My friends know I’m a WordPress fan. So naturally, they often ask me, “How do I start learning WordPress?” For the longest time, there was never a book or article that I could refer people to. So I’ve decided to write this post, outlining a complete plan for learning WordPress.
White Belt: Beginner WordPress
Right now, the most important thing for you to learn is simply how to install WordPress. Here’s a great tutorial video by the team at ThinkTraffic.net. They use HostGator, a popular and well-regarded web hosting company (avoid GoDaddy at all costs).
How to Set Up a Blog in 8 Minutes:
Yellow Belt: Pre-Intermediate WordPress
This is the meatiest part, learning the nuts and bolts of doing the most common tasks in WordPress. There’s a ton of tutorial videos at WordPress.tv. They’ve got everything from how to write posts, install themes, install plugins, and more. I’ve linked to videos in their “how to” category.
You’ll need to get another theme give your blog a different look from the default theme.
WordPress Free Themes Directory: The official place to get free themes. They have an active review team that checks for spam and viruses. Be careful about downloading free themes from anywhere else.
Blue Belt: Intermediate WordPress
You’re tired of free themes and are willing to spend a little money to have a website that looks more professional. Here are the places you should buy from.
ThemeForest: A huge marketplace of stunning WordPress themes. Individual designers and firms sell a wide variety of themes. The overwhelming selection can be a disadvantage. It’s easy to waste hours looking at themes (speaking from experience).
Every theme has a different dashboard, too. Although you might get comfortable with the control panel of one theme, the next theme you buy will have a different control panel. That’s why it can be more convenient to buy themes from one company.
Woo Themes: One of the first companies to sell themes full-time. All of their themes are built on their own proprietary Woo framework. Once you’ve used one Woo theme, you’ll know how to use all their other themes.
Elegant Themes: Living up to the name, this company has sleek, clean designs.
Brown Belt: Advanced WordPress
If you’ve made it to this stage, you’ve probably realized that you can’t rely on regular themes and plugins. You’re ready to invest in buying premium theme frameworks and plugins to take your blog to the next level.
Premium Themes
Thesis theme: Created by Chris Pearson, this is supposed to be one of the best themes out there for customization and SEO.
Genesis framework: Created by the team behind Copyblogger, it’s a solid competitor to Thesis.
Premium Plugins
Max Blog Press: This company makes a number of WordPress plugins to help you monetize your blog.
OIO Publisher: Manage and sell ad space on your blog.
Aweber: E-mail marketing firm. After you register, you can use a plugin to add sign-up forms on your blog so readers can subscribe to your e-mail list. A large and responsive mailing list is a marketer’s main way to make money online.
Black Belt: Expert WordPress
To be honest, it’s not necessary to reach this level if you only want to make money. However, if you want to take full control of your site, here’s what you need to know.
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML: HTML and CSS are the building block languages of web design. This book is the best resource I’ve found for starting to understand how websites work.
Head First PHP & MySQL: WordPress is written in the PHP programming language and uses a MySQL database. You’ll need to know these if you want to create your own themes and plugins.
ThemeShaper: This is a blog run by the theme team at Automattic, the company that supports WordPress.
Professional WordPress Plugin Development: A book by some of the top WordPress programmers in the community.
Photo: WordPress t-shirt. Andrew Abogado / Flickr.