Today I had a couching session with a member of the Guru Blogging Bluprint team. They asked what I want to do, business wise, and I said, help you, 
my readers. I get sooo many WordPress questions via email, Skype, and Twitter. I know that people have WordPress questions and I’d like to create a product that new WordPress users can buy and download instantly that will really help them get started on the right foot.
There are lots of Blogging How-To products out there, but this would be specifically about using WordPress… not how to blog, or how to pick a good title for your post, or how to master SEO. No, this would be how to use each feature of WordPress.
So, my WordPress questions for you all are:
- When you first started with WordPress what was the most confusing, annoying, frustrating thing you had to overcome?
- If there are features of WordPress you still don’t understand, what are they?
- Did you switch from another blogging platform, or was WordPress your first Content Management System?
Erica,
I started with a free theme and it was so clunky and hard to change – within a day I had purchased a premium theme.
Sadly, WordPress wasn't my first platform. I first started with a platform called ArticleLive. I still maintain that website today – years later – but I do wish I started with WordPress. I was given the wrong advice.
Andrew
It's been so long that I can't recall any frustrations from when I first started blogging. I have always used WP though.
The thing that I was concerned about was how the heckl did I get WordPress up and running on a vanilla server. So I chose a host that allowed you to set it up as a one click option and that has worked perfectly.
I have had numerous problems with plugin incompatibility that has taken my site off line on more than one occasion. A little more resilience there would be great.
Lastly, why does the new post visual tab show everything in HTML all of a sudden? It never used to and I have browsed all the forums and helpdesks and none of the suggestions work. Maybe I should upgrade to V3 and see if that works.
The most confusing thing was, and still is, working with PHP. I still don't understand it.
I moved from Blogger to WordPress. Blogger is based (well it was based anyways. Who knows now) on CSS and HTML. Both of those are easy to use.
Confusing to me is PHP
Annoying is having to upload files
Frustrating is writing my posts offline and then copying and pasting them into the post box on WordPress because it screws up my formatting otherwise.
If I were going to create a product about using WordPress I would take someone who has never blogged or used it and work through all the steps with them while keeping detailed notes.
It's really difficult to write good how to products when you have used something for a while or when, like you, you know the product inside out.
You need to return, by using a complete newbie, to the beginning bewilderment stage where even the smallest simplest details are confusing.
Hope that answers your questions..
Glen,
This is some really good feedback. I walk people through this stuff on a daily basis, since a lot of my clients are either switching from Blogger or have never used any blog platform. The questions range from how do I hide the tags? to how do I add an image?
My desire is to provide a resource for these people… their very first intro to WordPress.
Kevin,
I hadn't thought of starting with hosting. That's a really good point!!
Plugin incompatibility is a big thing. Sometimes you notice right off that something's wrong (ya know, when it crashes your site) but other times it's something subtle that could take a while to notice. These are the worst I think, cause often we add more than 1 plugin at a time, and a couple weeks down the road may not remember which ones.
For me, it's anything with jquery or javascript. I have to be very careful with my plugins or they'll interfere with my theme's navigation. It doesn't look broken till you try to get to subpages. I've learned to check, but only after much hassle.
Your post editor problem sounds like a pain! Have you tried reuploading the PHP file via FTP? Sometimes this helps. I'm a little leary of upgrading to 3.0 just yet cause I don't want to run into plugin issues…
Patty, I'm always impressed that you seem to be able to do most everything yourself… from changing themes to adding plugins.
Growing along with a platform always helps… it's jumping straight into WordPress after using something else that's the hardest I think.
Out of sheer devilment -stupidity? – I just upgraded to V3. It took about 45 seconds, all the plugins work and the visual tab seems to be working. Result!
Don't talk to me about PHP
I inserted some code for a add on side bar and it worked fine. I decided I didn't like it, screwed up removing the code and crashed the site for two days!
Kevin, I'm slowly learning some PHP, thanks to WordPress. After you've been in it a while, some of it starts to make sense. I could never write it, but I manage to edit alright.
Yay! I am still scared. haha. I adore my plugins and I'm just not ready to see how many don't like v3.
Glad yours went smooth!
Thank you Erica. I am a DIY'er at heart, what can I say.
Hey Erica,
Personally I went from using WordPress.com to WordPress.org and it wasn't that bad for me. I used blogspot back in the day but didn't ever do much with it.
I always wondered how to add cool features to your blog. I just found the text widget yesterday and added that. I'm really interested in adding more functionality to my blog for my readers to benefit from and enjoy.
Erica,
I just subscribed to your email updates and when I go to your page the content comes up off center halfway to the right. Is this intentional or is something wrong?
( By the way, I am just in the beginning research phase and have not started my blog yet. )
Bill
Ok, so I’m a newbie!! Until about 1 month ago I had no idea what the difference between a regula website or a blog was. So, my friend set me up with a wordpress blog and I’ve been blindly stumbling around learning things on youtube mostly. Then I tried blogger but found it was limited or at least I couldn’t figure out how to do more than just basic stuff. So, I had another idea for a blog and created another wordpress blog, ( i did figure out how to import my blogger to wordpress, I am impressed) So, my question is: I’m now using the twenty ten theme for my new blog and cant see a option for plugins, anywhere, Oh, I did update to the latest version of WordPress also. Wow, any help would really be appreciated.
If you’re using WordPress.com instead of self hosting the WP software
(available free at wordpress.org) you will not have plugin options, or a
lot of the other cool features you see WordPress fans talking about.
WordPress.com is a free service, just like Blogspot, and you’re pretty
limited on what you can do with it. It’s still better than Blogspot, but
you’ll soon wish you had your own hosting and the ability to do more.
If you’re paying for hosting somewhere, and have installed WP then
you’ll be able to install as many plugins, themes, etc as you’d like and
you’ll have a lot more flexibility. If you have this option, you’ll see
a Plugins menu in the left side of your WP Dashboard.