Anupam Kher Leads March Against 'Intolerance' Protests in Delhi

New Delhi: Actor Anupam Kher today leads a march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi to protest against the voices being raised over "intolerance" in the country. The actor claims that the intolerance debate is an attempt to malign the image of the country and is intended to target the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

Major Lazer

C Program to Print Patterns

C program to print following pattern

A

AB

ABC

AB

A

#include<stdio.h>

int main()

{

int i,j,x=3;

char ch;

for(i=1;i<=5;i++)

{

ch='A';

for(j=1;j<=i;j++)

{

if(j>x)

{ 

printf("");

}

else

printf("%c",ch);

ch++;

}

printf("\n");

if(i>=3)x--;

}

return 0;

}

C Program to print following pattern

ABCDEFG
 ABCDE
  ABC
   A

#include<stdio.h>

int main()

{

int i,j,l,r;

char ch;

l=1;

r=7;

for(i=1;i<=4;i++){

ch='A';

for(j=1;j<=7;j++)

{

if(j>=l&&j<=r){

printf("%c",ch);

ch++;

}

else

printf(" ");

}

l++;r--;

printf("\n");

}

}

Printers

A printer is an external output device that takes data from a computer and generates output in the form of graphics / text on a paper".

There are two types of printers.

Impact printers

An impact printer makes contact with the paper. It usually forms the print image by pressing an inked ribbon against the paper using a hammer or pins. Following are some examples of impact printers.

Dot-Matrix Printers

The dot-matrix printer uses print heads containing from 9 to 24 pins. These pins produce patterns of dots on the paper to form the individual characters. The 24 pin dot-matrix printer produces more dots that a 9 pin dot-matrix printer, which results in much better quality and clearer characters. The general rule is: the more pins, the clearer the letters on the paper. The pins strike the ribbon individually as the print mechanism moves across the entire print line in both directions, i-e, from left to right, then right to left, and so on. The user can produce a color output with a dot-matrix printer (the user will change the black ribbon with a ribbon that has color stripes). Dot-matrix printers are inexpensive and typically print at speeds of 100-600 characters per second.

Daisy-wheel printers

In order to get the quality of type found on typewriters, a daisy-wheel impact printer can be used. It is called daisy-wheel printer because the print mechanism looks like a daisy; at the end of each “Petal” is a fully formed character which produces solid-line print. A hammer strikes a “petal” containing a character against the ribbon, and the character prints on the paper. Its speed is slow typically 25-55 characters per second.

Line printers

In business where enormous amount of material are printed, the character-at-a-time printers are too slow; therefore, these users need line-at-a-time printers. Line printers, or line-at-a-time printers, use special mechanism that can print a whole line at once; they can typically print the range of 1,200 to 6,000 lines per minute. Drum, chain, and band printers are line-at-a-time printers.

Drum printer

A drum printer consists of a solid, cylindrical drum that has raised characters in bands on its surface. The number of print positions across the drum equals the number available on the page. This number typically ranges from 80-132 print positions. The drum rotates at a rapid speed. For each possible print position there is a print hammer located behind the paper. These hammers strike the paper, along the ink ribbon, against the proper character on the drum as it passes. One revolution of the drum is required to print each line. This means that all characters on the line are not printed at exactly the same time, but the time required to print the entire line is fast enough to call them line printers. Typical speeds of drum printers are in the range of 300 to 2000 lines per minute.

Chain printers

A chain printer uses a chain of print characters wrapped around two pulleys. Like the drum printer, there is one hammer for each print position. Circuitry inside the printer detects when the correct character appears at the desired print location on the page. The hammer then strikes the page, pressing the paper against a ribbon and the character located at the desired print position. An impression of the character is left on the page. The chain keeps rotating until all the required print positions on the line have filled. Then the page moves up to print the next line. Speeds of chain printers range from 400 to 2500 characters per minute.

Band printers

A band printer operates similar to chain printer except it uses a band instead of a chain and has fewer hammers. Band printer has a steel band divided into five sections of 48 characters each. The hammers on a band printer are mounted on a cartridge that moves across the paper to the appropriate positions. Characters are rotated into place and struck by the hammers. Font styles can easily be changed by replacing a band or chain.

Non-impact printers

Non-impact printers do not use a striking device to produce characters on the paper; and because these printers do not hammer against the paper they are much quieter. Following are some non-impacted printers.

Ink-jet printers

Ink-jet printers work in the same fashion as dot-matrix printers in the form images or characters with little dots. However, the dots are formed by tiny droplets of ink. Ink-jet printers form characters on paper by spraying ink from tiny nozzles through an electrical field that arranges the charged ink particles into characters at the rate of approximately 250 characters per second. The ink is absorbed into the paper and dries instantly. Various colors of ink can also be used.

One or more nozzles in the print head emit a steady stream of ink drops. Droplets of ink are electrically charged after leaving the nozzle. The droplets are then guided to the paper by electrically charged deflecting plates [one plate has positive charge (upper plate) and the other has negative charge (lover plate)]. A nozzle for black ink may be all that’s needed to print text, but full-color printing is also possible with the addition of needed to print text, but full-color printing is also possible with the addition three extra nozzles for the cyan, magenta, and yellow primary colors. If a droplet isn’t needed for the character or image being formed, it is recycled back to its input nozzle.

Several manufacturers produce color ink-jet printer. Some of these printers come with all their color inks in a cartridge; if you want to replace on color, you must replace all the colors. Other color ink-jet printers allow you to replace ink individually. These printers are a better choice if user uses one color more than other colors. These printers produce less noise and print in better quality with greater speed.

Laser printers

A laser printer works like a photocopy machine. Laser printers produce images on paper by directing a laser beam at a mirror which bounces the beam onto a drum. The drum has a special coating on it to which toner (an ink powder) sticks. Using patterns of small dots, a laser beam conveys information from the computer to a positively charged drum to become neutralized. From all those areas of drum which become neutralized, the toner detaches. As the paper rolls by the drum, the toner is transferred to the paper printing the letters or other graphics on the paper. A hot roller bonds the toner to the paper.

Laser printers use buffers that store an entire page at a time. When a whole page is loaded, it will be printed. The speed of laser printers is high and they print quietly without producing much noise. Many home-use laser printers can print eight pages per minute, but faster and print approximately 21,000 lines per minute, or 437 pages per minute if each page contains 48 lines. When high speed laser printers were introduced they were expensive. Developments in the last few years have provided relatively low-cost laser printers for use in small businesses.

Advantages of Laser Printer

• The main advantage of Laser printer is its speed & efficiency at which it prints high-quality quality graphics & text.
• Laser printers produce high-quality output as compared to other printers.
• Laser printers are quite and does not produce disturbing sounds.
• They are also capable to produce color prints.

 Disadvantages of Laser Printer

• The main disadvantage of Laser printer is its cost, they are relatively costly as compared to other printers.
• The maintenance, repair & servicing charges are also high of these printers.
• Laser printers emit small amount of ozone and are hazardous to health and the atmosphere.

China has 596 Billionaires and forget about India, but that's even way higher than the US!

For the first time ever, the number of billionaires in China has been found to be above the USA. Confirmed in an annual survey, the world's second largest economy has 596 billionaires, up a "staggering" 242 over the last year. Shanghai-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report said,the number of billionaires in the US is 537.

"Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever," Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said in a statement.

Real estate and entertainment magnate Wang Jianlin dethroned founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma as the country's richest person, Hurun's annual wealth ranking showed.

Wang, who founded conglomerate Wanda, saw his fortune jump more than 50 percent to $34.4 billion, helped by a surge in the stock price of a listed unit.

Wang is known outside China for a string of overseas acquisitions including the organizer of Ironman extreme endurance contests, Swiss sports marketing group Infront, and a stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid.

He burst into the spotlight in 2012 by buying US cinema chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion.

Wang took the top spot back from Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, because of a collapse in the Internet company's New York-quoted shares, which were the world's biggest initial public offering when it listed last year. Ma's wealth still stands at $22.7 billion.

Beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou of Wahaha remained in third place with just over $21 billion while Pony Ma, founder of Internet giant Tencent which operates popular messaging app WeChat, took fourth place with a little under $19 billion.

Lei Jun of smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is seeking to challenge Apple, jumped five places to fifth by doubling his wealth to more $14 billion.

Yan Hao of road builder China Pacific Construction was sixth while the founder of search engine giant Baidu, Robin Li, dropped to seventh amid worries over his company's huge spending to expand its business.

Number System - Introduction to information technology

NUMBER SYSTEM CONVERSION

There are many methods or techniques which can be used to convert numbers from one base to
another. We'll demonstrate here the following −
1-Decimal to Other Base System
2-Other Base System to Decimal
3-Other Base System to Non-Decimal
4-Shortcut method − Binary to Octal
5-Shortcut method − Octal to Binary
6-Shortcut method − Binary to Hexadecimal
7-Shortcut method − Hexadecimal to Binary

Decimal to Other Base System

Step 1 − Divide the decimal number to be converted by the value of the new base.

Step 2 − Get the remainder from Step 1 as the rightmost digit leastsignificantdigit of new base number.

Step 3 − Divide the quotient of the previous divide by the new base.

Step 4 − Record the remainder from Step 3 as the next digit totheleft of the new base

number.

Repeat Steps 3 and 4, getting remainders from right to left, until the quotient becomes zero in Step

3.

The last remainder thus obtained will be the Most Significant Digit MSD of the new base number.

Example:−

Decimal Number: 2910

Calculating Binary Equivalent

Step                    Operation                        Result                 Remainder

Step 1                  29 / 2                          14                       1

Step 2                  14 / 2                           7                        0

Step 3                     7 / 2                          3                        1

Step 4                     3 / 2                          1                        1  

Step 5                     1 / 2                           0                       1

As mentioned in Steps 2 and 4, the remainders have to be arranged in the reverse order so that

the first remainder becomes the Least Significant Digit LSD and the last remainder becomes the

Most Significant Digit MSD.

Decimal Number − 2910 = Binary Number − 111012

Other Base System to Decimal System

Steps

Step 1 − Determine the column positional value of each digit 

this depends on the position of the digit and the base of the number system.

Step 2 − Multiply the obtained column values inStep1 by the digits in the corresponding 

columns.

Step 3 − Sum the products calculated in Step 2. The total is the equivalent value in decimal

Other Base System to Non-Decimal System

Steps

Step 1 − Convert the original number to a decimal number base10.

Step 2 − Convert the decimal number so obtained to the new base number.

Shortcut method - Binary to Octal

Steps

Step 1 − Divide the binary digits into groups of three startingfromtheright.

Step 2 − Convert each group of three binary digits to one octal digit

Example:-

Binary Number − 101012

Calculating Octal Equivalent −

Step           Binary Number              Octal Number

Step 1           101012                            010 101

Step 2           101012                              28 58

Step 3           101012                                258

Binary Number − 101012 = Octal Number − 258

Microsoft's gutsy challenge to Apple's Hardware: 'Our Best Verses Their Best'

Microsoft Surface Book

Microsoft Surface Book.

When Microsoft first introduced its Surface Book laptop last week, Surface exec Panos Panay made the bold claim that it was twice as fast as the MacBook Pro.

Microsoft VP of Windows and Devices Terry Myerson doubled down on that claim in an interview with Business Insider, saying that the Surface Book laptop is squarely aimed at winning over Apple fans.

As you might expect, Apple fans are skeptical of this claim, especially since Microsoft has yet to release many details on the dedicated graphics unit that sits in the Surface Book's keyboard.

And at first blush, Microsoft's numbers are looking a little suspicious, especially in light of the Surface Book specs we have, which show that it's a powerful laptop, but not extraordinarily so.

But the company is backing Panay's statement all the way.

The "mantra" on the Surface Book team when it comes to comparisons with Apple is "our best vs. their best," meaning that Microsoft is pitting "best available Surface Book against the best available 13-inch MacBook Pro."

Here's why Apple fans are still unconvinced.

A matter of design

The thing that's so special about the Surface Book, beyond its neat industrial design and detachable tablet, is that in the higher-end models, the keyboard itself adds some horsepower to the equation, beyond just the regular processor (CPU) housed in the tablet portion.

When the tablet is docked with the keyboard, the laptop gets access to a superfast Nvidia GeForce graphics processing unit (GPU) that turns Surface Book into a gaming and media powerhouse. That GPU has 1GB GDDR5 of high-speed memory, customized by Nvidia to fit into the Surface Book's svelte shell.

That approach is a part of why the Surface Book commands a price tag that starts it at $1,699 for one with the dedicated graphics chip in the keyboard. It's a cost well above the vast majority of Windows machines. But those prices is similar to many MacBook models.

This has sparked conversations, like this Reddit thread, about whether or not the Surface Book is actually twice as fast as the MacBook Pro, especially compared to Apple's selection of 13-inch screen models.

Comparing processors

Hold tight, because this is going to get a little nerdy.

The base Surface Pro has a Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz dual-core chip, and the high-end ones ship with an Intel Core i7 2.6 GHz. Meanwhile, the lowest-end MacBook Pro, with one of Apple's super-sharp Retina displays, sports a cheaper $1,300 price tag - and an Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz processor, just slightly better than the base Surface Pro.

The only way the Surface Book conclusively beats the MacBook Pro in speed, just based on the specs we have available and not accounting for performance, is if you redline that sucker and order a maxed-out model for $2,699.

The Surface Book's graphics processing unit (GPU)

Even then, it offers worse CPU performance than a tricked-out $2,199 13-inch MacBook Pro, which has a 3.1 GHz processor. The only win is on graphical performance, since the MacBook Pro has an integrated graphics unit, compared with the Surface Book's dedicated unit in the keyboard.

Moreover, the maxed-out Surface Book's $2,699 price tag is still a little higher than the $2,499 you'd pay for a high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro, which offers a bigger screen and a graphics unit with twice as much memory as Microsoft's laptop.

The bottom line: Without knowing more about the Surface Book's graphics unit, it's hard to tell for sure. But Microsoft's claims that the Surface Book is twice as fast as a MacBook Air are going to be tough to back up.

Microsoft stands by its claims

Still, Microsoft is sticking to its guns. A company spokesperson sent the following statement:

Our validated performance claims are for the Microsoft Surface Book with an Intel Core i7 with 16GB RAM and custom discrete NVIDIA GeForce GPU against the MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display with an Intel Core i7 with 16GB RAM. We used third-party benchmarks to test the best available Surface Book against the best available 13-inch MacBook Pro.

In other words, Microsoft isn't worrying about the 15-inch MacBook Pro at all, neither is it concerned about the price tag or bang for the buck compared with Apple. All Microsoft is aiming at here is building a blazing-fast 13-inch laptop.

How Does WordPress Make Money?

How can a software company like Automattic make money when they are giving away WordPress blogging software for free? WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg shared how WordPress makes money:

1. Web Hosting – WordPress offers web hosting services to big brands like WSJ’s All Things D, CNN, TechCrunch, Time.com and more. The pricing forWordPress VIP Hosting starts at $15,000 per month.

2. Google AdSense– Free blogs hosted on WordPress.com may sometimes carry Google AdSense ads and the ad revenue goes to WordPress. The Google ads will only appear if all the following three conditions are met:

1. The visitor is not using Firefox browser.
2. He has logged out of his WordPress account, if he has one.
3. The referring source is not a WordPress powered blog. So if you land on abc.wordpress.com from xyz.wordpress.com, you won’t see any Google Ads.

Even with all these conditions, the revenue generated from serving Google AdSense ads on WordPress.com hosted blog may still be significant as they do around a billion page views per month.

3. WordPress themes – The WordPress themes directory offers premium themes that cost anywhere between $50 and $100. These GPL compatible themes are developed by third-party WordPress developers and Automattic gets a commission per sale.

4. Premium Accounts – While anyone can host a blog on WordPress.com for free, they charge you a fixed fee if you want to buy additional storage space for your multimedia files or if you wish to use custom web domain instead of the default wordpress.com sub-domain. These are premium features.

There are unconfirmed reports that WordPress may soon allow users to add AdSense in their free blogs for a subscription fee.

5. Web Host Referrals – WordPress.org suggests of list of third-party web hosting companies where you may self-host your WordPress blog(s) for a fee. Now all these are referral links so Automattic gets a commission per sale.

In fact, this hosting referral system may be extremely profitable for Automattic because if you search for “WordPress Hosting” on Google (a very competitive keyword phrase), the first sponsored link on the Google results page is paid by WordPress itself and it says – “Top 5 WordPress Web Hosts – Chosen by the developers of the WordPress blogging software”.

6. WordPress Support – If you need help with WordPress (or WordPress MU) but the free support forums aren’t solving the purpose, consider subscribing to the Support Network of Automattic. The WordPress development team will help you solve problems related to your WordPress system and the response time can be as low as 6 hours. This service is primarily for Enterprise users who are willing to shell out a $2.5-5k per year for support.

7. Poll Daddy – I am not sure if Matt discussed this but Automattic also provides a paid version of Poll Daddy where you can have unlimited number of questions per survey and there’s no Poll Daddy branding in your polls or surveys.

8. Guided Transfers – If you wish to move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, Automattic offers a service called Guided Transfers to help you with the transfer. They charge a one-time $119 fee for the transfer.

9. VaultPress – Should you wish to automatically backup your WordPress blog to the cloud, the VaultPress service from Automattic can help. With packages starting at $15 per month, they will backup your WordPress blog in real-time and will also notify you of potential security issues.

10. VideoPress – The VideoPress plugin for WordPress lets you host videos and audio files on your own website. There are no limits on bandwidth or duration of videos, the videos are served without ads and it supports HD playback as well. Starts at $60 per year.

11. Automattic Kismet – You don’t often see spam in your blog posts because it all gets filtered by Automattic Kismet (Akismet for short), the excellent spam protection plug-in available for WordPress.

How to Make a Website - A Step by Step Guide for Beginners

Choose the Best Website Building Platform

Before you start worrying about color schemes and domain names, you’ve got to decide what platform you’re going to build your website with.

What do I mean by “platform”?

Well, back in 2004 when I got started, most sites were built using HTML (code), CSS and even Flash. These took a lot of time to learn and were tricky to master.

That’s why most people still think creating a website from scratch is difficult or requires a lot of coding and design skills – but that’s no longer true!

In 2015, content management systems (CMS) like WordPress have made creating a website accessible to everyone.

A content management system is a user-friendly platform for building websites and managing your own online content, instead of using a bunch of loose HTML pages.

Three most popular website building platforms in 2015:

Image and data credit: OpenSourceCMS.com

As you can see, nearly half of the websites on the internet are running on the WordPress website platform. Just look at those statistic made by W3 Techs and Builtwith. This

Why WordPress is better than the rest?

Because it’s AWESOME! But more importantly…

• It’s totally FREE, with loads of layouts to choose from

WordPress doesn’t cost a dime to download or install, and there’s a huge community who have designed beautiful themes and templates, making it easy to get going fast.

• It’s extremely beginner-friendly

If you know how to use Microsoft Word, you already know how add your own content. WordPress can be expanded with plugins to handle just about any site you can imagine – from gorgeous business pages to social networking sites.

• Small or Big site? Doesn’t matter…

From basic blogs to beautiful business sites and online stores, WordPress can handle just about any kind of website – and there are plenty of plugins to expand its capabilities. WordPress is used by Facebook, eBay, McAfee, Mozilla,Reuters, CNN, Google Ventures and even NASA.

• It’s mobile-friendly

The website you build will be responsive, looking great on every mobile device, smartphone and tablet.

• There’s a huge support community

With so many people on the platform, it’s easy to find help when you need it, and lots of free resources you can dig into.

In fact, the site you’re reading right now is built with WordPress! It’s popular for a reason. If you want to know more about how popular WordPress is, take a quick peek at this article: 14 facts about WordPress.

Of course, there are other CMS / website building platforms, too.

Drupal is a very powerful platform that is popular with web developers and experienced coders, but it comes with a very steep learning curve that makes it a bad choice for beginners.

Joomla is similar to WordPress and works great for online stores, but you’ll need at least a little bit of technical coding to make it work the way you want.

If you want more details, I’ve put together a pretty comprehensive comparison between WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.

If for some reason you don’t want to build your site with WordPress, check out my Drupal, Joomla and HTML5 guides as well. They are all FREE to use.

But for beginners, I strongly suggest sticking to WordPress.

It’s the easiest platform I’ve ever worked with, but it’s flexible enough to suit everyone from small business owners, and freelancers to creative artists and bloggers.

At this point, you don’t have to install or set up anything.

In Step 2, I’ll walk you through the process of choosing a domain name and finding a great hosting plan for your website.

In Step 3, I’ll show you everything you need to know to install and customize a WordPress website.

Don’t worry – I’ll walk you through the process, with lots of images as a reference.

Choose a Domain Name & Web Hosting for Your Website

To get a new website online, you’re going to need two things:

• A domain name (a web address like yoursitename.com)
• Hosting (a service that connects your site to the internet)

The WordPress platform itself is free, but a domain name and hosting will cost you around $3 – $4 a month (less than a coffee, so it won’t break the bank).

Owning your own domain name looks far more professional than having your site on someone else’s domain (like yourbusiness.freewebsite.com), and it’s super affordable, too.

Plus, having your own hosting will also make sure your website loads quickly and won’t go down for hours at a time (pretty important for everyone who visits your pages.)

Where do I get a domain name and hosting?

I’ve mostly used www.Bluehost.com as a web hosting and domain registrar.

They’re really affordable, have good customer service, and they’re currently throwing in a domain name for free – so it’s worth checking them out.

When you get a domain name, you’ll also get a personal email account(s): you@yoursite.com – way more professional than a generic Gmail or Yahoo address.

Already have a domain name and hosting? Go ahead and skip ahead to step 3, where I’ll explain how you can set up your website.

What kind of domain name should I pick?

As an easy starting point:

• If you’re making a website for your business, your domain name should match your company name. For example: YourCompanyName.com

• If you’re planning to set up a website for yourself, then YourName.com can be a great option.

Domain names usually end with .com, .org or .net, but in recent months, a huge amount of domain extensions (the end part of the web address, like .com) have come out, ranging from .agency to .pizza.

My best advice? Avoid the weird extensions and go with .com, .net or .org unless they perfectly describe what you have to offer – and even then, see if you can find a more common name.

While .com, .org and .net are commonly used and easily remembered, the domain extension craze hasn’t really gone mainstream yet – so people may not find you if you use a really different domain extension.

How should I choose my domain name?

A) Is it brandable? For example, if you make a site about poetry then best-poetry-website.net is not a good choice: poetryacademy.com or poetryfall.com is much better.

B) Is it memorable? Short, punchy and clear domain names are much easier to remember.If your domain name is too fuzzy, too long or spelled in a strange way, visitors may forget it.

C) Is it catchy? You want a name that rolls off the tongue, describes what you do and sticks head. Coming up with a cool name can be a bit tough since there are approximately 150 million active domain names in the world right now – but don’t give up.

There’s one rule that always applies to domain names: If you like it, go for it.

Set up your WordPress Website

Once you’ve bought your domain name and set up your hosting, you’re well on your way!

Now it’s time to get your website up and running. The first thing you’ll need to do is install WordPress to your domain.

Installing WordPress

There are two possible ways to install WordPress, one MUCH easier than the other.

1. 1-Click-installation

Almost every reliable and well-established hosting company has integrated 1-click-installation for WordPress, which makes getting going a snap.

If you signed up with Bluehost or any other similar hosting company, you should find your “1-click-installation” in your account control panel.

Here are the steps you should follow (should be similar/same on all the major web hosting companies):

1. Log in to your hosting account.
2. Go to your control panel.
3. Look for the “WordPress” icon.
4. Choose the domain where you want to install your website.
5. Click the “Install Now” button and you should get access to your NEW WordPress website.

Need a little more help installing WordPress? See this in-depth guide.

2. Manual install

If for some odd reason (some hosting companies don’t have one-click-install for WordPress) you don’t have the possibility to install WordPress automatically, look this manual guidebelow:

Installing WordPress Manually

Pssst – if they don’t have 1-click-installation, maybe you’re dealing with a bad host!

Choosing a Theme/Template for your site

Once you have successfully installed WordPress to your domain, you’ll see a very basic yet clean site:

But you don’t want to look like everyone else, do you? That’s why you need a theme – a design template that tells WordPress how your website should look.

Here’s where it gets fun: There are thousands of awesome, professionally designed themes you can choose from and customize for a site that’s all your own.

Here’s how to find a theme you like:

1) Log into your WordPress dashboard

If you’re not sure how, type in: http://yoursite.com/wp-admin (replace “yoursite” with your domain).

This is what the WordPress dashboard looks like:

Everything is easily labelled. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, don’t sweat it – I’m going to show you where to go next.

2) Access FREE themes

Once you’re in the dashboard, you’ve got access to over 1500 free themes! Just look along the side bar for “Appearance”, then click “Themes”.

If you want something more professional or elegant than what you find here, you can head over to ThemeForest.net where there’s a HUGE library of themes to pick from at varying costs.

But before you do that, I really suggest you at least try spending some time browsing the free themes. Many of them are actually really professional and well made; so don’t write them off.

As you can see above, installing a new theme for your website is very easy.

You can search for specific keywords and/or use filters to find themes that suit your style. Finding the perfect theme can take a while, but it’s worth it.

You should also look for themes that are “responsive”, as this means they will look good on any mobile device.

Just punch it in as one of your keywords, and you’ll be all set!

3. Install your new theme

Once you have found a theme you like, installing it is as simple as clicking “Install” followed by “Activate”.

IMPORTANT: Changing themes won’t delete your previous posts, pages and content. You can change themes as often as you want without having to worry about lose what you’ve created.

How do I add content and create new pages?

With your theme installed, you’re ready to start creating content. Let’s quickly run through some of the basics:

Adding and editing pages

Create a new page

Want a “Services” page, or an “About Me” page (like I have on my menu at the top of the site?)

1. Look along the sidebar in the WordPress Dashboard for “Pages” -> “Add New”.

2. Once you’ve clicked, you’ll find a screen that looks a lot like what you’ve maybe seen in Microsoft Word. Add text, images and more to build the page you want, then save it when you’re done.

Adding pages to the menu

If you want your new page to be linked to in your navigation bar,

1. Save any changes you’ve made to the page by clicking “Update”

2. Click “Appearance” -> “Menus” in the sidebar of the WordPress Dashboard

3. Find the page you created and add it to the list by clicking the checkbox next to it and then “Add to Menu”.

Adding and editing posts

If you have a blog on your website, “Posts” will be where you turn to next. You can use different categories to group similar posts.

If you want to add a blog to your website, you can use different categories and posts. Let’s say you want to create a category named “blog”. To do so, simply add it to your menu and start making posts.

Here’s what you need to do:

a. Create a new category by going to “Posts -> Categories”

OR

b. Create a blog post by going to “Posts -> Add New”. Once you’ve finished writing your blog post blog post is ready, you need to add the right category for it.

Once you’ve created your category, simply add it to the menu, and you’re in business!

Customizations & Tweaks (Widgets, comments & just some “stuff” you need to know)

In this section I’ll cover some of the basics things I’m asked about all the time that will help you to tweak your website.

Changing Your Title and Tagline

Page titles explain to searchers what your website is about, and they’re also a big part of how search engines determine your rankings, so you want to be sure they’ve got the keywords you want to target in them (but in a natural way, written for real people).

You should use a unique title on every page of your site. For example, my site’s title is “How to Make a Website”.

(Can’t find it? Just hold your mouse over the tab at the top of your web browser).

Taglines are added at the end of titles across every page. My site’s tagline is “Step by Step Guide”

In order to change the title and tagline on your website, go to “Settings -> General” and fill in the form below:

Disabling Comments for Posts & Pages

Some websites (business/organisation sites mostly) don’t want their visitors to be able to comment on their pages.

Here’s how to shut comments off on WordPress pages:

1. While you are writing a new page, click “Screen Options” in the top right corner.

2. Click the “Discussion” box. The “Allow Comments” box will appear at the bottom.

3. Untick “Allow Comments”.

Want to disable comments on every new page by default?

1. Go to “Settings -> Discussion” and untick “Allow people to post comments on new articles”

Setting Up a Static Front Page

Some people contact me saying they’re frustrated that their home page looks like a blog post. You can fix that by making your home page “static”.

A static page is a page that doesn’t change. Unlike a blog, where the first new article will show up at the top every time, a “static” page will show the same content every time someone comes to the site – like a home page you’ve designed.

To set up a static front page:

1. Go to “Settings -> Reading”

2. Choose a static page that you have created. “Front Page” denotes your home page, “Posts page” is the front page of your blog (if your entire site isn’t a blog).

If you don’t choose a static page on your own, WordPress will take your latest posts and start showing them on your homepage.

Editing sidebar

Most WordPress themes have a sidebar on the right side (in some cases it’s on the left).

If you want to get rid of the sidebar or edit out items you do not need like “Categories”, “Meta” and “Archives”, which are usually pointless, here’s how:

1. Go to “Appearance -> Widgets” in the WordPress Dashboard.

2. From here, you can use drag n’ drop to add different “boxes” to your sidebar, or remove the items you don’t want.

There’s also a “HTML box” – a text box where you can use HTML code. For beginners, don’t worry about this bit – just drag and drop the elements you’d like in your sidebar.

Installing Plugins to Get More out of WordPress

What is a plugin?

“Plugins” are extensions that are built to expand WordPress’ capabilities, adding features and functions to your site that don’t come built-in.

They’re shortcuts to getting your site to do what you want to, without having to build the feature from scratch.

You can use plugins to do everything from adding photo galleries and submission forms to optimizing your website and creating an online store.

How do I Install a new Plugin?

To start installing plugins, go to “Plugins -> Add New” and simply start searching.

Keep in mind that there are over 25,000 different FREE plugins, so you’ve got a LOT to choose from!

Installation is easy – once you find a plugin you like, just click “Install”.

BUT – before you go and install every single one, I suggest you to read this article: Things you need to know about using WP plugins.

To save you some time, I’ve put together a list of the most popular and useful plugins that webmasters find useful:

Contact form 7: My website has a contact form on my About Me page. It’s an awesome feature to have, as people (like you!) can fill in the form and send me an email without logging into their own email provider. If you want to do something similar, definitely get this plugin.P.S: Here’s a step-by-step guide for setting it up.

Yoast SEO for WordPress: If you want to make your WordPress site even more SEO-friendly, this plugin is a must-have. It’s free, and it’s awesome. You’ll be able to edit your title tags, meta descriptions and more, all from within the page itself – no more fussing with WordPress settings.

Forum: Interested in starting a forum on your site? Look for the plugin named “bbPress” and follow their tutorials.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg! Here’s a list of the top 100 plugins for WordPressby Tom Ewer, someone who knows plugins, really well!

… and that is basically it.

Congratulations – you’re ready to launch!

If you’ve followed the steps in this guide, you should now have a fully-functional WordPress website! That wasn’t so bad, was it?

I hope you found this guide really useful –but if you have any more questions or need help with one of the steps I highlighted, I’m happy to share some guidance. 

Last, but not least..

If you find my guides useful, please share my page below. This keeps me motivated to keep all the information on this site up-to-date.

Cheers,