Although I’m happy with TypePad for my personal blog I wanted to learn a new platform to offer clients professionally. I’ve been muddling my way through WordPress for Dummies and I am getting the hang of it slowly and am blogging with my co-bloggers on Our TriVista. My progress has been incremental and I’m not happy with the limits of templates and I want to know how to do so much more. I want more theme and design options, I want to delve into the behind the scenes world of CSS and PHP—gasp!

Enter my lovely mastermind group who recommends the WordPress to Website workshop and I recalled yes this is offered by Aletha McManama I received her class info via Facebook. She is well known within the AssistU community and highly recommended. Unfortunately my budget simply didn’t have that kind of elasticity the workshop was starting that week.

Within days I receive an updated invitation that the workshop was starting a week later and offering a discount that I simply couldn’t pass up. I signed up immediately! We had our first class session this week and both audio and video were recorded via GoToMeeting followed by the next day’s afternoon Q&A session. I find this format helpful as it gives me time to process and practice and then go back to the group with my questions.

We’ve been introduced to helpful sites like iThemes and Groupsite and I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate Aletha’s sense of humor and laid back teaching style. Already I feel undaunted by what CSS and PHP are and what they do and am excited about choosing and installing a theme once I decide on one—there are soooo many amazing themes to choose from! I’ll keep you posted on my progress and unveil my work of art (fingers crossed) in seven weeks!

Here’s a piece of trivia you may not know:

The name "WordPress" was originally coined by Christine Selleck in response to developer Matthew Mullenweg's desire to associate his new software project with printing presses. In this sense, press refers to the world of reporters, journalists, columnists, and photographers. An aptly chosen name, because WordPress serves as the printing press that enables its users to publish their words. It's a good name, don't you think so?