Search Engine Optimization
The first step for local optimization is to tackle your standard search engine optimization (SEO), but from a local perspective. This means using local keywords to bring in local customers. Use the names for your city, county, state, surrounding area and any nicknames (Twin Cities, Fox River Valley, tri-county area, etc.) as keywords. Make sure those terms are prominent on your site, both in the text and in the page titles. Your goal is to be the top result when people search for “Grand Rapids barber” or “Tulsa church” or “San Antonio lawn service.”

Local Listing
Another approach that can help is listing your site locally. You can check various local listings like Google Maps, Yelp, online yellow pages and others to make sure you’re listed—and most importantly—that your information is accurate. Many of these sites will automatically import lists of businesses but not have current info like your website. Most of these sites should also be free.

Cover the Basics
If you cover the basics it’s usually easier than you think to be highly ranked for local search. Using these tips and the basics such as WordPress and well-designed themes will get the job done. The competition is often minimal because you’re not competing worldwide, but just in your area. That kind of local attention can be a serious advantage.

Helpful Tip: Use the All in One SEO Pack to help with global search engine optimization settings, as well as customized settings for individual posts and pages.

How you create a magazine style site is up to you. You could pick up a theme specifically designed for that style, whether it’s free or premium. iThemes offers the bSocial theme that offers a slick, social-focused look for a magazine style site.

Another option would be to build your own custom magazine theme. Using iThemes Builder you could set up a magazine site with little to no coding needed, or use an existing child theme, like Scooter, Covert, Covell, Adept, etc. to build your magazine site. And, of course, you can use the magazine extension with any of the Builder child themes.

However you do it, the idea is to change the typical homepage for a WordPress site. On a typical blog, the homepage is simply a running list of the latest posts. Some sites utilize ‘read more’ links to send readers deeper into the site for longer posts, but in general the homepage is just a long, scrolling list of posts.

For a magazine style site you need to redesign that basic approach. You want to highlight several posts more intensely, maybe with an image or a small bit of teaser text. And you don’t want those features to go away as new content is added. Using the Featured Post plugin in DisplayBuddy makes it easy to create an appealing magazine site.

A pre-designed theme will do it for you, while creating one using Builder will give you the flexibility to come up with the exact layout you want.

Two premium training courses from WebDesign.com will walk you through this process:

• Building a Magazine Theme with Builder
• BluePrint Basics: Magazine Theme for Builder

To view the webinar videos, log in to your WebDesign.com account.

Not a member yet? Check out your options.
(To access video replays you’ll need a premium annual membership.)

Whatever it is, telling people to upload their files to a server causes confusion. Well, no more. We’re going to demystify the uploading process and lose the anxiety over FTP.

Glossary
First, let’s define a few terms.

FTP – This scary acronym stands for File Transfer Protocol. That’s a geeky way of saying how you move files from one place to another. It’s how you move your website files like HTML pages, images and PDFs from your computer to your website.

Host and Server – For us non-techies these terms are basically interchangeable and refer to the place where your website resides. You move your files from your computer to a server, and now they can be dished up on the Internet.

That’s it. See, not too overwhelming.

FTP Tools
In order to move your files from your computer to your server, you need an FTP program. A great one for beginners is the free FileZilla. You can download the appropriate version for your computer here.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed FileZilla, you’re ready to start uploading files.

Using FileZilla
First things first, you’ll need to connect to your server. You’ll need to enter some information from your host so FileZilla knows where to go—kind of like giving it an address. This is standard information you should be able to get from your host. You need the host (also called the server, usually your url), your username and password. Enter these across the top (usually you can leave “port” blank) and hit “Quickconnect.”

If your settings are correct, it will connect you to your server (if you have trouble, contact your host to make sure you have all the correct info).

Once you’re connected it’s fairly straight forward. On the left (under “Local site”) is your computer’s hard drive. Double click on folders to navigate around and find your website’s files on your computer. On the right (under “Remote site”) is your website. Simply drag files from the left side to the right (from your hard drive to the server) and—poof—they’ll be available on the Internet. It’s that easy.

That’s it. Now you can upload your own files. Believe it or not, you’re an FTP pro.

WordPress can make it easy. More than just a blog platform, WordPress is a content platform. Using a simple content management system is a smart way to speed up the process of creating and maintaining your portfolio. You can do it all yourself and you don’t need to bring in someone else. It also doesn’t have to be super time consuming.

While WordPress is capable of hosting a portfolio, it is designed as a blogging platform, which means that most themes are fairly text heavy. But there are a number of themes out there specifically designed for portfolios. They make it simple and easy to show off your work. All you need to do is upload images and write descriptions of your work. Easy.

Kepler, Kepler Light, Covell and Covert are a few themes from iThemes that work with the Builder platform. This makes it easy to build out extra functionality or build your portfolio in a preexisting WordPress site but with a different look and feel.

There’s also the Digital Gallery theme from iThemes, a standalone theme that will also make a portfolio quick and easy. And of course there are loads of other free and premium portfolio themes out there.

A Few Tips for Creating an Online Portfolio:

• Less is more. Put your best work forward and show a potential employer a few quick samples of your best work. Don’t flood your portfolio with everything you’ve ever created.
• Get to the point. Text explaining each project and your role in it is helpful, but keep it simple. Don’t go on and on. Potential employers need to quickly understand what’s your handiwork and what’s not.
• Keep it simple and organized. The goal is to have potential employers quickly review your material and hire you. The best way to encourage that is to keep your navigation simple and keep everything well organized. Don’t make it so complex that people get lost or use a navigation so unique no one can figure out how it works.
• Maintainability is key. You want a portfolio that you can easily add to over time. That means it has to be quick and easy to add new projects. Using WordPress will make that easy, but even still, don’t make the process of adding a new project overly complicated.

In this guide you’ll find best practices on how to get started with students, how to engage students and connect with them in ways that enhance their learning (and your enjoyment), plus a whole slew of practical tips to help you deal with the nitty gritty parts of teaching web design.

Special thanks go to the educators and team members who contributed to this ebook: Benjamin Bradley, Cherish Flieder, Christy Sooter, Kathy Gill, Steve Cunningham, Tami Frascht, Kevin Hendricks, Nina East, Kristen Wright, and Brad Ulrich.

Learn more about the iThemes Education Program Beta, as well as our Student Edition of the Web Designer’s ToolKit.

Take a look at the schedule below to pick the classes you want to attend.

Not a member of WebDesign.com? You can join now and take advantage of our 4th Anniversary Celebration Sale – saving 44% by using coupon code COMMUNITY.

iThemes.TV – How to Build a Website

January 24, 2012 – Tuesday – 11am (CST)
Overview: This beginners-level webinar will walk you step-by-step through the process of getting your website up and running. You’ll learn everything from purchasing a domain name and hosting to how to quickly set up a site and get the ball rolling for your business online. Sign up today!
Instructor: Benjamin Bradley
Length: 1 hour
Skill Level: Everyone
Requirements: No Requirement
Registration Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/680375058

SEO – Expanding your Keyword Control

January 25, 2012 – Wednesday – 11am (CST)
Overview: Once you setup your SEO for your site launch, how do you go about continuing you SEO optimization? How do you expand the reach of your keywords? This course will walk you through the steps of expanding your keyword control while you optimize your SEO effectiveness.
Instructor: Benjamin Bradley
Length: 1 hour
Skill Level: Beginner
Requirements: Basic understanding of Keywords
Registration Link: Members of WebDesign.com and Live Webinar Pass holders can register after logging into the Events page.

Designing for Mobile Devices

January 26, 2012 – Thursday – 1pm (CST)
Overview: In this interactive design course we will look at the top 25 tips for designing for mobile devices. We’ll look at touchscreen navigation, mobile versions of css, jquery, other code. We’ll also look at top tools to develop and test.
Instructor: Benjamin Bradley
Length: 1+ hours
Skill Level: Everyone
Requirements: No Requirements
Registration Link: Members of WebDesign.com and Live Webinar Pass holders can register after logging into the Events page.

Members Only Chat

January 30, 2012 – Monday – 2pm (CST)
Overview: This twice monthly event is an exclusive event for members of WebDesign.com. Members control the content and the direction of the discussions.
Instructor: Benjamin Bradley
Length: 1 hour
Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Requirements: Member of WebDesign.com
Registration Link: Members of WebDesign.com and Live Webinar Pass holders can register after logging into the Events page.

Check out the WebDesign.com Course Catalog to see the list of previous webinars…totaling more than 300 hours of professional, on-demand WordPress training.

Longtime advocate of entrepreneurship and tech development, iThemes founder Cory Miller says, “We want to train the next generation of web designers by empowering students to enter the workforce with skills that will position them for careers in web design, as well as give graduates in other fields a leg up on other students. Offering the Student Edition of the ToolKit is one of the ways we see ourselves giving back.”

iThemes and WebDesign.com are on a mission to make web design easy and fun. Just like knowing Microsoft Word has become a basic skill required in many careers, WordPress is quickly becoming another software workers will need to know if they want to have more employment opportunities. While some students will want to use these skills for a career in web development and design, other students can use these fundamental skills to position themselves in the competitive job search environment by creating their own high quality websites to profile themselves, their portfolios and their experience.

In addition to the professional, premium tools (WordPress themes from iThemes and WordPress plugins from PluginBuddy) that are included in the Student ToolKit, WebDesign.com will be providing leading edge instruction in web design and working with WordPress through the Premium Annual Membership included in the Student ToolKit.

If you are a full-time student interested in, or simply curious about, web development and WordPress web design, this is the perfect opportunity for you to access professional tools and gain premium training.

Visit the Web Designer’s ToolKit – Student Edition page to learn more about the program, get answers to commonly asked questions, and to complete your application. If you know of other students who may be interested, please share this information with them.

For Educators – if you haven’t signed up for our Education Program (beta), where you can get all of our products and support for no cost, do so today and we can work with you on offering the Web Designer’s Toolkit – Student Edition to your students.

This week’s cancelled webinars include:

• PluginFocus: SimplePress – Jan. 17
• BluePrint Basics – Building a Podcasting Site – Jan. 19

The iThemesTV webinar on Getting Started with BackupBuddy will be broadcasted as scheduled and presented by Bes Zain from the PluginBuddy team.

We will be notifying all community members sometime next week of rescheduled training.

In the meantime, if you would like to send condolences to Benjamin directly, you may mail them to the iThemes office and we will get them to him: iThemes Media LLC, 1720 S. Kelly Ave., Edmond, OK 73013.

You can find full memorial details including a memorial fund here for Benjamin’s father.

For those of you not on the webinar today, Benjamin’s father is in grave condition and he had to fly back to D.C. to be with his family. Please keep Benjamin and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Since the WP Dev Course has been cancelled and will be rescheduled, Lisa has graciously offered to pinch hit and offer training for Friday, Jan. 13.

Here’s what we’re going to be doing tomorrow:

• We will use the same registration link as the previously setup webinar for the Dev Course …
• Starting at 9 a.m. Central Standard Time (as scheduled) Lisa will be talking about BuddyPress most of the morning.
• Break for lunch (probably around noon)
• After lunch, starting around 1 p.m. (and know that times may change so be flexible) we will be doing Q&A with Lisa and our theme and plugin dev teams.
• Post your Q&As here on this post please!!!!
• We will end likely around 4 p.m.

Key questions you might have:

• Yes, we will be live streaming via webinar
• Yes, we will be recording and posting the workshop today and tomorrow’s to the membership area along with slides early next week.
• Saturday and Sunday sessions are cancelled and will be rescheduled.
• Customers will be sent emails when the WP Dev Course dates have been set (likely in a month from now)

Thank you for being the kind and patient community you constantly prove to be. And in the meantime, again, please remember Benjamin and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

We will reschedule the WordPress Developer Course and let you know as soon as the information is available.

Thank you for your understanding, and please put Benjamin and his family in your thoughts and prayers.