Tony Flanigan: Wordpress. Step by step for beginners.

I dig Wordpress. It's FREE, it's really cool, and it's a great bit of software that deserves a base price increase of at least R2500 to R3000 per installation. It does tons more than custom software that costs twice that!

What is not that cool about Wordpress is the often ridiculous amount of time we spend getting clients going with their brand new Wordpress blogs. For that reason, I'm slowly but surely going to compile a set of online notes for wannabe Wordpress users. We're pretty sure that even web designers will find these notes useful.

The scenario we will use is that of a client calling on a a web design company with the simple request:"I want a website that I can upload to myself".

A while back I for one would have tried to steer the conversation in another direction. Now? Eita, Wordpress is Gud, ya!

All the setting up of the domain name and the domain hosting is not the client's problem. Don't make it theirs.

Web designer, if you don't do domain registrations, or hosting, talk to TnT. We will give you an excellent re-seller package. Note, not price, package. We won't host you if you don't register with us. If you do go with us, you'll get a full on control panel with possibly the easiest Wordpress install you can imagine. NO knowledge of .php or MySql needed! Not only that, our servers support Wordpress, meaning no hassles with .php and sql databases.

For clients, why go to somebody else when we're right here to help you? We are confident that you will NOT get a similar Wordpress package anywhere for up to double what we will charge you.

UPDATE: MARCH 2011

PLEASE NOTE:

PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, AND HAVE BEEN.
Those that did not go down, stayed the same or went up!
Please check with us.

What do we charge? For your .co.za domain, which we really like, because we at TNT are proudly South African, you will pay R120-00.

The domain needs to be renewed every year, and that is currently also R120-00.

To be seen on the Internet, you need to have your Wordpress hosted on a reliable fast server, with unlimited traffic. There is nothing worse than having your website suddenly disappear because you have reached your traffic limit. This often happens late Friday afternoon, which means you're screwed until Monday. Another thing you need is enough space. We could give you less, but we have decided to give you more, so that you can comfortably grow into your space without having to worry about ~~shitty~~ (censored) ugly "YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR LIMIT!" messsages. Also usually Friday afternoons.

And then of course, hiccups. you want to know that you can contact your host, and get a response within a reasonable time frame, even over a weekend. That's us. We check e-mails constantly. We don't mind phone calls, but prefer e-mails. Speaking for myself, my memory is lousy, and I walk when I'm on the phone. So, what happens is that before the phone is cool, I have forgotten 80% of what I promised I would do!

For all this, R75-00 per month, or, if you would prefer it, R780-00 for the year. This is incredibly good value for your money.

Tomorrow I'm going to look at domain names, and how to choose the best name for your business.

Don't forget to: