Tutorials

I get a lot of folks who want to add a header graphic to my Simplicity WordPress theme, so I figured it was time to just write a tutorial on it. It’s really pretty simple to do.

Step 1: Understand the Dimensions

The header of Simplicity is the wide, blue area at the top where you see the blog name and description. The width of the header is 940px wide. That means any header image you place there needs to be no wider than that. As for the height, well that doesn’t really matter. The header height will expand to fit.

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View the video tutorial:

• Play Video in New Window
• Download Video (right-click and “save link as”)

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I’m doing a little experimentation with streaming video on a WordPress site. As part of that experimentation, I created a brief video introduction to WordPress. I think it’s like 15 minutes long. I’d like to know if you have any problems viewing the video, so please share via the comments link. Thanks! Read More

My tutorial on adding Flash video to your Worpdress site was pretty popular. The only problem is Flash video tends to be lower quality than Quicktime video. So this tutorial is designed to make it easy for you to add Quicktime video to your WordPress site.

Besides the quality issue, there are other benefits to using Quicktime over Flash. First of all, Quicktime video is the file-format-of-choice for video blogs. In other words, people with video iPods and Quicktime-compatible, portable video players can download the video automatically, just like you would a regular podcast. And from what I understand, that’s not the case with Flash video (correct me if I’m wrong). Read More

So you want to create the next Rocketboom (video blog). Or perhaps you have some video you want to add to your WordPress blog or website. Maybe it’s a video of last year’s Christmas party, a business conference you attended or the kids’ soccer game.

Maybe you have a business site and want to provide some video for customers and/or potential customers. For example, when I designed a site for Hi-Way Campers, an RV dealer, I included video walk-through tours of some of the RVs for folks who started their RV shopping online (see an example here). Website video would also be great for restaurants, conference facilities, hotels, resorts, real estate brokers or anyone with a product people need to see. Read More

In this lesson, I show you how to install a plugin that’ll help create an email feedback page for your site. In the process, you’ll also learn how to create new pages for your WordPress site.

The video fo this lesson is about 16 minutes long, and you can download it here.

In this lesson, we move the sidebar a little more, widen the main content area, and add the sidebar to all the other pages on your site.

The video for this lesson runs about 8 minutes, and you can download here.

In this lesson, we continue to manipulate the internal page structure. I show you how to change the sidebar content and background, as well as move it from one side of the page to the other.

The video for this lesson runs about 12 minutes, and you can download it here.

In this lesson, I show you how to change change the size of the header and sidebar, as well as expand the overall page width. You’ll also learn a little more about the page layout of a WordPress page.

The video for this lesson runs about 12 minutes, and you can download it by clicking here.

Site statistics are an important part of managing your WordPress site. At the very least, you’ll want to know how many people are visiting your site and where those people are coming from, whether it be from a search engine or referral from another site.

There are many different site statistics programs out there, but one of the simplest to install and use is Site Meter. In this brief lesson, I show you how to set up your Site Meter account and install it on your WordPress site.

The video for this lesson runs about 7 minutes, and you can download it by clicking here.

In this lesson, I show you how to remove the header graphic altogether, change the page’s background color, change the border color and change the page width.

The video for this lesson runs about 18 minutes, and you can download it here (right-click and “save target as”).

One of the simplest things to change on the Kubrick theme is the Header. The Header is the blue background area at the top of the page. In this lesson, I show you how to change the color of the header background.

Also, I show you how to remove the background image and set the stage to install your own header graphic, which we’ll do in a future lesson. Further, you’ll start to learn about the WordPress theme files and how to work with CSS (cascading style sheets).

The video for this lesson runs about 9 minutes, and you can download it here (right-click and “save target as”).

Now that you have WordPress installed, you’ll want to get to know it a little bit. Specifically, you’ll need to find your way around the very extensive - yet easy to use - WordPress control panel. This is the backend of your blog. It’s accessible only to you. If, at some point in the future, you decide to have guest writers for your blog, you’ll be able to add them as a user very easily. More on that another time. For now, take a little time to explore.

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I read a great article by Keith Robinson titled: Fixing (RSS/Atom) Newsfeed Subscription. His basic statement is blogs, RSS, etc. are way too techie - too much geek-speak, and it’s slowing down adoption of the technology.

I agree, and here’s a short screencast (15 minutes) to help folks better understand RSS and subscribe to blogs using My Yahoo or Bloglines. Hope it’s helpful.

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