I spent three weeks riding this bike before they told me it wouldn’t improve my wordpress capabilities.
Who are the best Youtube channels for blogging & WordPress tutorials?
Blogging and the use of WordPress is something that I’m very new to. Being new and inexperienced means I try to find the best Youtube channels, then stick to them like glue if I like the way they present their information. I know as much about building a website as I do about talking to girls, that’s where these guys come in (not with hints about talking to girls).
If you’re wondering what type of skills are required to become a blogger, or what type of skills you can learn from looking through the following channels have a look here to see the wide variety of things you may need to learn to start a blog. Alternatively, if you’re interested in knowing what sort of gear you need to travel the world and make a blog, see what I use for blogging, videography and photography.
The following channels have been a massive help as I’m a complete beginner and struggling to get my head around all of the options available, I get way too far down the rabbit hole and start to feel anxious. Blogging and WordPress go hand in hand for me, so I’ve combined the two in the one post. Hopefully these videos will be of assistance to you.
If for some unknown reason you want advice from a fellow novice like myself, here it is: Keep it simple at the start!!
- Try not to get bogged down with the infinite customisability on offer
- Concentrate on getting some content down before you launch your site
- Have a play around to get your head around things through trial and error
- Have a dummy layout on paper to try and visualise how your menus will look
- Learn about widgets, menus, pages and posts
- Have a basic understanding of permalinks and SEO without stressing your little head off too much
- Pick a font pairing early and stick with it
I personally took the jump and bought into the Elegant Themes Divi/Extra Theme.
Note that that is not an affiliate link, simply a link to show you the pricing. I got the lifetime plan, straight out the gate. I hate subscription fees and considered it an investment to myself. With the subscription or the lifetime fee you get Divi theme, Extra theme, Bloom plugin and Monarch Plugin included.
My reasoning for diving in to the above is that I wanted to build visually and have plenty of options to quickly synchronise things across my site, without ever dealing with code. Therefore once I’m overseas the process in theory will be easier and simply a matter of tweaking.
Don’t mistake this builder for foolproof though, I’ve had to start about 5 different chats to fix errors, some I had found that will need updates to be fixed, some easy fixes. But their customer support has been very helpful the whole way through. I do find it frustrating though to lose days of productivity over things they have overlooked.
I also should mention that if you decide to buy into this theme it may be hard to switch in the future as your website will be riddled with their shortcode, so be warned. I feel I’m in it for the long run and like anything, the learning curve is still present just because you’re not dealing with code, doesn’t mean it will be a walk in the park!
Editor’s Note;
Originally intended to be part of a much larger post detailing the best youtubers to learn all things travel documentation, from: Photography, Videography, Drone use, Blogging etc. The post was far too involved and hard to navigate so I made them all their own blog posts. Feel free to see the other posts by clicking the links below!
WPBeginner
This topic is new to me and therefore I try to find a small number of Youtubers who teach well and have current content. These guys fit the bill perfectly! Their website is also useful if you don’t want to watch videos and prefer to browse through the articles at your own pace.
Best for;
- Beginners to advanced users, there’s something for everyone
- Follow their guide below if you’re starting a blog in 2019
Create a Pro Website
I found this guy shortly after finding the above channel and I’m glad I did.
Dale has plenty of knowledge and plenty of videos. The videos that don’t need to be long aren’t. The ones that need to be are. Pretty simple concept and he delivers on that. He has heaps of quick ~5 min videos for specific things like SEO / Contact forms / Cache plugins etc but also when more detail is needed he’s got videos upwards of 40 minutes to paint a proper picture.
Best for;
- As above really, this guy covers everything, just choose whose videos you find better to follow along to.
- SEO, Plugins, Beginner’s guides, Theme comparisons etc.
Ahrefs
This is the mecca for SEO and optimisation in general. Want to get your website ranking higher? Want to see what Youtube or Google look for when they index websites? This guy has all that info, a ton of it in fact.
I wouldn’t recommend people dive too deep into this stuff at the very start, but getting your head around the basics of keywords, permalinks, SEO and website speed will help in the long run instead of having to go back and clean things up later. This is someone I’ll visit again in the future as things start to make more and more sense.
Best for;
- SEO and all things related to SEO and ranking your website
Darrel Wilson
Darrel Wilson has 300 videos. I would recommend him for in depth tutorials of up to 3 hours long. I never actually realised it as I was making my website with Divi, but he has a tutorial lasting 2 hours and 44 minutes!!
I also wish I saw his 10% off Divi theme before I purchased as well. Such is life, we live and we learn. Make the most of his good content and discounts and learn from my mistakes!
Best for;
- In depth tutorials that you can follow along to
- Comparisons of plugins and themes
- Plugin walkthroughs with suggested settings
- Website design and theme tutorials
Elegant Themes
Elegant themes are the creators of the Divi/Extra themes. This is only relevant for anyone who is also using these themes. However if that applies, then it’s worth checking out their Youtube channel to visualise the possibilities at your finger tips. Especially handy are the individual videos for each of the different modules that you can use. This helped me really get an idea of what was available to play with in my own time. All the info is very up to date, they upload at least once a week.
Best for;
- Seeing what can be achieved using the Divi builder
- Looking into each individual module of the Divi builder and its intended uses
MAK
In case you’re wondering who the gentleman in the above videos is (I doubt you were). This is MAK, it’s worth giving him a shoutout as he does his own stuff on his youtube channel. Again this is mostly for those using the Divi themes or the Divi builder.
However he actually posts other stuff as well, like plugin overviews, affiliate marketing, general website building and more.
Best for;
- Watching someone build a part of a website from scratch
- Seeing a pro use the Divi theme and viewing a final design, then building along with him
