Start learning how to get WordPress to work for you instead of you having to labor over WordPress methodology. In this course, attendees will receive a solid foundation from which to base their skill when working with WordPress.

Several of the topics that will be covered in this multi-day event are:

• What REALLY is WordPress? Understanding the relationship between PHP and MySQL … that WordPress is essentially a “pretty face” for a MySQL database.
• The history of the POST. By understanding where WordPress came from we can understand why everything is a “post” in WordPress.
• What is the difference between a POST and a PAGE? In this session we learn about hierarchy, taxonomies, and ordering.
• Setup WordPress with minimal fuss. Learn the necessary (and sometimes hidden) options you need to set in order to work with WordPress.
• Cracking the mystery of themes. By understanding how different theme pages have built-in hierarchy, and how template tags dictate how content is displayed, you will understanding theme construction.
• Time to get Loopy. Learn the basics of the WordPress Loop and how it works so that you will be better prepared to customize any WordPress theme.
• Working with images. The WordPress Media Library can be both useful and frustrating. Learn how to make the best use of this built-in resource.
• Extend WordPress. Learn the differences and rationals between using a theme’s functions.php file and using a plugin to extend WordPress.
• Guide your visitors with useful menus. Learn how to use the WordPress menu system to create useful navigation systems for your site.
• Freedom is found in widgets. By learning that WordPress widgets are nothing more than tupperware containers that hold ‘stuff’, it can free up restrictions you feel WordPress has placed on you.
• Managing Users. The capabilities of managing users can be unnecessarily confusing but through this session attendees will learn how to take advantage of WordPress user roles and how this can expand the capabilities of different sites.
• Building with Builder. The final session will show how much easier it is to work with WordPress when using iThemes Builder because of Layouts, Views, Extensions, duplication and more.

We’ll be rolling out more information soon, so make sure to mark your calendars for June 11-13!

Control what you want your plugin to do

While it is true you have tons of options for WordPress sliders, having the ability to control exactly what information and data is needed for your plugin and control exactly how that slider will look in your WordPress theme is a true mark of a quality developer. The best site that a client can receive from a developer is a site that does exactly what they want it to do… no more, no less. So learning how to deliver that capability is vital to anyone who wants to take their freelance development career to the next level.

Learn how a plugin is constructed

During this training we will dig into the necessary functions to create our Slider Reboot plugin and how to connect the functionality through WordPress hooks and filters. We will build a Custom Post Type to store the slider information and then build a WordPress shortcode to allow us to place our created Slider Reboot slider into any post or widget. We will also incorporate a simple admin area settings panel to control the look and feel of the plugin.

Add a new tool to your toolbox

Most web developers and freelancers have a certain skill set. Those skills might contain the ability to work in HTML, CSS, PHP, jQuery, MySQL, WordPress, Themes, etc. Adding that capability of building custom WordPress plugins adds a vital skill level to your quiver of development arrows. Having the option of billing for custom work can raise your earning potential over just being able to modify other people’s code.

Join us for this intensive two-day training event as we build our own Slider Reboot plugin. Signup on the WebDesign.com Event Schedule page.

WebDesign.com is here to help. In addition to the 500+ hours of recorded training and the live webinars that are added constantly to the calendar, we want to provide you with a number of foundational series of trainings videos. And the first series is being released today.

Learn the Basics of HTML and CSS

This FREE series of training videos is available to anyone who has the desire to learn more about HTML and CSS. These videos are recorded live featuring “The Professor” Benjamin Bradley, who is the main instructor at WebDesign.com. He takes listeners through 18 different sessions that cover that spectrum of information developers need to know regarding HTML and CSS. Topics Covered:

• Understanding HTML Terminology
• Understanding CSS Terminology
• HTML Semantics
• HTML – Typography
• HTML – Hyperlinks
• HTML5 – Structural Elements
• The #1 Rule of CSS
• The Box Model
• CSS – Typography – Color
• CSS – Typography – Fonts
• CSS – Typography – Text Effects
• CSS – Backgrounds
• CSS – Backgrounds – Gradients
• HTML – List Structure
• CSS – Styling Lists
• HTML – Working with Images
• CSS – Image Manipulation
• Organizing Data through Tables

Each one of the videos in the playlist ranges from 2 minutes to just over 10 minutes. They are short and easy to digest so that you can control how much you want to learn and how quickly. Bookmark the page. Rewatch section of the playlist. Use it as a resource as you seek to master the basics of HTML and CSS.

You can start watching right now by heading over the the HTML & CSS Basics Playlist page. Remember, you don’t have to be a member of WebDesign.com to watch these introductory training video series, but if you are serious about your career development learning a massive library of training and an eager community of like-minded developers are waiting to meet you today.

Watch the videos

The Value of Live Training

One of the true values of WebDesign.com is how we do training. Almost all of our training events and webinars are LIVE events with trainers that interact with attendees WHILE they are teaching. Even though our training is online, it’s like being there in person receiving hours of training every week—all so you can benefit as a developer, freelancer and business owner. And next week is not a week anyone who works with WordPress should miss. We are going to be spending 10+ hours exploring how to Extend WordPress Through Code.

Join Now for Just $129!

Because we don’t want anyone to miss out on the opportunity, we are hosting a 24 hour FRIDAY FLASH SALE here at WebDesign.com. So during this 24 hour period (from midnight to midnight CST), WebDesign.com’s annual membership will be ONLY $129. That’s just $129 for access to all upcoming live webinars and training events as well as access to 500+ training hours already available in the WebDesign.com library.

WebDesign.com membership has NEVER been this low. If you have never been a part of WebDesign.com’s amazing community of designers and developers, now is the time to see what all the buzz is about and connect with other like-minded WordPress-lovers for only $129. If you are a current member, this is the perfect time to renew your membership. And remember once the clock strikes midnight on Friday night… this special FRIDAY FLASH SALE will end!

Use coupon code WPFRIDAY129 at checkout before 11:59pm CST tonight, April 19, 2013 to join WebDesign.com for just $129 (normally $197).

Join WebDesign.com now!

• Supercharging WordPress Search - April 24, 2013 – Wed.11am (CDT)
  The default WordPress search is a lot like a fast food hamburger. It’s ok, but there are better options available. In this webinar, Nathan will explain some changes you can make to default WordPress search to narrow down your results, and also make recommendations on several plugins that will replace it altogether.
• Evernote for Web Developers - April 29, 2013 – Monday 1pm (CDT)
  Evernote is a powerful information management tool that should be part of every web developer’s arsenal. In this webinar, Nathan will explain the whys and hows of using Evernote to manage information and projects in a web development business.
• Pretty WordPress Menus (without a plugin) - May 06, 2013 – Mon. 1pm (CDT)
  The menu builder in WordPress makes creating your own hierarchical drop down menus simple. But in many themes, menus are basic or ugly. In this webinar, Nathan will use some simple CSS techniques to show you how to spice up your WordPress menus… without a plugin.
• Contact Pages That Don’t Stink - May 13, 2013 – Monday 1pm (CDT)
  Practically every web site has a contact page, and most of them are basic, bland, and boring. In this webinar, Nathan will offer some principles of effective contact page design, give some examples of well-conceived contact pages, and demonstrate how to implement some of these ideas on a Builder site.

Nathan also has a bunch more classes on the schedule and I encourage you to sign up now. To learn more about Nathan and his background with WordPress development, you can follow him on his blog at http://nathaningram.com/.

Next week, April 22nd – April 26th, members of WebDesign.com have an opportunity to attend a weeklong “Extending WordPress in Code” series of training webinars. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to extend WordPress using code, then this is the perfect time to join WebDesign.com so you can reserve your space in this exciting week of training. Remember if you want to attend these 10+ hours of training next week, you must have a current WebDesign.com membership.

So what are some of the classes that will be taught?

Creating Custom Post Types in Code

The ability to create new post types is a foundational piece of extending WordPress in code. When building sites for clients, a developer is always going to be running into the need to have more options for content than simply pages and posts. Coding up your own custom post types will give you that extra flexibility. In this class, we will look at not only how to create the custom post types but also how to integrate the content into the WordPress loop.

Under the Hood with Meta Boxes

In this advanced coding class, we will see what it takes to add additional meta boxes to post/page edit screens (and other places in WordPress). By mastering the usage of custom meta boxes you can create the perfect workflow for your clients and provide them with a simple-to-understand customized user interface for inputting specific content on their sites.

WordPress Settings API

Every developer who works with WordPress to create a unique web presence for their clients needs to consider how a client might be best served in modifying/updated/tweaking their site. Rather then turning over the full Administrator area of WordPress to the client, learn how the WordPress Settings API will allow you to create a customized settings area where you control what the client has access to change.

Creating Unique Post Formats

If you haven’t heard, one of the biggest focuses of the next release of WordPress (3.6) are the post formats. Simply adding the theme support doesn’t really do anything. Learn how to style post formats and give your clients a unique blogging experience.

These are just four of the upcoming training webinars that will occur during the week of April 22nd-26th. Tomorrow, I will unveil two or three more courses that will occur during our “Extending WordPress in Code” week. Now is the perfect time to join WebDesign.com so that you can begin preparing for this weeklong coding event by catching up of tons of training that already exists in the library of videos (over 500 hours)!

The easiest way to access the beta version of WordPress is to install the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on your WordPress site. (Download -> http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/) Once you activate this plugin, go to the plugins settings page and choose the Bleeding Edge option. WordPress will then tell you to update your site and faster than the Road Runner escaping Wiley Coyote you will be using the Beta version of WordPress.

This next version of WordPress is full of great new enhancements and features, some that are still being debated and argued about, and a few head scratchers. Let’s take a quick look at some of the things coming in WordPress 3.6.

Post Locking

This is a great feature (and something that has been needed for a long time) for multi-author sites. If you attempt to edit a post that is currently being edited by someone else, WordPress will now alert you to that fact and give you a few options about what you can do. This will prevent all those annoying “overwriting because I didn’t know you were editing” responses from users.

A new Auto-Save Concept

With WordPress 3.6, there will now be an autosave every 15 seconds on your “local machine”. Mark Jacquith (the lead on 3.6) dreamed that there would be a world where WordPress could protect your content against a slew of evils like:

• expired cookies
• loss of connection
• hitting the wrong browser button
• having a plugin go haywire on you
• having core WordPress go to a dark place on you
• having a browser crash
• having an OS crash
• having a pet find great relief on your computer
• surviving a drooling baby

And I believe with this new enhancement in WordPress 3.6, it will also help autosave your content in case of a zombie attack!

Post Revisions

While the new post revisions capabilities are much better, I still think we’ve got a ways to go to get it to the full capabilities of what WordPress could offer. But for now we are moving in the right direction and its a solid direction.

Post Format UI Change

WordPress 3.6 now pushing Post Formats (referred to by some as Tumblr-like Blogging) to the forefront of the Post Edit screen. There are plenty of debates and arguments still going on in the WordPress ecosystem. Not everyone agrees that this needs to be pushed to the forefront of the Post Edit screen and should be enabled…disabled by the Theme itself, not by WordPress. Currently in the latest Beta version, the theme has NO choice in the matter of whether or not it will show the Post Format options. They simply appear, even if the theme isn’t supporting any of the styling and such.

While, on the big picture side of things, the work the WordPress team has done on the Post Format UI is great. The implementation is what is being debated. I love seeing the Post Edit screen options change based on the Post Format that is chosen. But this bring up a HUGE question. When we get right down to the base level… What is the real difference between Post Formats and Custom Post Types? Aren’t Post Formats just a form of Custom Post Types? Anyway, it will be interesting to see the final implementation and to see what theme developers do in supporting this new feature.

New Menus…huh?

The new Menu settings in WordPress 3.6 did get a cleaned up interface, but I’m not sure of the rational of moving the locations to its own tab other than someone got it in their mind that it was what was needed. Which begs the question… Did any actual user REQUEST this change? If not… why the change?

Native Support for Video and Audio

Two great additions to WordPress 3.6 come in the ability to natively upload and embed your own video and audio files. Check out the discussion here. (http://make.wordpress.org/core/2013/04/08/audio-video-support-in-core/)

One More Thing… A New Theme

The new Twenty Thirteen theme is a good looking blog-centric theme. And its interesting to see how far to the other end of the spectrum this theme is from the more corporate/professional feel of the previous Twenty Twelve theme.

So all-in-all there is a ton of stuff to look forward to in WordPress 3.6. What features are you looking forward to use in the next version of WordPress? What would you like to see in future versions of WordPress?

Read more about the upcoming WordPress Developer Course.

You might be wondering will be covered in this course and is this course right for me? To answer the second part of that question first, if you want to learn more about taking control of your WordPress site, then this is the course for you. Let’s take a look at a few of the areas we will be covering during this 5 day event.

• Go back to the basics and learn the best way to install WordPress along with learning some amazing pro-tips that will make your life so much easier.
• Learn the truth about WordPress security. We won’t be talking about that over-hyped “security through obscurity” but actual steps you can take to make sure your site has the best possible security.
• Dig deep and find out the inner-workings of WordPress themes. Understand hierarchy, templates, hooks, filters, and more as we build your own theme from the ground up. You will learn how to also build your own settings panel in a responsive theme.
• Harness the immense power of the Builder theme by iThemes. Gain a firm grasp on layouts, views, and other structural components and even learn how and why to build your own builder extension.
• Uncover the top 10 seo tips when working with WordPress. Learn what is true seo vs scam-based seo practices while gaining pro-tips on how to manage your site.
• The updated top WordPress plugins list will be unveiled in this WordPress Developer Course. Also you will learn how to build your own WordPress plugin to expand the capabilities of your site.

This is the most comprehensive and in-depth single developer course for WordPress available and is included in your WebDesign.com Annual Membership. That means that in order to reserve your spot in the 7th WordPress Developer Course, you must be a member of WebDesign.com. Being a member of WebDesign.com isn’t just about accessing the WordPress Developer Course, it also gives you access to over 500 hours of recorded training webinars.

Some of you are probably wondering if you have the skills necessary to partake in such an intensive developer course. This highlights one of the many benefits of WebDesign.com Annual Membership. We provide you will all the pre-requisite training courses you might need to get ready for this WordPress Developer Course. Whether you need to brush up on CSS or HTML, or gain some additional understanding when it comes to PHP, jQuery, or MySQL. WebDesign.com has hundreds of training webinars to help you succeed with your development growth.

SPECIAL COUPON – Expires February 25th
WPDEV50 = $50 off WebDesign.com Membership

Over the next few days, we will be highlighting each of the five days of the course so you know what to expect with each day. Don’t wait until the last minute. Reserve your space now in the WordPress Developer Course (February 26th – March 2nd) by joining WebDesign.com today. And give your WordPress sites a massive boost.

Join WebDesign.com Today and Attend the WordPress Developer Course