BRAIN TRUST. From left, Angela Bowman, Bethany Siegler and Doug Wray speak at Boulder Digital Arts intro to WordPress. (Reporter photo)

SURE WAS FUN having a really smart panel of Boulder Digital Arts instructors answer questions and share tidbits of wisdom at a recent “Introduction to WordPress” hosted by BDA. All three of them – Angela Bowman, Bethany Siegler and Doug Wray – teach WordPress classes through BDA.

Having attended classes from all of them, we can heartily recommend them for those wanting to use this powerful blogging and website-creation platform. See their classes on BDA’s website.

Some of their tips from that evening:

• Even though WordPress seems rock-solid, it’s important to do regular backups of both the PHP files and the content databases. Everyone likes WP Database Backup as one great tool.
• Want to track and analyze your web traffic? The plugin Google Analyticator gains kudos.
• Everyone loves Firebug, a plugin to the Firefox web browser, because it lets you view the underlying CSS code in your site (or others’ sites), for copying or tweaking.
• Angela recommends the book WordPress Theme Design. We bought it from Amazon through the affiliate link in the righthand column of her site. She was right – it’s great.
• Among well-designed basic themes that can be modified into websites, the gang mentioned Atahualpa, Magazine Basic, WordPress Rocks and Elegant Themes.
• Need to add a form to your site? Doug recommends CForms.
• How about an animated slideshow? Angela likes NextGEN Gallery (though some don’t).

For more WordPress tips, visit the individual websites of Angela Bowman, Bethany Siegler and Doug Wray.