Blog Exercises: You Shouldn’t Have Started with a Question If You Didn’t Want it Answered

In the movie, Big Fish, the son tries to describe to his father how little he knows him. Will Bloom: You know about icebergs, dad? Senior Ed Bloom: Do I? I saw an iceberg once. They were hauling it down to Texas for drinking water. They didn’t count on there being an elephant frozen inside. […]

20 Answers to the Question: What Does It Take to Blog?

MJ of the Desert Day by Day blog left an interesting comment on my article about women bloggers: I will be 44 tomorrow and have no background in computer or technology of any kind. It is my limited understanding that those bloggers that do(yourself included) orbit in a Internet universe separate from the countless numbers […]

Separating Comments and Trackbacks in WordPress – The Answer

WordPress 2.7 News Update: For information on the new structure of comments and trackbacks in WordPress 2.7, please see Migrating Plugins and Themes to 2.7 – Enhanced Comment Display in the WordPress Codex, Justin Tadlock – Making your theme’s comments compatible with WordPress 2.7 and earlier versions and Sivel – Separating Pings from Comments in […]

WordPress School: Paragraphs and Line Breaks

The previous assignment in Lorelle’s WordPress School covered the visual and text editors in WordPress. In this assignment, I’d like to focus on making paragraphs within both editors. A paragraph in HTML is a container holding contextual content, the written word. The HTML of a paragraph opens and closes with the paragraph tag. If we […]

WordPress School: Images

In the previous Lorelle’s WordPress School tutorial we covered preparing images for uploading to WordPress. Today’s lesson is on how to upload and embed the images in posts and Pages. As a reminder, the sequence and data required for uploading an image to WordPress is: Using the Media Uploader in a post or Page, the […]

WordPress School: Publish a Post

In Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course, it is time to start digging into the post content of your test site. In other words, it is time to start loosening the reigns of your imagination. We are going to start with an article series, a series of posts linked together once completed. It begins with […]

WordPress School: About Page

Now that we’ve covered the basics of posts and Pages, it’s time to cull from the information in your Site Master Plan to create your first page: About. By default, WordPress automatically generates an About Page called “About.” Some web hosting services have chosen to rename this “Sample Page” or “Example Page” for their one-click […]

WordPress School: Posts and Pages

Let’s be Lorelle’s WordPress School with the two core content elements of WordPress: posts and Pages. By default, WordPress displays content in posts and Pages. Each behaves differently and distinctively in WordPress, and can confuse people easily. Let’s make this simple. Pages hold timeless content. Posts hold timely content. Please be patient with the videos. […]

Presentation: Blog Your Passion

The following are the presentations notes for my workshop called “Blogging Your Passion” at Making it in Changing Times in 2015. In 2010 I was in Chicago for SOBCon, the Successful Online Business Conference, and I had an amazing encounter with a woman on the crowded downtown streets: …I was storming away from the last […]

Welcome to Lorelle’s WordPress School

I was one of the first asked to write and publish a text book on WordPress. I worked with the BIG NAME text book publishing company for months to create a structure and outline for WordPress users. As a long-time WordPress user, WordPress Codex contributor and editor, WordPress support forums volunteer, developer, designer, and WordPress […]

WordPress School

Are you ready to join Lorelle’s WordPress School? Let’s get going. Here is what you need to know. To participate, you need the following: A free WordPress.com site or other test site for experimentation Join and participate in the WordPress School Google+ Community Do the assignments and tasks associated with each lesson Comment on the […]

You’re Invited: Vancouver WordPress Social Meetup October 19

The last WordPress Social Meetup in Vancouver, Washington, was such a success, we’re going forward with these monthly meetings. Vancouver, Washington, is just a few minutes from downtown Portland, and our next meeting is this Sunday, October 19, from 4-7PM. Please arrive by 4:15PM to be allowed into the building. It is normally closed on […]

The Web is All About The Writing

Reading “7 Things You Need to Know about SEO in 2014” from Compete Pulse, I was fascinating to read that “size matters:” Most blog posts range between 400 and 600 words, but the ideal length for highest ranking is actually around 1,500. Many still believe that a successful website is one that offers the information […]

Your Blog is Your Business Card

The following are the notes for my popular workshop “Your Blog is Your Business Card”. The premise is that today’s business card can’t hold all the contact information necessary to connect adequately with potential clients, but the blog can. It is the holder of your contact information and online identity. The workshop covers the philosophy […]

WordPress I Course: Summer at Clark College

My WordPress I course at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, just across the river from Portland, Oregon, is open for registration for Summer Quarter 2014. The course begins July 7, 2014, on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:30-9:30PM. This is a five credit hour course, 50 hours of all WordPress basics in 8 weeks. The size […]