http://scarpenter.personal.asu.

edu/wordpress/
http://serenacarpenter.com

How to Set Up Your ASU WordPress Blog

This will be the URL that you will provide to other people:
http://asurite.personal.asu.edu. Substitute the word “asurite” with your own login
name. You are allotted 1G of free space; you must learn how to manage your
space by carefully selecting files and adjusting the file size.

You will work with two separate accounts: 1) DirectAdmin and 2) WordPress. The
DirectAdmin account will be used less often. You will access the WordPress
account when you create a blog post or create single Web pages.

WORKIING IN DirectAdmin:
To access DirectAdmin, go to http://asurite.personal.asu.edu:2222 (e.g.,
http://scarpenter.personal.asu.edu:2222/). Your login is your ASURITE id and
your password is “0nlinemedia.” The “o” is a zero.

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1. Change password. Press submit.

BEFORE YOU GRADUATE: The Cronkite School provides the URL and host
server space for free until you graduate. You must download your file from
DirectAdmin following graduation and pay for a new URL and hosting space. To
download the backup WordPress file, go to File Manager > Backups > Select the
tar.gz file > Save your folder to an external drive.

WORKING IN WORDPRESS:
Adding you as the Administrator

1. Go to your URL, http://asurite.personal.asu.edu (e.g.,

http://scarpenter.personal.asu.edu/wordpress/). This is how your site
appears to the public.
2. To login into your personal WordPress account, go to
http://asurite.personal.asu.edu/wordpress/wp-login.php (e.g.,
http://scarpenter.personal.asu.edu/wordpress/wp-login.php). Your
username is “admin” and your password is “0nlinemedia.” Select different
passwords for your DirectAdmin and WordPress accounts.
3. Go to Users > Add New > Fill in info and password (Make Sure to Change
Role to Administrator)

4. Logout of your WordPress account > re-login with your username and new
password

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Settings
1. Change the Title and Tagline
2. Time Zone is Phoenix
3. Week starts on Monday or Sunday
4. Save changes

Profile
1. Fill out biographical information and change display name to your full
name > Select update profile

Links (Blogroll)
1. Delete wordpress.com and wordpress.org blogs
2. Go to Link Categories if you want both a “blogroll” and a “useful sites” link
category. Useful sites could be organizations that your recommend.
3. Go to “Edit” to add blogs and sites > Add new > Add name of blog/site, URL,
and select link category.

Discussion (Comments)
1. Uncheck “author must fill out name and email”
2. Uncheck “comment author must have a previously approved comment” >
Save changes

Find a Theme Online (Design of Your Site)

Two-column vs. three-column. Make sure it has at least two.
Theme should allow the creation of pages (e.g., about, contact).
Text should not be too wide across. Difficult to read for users unless it is a
narrow column.
Text should have good contrast with background.

Three ways to find and upload a theme:

Easy:
1. Appearance > Add New Themes > Search > Install > Activate

A Little Less Easy:

1. Appearance > Add new themes > Upload > Browse > Find downloaded
zip WordPress theme file on desktop > Type in ASUrite id and
DirectAdmin password
2. Under Appearance > Themes > Activate

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More Difficult:
Use this approach if WordPress does not house a theme that meets your design
and informational needs and your cannot upload it through WordPress.
1. Go to Fetch FTP program (MF or dog icon on dock or use spotlight to
locate Fetch) and login with DirectAdmin password

2. Go to public_html > Wordpress > wp-content > Theme > Drag

downloaded theme folder from desktop to theme folder
3. Under Appearance > Themes > Activate

Widgets (Sidebar/Column Features)

Some themes do not allow you to adjust widgets. It would be best if you can
adjust the widgets.
1. Go to Widgets under Appearance. If you have three columns, you will
select which sidebar
2. Drag in the order you wish the widgets to appear in your sidebar. It is
suggested to order them like this: 1) Text, 2) Search, 3) RSS, 4) Links, 5)
Categories, and 6) Archives. (remember to add text and save).
a. Text – Type 1-2 short sentences about who you are and the
purpose of the blog.
b. RSS – Copy URL from Feedburner to your RSS widget

Plugins (Be careful. Too many and some plugins can slow down your page
speed)
1. Search for applications (e.g., Tweet This, FD Feedburner, WP-Cache)
2. Plugins > Add new > Search plugins > Select install > Type in DirectAdmin
password > Activiate password

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3. Always upgrade automatically. Activate and deactivate plugins.

First Map Out Your Site Navigation!

Pages
Under attributes, number the pages in the order that you would like them to
appear: home (0), about (1), resume (2), contact (9). Give contact a much larger
number because it usually appears last on the navigation. Think about your
design before numbering your pages.

To Add Content to Pages

1. Edit page content
2. Turn off “allow comments and pings”
3. Hit update page

Drop-down menu (if theme allows drop-down menu)

For example, Resume should be Main page (no parent) (page #3) and the
Resume will be the parent to Education (page #11).

Writing a Post
1. Select Posts tab, delete “Hello World” post
2. Select “Add New”
3. Add title or headline for your individual post
4. Begin typing post. It acts as Word Processor. Edit HTML to add video
embeds.
5. Highlight a word and create a link using the link chain
icon
6. Add tags and categories. Check mark categories.
7. Save draft or publish.

Insert a Photo
1. Upload/Insert (Add a Image)
2. Select image
3. Insert into post (may need to use browser uploader)

Add a PDF document

1. Transform your word document into a PDF > Print > Save as a PDF
2. Connect to Fetch
3. Select public_html
4. Add “New Folder” > label it “pdf”

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5. Drag your PDF to the folder > Label PDF properly (no spaces, lowercase,
and short)
6. Highlight the word you wish to link to the PDF in the WordPress post >
Create link > Type out link (e.g.,
http://scarpenter.personal.asu.edu/pdf/fall09_honor_syllabus.pdf)

Update different search engines that your blog has updated

1. Sign up for http://pingomatic.com/, http://blogsearch.google.com/ping, and
http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/

To edit code (avoid unless you know how to read code): You cannot likely
edit code from WordPress. To access your code you need to:
1. Go to Fetch FTP program (MF icon on dock or use finder to locate Fetch)
and login
2. Go to public_html > Wordpress > wp-content > Themes (find your present
theme) > Select file that you wish to edit > Select edit in Fetch (use
TextWrangler or Dreamweaver) > Save code > Preview your blog to view
changes

Add-ons after your blog is set up:

RSS (Feedburner - allows people to subscribe to your blog)

1. Your theme may have a default RSS feed

2. Register at http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home
a. Paste url to set up RSS

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b. Write down entire Feed Address

c. Click Next

3. Select “My Feeds” and select your blog title. You can see who is
subscribing to your blog using RSS.

3. Type the entire URL into RSS widget

Askimet Plugin (Comment spam blocker)

1. Go to Plugins > Select “activate” Askimet > Open new browser window >

2. Sign up for a separate WordPress account > Go to WordPress.com >

“Just a username, please!” > Get your key via email > Activate account >
Login (You will only use this account to get the key)
3. Go to Users > Your Profile > You should see, directly under the Profile
heading, a sentence that reads, “Your WordPress.com API key is:”
followed by a string of 12 letters and numbers > Copy and paste key and
select update options in your personal.asu WordPress account.

SiteMeter (Traffic Analyzer): Tracks location, key words used, referrals, site visit
length average, average visits per day, etc for your Web site.

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