WordPress 2.2.1 may be “required” – but on every install, I wasn’t getting the visual text editor, TinyMCE to display. After uploading, re-uploading, clearing cache, shutting off the “use visual editor”- turning off and on plugins- I finally gave up and loaded Dean’s FCKEditor– which gives you all kinds of cool tools that aren’t easily available in TinyMCE. (See picture above).

I’ve been through a ton of WordPress upgrades- and most have been painless. This has not.

After spending 6 hours -I was able to update 4 installs successfully with TinyMCE – but gave up on the fifth and went with Dean’s solution.

We’re not the only ones who believe WordPress is a great CMS for “non-blog” uses.

WordPress Makes Sense For Many Non-Blog Websites | iface thoughts
…justification for why WordPress makes a lot of sense for many simple web sites, including the non-blog ones. The shorter version is that WordPress provides good infrastructure of web publishing and gives you tools to build an interactive web site. And I think this is common knowledge in the WordPress community.

Click over to the link to see a whole bunch of his reasons why WordPress rocks- never mind it’s ability to get you to the top of Google fast and easy for free.

We’ve got a while list of our “graduates” who are using WordPress to maximize their business opportunities online here: http://websitetology.com/?page_id=9

Considering how important it is to be able to update a site and keep content fresh- the simple to use WordPress interface makes it possible for everyone in the company to work on keeping the company web site up to date.

We now have 2 Seminars!

The original Blogosopher- or “Blogosphere” (for those with Dyslexia), is a 3.5 hour seminar on how to make the Internet work for your business. At the bottom of this page is an outline of some of the subjects we cover.

It’s new name is Websitetology 101

You will leave the seminar able to build an effective site- that you can maintain yourself, and knowing the tricks to search engine optimization so that your site will be found.

If you wonder if the seminar is for you- see this post:http://blogosopher.com/?p=9

The new seminar- is all WordPress- Websitetology WP advanced

We spend 3.5 hours learning all the tips and tricks of WordPress- a very cool and easy to use Open Source (free!) Content Management System that is designed for Blogging- but offers so much more, it’s really a fantastic way to build and maintain a website for business.

Each seminar is $79 if you register 12 hours in advance (you can do that on this site- at the sign-up page) If you walk in, it’s an additional $15 for onsite registration- cash or check only.

We highly recommend taking both classes- the first one is the big picture course- where you learn about the web, types of sites, how search works, how to compete with the big boys- and outsmart them, and be highly visible online- as well as an intro to a really great piece of software- WordPress.

While we concentrate on using a Blog (short for weB LOG) to build traffic to your website- you will learn how to analyze site stats (and all sites should have stats- you just may not know about them) to refine your content. We will teach you how your site design can be optimized for search engines- which will drive more than 70% of your traffic to your site (without having to pay for it) if you do things right.

Internet novices to people who already have successful web businesses have come to learn about how this Blog technology is changing the web. The Blog software we demonstrate, Word Press, is very smart, server side software, that makes it easy for anyone- to build and maintain a professional looking website- that can be updated at will. The code it generates meets all W3C standards, it notifies search engines and your customers that you have new content with out you doing anything other than adding content. We introduce you to RSS which will change your online relationship with your customers- and how you use the web.

If some of this didn’t make sense to you- don’t worry- it will after the seminar.

The WP Advanced site- was developed because some people just want to learn about the WordPress application in depth. We cover each part of the software in depth- including multiple authors, trackbacks, pings, password protection, dissecting themes, key plug-ins, and how to get help when things go wrong. While some attendees feel very comfortable with the interface and the program, many asked for a more relaxed look at WordPress so we created the WP advanced class for them.
If you have a group and want to arrange for short introduction to Blogs and how they win the search game- we can work a group rate- or if you want to host the seminar for your professional organization (ad club, Chamber of Commerce etc.) we can split revenues with you.

Instead of giving away trash and trinkets- or “promotional items” to your clients- help them grow their business by hosting the seminar for them- as a sponsored event- or by buying them admission at a discount. Please contact the chief Websitetologist at [email protected]

Websitetology Topics
What is the internet:

• Types of servers
• Domain name
• Hosting
• Mail

Types of sites:

• Static/dynamic/live
• W3C, 508 (screen reader)
• HTML/Flash/CSS
• Communities: AOL, Yahoo groups, Wikis, BB’s, NewsGroups (Etiquette)

Software:

• Browser wars
• Why Firefox.
• What is open source?

Hosting basics:

• Serving platforms
• Control panels
• Stats
• Connectivity/redundancy
• URL registration
• How to look things up

All about E-mail:

• E-mail broadcast
• What is SPAM/ CAN SPAM
• HTML e-mail
• Opt-in
• Good e-mail etiquette

Search:

• Search=Use=commerce
• Google, Yahoo, others
• “Search Engine optimization”
• How search ranks
• How web stats can unveil business for you

Blogs:

• What they are- and aren’t
• Web Log=BLOG- journal
• Active web site- Back end database
• Content management system
• Interaction- live.
• RSS

Why Blogs are important:

• Updated frequently
• Good clean code
• Low cost
• High interactivity
• Interaction
• Integration into a static site

Blog Options:

• Blogger, Moveable Type, TypePad, WordPress
• Themes- CSS
• Extensions/Plug-ins

Content:

• The holy grail of the Internet.
• Writing for an audience
• Style
• How to attribute content
• Links
• Format
• Promoting your site
• Inviting your reader in.
• How to analyze your content
• How to analyze your keywords

What is a blogosopher?

• How do you contribute to the community?
• How do you get started?

some student feedback:

http://calmphotos.com/?p=33