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Make A Website Using WordPress In One Hour

Jun 14
Sun 7:00 PM
Location
Arlington Central Library - Auditorium

1015 N Quincy St
Arlington, VA 22201
703-228-5990

Estimated attendance
 76  people attended.
4.50 4.5018

Who organized?
Kady and Paul

The location is finalized - the library has lots of parking and is 3 blocks from the Ballston metro stop.

This event came about after I showed someone how to set up a website using WordPress for use that was not really a blog. People generally don't realize how easy it is to do their own website. WordPress is seen as a blog platform, and we'll cover that, along with how to set up a site whether or not the goal is blogging.

In addition, group member Dean Hua has agreed to help out and will be covering areas that he's posted here related to WordPress plugins. Dean is Chief Web Evangelist of Sachi Studio- a web design and online marketing consultancy. Sachi helps businesses explore the new digital goldrush with service offerings of web and blog design, logo design, and Smart Social Media Strategies."

We will create a new website for a new domain name using WordPress, showing how to take the default initial site into a functioning site suitable for an organization (business, non-profit, etc.) or a blog. This will include:


  • Install of WordPress (either manual or automated via CPanel, etc.)
  • Taking the fresh install and creating additional pages & first post
  • Finding & installing a better theme (template) than the default one
  • Selecting the theme and customizing (including widgets)
  • Other website settings to consider
  • How to operate the WordPress-based site going forward
  • Tips on website promotion for a new (or existing) website

General Order Of Segments:
(A) Basics of Websites/Wordpress/Blogging
(B) Setting up a live site
(C) Initial configuring
(D) Updating content
(E) Customization: themes, plugins
(F) Q & A
(G) Networking

Q&A and networking to follow the demonstration. The Library closes at 9pm, and the event should end by 8:45pm.

No cost to attend this event.

If anyone has a projector to offer (or one as a backup), please let the organizer know. Update: Turns out the library says they have a projector, so we should be okay.

We are not associated with WordPress (but are fans!).

Learn more WordPress: Also, an all-day conference & learning opportunity is coming to this area on May 16 - WordCamp Mid-Atlantic
(Ticket url: http://wordcampmidatl....

Photos of this Meetup

See all photos

Talk about this Meetup

  • Elisabeth Baker
    Posted Jun 20, 2009 5:34 PM
    Elisabeth Baker
    Greetings! Can one of my brilliant meetup colleagues help me out? I've installed MAMP on my Mac and I have all the WordPress files in place, ready to install them--but I get an error that has apparently stopped several other people as well: http://wordpress.org/suppor... That makes it look like I can't really just install/configure WordPress on my local machine and see it all work--I have to negotiate something with my ISP. Is that true or am I misunderstanding? Thanks!
  • Paul
    Posted Jun 14, 2009 11:13 PM
    Paul
    Organizer
    Thanks Noah! And the live-stream did not work out, but I will make screen captures of the same process and put them online for people to view. Details will be sent out (may be a week or two). Posting photos in a minute...
  • Noah Wolfe
    Posted Jun 14, 2009 7:30 PM
    Noah Wolfe
    If anyone needs an outlet I brought a power strip and I'm plugged in next to the windows. Come on by!
  • Pre-Meetup comments below
  • Valerie
    Posted Jun 14, 2009 8:39 AM
    Valerie
    Excellent - much appreciated!!!! Thanks, Paul.
  • Paul
    Posted Jun 13, 2009 10:37 PM
    Paul
    Organizer
    I've successfully tried 3 different ways of streaming the event live - Livestream (Mogulus), uStream, and YouTube's web cam streaming. An update will go out to the "Yes" and "Maybe" RSVP'ers with the url around the time of the start of the event.
  • acj07
    Posted Jun 9, 2009 12:41 PM
    acj07
    do you still need a projector?
  • Valerie
    Posted Jun 7, 2009 6:19 PM
    Valerie
    Were you able to setup a real-time stream of the meet-up?

Who attended?

  • 76 attendees
    • “ Learned a lot in an hour and a half! Thank you to Paul and Dean. ”
    • “ Loved the list of must have widgets! Thanks. ”
    • “ Excellent! I sure appreciated the fellow who brought an extension cord that could support several laptop power cords!! ”
    • Lu
      “ This was a great introductory meetup. I would like to see this progress on and let participants also show what they have learned. ”
    • “ Learned a ton, well worth it. Thanks for having the event on a Sunday so I could make the trek from Baltimore ”
    • “ thanks to everyone for coming. glad this was helpful for alot of the attendees. ”
    • “ Great info! Although I already have a WP blog, I came away with some tips. ”
    • “ Extremely helpful! ”
    • “ i liked the development side of it! it would've been great if we'd gotten a little deeper into design after the initial setup. that'd be great for the next meetup. ”
    • “ Good practical info packed into a short time. A little chaotic at first but settled down nicely -- it was valuable, worth attending. And thanks for snacks, a nice touch. ”
    • “ Excellent, practical, to-the-point. Presenters did a great job of speaking to newbies and developers. ”
    • “ IF you are having other Wordpress sessions, please let me know. ”
    • “ It was a good introduction to the Wordpress package. Hoping that there will be some future sessions dealing with implementation. Keep up the good work!! ”
    • “ while presenters were well intentioned and certainly knowledgeable, this meeting was not really helpful. didn't learn anything. thought they were really going to build website or give more useful tips or tricks. ”
    • Eli
    • Bryan : D (+1 guest)
    • Joe
    • TOM
    • Duc
    • Cesar Moran (+1 guest)
Organized by
Paul
email me
Asst. Organizers:
H. Dean, Kady, Moses

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