We’re thrilled to offer this class!

Reinvent Your Site and Control Your Content

Hands-on WordPress Workshop – Build it in two hours

Whether you have an existing website or not,  your company needs an Internet presence that is reaching and connecting with your target customers. In this class we will build a WordPress blog or webpage in one morning and show you what this incredible, flexible and powerful tool can do for you. As a result of this class you will be able to expand your website, manage your content and update your virtual presence at the same speed as your company evolves.

About Your Teacher: Few people have the expertise of Steven Stern of SternData. He has a background as CIO and CTO in association management, higher education, commercial education, franchising,  and commercial real estate. This class will be easy to understand and implement.

When:  Saturday, January 29th

Where:  CoOffice Connect (www.Co-OfficeConnect.com)

1409 W. Morse Avenue, Chicago 60626

Free parking at Ashland and Morse – and very close to the Red Line

Time: 10 am – noon

Cost: $ 75 for Big Ooga members $99 for non-members

RSVP and to purchase tickets, please email Lennie@BigOoga.com or call 708-524-4562.

Only 12 seats are open – so act fast!

BRING: Your Laptop – this will be hands-on! We will form a learning pod, post class to make sure you gain this skill. If you need a private virtual WordPress coach, we’ve got that for you too!

Big Ooga is dedicated to raising happy, healthy companies!

Course Outline

Building your WordPress Website

Steven Stern / steve@sterndata.com / http://sstern.wordpress.com / 773.234.8196

This two hour session covers both the theory and practice of building and maintaining a website on WordPress.com. Bring a notebook computer and you’ll have a working website by the end of the session!

Theory:

• A internet presence is necessary. That’s given.
  • What are your goals?
  • Should I have a blog, a “static” page site, or a hybrid?
  • How does this relate to social networks?
• Expectations
  • Think “agile”.
  • Avoid sunk-cost thinking
• Content, content, content
  • Communication
  • Connection
• WordPress.com vs. other WordPress hosts; hosting in general

Practice:

• A walk around Wordpress.com
• Creating your account
• A little bit on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Creating a really basic website
  • Pages
  • Posts
  • Menus
  • Categories, tags,and other aids to navigation
• Choosing and changing theme
  • Page layout, readability, colors
  • What is a theme
  • Theme characteristics
  • Using the theme search and filter tool
  • Customizing a theme
• Using the WordPress dashboard
  • Widgets
    • Tag Clouds
    • The very useful text widget
    • Subscription
    • Feeds
    • Other widgets
  • The Appearance controls
  • Site Settings
  • Sharing tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Ongoing maintenance tasks
  • Post new material
  • Moderate/approve comments
  • Review new themes
  • Read WP announcements
• Evaluating your site
  • Analytics
  • Feedback
  • Comments
• Taking your site public
  • Applying a custom domain name
  • Using the custom domain for email
  • Promoting your site – getting found

Practicum:

• Let’s build a site for someone…. Volunteers?