As a companion post to My Favorite Elementor Video Tutorials, I’ve put together a collection of my favorite WordPress tutorials. While WordPress is I believe the best CMS and platform for your website, it also has a bit of a learning curve. Sometimes a quick or even longish video tutorial gets you started.
Gutenberg Tutorial by WPCrafter (NEW)
Gutenberg is the new WordPress content editor coming out soon (November 2018). In another great video from WPCrafter, you’ll learn what’s changing and how to use the new content editor. Once all the bugs get worked out, I think Gutenberg is going to be an easier way for you to create amazing blog posts and simple pages on your websites. It might just also make my job easier, too!
So, take a look at this great video, so you’re ready when Gutenberg shows up in your WordPress dashboard.
WP101 Video Tutorials
WP101 offers some of the best WordPress training videos for beginners. These videos break the basic usage of WordPress down into tiny bits. This way, you can learn and focus on one functionality of WordPress at a time. Here is their introduction to WordPress:
How to get the Videos
WP101 offers a few ways to get their videos. You can subscribe to its service with a lifetime membership and have access to all of its videos. WP101 also creates video tutorials for WordPress plugins, like JetPack and Yoast SEO. Alternatively, you can purchase the WP101 plugin, and install the videos right into your WordPress Dashboard.
In fact, I’ve purchased that plugin so you don’t have to. I install these training videos in every WordPress site I build or redesign. I also provide the plugin to my training clients. I include this service at no charge.
WPBeginner Tutorials
I stumbled upon WPBeginner a few years ago while trying to figure out how to backup my site. While I didn’t watch its videos at first, WPBeginner’s written tutorials impressed me. The writing style is clean, and the articles provide screen shots and clear instructions for completing discreet tasks in WordPress. You’ll even find free snippets of code you can insert into your site to get functionality not provided by your theme. In fact, WPBeginner is one of the best WordPress blogs out there, in my opinion.
For those of us who don’t like to read, WPBeginner also produces great videos for using WordPress. I’m going to share a few of those videos here so you can get a taste of what they are like. In the first video, WPBeginner will show you how to setup a website in 25 minutes. While I think the video is great, it just might take longer than 25 minutes if you really want to make the site your own!
In the next video, you’ll learn how to set up an e-commerce shop the right way.
WPCrafter Shines Again
I introduced you to WPCrafter in my post about my favorite Elementor tutorials. Well, WPCrafter makes all sorts of great tutorial videos about WordPress themes, plugins, and how to use WordPress in general. The thing I really like about this guy is that he’s very particular about what themes and plugins he profiles. He’s just not putting up videos for an affiliate marketing scheme. He’s tested and believes in the products he talks about.
Here’s a little video from WPCrafter about how to install WordPress for a self-hosted WordPress site. There’s a whole series of these videos to help you get up and running with your own site.
Of course, if this still looks mysterious to you, I can help! I offer a service, Kickstart, that includes setting up your hosting account at Flywheel and installing WordPress and your theme for you, plus 3 hours of personal training to get you going.
OceanWP Quick Start Guide
Finally, I’d like to share this little tutorial from one of my favorite themes, OceanWP. OceanWP is a free, fast and lightweight multi-purpose theme that works perfectly with Elementor. OceanWP also offers extensions to give the theme even more power.
OceanWP is great for beginners or when you need a website quickly and on a budget. OceanWP has built several demo sites you can easily import right into your own website. Then, you can get to work customizing it for your needs. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can get up and running.
My Favorite Tools & Hosting
I know a lot of these videos, and other training videos out there, recommend hosting and themes in their videos. Of course, you can follow their advice and you probably won’t go wrong, as long as you trust the source like the ones I share here. However, I also prefer some other hosting services and themes.
Hosting
- Flywheel for the best managed WordPress hosting around. You pay a bit more, but you get a lot more, like a Virtual Private Server, an easy interface, and off-site backups. Plus, your site will be blazing fast.
- Webhosting Hub for great and affordable shared hosting. Webhosting Hub is actually part of InMotion Hosting, another well known and popular host. What really makes Webhosting Hub shine is its support. They respond quickly and are always happy to help.
Themes
- OceanWP. I believe this is by far the best free theme out there. I also love the extensions. I build with this theme.
- GeneratePress. GeneratePress is another light weight and powerful theme that is easy to use. However, to unlock its power, you need to purchase the premium version. I’ve tested this theme. And while I like it, I prefer to work with OceanWP.
- Genesis Framework and its child themes. I personally like Genesis themes for some specialty niche sites. However, you can’t go wrong with a Genesis theme. These are some of the best themes for SEO and performance. Just remember, Genesis is a bit trickier to customize, and you might need to know some coding to do it. You can also purchase plugins, like Design Palette Pro, to help you customize without coding.
Of course all of these themes work beautifully with Elementor!
Stay tuned, as I plan to continue to add new valuable videos and links as I find them. I’m always learning and finding new great resources to share with you.
