Feb
05
The Most Frequently Asked Questions On WordPress
ByThis post in the Using WordPress to Run Church Websites series is merely a listing of questions I am frequently asked … with corresponding links for help.
Since I get a lot of basic questions, like “How I Write a Post and other things related to using the actual interface of WordPress, I thought I’d post links to the great support tutorials at WordPress — why re-invent the wheel!:
- Getting Started with WordPress — great place to start, especially the For Beginners section.
- How do I write a post?
- How do I change my theme?
- How do I change the look and feel (layout) of my theme?
- What other themes are available?
- Where can I find more plugins? — Also, here and here.
- How do I change my header?
- How do I change my top navigational header?
- How do I customize my sidebar?
- How do I add more users? And what do the different roles mean and do?
- What is the difference between Pages and typical Posts?
- Troubleshooting help
Why do you put so much importance on Word Press? Is there a commission you are making?
This site seems like a self promotion tool and not what it says it is. Therefore to me, this site seems like false advertising.
Yet, this is just an opinion and we all know about those.
You just need to go back to the roots of the site and what it was made for. Churchs. Not to pad your pocket a.k.a. self promotion.
Mark Delund
Chicago, Illinois
Mark, I tried to send this via email to the address in your comment, but it bounced so I’m going to respond here.
Please make these kinds of comments to me in private. There’s no need to broadcast this type of thing on a post like this before asking me in private about it.
And WordPress is free. http://wordpress.org
Come on, man, do your homework.
If people want to use my services, they can but in no way are obligated too. Honestly? Using the series, they could save themselves money and NOT use my services. And this series, if you had actually read it, is about helping churches use sites for little to nothing …
And because you’re missing the obvious, I’ll remind you … all the content on my site is offered for free.
Play nice or surf elsewhere.
Mark-
Glad to hear you speak your mind. That’s the beauty of blogs in that they allow for that. However, I know Cory and I can assure you this site is not about making money. As Cory stated already, everything on here is free. I consistently promote this site on my sites because of its value to churches. My church and my sites use his information almost daily.
To claim that he makes “commission” from WordPress is ludicrous in light of the fact that WordPress and everything associated with it is free.
You should seriously reconsider your comments. they really are uneducated.
Micah
Psalm 67
btw: A site like this takes an unbelievable amount of time to provide to those churches that need it. If Cory wishes to make services available on the site, it is only fair for him to be able to do so. To claim that his motive is in profit, however, is just asinine.
Mark,
1) As was stated by Cory and Micah, WordPress is free. There’s no way WP would pay Cory for “promoting” their platform, since they a) have plenty of promotion already and b) don’t have the kind of money to pay bloggers to promote them.
2) If you took about 5 minutes to look through Cory’s archives, you’d see that he’s promoted Blogger WAY more than he’s promoted WP. The fact is, Cory promotes the platform he likes. He used to like blogger, now he likes WP.
3) This series Cory is doing is to HELP churches. How? WP is free. Good for churches. WP is easy. Good for churches. Cory knows a good bit about WP and is willing to offer free help. Good for churches. Cory charges nothing for this help. Great for churches.
4) Almost every blogger agrees that WP is the best blogging platform.
5) Cory chooses not to put ads on his site. Frankly, sites can cost a good deal of money to maintain, and certainly take a lot of manpower and hours. IF Cory wanted to place ads on this site, it would be perfectly FINE WITH ME!!! Cory deserves to make money from a good site that provides a good service. However, Cory is willing to pay the bills himself and does not put ads on his site (at least not yet), and for that reason alone, you should really rethink your comment.
Finally, like Cory said, these types of criticisms really ought to be said in private. Cory readily publishes his email address on this site, and you could have easily sent him an email and given him a chance to respond. Instead, you left a public comment with an email address that doesn’t work. Hopefully you’ll come back and read the responses.
I’m pretty sure no one is angry at you or wants to put you up for public ridicule. Hopefully everyone can see that these responses are in defense of Cory an CCP, and not an attack on you personally. We just want the record set strait.
Nathan
http://www.nathanrice.org/
Mark-
Cory’s current series is about using the free blogging software to create easy to maintain church websites. This series compliments his previous series “Building Rockin Cool Church Websites” and “Blogging for Pastors 101″.
You asked if he was making a commission from writing about WordPress. WordPress doesn’t have an affiliate program and it doesn’t pay commissions. WordPress has created a product that users such Cory, myself, and thousands of others feel is the best choice for bloggers and church webmasters. WordPress doesn’t need to advertise since its users are so passionate about the product.
Being a blogger myself, I know how hard and time consuming it is to create content and keep up with the comments and not neglect the other areas of your life. I don’t mind if Cory happens to mention a service that he can provide that is consistent with the theme of this site and may help out a church with their public relations, marketing, advertising, or communications.
If the posts about WordPress don’t interest you, please take some time to explore the other 500 some posts covering topics from audio to youth ministry.
Lastly, if there is some specific topic that you’d like to see covered on Churchcommunicationspro.com, send Cory an e-mail. He’s always responded very quickly to my e-mail messages, I’m sure he would do the same for you.
- Mark A.
I use this site’s information all of the time, and neither Cory, nor WordPress receives a dime from my work.
I have frequently sent people I’m working with here to learn what they need to know about blogs and blogging. Cory is a great resource on WordPress and blogging in general. Anybody interested in church websites, blogs, blogging or many other related topics would benefit greatly from reading this site regularly.