Workshop – From Concept to Reality
This course day will be quite flexible, it’s all about your ideas, finding the right WordPress.com theme for your site and then setting it up together. We can transfer existing WordPress content to your new WordPress.com site (please note, this is easy to do for small sites built in WordPress.org on the day – if your site is large or using a different platform to WordPress please contact me in advance as it might not be possible to transfer your content on the day). Then we’ll look at different WordPress.com themes (layouts) and discuss different features you’d like for your site such as a portfolio, a front page slider, darkened featured images to display headlines, scrollable image panels, columns with images on the front page to click through to your most relevant content, social media icons display etc. We will brainstorm on the navigation setup and will be able to use the group for invaluable user feedback, once we have a plan for each website you will set up your site with my help. We will also look into different sources of royalty-free images.
And please have a look at our feedback page to see what former participants say about our training.
Please note, you will need to bring a credit card on the day to pay for the upgrade to a personal account if you would like to remove ads from your site and have your own .com domain name, which is an annual fee of €48. This fee will include a .com domain, removing the ads, backups, software and security updates for your site. This is not necessary for the course, but many people who have set up their site so well decide to do so. If you wish to add a .ie domain to your site, please register it in advance with an Irish hosting company. I’d recommend to go with Spiral Hosting, as they offer an excellent customer service, but please feel free to go with any host you’re happy with. This registration might take a few days, so please do it well in advance of the course.
If you decide to purchase a premium theme you will have to pay for that using a credit card on the day too, please note neither the account upgrade nor any premium theme fees are included in this course. Neither of those two options are necessary for the course, but depending on what kind of features you are looking for on your site a premium theme might be the best option. It usually takes a developer (team) a few months to develop a theme and then more regular work in keeping it up to date, so I think paying between €50 and €100 once off for the theme is quite reasonable.
None of these costs would be payable to me. They are all features provided by WordPress that might be useful to you, and which would be payable to them directly.
Every theme is different with a number of options available, some can be quite tricky to set up, so I’d recommend to have a look at some themes in advance so we’ll be able to spend some time on your theme of choice on the day. Most more complex themes usually take a few hours to set up the desired layout, so time is of essence on the day. Please feel free to email me with your site requirements and I’d be happy to send you a few recommendations for you to look at.
The training day will start at 10am, it will be quite informal and creative, we should be able to make a decision on all site layouts that morning and have a structure for all sites in place. We’ll then take a lunch break at a nearby restaurant (lunch is included) and then start creating our new sites in the afternoon. As everyone’s site requirements will be different we won’t have a structured course to follow but more a very creative and hands on workshop that day. We’ll then also look at sources to find free royalty-free images for your site and blog, and then finish the day around 5pm. Please have a look at our feedback page or send me an email if you have any questions.