WordPress: August 6 – August 27

Blogging: August 8 – August 22

SEO: August 9

Social Media: August 29

We also offer individual and small group classes in your office or home.

2024 WordPress continues to be superior to other content management systems (CMSs) due to its adaptability, user-friendliness, and huge plugin library. Because it is an open-source platform, it is regularly updated and developed by a community of developers from all over the world as they work together. This is why WordPress is able to maintain its position at the forefront of web development trends and technological advancements.

Can you create a professional Website or Blog yourself?

Probably not BUT you will be able to Edit it Yourself and keep it Updated. We will train you to do this!

WordPress: Sept. 5 – Sept. 26

Blogging: Oct. 5 – Oct. 19

Social Media: Nov. 14

SEO: Nov. 21

We also offer individual and small group classes in your office or home.

Does your WordPress website’s Host automatically SAVE your website? Sometimes it costs a bit more for this but it’s definitely worth it. Contact your Host to be sure. This could save you a lot of time ($) if there is a problem.

Here’s an issue one client had yesterday – they saw this when they tried to edit a page. I was able to fix it but don’t let this happen to you!

Be sure to use the FREE Akismet Spam filter that comes with all WordPress Themes. Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam.

WordPress continues to dominate the content management systems (CMS) market and is currently used by 64.2% of websites that have a CMS, according to data from W3Techs.com.

Shopify is a distant second for June 2022 and accounts for 6.3% of the CMS market share.

Wix, Squarespace, and Joomla round out the top five with less than 3.5% market share each.

Thanks for your Wisdom Miranda Miller

But once again, you get nothing. There may as well be no-one reading it.

So what’s the problem? It could be that your writing isn’t as strong as it needs to be. But there’s also a very good chance the problem isn’t your writing.

It’s your formatting.

Over the years I’ve reviewed dozens of different blog posts, and most of them were fairly well written. But some were really let down by poor post formatting: the post just didn’t look good.

If you’re not convinced that formatting matters, compare this screenshot…

… to this one.

These are two versions of the same Post. They both have exactly the same text. But I know which one I’d rather read.

Your readers are busy. They’re distracted. They want an easy, engaging read – not a daunting wall of text.

So what’s stopping you from getting the formatting right? Maybe one of these sounds like you:

• You haven’t really thought about it before. You’re a writer, not a designer, and it never occurred to you to bother with formatting.
• You’ve got a vague idea that formatting matters, but you’re not really sure how to go about doing it. What if you make your post look worse rather than better?
• You haven’t figured out how to use the formatting features built into WordPress.

I’m going to take you through four key formatting features you can use straight away to make your posts more readable. And don’t worry. I’m definitely a words person and even I can manage these.

#1: Short Paragraphs

Plenty of white space helps make your post readable. White space is all the stuff around the words. If you have short paragraphs (or lists, which we’ll come to later), you’ll already have extra space where your words can breathe.

There’s no absolute rule on how long is too long for a paragraph. But if it goes over four or five lines, you may want to consider splitting it.

#2: Subheadings

I like to think of subheadings as signposts that help orient readers within my post. Almost any post can be broken up into subsections, and each one should have a clear (and hopefully enticing) subheading.

While it helps readers who are skimming for information, it’s also useful for readers who are reading your entire post. Subheadings prevent them from feeling lost or confused along the way.

I like to use ALL CAPS for my subheadings, but you might prefer to capitalize only the first word of the subheading. Just make sure you’re consistent.

Before

After

#3: Bold Text

Bold text is a great way to call attention to a key point or important sentence. But it’s easy to overuse, and I suggest bolding only one or two sentences per subsection (depending how long your subsections are).

Some bloggers use colored text instead of bold text. This can work if it fits with your branding, but it can also look a bit amateurish and distracting.

Tip: Try to avoid bolding only one or two words – it can make your text look choppy. I also tend to bold only the first sentence of a paragraph. Having a bold sentence in the middle or at the end of a paragraph can also look a bit odd.

#4: Lists, and Using Bullet Points

See my Post about lists HERE

Thanks for your Wisdom Ali Luke

I sure did make the right decision 10 years ago when I decided to create websites ONLY in WordPress!

I posted this in 2019 – who knew it would become so relevant in 2021?

“If you can put a man on the moon how come you can’t do something about traffic?” a regional manager said in 1970.

Jack Niles, a NASA rocket scientist’s solution was telecommuting, a term he is credited with coining in 1973.

Except for in-office, in-home Trainings and classes I teach, I work from home – and have for most of my life. Do I sometimes (often) go for a run, a bike ride or dip in the ocean in the afternoon? Yes, but I make up the hours after the sun sets. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

If you get a job at Automattic (WordPress creators), you don’t have to worry about moving. Hell, you don’t even have to get out of bed.

The company, is completely distributed, meaning its 230 employees work from home. Or they can work from home. Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, notes that the company has a physical headquarters in San Francisco. “Well, you’ve got to have somewhere TO get mail,” he explains. While a handful of employees work in the San Francisco office, the rest are flung across 170 cities. “It allows you to get the best and brightest people in the world,” Mullenweg says. Automattic gives its employees a monthly stipend of $250 to get a co-working space if their home office situation isn’t great. As an Automattic employee, you also get up to $3,000 to set up your home office.

by Todd Wasserman

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