as DeBeers) and was a Design Specialist and Senior Associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ East Region Marketing department. Tessa authors several design and web technology blogs. Joomla! Template Design is her first book.

Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series) (Paperback)

Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Smashing Magazine Book Series) (Paperback)$29.69

Product Description

GO BEYOND THE BLOG

Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.

Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, an e-commerce site, and more.

YOU WILL LEARN:

  • THE ANATOMY OF A WP INSTALL AND HOW WORDPRESS ACTUALLY WORKS
  • HOW TO BUILD BEAUTIFUL WORDPRESS THEMES – INCLUDING CHILD THEMES
  • HOW TO CREATE CUSTOM LOGIN FORMS AND ADMIN THEMES
  • HOW TO USE THE LOOP TO CONTROL CONTENT, AND EVEN USE ALTERNATIVES TO THE LOOP
  • HOW TO INTEGRATE THEME OPTIONS
  • HOW TO BUILD PLUGINS – INCLUDING WIDGET FUNCTIONALITY
  • HOW TO BUILD YOUR WORDPRESS PROJECTS FOR SEO
  • INTEGRATE WORDPRESS WITH THE SOCIAL WEB
  • HOW TO CREATE AMAZING NAVIGATION
  • HOW TO USE CONDITIONAL CONTROL ELEMENTS

Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read (Paperback)

Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read (Paperback)$19.79

Product Description

Having your own blog isn't just for the nerdy anymore. Today, it seems everyone—from multinational corporations to a neighbor up the street—has a blog. They all have one, in part, because the folks at WordPress make it easy to get one. but to actually build a good blog—to create a blog people want to read—takes thought, planning, and some effort. From picking a theme and using tags to choosing widgets and building a community, creating your blog really starts after you set it up. In this book by blogger extraordinaire Scott McNulty, you learn how to:

  • Install and get your WordPress blog running.
  • Set up your site to ensure it can easily grow with you and your readers.
  • Be the master of user accounts.
  • Manage your site with the WordPress Dashboard and extend its capabilities with plug-ins.
  • Make the most of images.
  • Work with pages, templates, and links and—of course—publish your posts.
  • Deal with comments—if you even want readers commenting at all.
  • Find a theme—or build one yourself.
  • Maintain your site and fix common problems.

About the Author

Scott McNulty is a simple geek living in Philadelphia. Scott has been blogging for just over nine years about whatever strikes his fancy. He runs more WordPress blogs than anyone should, and even has a few other blogs using other blogging engines. More of Scott's words can be found on his personal blog, blog.blankbaby.com, or at Macuser.com, where Scott is a senior contributor, or Obsessable.com, where he writes a weekly feature about technology.

WordPress 2.8 Theme Design (Paperback)

WordPress 2.8 Theme Design (Paperback)$31.57

Product Description

Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it’s quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it. The second is “Unique and Beautiful”. Occasionally, the site’s theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you’ll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other WordPress themes.

This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you’ll find clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.

WordPress for Business Bloggers: Promote and grow your WordPress blog with advanced plug-ins, analytics, advertising, and SEO (Paperback)

WordPress for Business Bloggers: Promote and grow your WordPress blog with advanced plug-ins, analytics, advertising, and SEO (Paperback)$31.57

Product Description

In Detail

Blogging has been part of the web landscape for over a decade and has matured into a ubiquitous mode of live communication. The power of blogging has been recognized by the business community, and canny marketers view it as a powerful weapon in their digital arsenal. Done well, blogging can bring myriad benefits to businesses of any size. Done badly, it can cause more harm than good. Central to the success of any business blog is a thorough understanding of the technology. This book will give you a competitive advantage by helping you to create an engaging, effective, and well polished business blog.

WordPress allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with many outstanding features. Its versatility and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users, who have created a large and diverse collection of plug-ins. It has various features that can help business bloggers to boost their business strategy.

This book will take you beyond the basics of WordPress, helping you take full advantage of its rich and powerful features to transform your basic blog into a more advanced and professional blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. You will learn everything you need to know to extend and grow your business blog. You will learn to mange the content including images and videos, which will make your blog more appealing. You’ll also learn how to market and measure the success of your blog using Google web applications and other popular tools. So, if want to transform your business blog to give a kick start to your business this book is for you.

This book deals with using WordPress and third-party tools to manage and optimize your blog, focusing on the business aspects of blogging. It is not an introduction to WordPress and does not cover the basics such as installation or how to post. Most readers will already have an established WordPress blog or will at least be in the advanced stages of planning one.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Develop a `blogging business plan’: clarify your blogging goals and sketch out a process for achieving them in WordPress
  • Build a custom theme: so that the look of your blog immediately communicates your brand to visitors
  • Engage with the blogosphere: create beneficial relationships with other bloggers, making the most of each other’s traffic and customers
  • Optimize your site for search: incorporate good SEO practices into your blog posting and planning
  • Use social media marketing such as Digg, Reddit, Facebook, and Del.icio.us to drive traffic to your blog
  • Monitor visitors and analyze their activity using WordPress.com stats, Feedburner for your RSS feeds, and Google Analytics
  • Manage adverts and implement revenue-generating features using Google AdSense with the Adsense Manager plugin
  • Incorporate multimedia on your blog, including video and image galleries

Approach

This is a practical, hands-on book based around a fictitious case study blog, which you will build on a development server using WordPress. The case study grows chapter by chapter, from installing your local development server, right up to the finished blog.

The book starts by looking at the important features that make a successful business blog: adding value to your products and services, providing proper customer service and support, driving traffic to your website, and so on. It then shows how to implement these features in WordPress. It provides clear instructions and detailed screenshots, so you can see exactly what to do at each step of the build. You will install and configure a selection of WordPress plug-ins to improve the functionality of the case-study blog.

When you have completed the case study, you will have the knowledge and confidence to apply all the techniques you have learned to your own WordPress business blog.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for anybody running or starting a business blog using WordPress. Whether you plan to use your blog for PR and marketing, or want to profit directly from blogging, this book offers you everything you need.

As we want to get into the specifics of business blogging as quickly as possible, we don’t cover the WordPress basics. So it’s best to have some experience with WordPress before you start with this book.

The book mainly focuses on a self-hosted WordPress installation, but most of the advice also applies to blogs hosted on WordPress.com.

About the Author

Paul Thewlis

Paul Thewlis has worked as a web communications professional in the public and private sectors. He is currently E-Communications Manager for a multinational transport company based in the UK. He began his web career as a Technical Editor, working on web design books for a well-known publisher. He has extensive experience of many content management systems and blogging platforms.

WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner’s Guide) (Paperback)

WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner’s Guide) (Paperback)$31.57

Product Description

Build powerful, interactive plug-ins for your blog and to share online

  • Everything you need to create and distribute your own plug-ins following WordPress coding standards
  • Walk through the development of six complete, feature-rich, real-world plug-ins that are being used by thousands of WP users
  • Written by Vladimir Prelovac, WordPress expert and developer of WordPress plug-ins such as Smart YouTube and Plugin Central
  • Part of Packt’s Beginners Guide series: expect step-by-step instructions with an emphasis on experimentation and tweaking code

In Detail

If you can write WordPress plug-ins, you can make WordPress do just about anything. From making the site easier to administer, to adding the odd tweak or new feature, to completely changing the way your blog works, plug-ins are the method WordPress offers to customize and extend its functionality. This book will show you how to build all sorts of WordPress plug-ins: admin plug-ins, Widgets, plug-ins that alter your post output, present custom "views" of your blog, and more.

WordPress Plug-in Development (Beginner’s Guide) focuses on teaching you all aspects of modern WordPress development. The book uses real and published WordPress plug-ins and follows their creation from the idea to the finishing touches, in a series of carefully picked, easy-to-follow tutorials. You will discover how to use the WordPress API in all typical situations, from displaying output on the site in the beginning to turning WordPress into a CMS in the last chapter. In Chapters 2 to 7 you will develop six concrete plug-ins and conquer all aspects of WordPress development.

Each new chapter and each new plug-in introduces different features of WordPress and how to put them to good use, allowing you to gradually advance your knowledge. This book is written as a guide to take your WordPress skills from the very beginning to the level where you are able to completely understand how WordPress works and how you can use it to your advantage.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Get to know the WordPress code base, WordPress’s plug-in architecture, and the plug-in application programming interface (API) and learn how to hack it
  • Master the WordPress database and the API – access and manipulate data, handle user roles and permissions, posts, and so on
  • Hook into the rest of WordPress using actions and filters
  • Change the way your WordPress backend looks by customizing menus, submenus, and the plug-in admin panel
  • Integrate AJAX and jQuery into your plug-ins to dynamically generate content
  • Hook directly to WordPress edit pages and use AJAX to generate fast searches
  • Integrate your plug-in with WordPress panels and the tinyMCE editor
  • Access and work with third-party APIs like Flickr
  • Implement localization support for users of other languages
  • Maintain and manage your plug-in using SVN and publish it to the WordPress Plugin Repository
  • Handle security issues and make your plug-ins safer to use

We cover the development of six plug-ins from start to finish:

  • Digg-this: Adds a Digg This button to each post.
  • Live Blogroll: Adds a recent posts popup for each blog in your blogroll.
  • The Wall widget: Displays comments on the sidebar without reloading the page.
  • Snazzy Archives: Presents your site archives in a unique visual way.
  • Insights: Access your articles and Flickr images from within the WordPress edit page.
  • Post Types: Provides pre-defined post templates to quickly add a photo or a link to your blog.

Approach

This is a Packt Beginners Guide, which means it focuses on practical examples and has a fast-paced but friendly approach, with the opportunity to learn by experiment and play. Each chapter builds a practical plug-in from the ground up using step-by-step instructions. Individual sections show you how to code some functionality into your plug-in and follow up with a discussion of concepts.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for programmers working with WordPress, who want to develop custom plug-ins and to hack the code base. You need to be familiar with the basics of WordPress and PHP programming and believe that code is poetry; this book will handle the rest.

About the Author

Vladimir Prelovac

Vladimir Prelovac is the author of many popular WordPress plugins and articles about WordPress optimization, security and maintenance. He actively uses WordPress platform as a base for Internet development strategy for small & mid-sized businesses.

For Vladimir, WordPress development is a full time job about which he happily blogs on his web site prelovac.com.

Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog (Paperback)

Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog (Paperback)$23.09

Book Description

A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog

Product Description

Whether you’re promoting your business or writing about your travel adventures, Head First WordPress will teach you not only how to make your blog look unique and attention-grabbing, but also how to take advantage of WordPress platform’s more complex features to make your website work well, too.

You’ll learn how to move beyond the standard WordPress look and feel by customizing your blog with your own URL, templates, plugin functionality, and more. As you learn, you’ll be working with real WordPress files: The book’s website provides pre-fab WordPress themes to download and work with as you follow along with the text.

  • Get your site up and running by setting up a MySQL database and creating configuration files
  • Work with the Wordpress platform to create posts and pages, learn the difference between tags and categories, edit content, moderate comments, and manage spam
  • Explore how to extend Wordpress with plugins and templates
  • Convert custom designs (in HTML and CSS) into functional themes and use them in WordPress

We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First WordPress uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.

WordPress 2.7 Cookbook (Paperback)

WordPress 2.7 Cookbook (Paperback)$31.57

Product Description

100 simple but incredibly useful recipes to take control of your WordPress blog layout, themes, widgets, plug-ins, security, and SEO

  • Take your WordPress blog to the next level with solutions to common WordPress problems that make your blog better, smarter, faster, and more secure
  • Enhance your SEO and make more money online by applying simple hacks
  • Fully tested and compatible with WordPress 2.7
  • Part of Packt’s Cookbook series: Each recipe is a carefully organized sequence of instructions to complete the task as efficiently as possible

In Detail

About 120,000 blogs are created every day. Most of them quickly die, but a few stay, grow up, and then become well known and respected places on the Web. If you are seriously interested in being in the top league, you will need to learn all the tricks of the trade. WordPress 2.7 Cookbook focuses on providing solutions to common WordPress problems, to make sure that your blog will be one of the ones that stay.

The author’s experience with WordPress enables him to share insights on using WordPress effectively, in a clear and friendly way, giving practical hands-on solutions to WordPress problems, questions, and common tasks – from themes to widgets and from SEO to security.

Are you feeling limited with WordPress, or are you wondering how popular blogs do a certain kind of thing that you can’t? With this cookbook, you will learn many WordPress secrets and techniques, with step-by-step, useful recipes dedicated to achieving a particular goal or solve a particular problem. You’ll learn the secret of expensive premium themes, how to optimize your blog for SEO and online profits, and how to supercharge WordPress with killer functions used by the most popular blogs over the Internet.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Use filters to add more features to WordPress without editing any core files
  • Easily transform a personal blog to a complete, multi-author online magazine
  • Turn any free WordPress theme into a powerful and polished premium theme by changing colors and fonts, inserting your custom logo, and more
  • Transform a classic theme into a captivating Photoblog
  • Learn how plug-ins and widgets work, and how you can create your own
  • Integrate popular services into your blog including Twitter, FeedBurner, Digg, del.icio.us, and many more
  • Learn proven techniques to attract more readers and comments
  • Incorporate advertisements into your RSS feed
  • Tips and tricks to secure your blog and optimize it for SEO

Approach

This is a Packt Cookbook, which means it contains step-by-step instructions to achieve a particular goal or solve a particular problem. The book can be read chapter by chapter, or you can look at the table of contents and read the recipes in no particular order.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for anyone who wants to enhance their WordPress blog to make it engaging and feature-rich. It is not specifically for developers or programmers; rather it can be used by anyone who wants to get more out of their WordPress blog by following step-by-step instructions. A basic knowledge of PHP/XHTML/CSS/WordPress is desirable but not necessary.

About the Author

Jean-Baptiste Jung

Jean-Baptiste Jung is a self-taught web developer, web designer, and blogger. Jean is pretty active in the WordPress community and the Internet in general, blogging on his blogs CatsWhoCode.com and WpRecipes.com, as well as writing for prestigious blogs as such as Smashing Magazine.

Wordpress Entrepreneur: How To Setup, Customize & Use A Wordpress Website (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Wordpress Entrepreneur: How To Setup, Customize & Use A Wordpress Website (Volume 1) (Paperback)$11.95

Product Description

This book focuses on the nuts and bolts of the initial setup of your WordPress website. It is a clear and comprehensive approach with color screen shots of the entire setup process. Using WordPress version 2.6, you will learn how to install and use WordPress, add themes, plugins, import and export files and how to uninstall WordPress. This book includes full instructions on how to choose a WordPress template and create your own website quickly and easily.

About the Author

John Cook is a computer science/engineering student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He started his own computer business at the age of fifteen. John has developed websites for businesses, non-profit organizations and his own business.

Professional WordPress (Paperback)

Professional WordPress (Paperback)$29.69

Product Description

An in-depth look at the internals of the WordPress system.As the most popular blogging and content management platform available today, WordPress is a powerful tool. This exciting book goes beyond the basics and delves into the heart of the WordPress system, offering overviews of the functional aspects of WordPress as well as plug-in and theme development.

What is covered in this book?

  • WordPress as a Content Management System
  • Hosting Options
  • Installing WordPress Files
  • Database Configuration
  • Dashboard Widgets
  • Customizing the Dashboard
  • Creating and Managing Content
  • Categorizing Your Content
  • Working with Media
  • Comments and Discussion
  • Working with Users
  • Managing, Adding, Upgrading, and Using the Theme Editor
  • Working with Widgets
  • Adding and Managing New Plugins
  • Configuring WordPress
  • Exploring the Code
  • Configuring Key Files
  • wp-config.php file
  • Advanced wp-config Options
  • What’s in the Core?
  • WordPress Codex and Resources
  • Understanding and customizing the Loop
  • Building A Custom Query
  • Complex Database Operations
  • Dealing With Errors
  • Direct Database Manipulation
  • Building Your Own Taxonomies
  • Plugin Packaging
  • Create a Dashboard Widget
  • Creating a Plugin Example
  • Publish to the Plugin Directory
  • Installing a Theme
  • Creating Your Own Theme
  • How and When to Use Custom Page Templates
  • How to Use Custom Page Templates
  • Pushing Content from WordPress to Other Sites
  • Usability and Usability Testing
  • Getting Your Site Found
  • How Web Standards Get Your Data Discovered
  • Load Balancing Your WordPress Site
  • Securing Your WordPress Site
  • Using WordPress in the Enterprise
  • Is WordPress Right for Your Enterprise?
  • and much more!

From the Back Cover

Explore the power and possibilities of WordPress from the inside out

As the most popular self-hosted blogging software in use today, WordPress is remarkably simple to operate and can be extended and tailored for a wide variety of applications. This guide focuses on the internal structure and flow of the core code, as well as the data model on which that code operates, so that you can harness the power of WordPress to meet your specific needs. The author team pulls together developer and deployer expertise, as well as knowledge of popular open source plugins, themes, and tools for WordPress, to provide an in-depth guide suitable for all WordPress users, from self-hosted bloggers to enterprise content management system applications.

Professional WordPress:

  • Offers an overview of the WordPress system and describes what happens when a WordPress-generated web page is displayed
  • Discusses the core of WordPress, describing internal code flow and data structures
  • Demonstrates extending WordPress through plugins and customizing it via themes
  • Combines a developer view of user experience and optimization with the deployer requirements for performance, security, and measurement
  • Provides practical examples of integrating WordPress with enterprise and social networking tools

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

Join our Programmer to Programmer forums to ask and answer programming questions about this book, join discussions on the hottest topics in the industry, and connect with fellow programmers from around the world.

Take advantage of free code samples from this book, as well as code samples from hundreds of other books, all ready to use.

Find articles, ebooks, sample chapters and tables of contents for hundreds of books, and more reference resources on programming topics that matter to you.

WordPress In Depth (Paperback)

WordPress In Depth (Paperback)$19.79

Product Description

Advice and techniques that you need to get the job done.

Looking for ways to streamline your work so you can focus on maximizing your time? In Depth provides specific, tested, and proven solutions to the problems you run into every day–things other books ignore or oversimplify. This is the one book that you can rely on to answer the questions you have now and will have in the future.

In Depth offers

  • Comprehensive coverage with detailed solutions
  • Breakthrough techniques and shortcuts that are unavailable elsewhere
  • Practical, real-world examples with nothing glossed over or left out
  • Troubleshooting help for tough problems you can’t fix on your own
  • Outstanding authors recognized worldwide for their expertise and teaching style
  • Quick information via sidebars, tips, reminders, notes, and warnings

In Depth is the only tool you need to get more done in less time!

Includes coverage on blog creation, widget, plug-ins, themes, SEO, the WordPress.com platform, and WordPress.org software

About the Author

Bud Smith wrote his first book for Que about buying computers fifteen years ago–and had to do his online research for it using dial-up Internet. Since then, he’s lived and worked in Silicon Valley; London, England; Auckland and Christchurch New Zealand; and San Francisco and written a dozen more books. And he does most of his online work at broadband speeds–except when he’s using the Web on his cell phone, which is slower than his old dial-up modem. Bud runs a WordPress-based blog at gvDaily.com.

Michael McCallister is devoted to the idea that technology need not be feared and can be mastered by anyone. He has been writing about technology in general and open source software in particular, for the whole of the twenty-first century and part of the last century, too. He tries to help build the open source community, from which derives WordPress and so much else that is good, true, and pure in life (the parts of life that run on computers, anyway). While Bud has moved hither and yon, Michael has lived the relatively boring, stable life in the central United States (Milwaukee, Madison, and Boulder). Michael has been running “Notes from the Metaverse” on WordPress since 2006 at www.michaelmccallister.com.

Teach Yourself Visually WordPress (Paperback)

Teach Yourself Visually WordPress (Paperback)$19.79

Product Description

Get your blog up and running with WordPress

Are you itching to share your thoughts with the world through blogging but aren’t sure how? Teach Yourself VISUALLY WordPress introduces you to one of the most popular, easy-to-use blogging platforms: WordPress. This book’s clear directions and visual approach helps you to quickly get started in WordPress and then take full advantage of all its features. Janet Majure, an experienced and popular WordPress user, demonstrates key points with examples from her blogs.

  • Provides visual step-by-step instructions for creating and setting up a WordPress site
  • Explains how to create engaging written and visual content
  • Shares advice on customizing sites through use of plug-ins and themes and custom site editing
  • Details more advanced procedures for self-hosted bloggers, including buying a domain, getting a Web host, and installing WordPress

The blogosphere beckons! Teach Yourself VISUALLY WordPress Brimming with clear instructions and exciting ideas for building a successful blog on WordPress.

From the Back Cover

Are you a visual learner? Do you prefer instructions that show you how to do something — and skip the long-winded explanations? If so, then this book is for you. Open it up and you’ll find clear, step-by-step screen shots that show you how to tackle more than 130 WordPress tasks. Each task-based spread covers a single technique, sure to help you get up and running on WordPress in no time.

You’ll learn to:

  • Research blog names and topics

  • Customize your blog’s Dashboard

  • Create posts with text and media

  • Extend your options with widgets

  • Develop a comment policy

  • Troubleshoot and fix your blog

  • Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules

  • Succinct explanations walk you through step by step

  • Full-color screen shots demonstrate each task

  • Helpful sidebars offer practical tips and tricks

WordPress Complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress (Paperback)

WordPress Complete: A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress (Paperback)$35.99

Product Description

A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize, and market your blog using WordPress

  • Clear practical coverage of all aspects of WordPress
  • Concise, clear, and easy to follow, rich with examples
  • In-depth coverage of installation, themes, syndication, and podcasting

In Detail

WordPress is an open-source blog engine released under the GNU general public license. It allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing blogs and though it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. Its versality and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users.

If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will help you explore WordPress showing you what it offers and how to go about building your blog with the system.

You will be introduced to the main aspects of a blog – users, communities, posts, comments, news feeds – and learn how to manage them using WordPress. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content, be it text or images, on your blog, and also understand how users interact with the blog. In working through the book you’ll be inspired as well as informed, and have the capability and the ideas to make your blog cutting edge and exciting to maximize its impact.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Installing and configuring WordPress on a local development machine or a web hosting service
  • Managing posts and comments
  • Working with Image galleries, calendars, etc.
  • Organizing users and Communities
  • Creating and Installing themes to control the page layout
  • Linking to the outside world – Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting
  • Customizing Widgets and Plug-ins
  • Using WordPress as a regular CMS

Approach

Written in a clear, easy-to-read style, the book takes you through the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book.

Who this book is written for?

This book is a beginner’s guide to WordPress, for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.

About the Author

Hasin Hayder

Hasin Hayder graduated in Civil Engineering from the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) in Bangladesh. He is a Zend-certified Engineer and expert in developing localized applications. He is currently working as a Technical Director in Trippert Labs and managing the local branch in Bangladesh. Beside his full time job, Hasin writes his blog athasin.wordpress.com, writes article in different websites and maintains his open source framework Orchid at orchid.phpxperts.net. Hasin lives in Bangladesh with his wife Ayesha and his son, Afif.

WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner’s Guide (Paperback)

WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner’s Guide (Paperback)$35.39

Product Description

Build your own blog network with unlimited users and blogs, forums, photo galleries, and more!

  • Design, develop, secure, and optimize a blog network with a single installation of WordPress
  • Add unlimited users and blogs, and give different permissions on different blogs
  • Add social networking features to your blogs using BuddyPress
  • Create a bbPress forum for your users to communicate with each other
  • Part of Packt’s Beginner’s Guide Series, with step-by-step, detailed instructions for building a blog network from scratch

In Detail

WordPress MU enables you to build a complete, professional blog network. Each user gets their own blog, and can choose their favorite templates and plug-ins, and develop their own content. WordPress MU powers some of the largest blog networks in the world, including the mighty WordPress.com – home to thousands of bloggers.

This book will take you through the setup of a WordPress MU-powered blogging network, using a real, working blog network as an example, so that you can follow the creation process step-by-step. Your blogging network will be complete with professional features such as friends lists, status feeds, groups, forums, photo galleries, and more, to build your own WordPress.com – a place where users can quickly come and create a blog for themselves.

The book starts with a clean install of WordPress MU, and as you work through the book, you will build the blog network, and add on more and more features, all seamlessly integrated to achieve a professional, custom-built look.

You will find new themes and plug-ins added to the site, as well as customization of the WordPress multi-user code. The book will also look at ways you can manage your community, and keep your site safe and secure, ensuring that it is a spam-free, enjoyable community for your users. In the later chapters, you will add a forum using the bbPress script, and add BuddyPress social networking components to your site.

Imagine how good you’ll feel when your first WordPress multi-user blog network launches.

What you will learn from this book?

  • Set up and run your own blog network using the multi-user version of the most popular open source blogging platform
  • Monetize your blog network and earn revenue from using simple banner advertisements to paid upgrades and revenue sharing models
  • Give users a chance to interact with each other and build community spirit by integrating a forum with your site
  • Hook your blog network up to other social networking sites such as Twitter
  • Increase traffic to your site with tagging, trackbacks, pings, and RSS
  • Add popular features such as gravatars, polls, photo galleries, friends lists, and more
  • Secure your blog network, and protect it from spam with reCAPTCHA and Bad Behaviour
  • Implement backup and performance optimization techniques that will ensure that your blog network will be capable of handling large numbers of visitors

Approach

Packed with easy-to-follow examples and screenshots, this book is designed to be followed from beginning to end, although those with existing WordPress MU sites will be able to jump in at the later chapters and pick out the things that are important to them. The author’s expertise with creating a wide variety of WordPress sites enables her to share insights on using WordPress effectively, in a clear and friendly way. Those interested in digging further will be given the chance to customize their site further. Throughout the book, you will build up a blog network for Vampire Slayers-SlayerCafe.com, as an example.

Who this book is written for?

If you wish to manage multiple blogs and build a blog network, then this book is for you. You are not expected to be experienced with PHP coding. Some knowledge of HTML, and some experience with the blogging and social networking world will be helpful, but not essential.

About the Author

Lesley A. Harrison

Lesley Harrison is a freelance web developer and technology consultant with more than ten years experience in IT related fields. She began her IT career working in web design, before moving on to systems administration for a well-known tech support outsourcing company. She has been working in a freelance capacity since 2007, and spends most of her time working with content management systems, wikis, and blogging platforms. She is currently working on a `lifestyle learning’ project to encourage the use of games and technology in learning.

WordPress 2.8 E-Commerce (Paperback)

WordPress 2.8 E-Commerce (Paperback)$35.39

Product Description

Build a proficient online store to sell products and services

  • Earn huge profits by transforming WordPress into an intuitive and capable platform for e-Commerce
  • Build and control a vast product catalog to sell physical items and digital downloads
  • Configure and integrate various payment gateways into your store for your customers’ convenience
  • Promote and market your store online for increased profits
  • Follow a practical, step-by-step guide packed with screenshots to ensure your store is created and deployed successfully

In Detail

WordPress is easily one of the hottest platforms for building blogs and general web sites. With the addition of the WP e-Commerce plug-in, it’s also a competent platform for easily creating and running an online store, capable of selling physical items as well as services and digital downloads. WordPress with e-Commerce offers every feature that a seller and a customer may need. You can build an online store that makes it easier for the customers to find and buy products.

WordPress 2.8 e-Commerce focuses on the integration of WordPress with the WordPress e-Commerce plug-in, covering all aspects of building and developing an online store from scratch.

This book provides a simple, step-by-step approach to developing an effective online store. It guides you through your initial planning and first steps, plug-in installation and configuration, building your catalog of products to sell, accepting payments for your orders, and dealing with taxes and shipping. You will also learn how to promote and market your new store, handle customer accounts and staff roles, and deal with essential store security.

As you work through each chapter, your online store will grow in scope and functionality. By the time you finish this book, you will have a complete and working store, ready to release your products to the world.

What you will learn from this book

  • Tweak WordPress to build an adept, business-friendly online store
  • Install and configure WP e-Commerce and add products to your online catalog
  • Manage and sort your products with groups, categories, tags, and variations
  • making it easier for your customers to find any product
  • Automate the delivery of digital downloads after purchase ensuring the convenience of your customers
  • Create and manage user account roles and permissions for customers and staff
  • Brand your site by customizing WordPress themes
  • Accept payments using a variety of payment processors and automatically apply sales tax and shipping
  • Create your own customizable shipping rates and connect to shippers such as USPS and UPS
  • Secure your online store against attacks and data loss
  • Explore alternative e-Commerce plug-ins for WordPress

Approach

This book provides an easy to understand, step-by-step approach to installing, configuring, and using WP e-Commerce to run your online store. We will construct an example store in the book with enough information and flexibility to adapt the store to your specific needs.

Who this book is written for

This book is for you, if you are interested in using WordPress as the basis for a store that can sell physical items, downloads, or services.

It is ideal for a sole proprietor or small business owner with only basic, in-house technical skills. Some prior knowledge of WordPress will help, but is not required. No knowledge of PHP is expected, but it will also be helpful.

About the Author

Brian Bondari

Brian Bondari is a musician, composer, and teacher with equal loves for both music and technology. His hobbies include reading, hiking, composing music, and playing with his pet rabbit. He also spends an exorbitant amount of time lying on the floor grading papers.

Brian earned his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 2009 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Texas at Tyler. When he is not writing music or grading papers, he serves as Senior Editor for the multi-author technology blog, TipsFor.us.

Sites that Soar!: Magazine-style WordPress themes made easy (Paperback)

Sites that Soar!: Magazine-style WordPress themes made easy (Paperback)$14.95

Product Description

If you’d like a great looking, magazine-style website that’s easy to maintain, this is the book you need. Written by an artist, for artists (and anyone without much computer experience), this guide shows you how to work with FREE software to create a unique, WordPress-based website to showcase yourself, your art or your business. With step-by-step instructions in everday English and lots of screenshots, Aisling talks you through every aspect of creating your website and customizing it to suit your needs. Third edition, features entirely free software including Branford Magazine and WordPress. Works with WordPress versions through 2.9.

About the Author

Aisling D’Art is an artist, not a computer programmer. After setting up her own websites, she wrote this book for friends (and fellow artists) who — like her — aren’t technically-minded. The book was an instant success. Today, when Aisling’s not creating original art — art journals, art shrines, wearable art, and wild art dolls — she’s still using the “Sites that Soar!” design tips for her own websites. Aisling has been online since the mid-1990s, and she’s one of the original bloggers… long before anyone used the word “blog.”

Beginning WordPress 3 (Paperback)

Beginning WordPress 3 (Paperback)$26.99

Product Description

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging and content management web templating platforms—it easily allows you and your business to make a statement about yourself and what you do. WordPress is also quite cost-effective, as it’s free for just about anyone to use.

WordPress is colorful and flexible, and includes a variety of themes, templates, and plug-ins for you to explore and use. Beginning WordPress 3 aims to address these for the beginner who wants to start using and developing with WordPress.

  • This book is one of the first on the latest WordPress 3.0 engine.
  • With this book, you’ll learn about blogging, developing a blog, creating newsletters/papers, and managing/publishing this popular CMS.
  • The author, Stephanie Leary, brings you her expertise as a professional trainer and educator who has used WordPress extensively in education and more.

What you’ll learn

  • How to get started and import content for use in WordPress
  • How to change what appears on a home page, blog post, and more
  • How to handle media uploads, audio/video players, and podcasting
  • How to create forms, form plug-ins and more
  • How to publish, migrate, and move your WordPress sites

Who this book is for

This book is for first-time users, designers, and developers of online content, blogs, and content management systems.

About the Author

Stephanie Leary has been working with WordPress since 2004. She has presented an introduction to WordPress at the HighEdWeb conference for the last three years, and will teach a half-day workshop on using WordPress as a CMS at this year’s conference in early October.

Advanced WordPress Tutorials (CD-ROM)

Advanced WordPress Tutorials (CD-ROM)$24.95

Review

"I absolutely loved your videos. I can’t believe how simple you made it to learn from your tutorials. Thank you for such an excellent product." –Vickie C.

"I uploaded a new header image to my WordPress site but it was a little bigger than the one already in there. I spent days trying to find out how to make it fit and your video showed me in minutes. Thank you:" –Chubby

Product Description

10 Advanced WordPress Videos That Will Help Drive More Traffic, Make You More Money and Have a Better Looking Site.

Blog popularity is due in large part to blogs simplicity. Hosting companies have made setting up a personal site easy. Every one on the Internet no mater what level of technical proficiency is capable of setting up a blog.

But what if you re a little further along in the blog experience and are ready for a change? The more advanced steps are usually so technical and most people want to know how do I do it, not why.

As a trainer of WordPress we hear comments like this everyday

How do I change the link colors?

I want to put a different graphic in my header!

How can I play with the CSS code without a huge learning curve?

Can I post to my blog from my desktop?

How can I set up WordPress as a CMS site?

Well now all these and more are answered on 10 short 10 minute videos covering most of the different aspects that are usually answered with lots of technical jargon.

Watch over the shoulder of a professional WordPress Blogger as he shows you exactly how to do some of the more advanced techniques. No technical jargon, no hype just good old how to training videos.

Contents and video tutorials

Page 3 Changing a header graphic Sample
Page 5 Playing with CSS Style Sheets

Page 7 Inserting code and scripts

Page 9 Content Management CMS

Page 13 Auto Blogging and Content

Page 15 Graphics and logins

Page 17 Desktop Blogging

Page 19 RSS uses and stats

Page 24 404 pages Customize your error pages

Page 28 Widgets

Page 32 Resources and summary

Sample:

We believe in trying before you buy so here is a sample video you can download and watch or click here to stream it in your browser. All videos are downloadable and a free viewer is provided so you can watch the tutorials any time whether your online or not.

WordPress is not just blogging software any more but a complete website management tool that can allow anyone to create an attractive website.

With just a little extra knowledge you can make your average WordPress site into the professional web site that draws in customers, prospects and makes you look like a true professional. These tutorials are to give you the confidence to have a go. This CD contains 10 video tutorials plus a workbook to teach you advanced techniques with wordpress.

These 10 Video Tutorials Will Teach You:
1. Changing a header graphic
2. Playing with CSS Style Sheets
3. Inserting code and scripts
4. Content Management CMS
5. Plugins
6. Graphics and logins
7. Desktop Blogging
8. RSS uses and stats
9. 404 pages Customize your error pages
10. Widgets

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself — Minutes) (Paperback)

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself — Minutes) (Paperback)$10.19

Product Description

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes

Chuck Tomasi

Kreg Steppe

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes gives you straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results. By working through its 10-minute lessons, you’ll learn everything you need to build great blogs with WordPress and WordPress.org, and reach any audience by web browser, RSS, or cell phone!

Tips point out shortcuts and solutions

Cautions help you avoid common pitfalls

Notes provide additional information

Plain English definitions explain new terms

10 minutes is all you need to learn how to…

  • Quickly build blogs for free with WordPress.com
  • Customize your blog to fit your message
  • Create powerful text, audio, and video content
  • Moderate comments and build communities
  • Set up RSS feeds
  • Host your own blog with WordPress.org software
  • Deliver content via iPhone and BlackBerry
  • Streamline publishing with third-party tools

Register your book at informit.com/register for convenient access to updates and corrections as they become available.

Category:  Internet

Covers:  WordPress

User Level:  Beginning

About the Author

Chuck Tomasi

is an IT manager for Plexus Corp., a contract electronics company headquartered in Neenah, Wisconsin. He has almost 30 years of IT experience and is also a devoted husband and proud father of two. Chuck is an accomplished writer and public

speaker on New Media. His first book, Podcasting for Dummies (co-written with Tee Morris and Evo Terra), was ranked #1 by Neilsen BookScan in its category. He is a regular contributing writer to the Friends In Tech and Tech Talk for Families blogs. Chuck is a pioneer

in podcasting who began working with the media in 2004 when it was still in its infancy. He is the co-host of the light-hearted weekly tech/science podcast Technorama, which was a finalist in two categories at the 2007 Parsec Awards for podcasting excellence. He also produces and hosts the Gmail Podcast, a collection of short audio tips. As a speaker, Chuck has led training sessions on podcasting for the National Park Service, spoken at the New Media Expo on how to build listener loyalty, presented a session at the National HDI (Help Desk Instutite) conference on effective customer communications, and done numerous presentations for his local HDI chapter. Chuck is also the founder, host, and regular presenter for Fox Cities Managers, a local group of professionals dedicated to leadership excellence in northeast Wisconsin. Find out more about Chuck at http://www.chucktomasi.com.

Kreg Steppe

has 20 years of experience as an IT professional. Kreg is a husband and father of one. He has several interests in creative writing, photography, audio production, and web application development. Currently working as a web developer, he has 10 years

experience with web technologies including HTML, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, Apache, and IIS. His work leads him to create rich and robust solutions including writing a custom intranet, extranet, and workflow applications. He is also a podcasting early adopter. In late 2004, as podcasting started to get recognition, Kreg became involved with several podcasts, emerging as a consummate assistant to budding podcasters. In early 2005 Kreg joined Chuck Tomasi and launched Technorama, a podcast with a lighthearted look at all things tech and sci-fi. Working on Technorama, and as a member of Friends In Tech podcasting group, Kreg has had several years of audio production experience including creative writing, coordination logistics, and editing. Most recently, Kreg spoke at Create South 2009 regarding “Sharing Your Photography and Social Media” as an amateur photographer and with an interest in social networking (http://www.kregsteppe.com).

Wordpress and Flash 10x Cookbook (Paperback)

Wordpress and Flash 10x Cookbook (Paperback)$39.99

Product Description

Over 50 simple but incredibly effective recipes to take control of dynamic Flash content in Wordpress

  • Learn how to make your WordPress blog or website stand out with Flash
  • Embed, encode, and distribute your video content in your Wordpress site or blog
  • Build your own .swf files using various plugins
  • Develop your own Flash audio player using audio and podcasting plugins
  • Filled with many useful and efficient recipes with many screenshots and well explained code to ensure that if you open any recipe in the book you will be able to follow it without going through the previous recipes

In Detail

WordPress is much more than just a blogging platform now. This flexible CMS is the power behind millions of URLs, including blue-chip companies, small business, and personal websites. Flash is a world-famous multimedia platform. This book will show you the best of the proven and popular strategies and techniques to deliver rich multimedia content, which will let you sail through the world of Flashy Wordpress with ease.

This book will take you through clear well-formed and comprehensive recipes, through the most essential and useful Flash multimedia tools for Wordpress available today including plugins for images, audio and video, as well as projects you can do yourself in Flash. It helps you to create a Wordpress website full of Flash content. We show the big picture by providing context, best practices and strategies. Detailed instructions are provided for each section.

This book provides you with the shortlist of the most essential Flash tools for creating a dynamic and media-rich website or blog, and shows you how to implement these on your site. The sections on Flash are intended to give you the option to create custom .swf files, giving you an alternative to plugins that already exist. The book will show you how to configure Flash content in your WordPress site/blog for maximum SEO, introduce Flash content to your Wordpress with and without plugins, import image feeds, use lightbox effects, and much more.

Easy-to-follow recipes showing you how to use WordPress, plugins, and Flash animations to create a complete user experience, including: audio, video, slideshows, image galleries, and more

What you will learn from this book

  • Embed SWF files with the Kimili plugin
  • Add Flash Detection when you embed a SWF without a plugin
  • Configure WordPress and maximize search engine optimization
  • Use the Flickr plugin and WordPress Multibox plugin for your images
  • Create your own effects, watermarks, image gallery, and slideshow from scratch with Flash
  • Use the NextGen Gallery plugin for image thumbnails, watermarking, and galleries
  • Embed FLV files in WordPress
  • Set up video blogging using WebTV Plugin and the Free WP Tube Theme
  • Encode video files with the Adobe Media Encoder
  • Use the audio plugins WPAudio Player, µAudio, and PodPress
  • Add sound effects to a button and the timeline in Flash
  • Stream sound and create/code your own On/Off music button and an MP3 player
  • Using preset Flash skins
  • Create a Custom Quote Rotator using XML and ActionScript in Flash
  • Use and configure these plugins: WP-Cumulus Plugin, Tagnetic Poetry Plugin, Flexi Quote Rotator Plugin, WP sIFR Plugin, XML Google Maps Plugin, Datafeedr Random Ads Plugin, and WP Flash Feed Scroll Reader Plugin
  • Customize WordPress themes
  • Create animations and buttons in Flash

Approach

This book consists of a series of easy-to-follow recipes. Each recipe stands on its own, so you can open the book to any recipe and complete it without going through the previous recipes. You can work through the book from start to end or just choose the recipes most applicable to your needs and situation. The book presents recipes of varying difficulty levels so that there is something for everyone from a beginner to an advanced WordPress user. Detailed screenshots, code examples, and links to additional resources supplement the concise instructions.

Who this book is written for

If you are a Wordpress user interested in creating multimedia-rich websites and blogs using Flash then this book is perfect for you. This book caters for site administrators and web developers, who have experience using Flash aand Wordpress.

About the Author

Peter Spannagle

Peter Spannagle is a WordPress Consultant and technology trainer, specializing in client-side coding, design using the Adobe Creative Suite, and online marketing. He is based in Oakland, California and works with clients in the San Francisco Bay Area, statewide, nationally, and internationally. In over 12 years of consulting experience he has enjoyed working with small businesses, non-profits, green businesses, artists, and independent professionals. He invites you to contact him for help with your next WordPress project.

Sarah Soward

Sarah Soward develops the curriculum for and teaches the Adobe Creative Suite and design theory at the Bay Area Video Coalition. She has 5 years experience as a technology trainer and is Adobe Certified. She specializes in creating web and print collateral for small businesses and non-profits. She is the Art Director for The Pagan Alliance, a non-profit organization, and a working fine artist (oil painting and drawing). In addition to teaching Flash, she is also an expert in the use of Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Using WordPress (Paperback)

Using WordPress (Paperback)$16.49

Product Description

Get comfortable with WordPress fast, with this media-rich, customized, hands-on learning experience!

  • Covers the upcoming release of a major upgrade to Wordpress, Wordpress 2.9
  • Tightly integrated with online video, screencast tutorials, podcasts, and more: the total learning experience for new Wordpress users
  • Companion website provides supplemental media including video, screencasts tutorials, podcasts, and much more.
  • WordPress has grown into the #1 blogging tool in its category: several million bloggers have downloaded this powerful open source software, and millions more are using WordPress.com’s hosted services. Thirty-two of Technorati’s Top 100 blogs now use WordPress. Using Wordpress is a customized, media-rich learning experience designed to help new users master Wordpress quickly, and get the most out of it, fast! It starts with a concise, friendly, straight-to-the-point guide to Wordpress. This exceptional book is fully integrated with an unprecedented collection of online learning resources: online video, screencasts, podcasts, and additional web content, all designed to reinforce key concepts and help users achieve real mastery. The book and online content work together to teach everything mainstream Wordpess users need to know. This practical, approachable coverage guides readers through getting started fast; and will cover the upcoming release of Wordpress 2.9. This major upgrade will include built-in image editor and the ability to host multiple blogs from one WordPress install.

    About the Author

    Tris Hussey is a speaker, former training manager, charter member of the Professional Bloggers Association, and Special Projects Manager for Media 2.0. He has been a blogger since 2004, and was one of Canada’s first professional bloggers. The author of thousands of posts and articles on social media and blogging, he was named one of Vancouver’s top 20 social media people. He is also a professional photographer.

    How to make money with Web 2.0: Facebook, Digg, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, WordPress (Paperback)

    How to make money with Web 2.0: Facebook, Digg, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, WordPress (Paperback)$9.99

    Product Description

    This book is… – about making money on social networks – presented in a format of questions & answers – containing 6 interviews with experts on each website – not a magic pill for making millions – fair try to start earning internet money – hopefully another cash flow source for you – an open door to internet marketing world – perfect for newbies, dummies or blondes – okay for newbie-dummy blonde – written as a college assignment – the result of Research Project class – inspired by class teacher, David Gannon – created with help from Azamat Esenamanov – another experiment from Yusuf Gubaydullin – one of the shortest books in your collection – something you’ll leave once in your bathroom forever – knowledge that can make you money every day – waiting for you to read it