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Home > Video Tutorials > Where should I begin?

Where should I begin?

This site contains over 800 videos on creating, customizing and maintaining WordPress and Thesis based business websites. Most of them can be described as either Basic or Intermediate level video tutorials. With so many videos it can be hard to find a starting place. Select the statement below that best describes where you feel you are. The link will take you to where we think might be a good place for you to start.

This is where I think I am

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I’m starting from scratch – I don’t have a domain name or a hosting provider

If you’re starting at the very begining then I suggest that you start with Lesson 1 of the Start Building Your Website Here series. This starts at the very beginning, and will lead you step by step through the process. Once completed with this you will know enough to begin any intermediate level series.

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I have a hosting provider and a domain name but not much else

So it’s time to start installing WordPress. Lesson 3 of the Start Building Your Website Here series teaches how to install WordPress on your domain. Follow all the way through to the end of Lesson 14 and you’ll have a working website up and running. After that you can browse around the site to see where you might like to go from there. With this foundation under your belt, the world is your oyster.

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I have WordPress installed but I’m not sure where to go from here

Then let’s lay a good foundation. One of the most important skills to have as a WordPress website owner is using FTP comfortably. Lesson 4 of the Start Building Your Website Here series we’ll show you how the file structure works on your site and teach you how to create a copy of your website’s files on your local computer. This might not sound sexy but you’re better off learning this now, than postponing it until you have a problem. From there continue on in the series till it’s completion.

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I have WordPress and Thesis installed – What’s next?

So it’s time to start creating your home page and to learn something about Google. In Lesson 6 of the Start Building Your Website Here series we’ll show you how to create your pages, set up a home page and talk about some of the Google fundamentals. From there you’ll want to continue with the series till its end. When finished you’ll have a solid foundation upon which to build.

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I have WordPress and Thesis installed and my basic Settings Completed

First I’d suggest learning about pages, subpages and the navigation menu. We cover that in Lesson 7 of the Start Building Your Website Here series. If you’re already comfortable with that then I suggest learning how to optimize your images for use on the web. We do that in Lesson 8. If you’re already a PhotoShop master then it’s time to start learning about widgets in Lesson 9.

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I have WordPress and Thesis installed, now I want to learn more about plugins

You can find a good introduction to installing plugins in Lesson 10 of the Start Building Your Website Here series. If you’re already comfortable with the concept of using and installing them then it’s time to browse our list of plugin related tutorials. We currently have 1 tutorials covering 54 plugins on this site.

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I have WordPress and Thesis installed, now I want to learn all the WordPress fundamentals

We currently have 1 tutorials on using the basic functions of WordPress. You can browse through the list and watch what strikes your fancy or you can simply start at the top and work your way down. The first 10 sections would be good to master.

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I have WordPress and Thesis installed, now I want a complete overview of Thesis

Thesis is a remarkably powerful platform with tons of features that make developing your site easier and faster. We cover some of those features in our Start Building Your Website Here series. However, there is much that we don’t cover there as well. Below you’ll find 1 video tutorials on all elements of using Thesis.

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I’m comfortable with both WordPress and Thesis and I want to customize the appearance of my site

Unlike most themes, Thesis was designed to be customized. Once you learn some basic customization techniques there is virtually nothing that can’t be done in Thesis. We have 1 tutorials on this site that cover all aspects of customizing the appearance and functionality of Thesis.

The best place to start is with our Customize Thesis Like a Pro series. It starts off by teaching the fundamentals of file structure, basic CSS and PHP and then moves on to ways to implement that information. Although that’s not the only place to start. We also have tutorials that were answers given in Live Q&A sessions or were part of other projects. You can find all of that at our Customize Thesis Like a Pro page.

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I’m comfortable with both WordPress and Thesis and I want create an Ecommerce site

You’re in luck! One of our most popular series is the Build an Ecommerce Website series. It starts immediately where the Start Building Your Website Here series ends. The best thing to do is to start at the beginning and work your way through it. Along the way you’ll learn some Thesis customization techniques as well.

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I’m comfortable with both WordPress and Thesis and I want to create a membership site

We’re in the process of creating this course LIVE right now. We’re in the midst of a live 12 week course and you might even be able to catch up. Start off by looking at the course content on our LIVE Create a Membership Website page

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I’m comfortable with both WordPress and Thesis but my site needs to be a complex CMS

We’ve been experimenting with complex CMS sites all year long. We’ve created a Community News site with events, a multi-lingual site and Church Library (Community Library) site. Each of these takes full advantage of custom post types, custom taxonomies, custom post meta and other features of WordPress that make it a powerful platform for this type of site. We have each of these in the form of “case studies”. Visit the specific case study page to see what we’ve done.