Lost, lost, lost!

Sure, this is as good a place as any. Ask away. ??

Yes, you are in the right place to ask questions.
Usually the better your question, the better will be your answer.
Good questions start with a good title, “Lost lost lost” is not a good title.

I understand that you are selling things. Does this mean that you need a catalogue ? Or will a brochure be more appropriate ? Do you need ecommerce ? Are you looking at substantially reinventing your present site in the wordpress framework ?

From what I have seen, transferring a site to wordpress is not of itself a route to a SEO boost, I have personal knowledge of two sites where the gurus promised the world with all the buzzwords, and have been worse than useless, and always been ready with an excuse as to why you as the client have to do more work, or pay for addwords campaigns and on and on, success is always assured next week. On the other hand, lots of WordPress sites with appropriate content and structure are doing very well.

Are you presently using google webmaster tools ? It would give you lots of info on how google see your site.

I would suggest that you setup an experimental WordPress site, use it to learn the WordPress view of the world, play with plugins etc. Put it in a password protected sub-domain of your website (or on new hosting).

I have a small website where I sell things.

That’s why WordPress has plugins; they add functionality to a basic (vanilla) WordPress installation. Google:

• WooCommerce (most popular; good for larger stores)
• WP Online Store (osCommerce plugin — my preferred choice for smaller stores

I want to rebuild the site because I get poor search engine exposure on my ISP

Your ISP has nothing to do with your search engine exposure. Additionally, even many WordPress veterans may be surprised to hear that an SEO plugin doesn’t do much for you.

All a WordPress SEO plugin will do is add meta data to your site, which is becoming more and more irrelevant by the month. Meta keywords are now obsolete, meta authorship is now obsolete … but you can find SEO plugins out there that will fill in a meta description and meta title, and there’s debate on whether forcing a meta description is even beneficial or not.

Much more goes into proper search marketing than simply applying a meta description and meta title, which is what an SEO plugin does — for better or for worse. Some SEO plugins provide Facebook & Twitter open graph data, although other plugins do this as well.

I know enough about what I want that it’s not yet appropriate to pay Bluehost for the “let the experts do it all” stuff.

BlueHost is a web hosting company. They’re not WordPress experts and they won’t do anything for you. They’re simply there to provide you with a server upon which you can host your website.

Occasionally, you’ll run into a good technician who has knowledge of WordPress — and this will happen more commonly with BlueHost/Hostgator and a bevy of other WordPress-specializing hosts, as opposed to something like GoDaddy or whatever.

So What’s WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source platform upon which to build your website. WordPress is based on themes and plugins.

Themes provide a framework for your site; there are free themes and premium (you pay for ’em) themes.

Once you choose a theme, it’s recommended you also install a child theme. The primary purpose of having a child theme is so you can modify your theme, and not lose modifications when your theme is updated.

In order to improve the functionality of your website, WordPress allows you to add plugins to your theme.

So, for instance, if you’d like to sell things, add a contact form, social sharing icons, a caching mechanism (highly recommended and often overlooked), a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, security, and other types of functionality, there are many free plugins available to the public for download.

You can go into your WordPress administration, as well, and search for plugins there. As a general rule, you’d like plugins that are well-respected, get good ratings, seem to be regularly maintained, and plugins that the author is actively engaged in supporting. Just search through www.ads-software.com/plugins and you’ll learn your way around.

Lastly, here are some things you’ll want to look at, per my recommendation:

• An e-commerce plugin as mentioned above (either WooCommerce or WP Online Store
• A caching plugin. If you were on a VPS and had a lot of tech-savvy knowledge of how caching works, I’d suggest W3 Total Cache. But WP Super Cache will be easier to set up, and works pretty much the same … perhaps better if you’re on a shared hosting plan.
• A contact form. If you really need to get complex, then check out Gravity Forms, which is a premium plugin. While Contact Form 7 is perhaps the most popular, for a free plugin, I prefer Fast Secure Contact Form.
• Ultimate TinyMCE Editor. This will help you when you’re writing pages and posts. Simply install it, go to Settings >> TinyMCE editor and adjust the settings. When you go to write a post, you’ll have more functionality, kinda like Microsoft Word.

Here’s a guide I wrote [moderated]

Lastly, you’re surely in the right place — continue to use these forums and ask questions; that’s why they’re here! Everyone has to start somewhere, and reading the forums, asking questions … learning in a heuristic manner, trial and error, is absolutely the best way to learn quick!

Good luck!

“Lost lost lost” is the only possible subject. As I mentioned, I had no idea if this forum was even appropriate. It got your attention, no?

I will read the guide mentioned by WebPrezence.

I sell enough to keep my geeky hobbies self-funding (a labour of love), but e-commerce on the site is beyond what I wish to do at this time. I take cheques / MOs in the mail and use PayPal. I want to just rebuild my present site using WordPress, then do tweaks to it once I’ve learned more.

Here is my site as it presently exists, done with raw HTML and text editors:
ontplates.com the site lives on my ISP with a GoDaddy domain redirect. I lost my image server, so I’ve been limping along paying photobucket to host the images, which I dislike.

Here is my temporary location using WordPress, where I can’t figure out anything:
https://69.195.124.189/~ontplate/

WordPress seems to be more for blogs. I’m not a blog, so I don’t intend to use its “new post” items, and as I mentioned a sec ago, I don’t want e-commerce options presently. I would like to begin by designing it like a portfolio where the items are searchable and I can search for subcategories (e.g. items from 1960-1970). It would be even better if I could easily mark when things sell without removing them from the site.

So, I know what I want the end product to look like and how I want it to work, and in the past I’ve been autonomous enough to just carry it out on my own. But here? OMG. There are 958 different options when I flip through my theme’s options. Some questions that boggle me now:

1. Is a plugin the same as a widget?
2. Is there a WYSIWYG editor you would suggest that would work with my theme rather than selecting an endless series of dropdowns and checking boxes? When I select something, I’ve been re-loading my temporary site to see what I did– hence the odd remarks I’ve made all over the one page I’ve altered.
3. From where am I supposed to do the actual “designing” of my site? I see my theme options on my dashboard (where 95% of the options seem to be), but I also see portfolio options there, and if I go to “themes” on my dashboard, I can click a “customize” button on my theme (Affle) which allows me to change a few other things. Too many spots to find options to change things. And now I think I have to get a plugin with a WYSIWYG editor. Hence the “lost” subject line.
4. I tried using the “portfolio” thingy on my dashboard and uploaded an image with a caption. But I don’t know if, in so doing, it created a an updatable portfolio page, or if it’s just a place where portfolio images are stored and fed into auto-generated page when called up– and I can’t figure out how to link a portfolio from my menu or somehow join the two so I can click from one to the other, or just have a portfolio style layout visible from my front page like the live demo of my Affle theme.
5. I think Affle is a child theme. What’s a parent theme? Must I get one of those, too?
6. I saw the live demo for my theme and I thought, “yep, that’s the structure and the look.” But I can’t figure out how to get a portfolio-esque set of content, divided in columns, to appear on my main site, because it’s starting me off with a single column page with sample text on it. I sell to a lot of elder folks, and the fewer clicks they make when they visit my site, the better, so that’s why I want to try and show a portfolio of items up front.

I would be grateful for recommendations, or other resources to see to school myself before perform more of a hack-job on my new site.

A few answers:
1) A plugin is not a widget.
A widget is a named area allocated by the theme designer, the user of the theme can easily use it to place various customised “stuff” on their page. This could be an address block, a testimonial, map, clock, news, add, nearly anything.
A plugin is some addon to WordPress. It might be a product catalogue manager, a photo gallery display, or a zillion other things. Plugins are often used to add various content to pages, often using “shortcodes”, plugins can put content into widget areas.

2) The WordPress v4.0 editor is more WISIWIG than previously, it can place images etc.

3) You are justifiably bewildered by the way that a site is “designed”, some is in the theme options, some in the theme templates, other places, and the css goes into the style.css file of your child theme, I am confused trying to explain it.

4) The portfolio is most likely getting images into a media gallery or library, these images are then available to put into posts and pages.

5) affle will be your parent theme, you really want to create a child theme, and fool around with this child theme. This way if and when affle gets updated, all your hard won customisations survive. Trust me, use a child theme.

6) Where did you see the affle theme showcased ? You could ask there for guidance on how to use and customise it.
Was it from here ?:
https://www.mojo-themes.com/item/affle-responsive-portfolio-wordpress-theme/
For support of your theme you really have to go to the theme vendor, this is especially true of commercial themes, we volunteers here do not have access to commercial themes, nor the experience.

I surprise myself, I answered all 6.
In general, seek support from the theme vendor for theme issues. Ask here for WordPress issues.
Keep fooling around with your site, expect to delete everything and start again on your journey.
You will be tempted to sort out one aspect and then complete that phase, resist this, instead do enough of each aspect so that you feel that you know enough to do that part, then move on to another aspect and learn up on it. Keep notes on how you do things. Be aware that things can interact, so keep viewing and testing everything.

There are lots of websites using WordPress that are nothing like a blog, my sites vary from basic brochures to a Wiki collecting genealogy data.

I have been on wordpress a long time, but I am no programmer. There are roughly ten blogs that I write from time to time. I found this page but don’t know how to find it again. I just spent two hours writing and lost all of it because my internet provider is not reliable. I want to set my autosave to save automatically every five minutes. That will cut down on loss. I can’t find a way to do it in the menues and don’t have a clue how or where to do it otherwise. I’ve seen answers to questions that say to put in code, but I don’t know how to do that.

The idea of spending another two or more hours writing and having it all disappear is not appealing and having to copy everything just to paste it again and have it not upload is even less appealing. Considering the fact that I am using this as an all-access site for book writing due to my travel, I need to write a lot of material. Is there ANYONE who will help a non-programmer fix this or do I have to go without assistance because I am not tech savvy?
K F

Sorry– you have replied to my thread where I have even less experience than you, and I haven’t the foggiest notion of how to even get my WordPress website started. I suggest you begin a new thread on https://www.ads-software.com/support/ with a more specific subject line. Although if it were me, I’d be writing my text on a word processor and then copy-paste the completed text into the blog when done. Best of luck.

Thanks to RossMitchell– and I have more questions.

1. When I use the “Post” option in my dashboard, that takes me to an editor that I presume is WordPress 4.0. It’s well suited for adding blog-style posts. But what I would want to do is be able to put sale stock there similar to my present site. In my mind, I envisioned a sort of template where I could drag and drop the various items, with each having their description embedded. Maybe there’s a database section or portfolio section that must first be populated with items. However, I have no idea whether that’s a WordPress thing where I have to find something in my dashboard, or if there would be some sort of “portfolio mode” in my theme that I would activate and then add items that way. Obviously, I don’t expect you to know the intricacies of my theme – but if that’s what I want to do, should I be fiddling with WordPress, or looking within my theme? I’m not sure where one ends and the other starts.
2. I know nothing about what a child theme is, aside from that I should use one when I finally figure out how to design my site. I saw in a wiki somewhere that they get installed as subdirectories from the parent theme. Do I have to buy yet another theme to make a child theme? Or do I somehow install Affle again in a subdirectory? What should be my first step to getting a child theme?
3. What’s a caching mechanism? Why do I need one?
4. I used WordPress 4.0 editor to make a couple of experimental “post” pages. I can only see these when I’m in the editor and click the “preview” button. Where can I view an index of what posts I’ve made?
5. After making the posts I mention in my previous question: When I go back to my embryonic site on WordPress, I still just have the Sample Page. I presume that I would need a menu to link to these posts (which are not static .html files, as the URL ends with something like ?p=22 which means the post page I’m seeing is generated on the fly somehow. I’ve seen the menu widget, but I don’t understand how to configure it. Mine says “frequently asked questions” and goes nowhere because I don’t understand how to point the menu to a target. In HTML, I can do A HREF tags in my sleep. If I could do this, I might be able to hammer out a “terms & conditions” page or a “FAQ” page and learn to get my balance on WordPress.

Thanks a bunch for your help so far.

Jon

Hi Jon.

(1) There are portfolio plugins (remember, plugins add functionality to your theme). There are also E-commerce based plugins like WooCommerce and WP Online Store.

(2) In simplest terms, a child theme is just something that you can modify, so that when your theme (parent theme) is updated, you won’t lose your changes.

Some guides will ask you to add this or that code to your /wp-content/themes/affle/functions.php file … in order to achieve an effect. If you modify this on your parent theme (affle), you’ll lose your changes when Affle updates his/her theme.

If you have a child theme, then you make the changes there, so when Affle updates his/her theme, you don’t lose the work you’ve done.

(3) A caching mechanism such as W3 Total Cache (complex — more for VPS servers, etc.) and WP Super Cache (for shared servers, simpler, but basically as effective) will serve your visitors cached (stale) pages that will drastically reduce page load times.

You’ll set an expiry time so your cache refreshes every once in a while, or you can manually clear your website’s cache. Some plugin developers will ask you to clear your website’s cache.

Far too many WordPress people overlook the importance of a solid caching mechanism, and I just recommended the two most popular ones on the WordPress Repository (where you get your free plugins). I’d go with WP Super Cache in your instance.

(4) What posts you’ve made, just go to Posts >> All Posts in your WordPress administration.

(5) Forget the menu widget (located in Appearances >> Widgets. You don’t need that — at least that’s not what I’m seeing.

Two things.

• First, control your permanlinks in your WordPress administration — settings >> permalinks. Then you won’t have example.com/?p=132 and all that; you can prettify ugly links with one of the custom structures provided. And while you’re in your settings, peek around and ensure your general, writing, reading, media, and discussion settings are what you’d like ’em to be; it’s not complicated.
• You control your menu in Appearances >> Menu. Here is where you click Create a Menu. From there, you can add pages you’ve created, posts you’ve created, custom links, and more. Don’t forget to check primary menu or secondary menu at the bottom of the page.

I might add that while your theme probably has its own menu setup. But there are various menu plugins; it’s just a matter of searching the repository, look for plugin authors who maintain their plugins, have good ratings, update frequently, respond to support questions, etc.

I have my site up and running, through trial-error, forums, theme support, and buying a WordPress book. Thanks all.

I simply want to get traffic to my blog. I am not a code writer. I do not know what a plug in is or how to put one into my blog, although I have read instructions and tried. There is no definition of its basic function.

When I go to the forums, they require that I know jargon. I’ve tried to find out about RSS, plug ins, or verifications. I’ve tried to use them, but am not successful. Then I go back to the forum and of course, there is no answer.. I have to wait for weeks then I’ve forgotten where I was in the process. I follow links and get dumped on pages, then have no idea what to do next.

Is there anyone who can help me do what I need to do? Simple instructions like:
Go here.
Take this.
Put it there.
or follow this link: blah
then click on this: blah
then read this and do the following: blah

It takes someone who knows how to explain things to do this, I know. I have a lot of written material on WordPress and have no idea how to get it out there. I know the information is here but I need a translator.

Anyone?

Bueller?

Oh, sorry, this is resolved, so no help is forthcoming.