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Introduction to the “W” cast, W1


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Welcome to the first episode of what I’m dubbing my “W” series.

On a weekly basis, Wednesday at least, I’m committing myself to bringing you the latest and what’s going on behind the scenes.

As I stated at the beginning of today’s podcast, it’s not my objective to commit myself to multiple podcasts on a weekly basis except for the Tuesday podcast I already committed to with Damashe, and now these “W” podcast released on Wednesdays.

In today’s podcast episode, I share with you a little info regarding the new link shortener I’m using from rebrandly,

I also share with you information about the webinar that Rick and I are doing.

Yes, it’s not your ears playing tricks on you, I am experimenting with some audio editing tips I’ve learned from the podcast engineering school podcast,

as well as from audio pizza.

?

If you have any questions about the content we produce, don’t forget to reach out and contact me today.

Finally, it’s really important that you share the message you enjoy with your most active social media…

If you enjoy it, those who you are connected too likely will as well.

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DM19: Customize your site with Themes

WordPress Theme Directory

Does your site look like every other WordPress site out there? It shouldn’t! yourownpay.com looks completely different from damashe.org, even though both Damashe and Michael are WordPress users, and even use some of the same tools.
Why is this, it is all about the theme you choose for your site. Think of your site’s theme as the design of your house, or your particular style of dress. You should want your site to reflect the business you are in, but also reflect your personal branding.
A WordPress theme can determine the layout of your site’s navigation links, how photos are displayed, and even the color people see when highlighting a link. And just like Plugins, themes can add functionality to your site in amazing ways.


Speaking of Plugins


If you enjoy this episode, you need these 10 plugins from Damashe and Michael

How to pick a theme


With all the available themes out there, both free and payed, which one should you pick for your site?
While this answer differs for each site, there are things to look for when picking a WordPress theme:
* what type of site are you building?
 If you have a store front, then you most likely want a theme that is designed to showcase your products.
 If it is a blog, then your content should should be front and center.
* How customizable is the theme?
 You want the ability to customize different aspects of the theme to fit your needs.
 If you don’t want a slideshow at the top of your site, you should be able to remove it.
* Does the theme get regular updates?
 You don’t want a theme that hasn’t been updated in years, because it could introduce vulnerabilities in to your site, and it’s probably not using the latest and greatest technologies that have been brought to the WordPress core.

And remember, you can always change your theme without losing any of your site’s content. THe only thing that changes with a theme change is how that content is displayed.
Share with us the theme you like to use by leaving a comment or tweeting us @Damashe and @Payown.


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Extending wordpress with Plugins

DM18: Extending WordPress with Plugins

Image showing the WordPress Plugin directory, to use for Extending wordpress with Plugins

One of the reasons we prefer WordPress.org discussed in DM16 is the plugin architecture.
Extending wordpress with Plugins
Plugins for WordPress allow you to really give your site abilities and features to meet your needs, without knowing any code. And yes, there are times where the only way to accomplish something on a WordPress site are to dig in to the code, but those times have become fewer and fewer over time.
Using plugins can allow you to quickly create forms, produce wiki docs, and even turn your site in to a teaching platform. The options you have with plugins are virtually endless, and you can discover many of them for free. Many plugins are available for free, or as a freemium model. These free plugins can mostly be found in the WordPress Plugin Directory, where they say there currently over 50,000 plugins available.

If you enjoy this episode, you need these 10 plugins from Damashe and Michael

A Few Tips When Looking for Plugins

While plugins are great, you want to take some precautions when choosing and deploying them.
* Don’t go overboard with the number of plugins running on a site. The quickest way to slow down your site is to have to many plugins loading.
* Check out the ratings and last update date when browsing the directory.
* Backup your site before deploying a plugin that is going to significantly change your site.
* You don’t need two or more plugins that provide the same functionality.
* If looking at a paid plugin, be sure to check out the return policy, as well as the site licenses you have.

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What is shared hosting vs cloud hosting?



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what is shared hosting vs cloud hosting

 

If you enjoy this episode, you need these 10 plugins from Damashe and Michael


 

This is one of the questions Damashe and Michael answer in this weeks podcast episode. Grab a ? and don’t forget to share.

As Damashe explained, last week we discussed the Differences between wordpress.com and self hosted you will want to give that episode a listen if you haven’t yet. In this weeks episode, we’re going to go more in detail about the topic of self hosting your website. Michael starts out by telling you the things a person needs to host their own WordPress website.

Tools you need to host your own wordpress website

These tools include: – Your Domain Name ? – Web Hosting – files what you show people

Michael then asks Damashe about getting started with WordPress

In this section we learn all about the differences between – Shared Hosting – VPS or Cloud Hosting – Dedicated hosting

You’ll definitely want to listen to us talk all about these topics this week, especially with the analogies we come up with it to better explain the differences. Will give you advantages and disadvantages to all of these hosting scenarios. Give this weeks episode Alyssa and to also hear why Michael is moving all of his sites to VPS posting Get our recommendations for who should be using what in this weeks episode, and don’t forget to get your a free PDF file with the 10 plug-ins we both use on all WordPress installations… ⬆️

 

What is shared hosting vs cloud hosting?

 

 

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Key Differences between WordPress.com and Self Hosted



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Key Differences Between WordPress.com & WordPress.org

If you enjoy this episode, you need these 10 plugins from Damashe and Michael


By now, you should know we love us some WordPress over here☺️ So when Michael wanted to get in to WordPress for a few episodes, I was like ??

To get started, in this episode, we discuss the primary differences between a wordpress.com site and a wordpress.org selfhosted site. Hint, one requires more work

Both Michael and myself have some strong opinions about which we choose to use, but we are aware that our solution isn't for everyone.

You can get a WordPress.com site started for free by going over to wordpress.com and creating an account. The WordPress.com service is freemium, meaning you can use it for free, with some payed upgrades for more features and functionality.

One of the nice things about using WordPress.com is that you don't have to worry about staying updated, the WordPress team takes care of all updates on the backend. You also get instant access to millions of other WordPress users, with easy ways for other people to follow your site, and for you to follow others.

There are no hosting costs, and you can upgrade for the features you want with relative ease.

Selfhosted

WordPress selfhosted solution is also free, at least the WordPress software is free. And while there are certainly ways to host your site for free, neither myself nor Michael would recommend it. Especially if your site being online is important?

So there is an instant cost associated with a selfhosted site, somewhere to host that site. This doesn't have to be expensive hosting to get started, but your site must live somewhere. You are also responsible for ensuring that your site stays updated, and take care of defending it against random attacks.

With that out of the way, running a selfhosted site is going to give you significantly more flexibility over just using WordPress.com. You have thousands of free and payed plugins to add additional functionality and features to your site, and just as many themes to customize the appearance.

Can you guess which solution either me or Michael prefer? More importantly,

which solution do you prefer, tell us in the comments or reach out on Twitter @Damasheand @Payown.

Links for this Episode

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Key Differences Between WordPress.com & WordPress.org

By now, you should know we love us some WordPress over here☺️ So when Michael wanted to get in to WordPress for a few episodes, I was like ??
To get started, in this episode, we discuss the primary differences between a wordpress.com site and a wordpress.org selfhosted site. **Hint, one requires more work**
Both Michael and myself have some strong opinions about which we choose to use, but we are aware that our solution isn’t for everyone.
You can get a WordPress.com site started for free by going over to [wordpress.com](#)(https://wordpress.com) and creating an account. The WordPress.com service is freemium, meaning you can use it for free, with some payed upgrades for more features and functionality.
One of the nice things about using WordPress.com is that you don’t have to worry about staying updated, the WordPress team takes care of all updates on the backend. You also get instant access to millions of other WordPress users, with easy ways for other people to follow your site, and for you to follow others. There are no hosting costs, and you can upgrade for the features you want with relative ease.
## Selfhosted

WordPress selfhosted solution is also free, at least the WordPress software is free. And while there are certainly ways to host your site for free, neither myself nor Michael would recommend it. Especially if your site being online is important?
So there is an instant cost associated with a selfhosted site, somewhere to host that site. This doesn’t have to be expensive hosting to get started, but your site must live somewhere. You are also responsible for ensuring that your site stays updated, and take care of defending it against random attacks.
With that out of the way, running a selfhosted site is going to give you significantly more flexibility over just using WordPress.com. You have thousands of free and payed plugins to add additional functionality and features to your site, and just as many themes to customize the appearance.
Can you guess which solution either me or Michael prefer? More importantly, which solution do you prefer, tell us in the comments or reach out on Twitter [@Damashe](#)(https://twitter.com/damashe) and [@Payown](#)(https://twitter.com/payown).

## Links for this Episode

* [WordPress.com](#)(https://wordpress.com)
* [WordPress.org](#)(https://wordpress.org)
* [The Your Own Pay Podcast: Self Hosted, Or wordpress.com – your own pay podcast](#)(http://yourownpay.libsyn.com/self-hosted-or-wordpresscom-your-own-pay-podcast)
* [Learn How to Build and Maintain a WordPress Website WordPress for Bad Eyes](#)(http://wpforbadeyes.com/)
* [SSD Cloud Hosting & Linux Servers – Linode](#)(https://www.linode.com/?r=7588037f1910818de322bb1cfd02773b849abefc)

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DM Extra!



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Domain Names and Why They’re Important

List of TLD’s

Michael explains a domain name this way:

It’s a simple to remember word or phrase that takes people to your website.

Couldn’t have said it better myself… This special episode of [The DM Show](#)() was recorded to give you some info about choosing a great domain name for your business.

Of course, if you want to have a website, you must have a domain name to get there. When choosing a domain name for your business or online project, you should choose carefully. Here are a few things to avoid when choosing a domain:

  • * Don’t be to plain
  • * Don’t infringe on any other companies name or trademarks
  • * Try not to have a long domain name

These days, we all are in a much better position when it comes to choice of domain name. We used to only have .com, .net, and a few other options to pick from; which meant that you could quickly discover that your desired .com site wasn’t available to register. Wait until you hear why this happens sometimes
But now, you can often times find that a portion of your business name can be after the period, like https://tresamor.boutique is awesome for the Tres Amor Boutique personal care business.
You can incorporate the industry that you are in like

blind.training

definitely indicates that this company is in the business of training blind people, or

appleworld.today

indicates a site related to daily updates about the world of Apple.

The point is, to quote Michael again:

Be creative with your domain name and branding.

Thanks for listening to this special episode, and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below, or reaching out on Twitter
@Damashe and @payown

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What is a domain name)