The Complete Idiot's Guide to WordPress

by Susan Gunelius

Take advantage of the #1 blog publishing application.

With more than 22 million users worldwide, WordPress is the #1 blog WordPress publishing application in the world. This guide provides users of both its hosted blogging service (WorldPress.com) and its self-hosted application (WordPress.org) with everything they need to know to create, customize, manage, and share their WordPress blogs with the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

464 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easily understood, very basic WordPress guide for beginning users. It's focused on blogging rather than building traditional websites. The first half covers WordPress.com, and the rest covers WordPress.org. The Attracting an Audience section has valuable chapters on SEO, feeds, and social media. The Blogging for Big Bucks section has tips for monetization, including advertising, affiliate programs, and paid reviews.

This book is a good starting point, but for WordPress beginners I'd recommend WordPress for Dummies (read my review) over this book because the Dummies book better explains WordPress. However, the Idiot's Guide book is still worth reading for its blogging guidance.

Advanced WordPress users, designers, and developers would be better served by one of the WordPress For Dummies books: WordPress for Dummies (read my review), WordPress All-in-One For Dummies (read my review), or WordPress Web Design for Dummies (read my review).

Notes
• Ping-O-Matic automatically notifies the major ping services, so it's probably not worth adding new ones to the Update Services (Settings > Writing). If you do, make sure they're not ones that Ping-O-Matic already pings.
• For an intro to SEO, read SEOmoz's Beginner's Guide to SEO.
• Create favicons with the Dynamic Drive FavIcon Generator.
• The Theme Test Drive WordPress plugin lets you to test any theme as administrator, while visitors see the default one.
• Recommended web hosts for WordPress: Bluehost, HostGator, DreamHost, Just Host

[taj warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Help

The book is super detailed and informative. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get started blogging.

[Kathleen Garber · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you want to know about Wordpress?

The difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org?
How to get a wordpress blog?
How to customize settings?
How to use Themes and Widgets?
Navigation of the Dashboard?
Tags and Categories?
Trackbacks and Comments?
Posts vs Pages?
Popular Wordpress Features and how they work?
Upgrades?
How to get a domain and hosting?
Installing wordpress.org?
Third Party themes or hiring a designer?
Plugins?
Basic blogging info like: copyright and image rules, SEO, feeds, boosting subscribers, social networking, web analytics and more?
How to use wordpress.org to monetize your blog?

All of this and more is included in this thorough guide. Whether you are thinking of starting a basic free blog on wordpress, you have a wordpress blog but are thinking of switching to wordpress.org and your own hosting or you are on blogger or typepad and are thinking of switching, this book has what you need.

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[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate to buy books with "The Complete Idiot's Guide" to anything. I have another Idiot's Guide, this one to chihuahuas. I had hoped to find the Complete Chihuahua's Guide to WordPress so Paco and Etta could read it and explain WordPress to me so I wouldn't have to read the book, but that didn't happen so I had to read it myself. The book was easy to follow, explained even the most simple concepts, defined all the terms, and led me to lots of additional resources. Was it enough? Just two days after completing the book I enrolled in a WordPress class at Wake Tech that started this morning. I was able to keep up with the rest of the class, some of whom had previous experience with the software, and I have a practice site that I will develop. The class meets for two more sessions. The book is a good introduction and reference and I recommend it to anyone ready to start blogging but with no experience and no confidence. Who else would buy a book with "idiot" in the title?

[Shari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been trying to get my boys doing some "school" type things this summer, like practicing their writing and reading while still having fun! So I thought if I expect them to learn then I need to do the same. That is when I decided to look into switching to WordPress. Step 1 Go to DK Publishing and find a book on WordPress! I found: The Complete Idiot's Guide to WordPress - since I felt like a complete idiot when talking about WordPress - check! This will work.

Read the rest of my review: http://theknitwitbyshair.com/?p=7619

[Ethan Fleck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is a comprehensive view into the world of Wordpress. I will admit, it is a LONG read, taking me several check-outs at the library and a couple months to finish. That being said, even for being almost 3 years old, it's still a very good resource. It's one of those books that should be bought just because you will reference it so often in the future. Lots of links and suggestions, and it's written so that anyone can understand it.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty basic stuff. But if you're looking for stuff beyond the 101, base level how to use wordpress info, this book is probably not what you're looking for. If you want a real basic intro to the platform, the book is pretty solid. I was looking for some more advanced stuff, so this wasn't really for me.

[Christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good resource. Compared to the Visually series book, the organization of the book could've been better. Plus, the Visually series has tons of pictures which this is lacking. However, it was very good with providing pertinent information. Not difficult to understand. For everyone from the Beginner Advanced to the Advanced.

[Sarah Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covered the basics of word press.