Whether it is to tell more about yourself, supercharge your career, or promote your business, having your own website is becoming more and more appealing with each passing day. And this drives demand for web designers/developers.
Whether you’re interested in building websites for clients in the long run or simply to build your own personal or business website, this introductory course will set you on the right path even if you know nothing about building a website, and even if you have no idea what web hosting means.
This course is designed especially for beginners, but even people who know a few things about web design and development can increase their knowledge by taking this course.
A Few Facts About WordPress
WordPress emerged as a blogging platform in the early 2000s, but it has morphed into a full-fledged website design and development tool.
Through the use of readily available third-party plugins, WordPress can be used to build almost any kind of website.
WordPress is now the most popular website design and development tool in the world. About 43% of websites online were built with WordPress, and that figure is steadily going upwards.
Why Learn WordPress:
Getting a job. In order to get a job online, more and more companies are requiring that you have knowledge of WordPress.
Boundless opportunities. If you have the entrepreneurial spirit, you can create an online business after advancing your WordPress skills further.
Become a professional web designer/developer. After learning the basics, hone your skills, study some more, and start building websites for clients for a fee. The market is steadily expanding with each passing day.
Build your own website. Paying a professional to build your website can cost you an arm and a leg. Learn the basics of WordPress web development and take matters into your own hands.
Get a new hobby. And what’s better than a hobby that’s trending and makes you more tech-savvy?
Why Choose this Course?
There are many WordPress courses and tutorials being offered on in the internet. But not all WordPress Courses are created equal. One of the factors which sets this one apart from the rest is the fact that it will give you face-to-face contact with a REAL TEACHER. This course will be offered in a real classroom setting, not online. You will get direct contact with your tutor to ask questions, clear up doubts, and make sure you get through each lesson successfully.
Requirements for Taking this Course
A computer (laptop or desktop) with an internet connection.
A desire to build an actual website, example: www.yourname.com or www.yourbusiness.com.
A credit or debit card to pay for domain name registration and website hosting.
Costs
The cost of tuturing for this course is $20,000 GY or $100 USD per student. The course runs for 4 weeks (5 days per week, 1 hour per day). In addition to the cost of tutoring, you will need to pay for domain name registration for the website you will be building. A domain name costs an estimated $15 US per year. You will also need to pay for website hosting. Website hosting costs from $10 to $50 USD per month depending on how much traffic your website receives. You would be well advised to start with the lowest plan and increase it as the website gets more popular.
What Kind of Website Can You Create?
Once you master the art of creating websites with WordPress, what you can create is only limited by your imagination. Here are some examples:
An online store. WordPress has all the functionalities to create online stores that sell anything from a pin to an anchor, both physical and digital products.
A personal blog. Create a personal WordPress blog to tell more about yourself and chronicle your thoughts on just about anything from your career goals to your favorite movies.
An E-Mazagine. Printed magazines are a dying breed. They are constantly being replaced by the online version. With your WordPress skills, you can create an electronic magazine on any subject in the world.
A News Site. Just like printed magazines, printed newspapers are now going out of style. Social media features like Facebook Pages can only do so much. After learning WordPress, you can create your very own news website like you’ve always dreamed.
A business website. If you already have your own business and you’d just like to create a website to feature your business, products, services, working hours, and contact information…then that’s perfectly fine.
These are just a few examples. In fact, what you can do with your newfound WordPress Skills is limited only to your imagination.
Please note that this 1-month course is introductory and guides you through building a basic website. After completing this course, you will need to increase your knowledge through YouTube videos, online articles, etc. in order to become more proficient in WordPress so that you can build more advanced websites.
Location
This course will be delivered in a classroom setting in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. To take this course, you must be living in or around Georgetown.
Date and Time
This course is expected to commence sometime in August 2023. The exact date is still tentative. However, we will contact you shortly after you sign up to give you the exact date and time of the course. This 1 month course will most likely be run in the afternoon hours after 5 PM. However, we may adjust our time after consulting with students.
Course Contents
Lesson 1 – Your Domain Name
Registering your domain name is the first step to building your website. There are many domain name “registrars” on the internet. In this lesson, we will explore some options for registering a domain name. We’ll also explore:
What is a Domain Name
How Domain Names are Formed
Hyphens in domain names
Country-specific domain names
How to choose the right domain name extension
Lesson 2 – Website Hosting
Now that you’ve registered your domain name, it’s time to move to the next step: hosting your domain name. We’ll explore the world’s top webhosts in order to help you make the right choice. I’ll also give you my personal recommendation of a web hosting provider, but it’s your choice whether to choose them or go with another. In this lesson, we’ll also explore:
A look inside Cpanel
Registering your website on the host server
Configuring your Domain Name Servers
Lesson 3 – Installing WordPress
WordPress is the software we will use to build your website. It’s completely free, industry-standard, and open source. In this lesson, we will install WordPress on your domain name so that you can start building your website using this amazing software.
Lesson 4 – Logging in to Your WordPress Dashboard
Now that you’ve installed WordPress, it’s time to start building. In this lesson, we’ll look at how to create a strong username and password which you will use to log into your WordPress Dashboard. You’ll also learn how to log in and out of WordPress and how to prevent hackers from accessing your WordPress Dashboard.
Lesson 5 – Choosing a Theme
Your WordPress theme gives your website its “look and feel” and its color scheme. The WordPress repository has thousands of themes to choose from. In this lesson, we’ll browse the theme and guide you towards choosing one suitable for the type of website you are building.
Lesson 6 – Creating Your First WordPress Page
Pages and posts are two of the primary elements of a WordPress website. You’re reading this article on a WordPress post, but a post is not too different from a page. In this lesson, you’ll learn the difference between a WordPress Page and a WordPress Post, and when to create which one.
Lesson 7 – Creating Your First WordPress Post
While posts and pages each have their uses and merits, the driving force behind a WordPress website are the posts. About 90% of the time, a user chooses to create a post instead of a page. Posts are more dynamic and feature-rich than pages and is the better option if your website is going to contain tons of contents.
Lesson 8 – Installing a Few Plugins
The WordPress Software along with the theme you chose are only the backbone of your WordPress Website. To make your website do a lot more, you need to install a few “plugins.” In this lesson, you will learn what plugins are and how they can enhance your website. We’ll also install a few “essential” plugins.
Lesson 9 – Capturing Subscribers
It takes time, skill, and effort to attract visitors to your website. These visitors can easily convert into customers who buy your product or service, or who come back to read more of your content. However, due to the flurry of information online, and the fact that people are often busy, your visitor may forget how to return to your website after closing it. And that’s where capturing subscribers come into play. We’ll explore options for turning visitors into repeat visitors by sending them an email or newsletter from time to time – without overdoing it of course.
Lesson 10 – Comments
Get your visitors to talk back. On every page or post you create on your WordPress Website, you say a mouthful. But how does your reader feel about what you say? By allowing your visitors to leave a comment, you get valuable feedback that you can use to improve your content, product, or service. WordPress comes with a very basic comment form. It is strongly recommended that you install and configure a third-party plugin to make the WordPress comment form a lot more appealing. We’ll discuss the “WP Discuz” comments form plugin in this lesson.
Lesson 11 – The WordPress Dashboard
You’re doing pretty well so far. But let’s slow down a little bit and take a look around our WordPress Dashboard. Let’s take a look at the many menu items and what they are used for.
Lesson 12 – Jetpack Stats
It’s really great to know how many visitors landed on your website yesterday, and where they came from. Jetpack Stats helps with this. In this lesson, we’ll explore how to install and configure Jetpack Stats so you can get an idea how popular your website is and how its growing.
Lesson 13 – Connecting with Facebook
Facebook is a growing community of millions, perhaps billions of people. In this lesson, we’ll explore how to create a Facebook Page and link it to your website, and also how to link your website to your Facebook Page. You’ll also learn how to post content from your website to your Facebook Page.
Lesson 14 – The Media Library
In this lesson, we’ll explore the media library and how to upload photos and videos to it. Then, we’ll look at how to insert photos and videos from the media library to a WordPress Post or Page.
Lesson 15 – The Post Composer
The WordPress “post composer” and the WordPress “page composer” are almost identical. They are used to create and edit new posts and pages. In this lesson, we’ll zoom in to some of the features of the WordPress post composer. You’ll learn how to insert and use paragraphs, headings, images, videos, sound, lists, tables, WhatsApp buttons, image galleries, and much more.
Lesson 16 – Tags and Categories
In this lesson, you’ll learn what are tags and categories for WordPress posts and how to use them to help group similar posts together and help your posts rank better in search engines.
Lesson 17 – Pagination
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to break long posts up into pages so that readers can navigate using page numbers.
Lesson 18 – Linking
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to insert hyperlinks so that users can jump from one page or post to the next.
Lesson 19 – Playing Around with Themes
In this lesson, you’ll experiment with different themes to see how they change the look and feel of your website. You’ll also learn how to customize themes using the theme options.
Lesson 20 – Exploring Plugins
In this lesson, we’ll go out to sea and explore some of the hundreds of thousands of plugins in the WordPress Plugin repository to see what they can do for your website.
Please Note: The tutor reserves the right to adjust or modify the course contents if the need arises in order to better serve the students.
Enroll Now!
I’m sure that if you’ve read this far, you’re already worked up and ready to enroll to start learning WordPress. And you’re probably asking yourself, “how do I sign up?” The answer is simple! Just fill out the sign up form below and we’ll contact you with more details.
