How to Teach an Online Course using WordPress

Develop your content for the course. You can follow the instructions in my related article, How to Develop a Training Course (link in Resources below) or follow your own template for curriculum design. It is important to create the entire course in a word processing program first. The entire course will consist of reading assignments, links to Websites, discussion questions, detailed instructions for assignments and instructions for the instructor on how and when to post various components of the course.
Open a new blog on WordPress.com (link in resources below) or other free blog hosting site. Create the first page of the blog. This will be the landing page for your students so include the course description here as well as instructions about how to access the remainder of the course. The content on this page is considered to be static, it should not change after the course starts.
When you are on the editing site for this first page there are some things to remember to do:
Password protect the page. This is to make sure that no-one can access the site without your permission (and without paying tuition).
Turn off the comments part of the page. You do not want students to comment here. You want to contain the comments in specific pages set up for discussion.
Post your photo and contact information on this first page, which is usually called the Home page of the blog.
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How to Create an Under Construction Page (6 Steps)

Get your domain name. The first step is to purchase your domain name. This is the web address that visitors will use to get to your website. You can purchase domain names online from websites like Go Daddy and BuyDomains (see Resources below).
See if the domain server will set up the page. Sometimes your domain server will set up an 'Under Construction' page for you. When you're looking for a domain server, ask whether this is part of the contract.
Create your own 'Under Construction' page if your domain server doesn't provide one. Use a simple program like Page Maker, or follow these steps:
• Open a text editing application like Notepad or EditPad.
• Type '
'. (Include only the keystrokes in between the quotation marks here and below). This will tell the browser that you're creating an HTML document.
• Add '
' to indicate that the document's information is starting.
• Add a title by typing '
Under Construction
' followed by '
'.
• Start the body of the webpage by typing '
Site Under Construction
'. The viewer will see this text; so add all pertinent information.
• Close the webpage by typing
and save as trial.html.
• Open your browser and click on 'Open' from the 'File' menu. Locate the file and click 'Open' to view your 'Under Construction' page.
Add basic text and information. To make sure your 'Under Construction' page is useful, include not only a statement that the site is under construction but also information like the site's name. If you know when the expected completion date is going to be, include that as well.
Insert a graphic. Within your page-making program, insert graphics that show the site under construction. Most sites use a graphic that resembles a road construction sign.
Post the 'Under Construction' page. When the page is finalized, post it at your domain name. When someone visits your Web address, they will now know they should keep checking back.
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How to Upload to FTP Sites (6 Steps)

Locate the required FTP log in information. This information is available from the web hosting company that hosts the website and includes the username, password, host/address, and port for the FTP site.
Open the FTP client software program on the local computer. Dozens of freeware programs exist and may be downloaded and installed in minutes (see Resources).
Create a new FTP site profile in the FTP client program. This option is usually found under the 'File' menu and is labeled 'Site Manager' or 'Remote Browser' in most cases.
Add the FTP site information to the new website profile and save the changes. Enter the information obtained from the hosting company in the appropriate text fields.
Press the connect button to open the FTP connection between the local computer and the web server.
Select the files on the local computer and drag them to the target folder on the web server to initiate the upload process.
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How to Remove a Parked Domain (4 Steps)

Upload a website to the domain's hosting account. The parked domain page may disappear as soon as the owner's own information is added to the domain.
Delete the parked domain page on the server. Log in to the domain's hosting account and physically delete the parked page that was provided by the web host. Access the list of files by using an FTP program, such as one provided to you by the web host, or a free one that must be downloaded, such as FileZilla. Navigate to the 'index.html' file, right-click and choose to 'Delete.' This step is often necessary if the server is automatically set to run an HTML page over other extension types. In this case, even uploading a new 'Index' page with a PHP extension will not override the parked page until it has been deleted.
Change the parked domain's settings in the domain control panel. Log in and choose to turn off the domain parking. The action will vary depending on the domain provider. Navigate to a 'Manage Domains' section and click a button to 'Remove Domain Parking' or to 'Activate Domain.'
Choose to forward the domain name to another website and domain. Forwarding or masking will activate the domain instead of placing it in parked mode. Log in to the 'Manage Domains' menu and select the option to 'Forward.' Enter the domain you would like to forward it to and save.
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How to Make Custom Buttons for a Blogger

Choose an image for the blog button. For an email contact button, an envelope image works. For a business related blog using their logo along with the text, 'contact us' is optimal. Consider the color of the blog's background so the button will not blend in and the image stands out. Upload the image into a photo editing program, such as Infranview or Photoshop.
Resize the image to 125 pixels X 125 pixels. Upload the new size of the image to a photo hosting website, such as Flickr or Photobucket. Right click the image and copy the location address for the image. Paste the location address in a document to save it.
Use this HTML code to put the button together: . For an email contact button, place 'mailto:' followed by a complete email address in between the first set of quotes in the HTML code. The code should look like this
after inserting the email address. For a link button, place the complete web address in between the first set of quotes, such as http://www.yourbusinesswebsite.com '>.
Add the image properties to the HTML code. Paste the image properties in between the second set of quotes. The HTML code now looks like this: http://img1.photohostingsite.com/img00/1111/yourbutton.jpg'/></a>. The numbers and other information in an image properties are different for each hosted photo, so your information will differ from the properties shown here.
Copy and paste the completed code into the layout of a blog. Place an asterisk at the end of the code, if sending the button via email to a friend or client, to prevent the code from converting into the button. Add a note to the email recipient to remove the asterisk before pasting into a blog.
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How to Set Up a Web Page to Sell Photos

Register a unique domain name. Select a name that is easy to remember and spell. Ensure that the domain you have chosen is available. Conduct a search with your domain name provider prior to purchasing.
Select an online photography shopping cart. The web shopping cart installs on your website and allows your customers to purchase photo prints or digital files, based on your preferences. Look for a program that will convert your images to low-resolution files, and creates a watermark to prevent unauthorized use of your photos.
Sign up for a web hosting service. Some photo shopping cart products offer hosting services in addition to product checkout. Look for a reliable hosting service with minimal server downtime and excellent reviews. Hosting prices vary based on bandwidth used and file storage space.
Set up payment options. Select an online payment provider in order to accept credit cards, and link the service to your shopping cart. Payment providers often charge between 2 percent and 3 percent in transaction fees for credit card orders.
Upload and price your photographs to your web gallery. Build your photo gallery using software from your photo shopping cart provider or a third-party company. If you have the technical ability, you can also build your photo gallery using HTML. Transfer your photo files and pricing information to your hosting service prior to launching your e-commerce website.
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How to Set Up FireFTP for BlueHost (5 Steps)

Download and install the FireFTP FireFox add-on. (see Resources). Click 'Add to Firefox.' This will open the 'Software Installation' window. Click the 'Install Now' button. After it installs, close out and reopen FireFox.
Click 'Tools,' then click 'FireFTP in FireFox' to open the FireFTP program in the FireFox window.
Click on 'Create an account.' Enter your BlueHost FTP Web address, BlueHost FTP server in the 'Host' box and your user login and password for your BlueHost FTP server. Click 'OK.'
Click 'Connect.' FireFTP will connect to your Bluehost FTP server and present the files and folders on the right of the FireFTP screen.
Click 'Disconnect' to close out of the FTP connection when done.
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How to Set Up a Free Proxy (6 Steps)

Sign up for server space. If you already have a web server, you can skip this step. If you do not, you can sign up for either a free hosting account for limited bandwidth or a paid host for higher or unlimited bandwidth. Make sure you have FTP access to your hosting account so you can upload files to the server and that your server can run PHP. Either way, take note of your FTP user name and password before moving on.
Install an FTP program on your computer. Filezilla is the most popular free FTP program. It can be downloaded from Sourceforge.net. Follow the installation instructions for your computer. Make sure to download the right version for a Mac, Windows, or Linux computer.
Download PHProxy for free from Sourceforge. PHProxy is a free proxy server software package based in the PHP programming language. It is easy to install on any web server. Download the free installation package onto your desktop. You can test the software at phproxy.org.
Log in to your hosting account using Filezilla and navigate to your public_html directory. The public_html directory is where web pages are hosted on your server space. Choose one of your hosted domain folders and create a sub directory called '/proxy.' Doing so will install the program to yoursitename.com/proxy (replace yoursitename with your website's name).
Upload the entire PHProxy package into the /proxy folder on your server. Be sure to unzip the package and upload every file. Once the files are uploaded, use Filezilla to set the file permissions to 666, which will allow you to read the file from a web browser.
Go to yoursitename.com/proxy and you can use your proxy from any computer with Internet access. If you are concerned about other people using your proxy, you can change the directory name from /proxy.
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How to Make an Online Radio Station for Free (3 Steps)

Use the software ubroadcast to broadcast online. Ubroadcast allows you to set up an online radio station for free and broadcast live. However, other users must download the ubroadcast client before they can listen to your station.
Set up a Shoutcast broadcasting server. Shoucast is a free program that also allows for online radio broadcasting. Shoutcast allows you to either broadcast directly from your own computer, or from a third-party Shoutcast host that hosts your program on its servers. It does not require special software for listeners to use.
Create a podcast using sound software such as Audacity and use a podcast hosting service such as MyPodCast to host the podcast. While not a live Internet broadcast, Podcasts have an advantage in that they can be downloaded to the PC and played back anytime, unlike a radio broadcast, which can only be heard once unless you record it.
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