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Create Promotional Videos Quickly & Easily For Free!
Creating a video is an extremely time consuming and arduous task consisting of editing, adding voice over and background music.
Why invest time creating a video?
Consider creating a video if you have a message or story about your product, service or business to share with others.
Videos appeal to a wide audience as a result of its visual content, video are shareable, works well with different platforms and most importantly videos are a great way to promote a business, product or service online.
I have worked with several video creating applications, from basic to complex (free and pay); each have a learning curve to some degree that can be mastered overtime with practice.
Allow me introduce you to Wideo
Wideo is a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) video creation platform that allows you to create animated videos quickly and easily. No previous experience necessary to start creating your own videos.
Wideo offers a free and paid subscription service.
The free subscription, allows you to create short videos that are less than 30 seconds.
Concerned! No worries. Wideo offers a wide selection of free templates to choose from.
To learn more about Wideo and how you can start creating your own videos, simply click on www.wideo.co
How do I setup my free account?
Step 1. Click on: www.wideo.co
The Landing Page will introduce you to wideo “Make professional videos in minutes….etc. etc.”
Step 2. Scroll down the page and click on “Create a wideo”
Wideo signup page
A new page will pop open.
Step 3. Click on the “Get free plan”
Wideo choose a p lan
After you have signed up you will be given access to several templates. All that is required is select a template and start editing and adding your content.
Step 4. Review and select a template that is available for the free subscription.
Wideo – Select A Theme
Step 5. Last but not least! Everything new has a learning curve. Click on “Learn” at the top of the dashboard.
Wideo – Tutorials
Scroll down to “Using The Editor” select your topic and start learning……
Wideo Support
Give it a try now!
Don’t forget to share with someone who could use this tool.
Click Here To Learn More About Animated Videos
Have fun!
Rosanna Montoute
Learning Specialist | Media Publisher | Educational Technologist
How To Create A Blog Or Website With WordPress
What is WordPress?
WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.
Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. (More than most commercial platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for anything from your recipe site to a Fortune 500 web site without paying anyone a license fee and a number of other important freedoms.
Retrieved from:https://wordpress.org/about/
What are the benefits of a WordPress Blog or Website?
- Promote your products and services to a wide audience
- Showcase your creative work to the world
- Create an online portfolio of your work
- Blog about your area of expertise or knowledge
- Communicate with other professionals in your industry
- Stop paying web designers hundreds of dollars to create your website
- And much more……..
The objective of the course: The objective of this micro course is to teach you how to create a basic WordPress blog or website.
What you need in order to follow the course?
You will need to have two browsers open.
- Two open browsers (set side-by-side)
- The course browser
- An open browser to practice the lessons
- A name for your website (start thinking of a name for your website)
- A desire to learn a new skill
Duration:
- 2 hours (approximately)
- Go at your own pace
What will you learn at the end of the course?
- About WordPress
- What is a Domain Name and how to create a domain name
- What is a Theme and how to select a theme for your website
- What is a post and how to create a post
- What is a page and how to create a page
- What is the WordPress Visual Editor
- What is a Menu
- How to Preview, Save Draft, or Publish your post or page
Feedback and Support
To ask questions, receive feedback and support along the way contact me on Facebook. Here is the link to join my Facebook Group: Social Media For The Soul
Challenge:
This will be the sandbox for anyone who wants to create their very first website.
There will be nothing perfect, wrong or bad with your creation and your creation will never be judged. Also do not be turned off by the quick learners. Go at your own pace (step-by-step will do the trick).
Remember, you are learning a new skill that will help you start building your online presence.
If you need support, feedback and encouragement do not be intimidated to ask for help. Ask how to post your new website to my Facebook Group “Social Media Academy” for feedback, encouragement and support.
Free Bonus courses
- How to upload photos to your blog or website
- How to embed YouTube videos to your blog or website
- How to embed Facebook content to your blog or website
A free e-Book version of the course
To qualify for the bonus courses or to claim a free copy of the course e-book, you must post the blog or the website you created to my Facebook Group: Social Media Academy
Click on the link to join now Social Media Academy
You can do this! Let’s make it happen.
Click on “next lesson” for tips on how to follow the course….
How to follow the course!
This page provides a few helpful tips to assist you successfully follow and complete the course.
Navigating between lessons
Navigate between previous and next lessons by clicking on the navigation tabs located on the left and right sides at the bottom of the screen.
All images in the lessons are for instructional purposes and are set to either enlarge or magnify.
Magnify
To magnify the image mouse over the parts of the image you wish to magnify…
Resources
Additional resources are also available on the right-hand sidebar of each lesson.
Click on the navigation tabs below to go to the previous or next lesson…..
Setting Up Your WordPress.com Account
Step 1: Set up WordPress
Go to your browser (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) and in the search bar type WordPress and press enter….
Watch training video to see how…..
Step 2: Click on the wordpress.com link
Getting Started!
Step 3: Click on “Get Started”
Select A Theme. Click on “Skip” at the bottom of the screen for now….. We will review more on selecting a Theme shortly.
Please click on next lesson to select your domain name…..
Enter a domain name!
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a unique name that identifies a website. Domain names serves the exact same purpose on the Internet as a civic/physical or P.O.Box address in the physical world. A domain name can be your name, business name, pet name, or any other name you have in mind.
Step 4: Enter A Domain Name. Think about the domain name you want to use for your website or blog and enter it in the “Enter a domain name the field and click enter.
Your WordPress.com domain name will look like this: http://mydomainnameblog.wordpress.com
Step 5: Select your free domain
This brings us to the end of this lesson.
Please click on next lesson to continue…..
Pick A Plan
Step 6: Click on select free plan
Please click on next lesson to learn how to selet a theme for your blog or website…..
Selecting a Theme
What is a Theme?
A WordPress Theme is a pre-designed website template that is available to give your website a special look. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed. You can change your website’s Theme as many times as you wish without changing or deleting the content (photos, posts, pages, menu etc.) of your website.
Select a Theme WordPress will display several themes for you to choose from. Mouse over each theme for details then make your selection. If you do not select a Theme, WordPress will automatically install a default Theme on your site. You can change the Theme later on.
If you wish to change the default theme Watch training video below for how to instructions…..
This brings us to the end of this lesson.
Please click on next lesson for instructions on how to create and write your first blog post.
Creating Your First Blog Post
What is a WordPress Post?
A WordPress Post is the blog feature of your WordPress site.
- Posts are news, articles, photos, videos or information about a topic or area of specialization
- Posts are listed in reverse chronological order with the latest post date appearing at the top or first
- Posts can also be viewed as the news portion of your site. which are dynamic and constantly changing what your visitors/members will see when they visit your site.
Now that you have signed up for your WordPress.com site, created your domain name and have a theme installed, you are now ready to start adding content to your blog or website.
You may start by writing your first post.
There are two ways to write a post on your WordPress Site.
A. Click on start a post
-or-
B. Click on the pencil icon at the top right-hand corner of the page
The WordPress.com Admin Page & Dashboard
You will be taken to the WordPress.com Admin Page after selecting “start a Post”.
There are two dimensions to the WordPress.com platform.
- The admin page for managing both your WordPress.com and WordPress.org sites
- The dashboard for managing your WordPress.com site
WordPress.com multi-site Admin Page
Creating Your First Blog Post
To create your first post in the WordPress.com Admin Page.
See instructions on how to edit and format your post in the WordPress Dashboard – Editing and Formatting Your Content lesson below.
1 – Post: Click on Blog Posts “Add“
2 – Write: your post in the text panel provided
3 – The “visual editor”: use the visual editor panel to format your post just as you would with a word processing application.
4 – Enter the title of your post. In the enter title here panel write the title of your post When you have completed writing and editing your post and you are satisfied with it….
5 – Click on “Publish”: your post will be available for the world to read.
To get to the WordPerss.com Dashboard, select your site by clicking on ← SWITCH SITE if you have more than one site.
Otherwise, scroll down and click on WP Admin in the left-hand sidebar menu.
This will direct you to the site’s dashboard.
Please Note: If WP Admin is not displayed in the left-hand panel of your site, you may access your WordPress.com Dashboard by adding /wp-admin at the end of your website address directly into the browser. Your website address should look like this: http://mywebsite.wordpress.com/wp-admin.
WordPress.com Dashboard
WordPress.org Dashboard
WordPress Posts Screen
WordPress.com Posts Screen
After clicking on Publish to publish your post you will be taken back to the dashboard’s post screen which will look like the following screenshot:
The post screen e is where you get a global view of all your posts: titles, the date they were published or modified, the author and their categories and tags.
You may edit your posts from the dashboard screen as well.
Creating A Post In The WordPress.com Dashboard
The WordPress Dashboard is the screen where you will be managing only your WordPress.org Site, including creating new pages and posts, uploading video and pictures and adding widgets.
Let us begin by first creating a post in the dashboard.
There are two ways to create a post in WordPress:
- By typing your content directly into the editor
- By copying your text from any word processing application
Follow the steps below to start writing your post.
1 – Post: Click on Post
2 – Write: your post in the text panel provided
3 – Edit and format with the “visual editor”: use the visual editor panel to format your post just as you would with a word processing application. See instructions for working with the visual editor below….
4 – Enter the title of your post. In the enter title here panel write the title of your post When you have completed writing and editing your post and you are satisfied with it….
5 – Click on “Publish“: your post will be available for the world to read.
Please go to the next lesson for instructions on how to edit and format your content.
Editing & Formatting Your Content
In WordPress, you may also edit and format your content to look the way you want by using the Visual Editor.
What is a Visual Editor?
The Visual Editor allows you to format your content just like you would in any word processor.
Following are a few editing functions you can perform using the visual editor tools:
- Bold
- Italic
- Strike-through
- Bullet list (bullet points):
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Numbered list
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Block quote (a way of displaying quoted text; each theme will style this differently.)
- Centre
- Font Size
- Text color
- And much more…..
Watch training video
The visual editor contains two rows of formatting icons.
However, in some instances when you open up WordPress for the first time you may see only one single row.
Visual Editor
What you need to do to view both rows of icons is click on the “kitchen sink” icon to display the second row.
This brings us to the end of this lesson.
Please complete the brief survey and press submit, then click on next lesson to for instruction on how to create a page…..
Creating Your First Page In The WordPress.com Dashboard
What is a WordPress page?
WordPress Pages are similar to posts in that they have a title and body text, but they are different because:
WordPress Pages are static and are not listed by date. Instead, pages appear in the menu bar of your site or can be placed in the sidebar depending on the theme. Examples of pages are:
- Home
- About Us
- Contact us
- Products
- Services
Creating Your First Page
Click on Create a Page
You will be directed to the WordPress.com Admin Page.
Creating a page is the same as writing a post. Follow the steps below to create your Page.
1 – Title: Give your page a title
2 – Page description/details: Add the page details; use the visual editor to format your text
3 – Add Media: Click on Add Media to add photos or video to your page
4 – Preview: Click preview to see what your page will look like to your visitors
5 – Save Draft: If you are not ready to publish your post save it as draft; when your post is to your satisfaction….
Click on Publish to publish your page to the world.
Editing the contents of a page is the same as editing the contents of a post. Please refer to the previous lesson “Editing and Formatting Your Content” for instructions.
Please complete the brief survey and press submit, then click on next lesson to learn how to view your website live…..
View Your Website
To view your website and to see what your site looks like to your visitors
Go to the top left-hand corner of the admin page and click My Sites.
WordPress Dashboard
Next
Click on View Site
Your website will be displayed
Return To Admin Page.
To return to the admin page after viewing your site.
Step 13: Click on My Sites at the top left-hand corner
WordPress Dashboard
Next
Click on WP Admin to return to the admin page
This brings us to the end of this lesson.
Please click on next lesson to continue…..
This brings us to the end of this course.
I hope you enjoyed this course as much as I enjoyed creating it for you……
Your learning is very important to me, therefore, do not hesitate to contact me should you have any problem following or understanding any of the topics covered in this course.
Join me on Facebook: Social Media Academy
I would also appreciate your feedback. Please complete the course evaluation below…….
Thank You!
Rosanna
Instructional Designer | Learning Specialist | Social Media Consultant
Google Apps For Work
Introducing Google Apps For Work
What about Google Apps For Work?
If you are a looking to start a business and/or already operating a business on a shoe-string budget, you may want to consider Google Apps For Work. The Google Apps suite is a competitive alternative to Microsoft Office Suite except a lot more economical. Google Apps allows you to get a lot more done for a lot less. Subscription is $5 per month or $60 per year and gives you access to the entire Google Apps suite of products.
Following is a list of Google Apps for Work (click on the individual links to learn more about each respective application):
- Gmail – Business email with your own professional domain name
- Google Drive– Save and access your files and other applications from any device or location: including videos, images, Micros
oft Office documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs
- Google Hangouts – Video meeting and conferencing including screen share capabilities with up to 15 people from anywhere in the world
- Google Calendar – Never miss an important meeting or event; share and access your calendar from any device from anywhere
- Google Docs– An alternative to Microsoft Word Application. Work collaborative (edit, comment, share) with anyone from anywhere and any device. Compatible with Microsoft Word and PDF documents.
- Google Sheets – An alternative to Microsoft Excel Application. Work from anywhere and any device. Share and collaborate with others and is compatible with Microsoft Excel Application.
- Google Forms– Create and distribute customized online surveys, questionnaires and job applications with “drag and drop” functionality.
- Google slides – An alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint Application. Compatible across all devices.
- Google sites – Create and host your website(s)
- Training– Google Apps Learning Center: Learn how to leverage each app to grow your business here.
Did you find this resource helpful or do you have any questions about this article?
I would love to hear from you; feel free to ask your question(s) or leave us a comment. Don’t forget to share with your friends, colleagues, and social networks.
Rosanna Montoute Learning Specialist | Educational Technologist
