WordPress Resources: the Ultimate Guide

Everything you need to develop yourskills and career with WordPress

Rachel McCollin

>learn-wp

Contents Introduction 11.Creating A WordPress Site 22.Configuring Your Site 23.Content Creation and Management 34.Site Management 45. Learning to Code for WordPress 46. Theme Development 57. Plugin Development 68. Content Types and the Database 69. Customizing the WordPress Admin 710. Applications of WordPress 7Summary 8Copyright 9

Introduction Welcome to this book of resources for WordPress.

This book is designed to give you a comprehensive list of resources and links you can use to develop your WordPress skills. It covers all levels, so it’ll be useful for you if:

• You’re just starting out with WordPress and want to create a site.

• You’ve been given the job of maintaining or managing a website, by your employer or an organisation you volunteer for.

• You want to use a WordPress site to market your business, sell products or increase your brand awareness.

• You want to learn how to write code for WordPress, maybe a theme or plugin.

• You want to develop your WordPress coding skills or learn new skills such as the REST API or Object Oriented PHP.

• You’re pursuing a career with WordPress and need to develop your skills.

So whatever level you’re at, and whatever you want WordPress to do for you, there will be something here.

If I’ve written an article or tutorial on a subject or created a course or video, the link will go to that. If it’s not something I’ve created any content on, I’ve linked to a source I’m confident you can trust to be reliable and accurate.

I’ll be updating this booklet on a regular basis, so if you didn’t get it from my website, I suggest you join my academy at learn-wp.net/academy so you receive an update when it comes out.

You’ll also receive weekly WordPress tips and resources, all designed to help you develop your WordPress skills.

Cheers,Rachel.

Rachel McCollin, WordPress developer and teacherlearn-wp.net

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1.Creating A WordPress Site Everyone starts somewhere with WordPress, and for many of us it’s with installing our first site. You might be working on a site that’s already been installed, maybe by your employer or hosting provider. But if you have to do it yourself, these resources will help.

Getting Started

• The difference between wordpress.com and self hosted WordPress sites

• Choosing a hosting provider

• Installing WordPress using a script

• The famous five minute install - installing WordPress manually

Site Admin

• Logging into WordPress

• A guide to the WordPress admin screens

Your Development Environment

• How to install WordPress locally

• Migrating from development to live

• Keeping your live and staging sites in sync

2.Configuring Your Site

Plugins and Themes

• The WordPress theme directory and plugin directory

• Choosing and installing a theme

• Ultimate guide to theme frameworks

• Essential plugins

Site Settings

• A guide to site settings

• Writing settings Page �2

• Reading settings

• Discussions and commenting

• How WordPress handles media

• Pretty permalinks

• Managing users

Widgets and Navigation

• Adding widgets to your site

• Creating a navigation menu

• Adding custom navigation menus

3.Content Creation and Management

Creating Content

• Posts and pages - what’s the difference?

• Planning and managing content

• Writing content that engages with your audience

• Scheduling content in advance

• Categories and tags

• Custom fields and post metadata

Building Your Audience

• Sharing content and engaging with your audience

• SEO the definitive guide

• Making it easy for users to share your content

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4.Site Management

Security

• Hardening WordPress

• Guide to WordPress security

• Setting up SSL

Backing Up

• Backup plugins reviewed

• The importance of easy restoration

Performance

• Enhancing site performance

• Why it’s important to keep your site up to date

Creating a Network with Multisite

• Ultimate guide to Multisite

• Activating Multisite

• Site and user registration

• Domain mapping

• Creating a community

• Monetizing Multisite

5. Learning to Code for WordPress

Introduction to WordPress code

• How WordPress works

• PHP for WordPress

• The WordPress coding standards

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6. Theme Development

Introduction to theme development

• WordPress theme development

• Theme development in detail

• Creating your first theme

• Theme template files

• The template hierarchy

• Including files with get_template_part()

• The functions file

Child Themes

• Creating a child theme

• Functions and child themes

• Template files and child themes

Theme Template Files in More Detail

• Creating custom archive template files

• Creating custom page template files

• Customizing your front page with a theme template

• Coding queries and loops

The Customiser

• Using the theme customizer

• Making your themes customizer-ready

Responsive Theme Development

• Introduction to responsive web design

• Make your theme responsive

• Create a mobile-first theme

• WordPress mobile development

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7. Plugin Development

Getting Started

• When to use functions.php and when to use a plugin

• Code your first plugin

Functions and Hooks

• Guide to writing functions

• Action and filter hooks - what’s the difference?

• Adding hooks to your theme

• Attaching functions to hooks

Shortcode and Widget Plugins

• Writing a shortcode plugin

• Creating a widget

8. Content Types and the Database

Custom Content Types

• Custom post types explained

• Registering custom post types

• Taxonomies, categories and tags

• Registering custom taxonomies

Metadata

• Introduction to custom fields

• Displaying custom fields in your site

The WordPress Database

• Overview of the database

• Creating tables in the WordPress database Page �6

Custom Queries

• Five methods for creating custom queries (including one you shouldn’t use)

• Complete guide to WP_Query

• Using pre_get_posts

9. Customizing the WordPress Admin • Customizing the login screen

• Customizing the dashboard

• Branding the admin screens

• Creating metaboxes

• Adding help content

10. Applications of WordPress

Blogging and Writing

• Want to Make Money From Your WordPress Blog? You Need a Niche

• Making Money From Your Blog: Site Configuration and Preparation

• Making Money From Your Blog: Producing The Right Content

• Making Money From Your Blog: Engaging With Your Audience

• Making Money From Your Blog: Seeing the Money Roll In

• WordPress for Writers

E-commerce

• Get started with WooCommerce

• WooCommerce in detail

• Developing a WooCommerce theme

• WooCommerce grouped products and attributes - which to use?

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Business

• Building a Hosting business with Multisite

• Create a landing page template

• Setting your freelance rates

• Business skills for freelance developers

Careers

• How to become a WordPress professional

• Ways to make a living with WordPress

• Where to find a WordPress job

• What to consider before becoming a freelance web developer

Summary

I hope you found this round-up of resources useful.

To get resources like this in your inbox every week, as well as links to the best new WordPress resources and ideas and discounts on my future books, please join my academy at learn-wp.net/academy.

And if there’s anything you’d like me two write about, get in touch - I’m on twitter as @rachelmcwrites.

Cheers,Rachel.

Rachel McCollin, WordPress developer and teacherlearn-wp.net

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Copyright

Copyright © 2018 by Rachel McCollin

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Edition 1.0

Published by learn-wp learn-wp.net

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