Help Clive Out
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This post is a response to a comment I received that has me worried and I think he needs a little motivation.
It seems that Clive thinks that you have to be an “advanced IT expert” to do the things I mention here.
I know this isn’t true and I am sure you know it isn’t also. If you could do me a favor and write a little about yourself and how much of an “advanced IT expert” you are to show him that you don’t need to be an “IT expert” to get your site up and running the way you like. Make sure you put a link to your site in the comment so he can see what you have done.
Here is Clive’s comment
| Clive Praed Says:
Do I need one of these things. I have an e-Book site and the only content is e-Books for sale, so the site is never modified. I also have another site with one page on it that will never be touched if it sits there for 10 years as it is just a sales page. Anyway, the e-Book site is a php site so it cannot be modified or updated unless I can afford a computer programmer to do it. I have a Wordpress blog installed on both my sites, but, without the aforementioned computer programmer it cannot be used. Nobody except a programmer can do anything to a Wordpress blog after it is installed by Fantastico. Both of mine have sat untouched for a year because, without advanced qualifications, I will not be able to install themes or download plugins. Another good post - but for very advanced IT experts only. |
What has me most concerned is that he doesn’t think he can add themes and plugins to WordPress. I am sure a lot of you have had experiences with this. Please let him know that it isn’t that hard once you do it a couple of times.
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May 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am
“What has me most concerned is that he doesn’t think he can add themes and plugins to WordPress. I am sure a lot of you have had experiences with this. Please let him know that it isn’t that hard once you do it a couple of times.”
In my limited experience it is relatively easy to modify a Wordpress theme as Randy says. However I do have some sympathy for Clive, I vistited his site at http://www.grumpyoldchef.com/
The site seems to be a standard turnkey bookstore script (or at least very similar to one), maybe the products on sale are being sourced from a feed from someone elses site (rather than directly set up by Clive), to which he has limited editing options.
Even if this is not the case, the code of the site is a mass of html tables which as you may know can be easily corrupted by faulty editing of the table row/detail relationship.
It is absolutely the case that you DO NOT need to be a technical expert to be successful, however if html / css etc is just a load of geeky gobbledygook to you then you have two choices either:
acquire some basic skills (which is neither difficult or expensive, but requires some studytime) or partner up with some who has.
or, avoid getting into areas where such skills are needed, and concentrate on the important stuff…marketing & promotion.
Harry
ps since I have $0 online, this a ‘none cents’ post
Thanks for the comment. I can’t say that I know the script that Clive it using for the ebook site but almost all scripts run off of templates where you just edit an HTML page an upload that. Please note that I said ALMOST all scripts. There are still some that don’t work this way and can be a nightmare to edit, even for me and I have been doing this a long time. But as I said before I am not an “advanced IT expert” in fact I can’t program in PHP. I do know HTML and CSS but only from my own studying and I know a little about PHP so that I can tweak things but I definitely can’t write a script on my own.
And you are right about tables possibly causing a problem. Nothing looks quite so bad as a broken table on a website. All it take is forgetting to close a column or row and everything goes out of alignment.
Randy The Hermit
May 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I can tell you if there is a non-techie, it is I. I have set up several wordpress sites or blogs without much of hitch. But a body does need to spend a few looking around to become familiar with it. and then keep it up or all gained is lost in short order.
I have put up one site a couple of times. Once using Randy’s instructions from his site and once from Xsite Pro. I must say xsite was/is much easier than trying to html it all the way.
That is just my 2 cents worth.
Thanks for the comment. I actually find it easiest to put up a site using DreamWeaver but that is a $400 product and for people just starting out that is a little steep. That is the reason I worked with only free tools in the tutorials at Marketing Beginners. The only tool I used that you would have to buy is PhotoImpact (for creating and editing graphics) and that is a lot cheaper (and in my opinion) easier to use then PhotoShop.
Randy The Hermit
May 13th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Clive has raised a number of issues with this post – too many to deal with in a comment alone – but I’ll raise them now for future comment.
1. Sites never modified. Is this good for Search Engines?
2. One page site – is this good for Search Engines?
Both questions are rhetorical since we probably all know the answer.
3. WordPress blog installed on both sites but cannot do anything with them.
The answer to question 3 will go a long way to resolving the issues in questions 1 & 2.
By using a blog on each site the information and pages will grow, keeping the sites fresh and more interesting to humans and Search Engines alike.
So let’s make sure the blogs can be updated by way of a theme, widgets, plugins & content.
First off, I am not a techie or programmer. I am totally self taught by trial and error and using the information freely available via Randy’s Marketing Beginners site and other tutorials found on the web.
Yes, you do need to be interested and prepared to learn a bit (perhaps getting out of your comfort zone for a while) but I can honestly say learning to be good at using WordPress is not that difficult – it is just different to what you may have done before.
I started my first website about 18 months ago and stopped developing it because I was struggling with the technical aspects of adding pages, updating the menu, formatting etc etc. AND then I fell in love with WordPress.
I can’t begin to tell you how much easier life is now I’ve mastered most of the aspects of using this system. The real beauty is you don’t need to know html or any other coding (a little bit of knowledge can help but it’s not imperative).
Although WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform it can easily be used to create a “normal” website - take a look at my as an example.
Take a look at my
Costa-De-La-Luz-GolfHoliday
site as an example. That took me less than a day to create – not because I’m great but because Wordpress does all of the hard work.
So how hard is it to use WordPress?
Let’s change a theme. Go to the Admin panel, click on Presentation, select the theme you want, click OK. New theme automatically installed. Done. Less than 1 minute and you have completely changed the look of your site.
OK, I know you have to find the theme first and upload it using ftp (but if you’ve created a “normal” website you’ll know how to do this anyway, but that aside it really is a click of a few buttons.
Uploading plugins is not any more complex (apart from a few more unusual plugins). Locate the plugin, ftp to the blog, go into admin and activate. Some require some minor configuration but this is usually a few clicks and easily accomplished from the instructions provided.
Using Wordpress really is the “easy” way to create a fully featured, professional website without having to learn about php, html, css
I have a series of free videos on my blog that show exactly how to do all of this which can be accessed via http://guru-fodder.com/wordpress-centre/
July 30th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
No one could have had more trouble starting a blog than I did. The real problem was that I insisted on using a theme that had not been validaated in all browsers. I had to contact the creator and have the theme redone to shhow well in all browsers. A true headache. My advice…use themes from standard places whcih have been validated by Wordpress. I do it that way now. Live and learn.For me it is not enough to know that something works. I need to know how and why. Because of that, I asked a million questions in Randy’s forum and pestered everyone for about 3 months. But all during this time the blog was up and content was being added…in other words, it was growing even while I was learning. I have just rebuilt this same blog because I found so many neat widgets that I needed a more complex theme to balance things out. This time, a standard theme and no problems.Because of Mark (Wizzer) and Randy I have truly come to love Wordpress and may never build with anything else again despite owning both XSitePro and Front Page.If a totally tech-challenged person like me can build a good blog with wordpress, anyone can.Maggie
August 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I would say that I am still in the virgin stage of doing things, such as dealing with my blog,and working on putting up some other sites I want to put up. I am getting there. You just need to ask questions. The best way is to use forums. Just hang in there and you’ll be fine. I know that I’m doing things that I thought I would never be able to do but I guess I was wrong. You’ll see that most of the things you will do is not as hard as you thought.