User-generated Content – Image Sharing Hub with WordPress

Description

Book Formats included: EPUB & MOBI.

Current Version: 1.0 – August 2016

All code for this book is available for free download:

https://github.com/techpressrocks/naoto-techpressrocks
https://github.com/techpressrocks/afb-userimageupload

Are you looking for a complete blueprint how you can set up an image sharing hub with 100 % user-generated content? All powered by WordPress, the most popular open-source web site creation software today, plus free code you can download? Then look you no further.

In almost excruciating detail this book shows you how you can set up a web site that allows your users to upload images. All user-generated content is then presented and ready to be shared with the world in a visually appealing gallery design.

Looking for examples of use? Just search the web for “pet shaming” and you find sites allowing pet owners to upload images of their pets. This book shows you exactly how to build such a site.

About This Book

• A step-by-step guide on how to set up an image sharing hub, where users can freely upload images. The software used is WordPress, the most popular open-source web content management system (or CMS) in the world today.
• The book comes with a complete design (in WordPress speak: “theme”) and code for social sharing that you can download from the book’s supporting web site.
• Advice on what additional code (in WordPress they’re called “plugins”) to install to make your site faster, safer and easier to find by search engines.
• Tips on how you can market your site’s content and perhaps making it go viral.
• Quick tips how you can make money with your image-sharing hub.
• The author is open for feedback, so you can make this book better by contributing to it!

Who Is This Book For?

First, only basic knowledge of WordPress, the most popular open-source software for creating modern websites these days, is necessary.

You’re not looking for any dry theory or a WordPress general beginner’s book, but a practical step-by-step guide with loads of screenshots.

Three types of individuals could find this book very useful:

• Company Managers responsible for social media or online marketing, looking for a blueprint how to set up a user-generated content site.
• Web community leaders of things that are visually appealing. Perhaps you’re looking for a way that your fellow community members can upload images of their creations (for example, in the knitting or crocheting world) and share them with everyone.
• You’re a web entrepreneur or expert for all things viral, so you already have a concept in mind for image-centric user-generated content. All you need is a complete solution based on WordPress.

What Will You Learn?

• Step-by-step you create a complete image-sharing hub with WordPress and free downloadable code, where users can upload images and share them on all popular social media.
• You learn how to moderate image submissions and protect your site from spam.
• You implement social sharing and social follow buttons and learn what they do, plus you incorporate feeds from your social pages into your site.
• You install essential WordPress plugins that make your site safer and faster and improve its visibility in Google search results (SEO).
• Users can subscribe to new content. You will implement a free and easy way to achieve that.
• You will do an absolute minimum of WordPress “housekeeping” and also install a backup plugin.
• You’ll find useful tips on marketing your content, making it go viral, plus – if that is your aim – how to make money from your user-generated content site.

Table of Contents

User Generated Content Image Sharing Hub With WordPress

Download All Code From GitHub

A Note on Updates

Found an Error? Missing a Topic?

Do You Need Support?

Contact

Version

Preface

Welcome

User-generated content – A definition

Great! But what’s the downside of UGC?

Why this book? What’s it about?

Is this book for you?

Are you a social media or online marketer?

Are you a web community leader of things visually appealing?

Are you a web enterpreneur or expert for all things viral?

How to use this book?

The contents – a quick overview

What You Need to Know & Tools You Need

Chapter One – Installing WordPress Locally With Bitnami

Download Bitnami WordPress Stack

Notes

Chapter Two – What are WordPress Themes & Where Can We Find Them?

What is a Theme? How are they different from WordPress Plugins?

How to select a theme? Free versus commercial Themes

Finding Free Themes – Official WordPress Theme Directory

Selected WordPress Theme: Fukasawa by Anders Norén

Chapter Three – Installing Parent Theme Fukasawa & Child Theme Naoto by techpress.rocks

Installing Fukasawa, the parent theme

What is a parent & child theme?

Installing child theme Naoto by techpress.rocks

Chapter Four – AFB User Image Upload – Plugin Installation

Downloading and installing

Updating the plugin

Chapter Five – Setting Up the Upload Form

Chapter Six – Adding Custom Fields to the Upload Form

Customizing labels of custom fields – Uploader Name/Email/Terms

Chapter Seven – Creating Submission Categories & Form Testing

Creating post categories

Testing Form Submission

Chapter Eight – Moderating & Publishing User Generated Content

Mapping post submissions to a newly created editor account

Quick Edit – Change post status and author

Edit Post View – Where are the custom fields?

Before publishing – Set the permalink to post name

Publish the submission

Chapter Nine – Customizing Submission Output with WordPress Templates

What are WordPress templates?

Customizing the look of the front page – WordPress template file content.php

Customizing the look of the single post – Adding uploader name as author

Chapter Ten – Going Viral Made Easy: Social Following, Social Sharing & I Recommend This

Social Media Following versus Social Media Sharing

Quicktake on Social Media Following

Quicktake on Social Media Sharing

Sitewide Social Media Follow Buttons

Front page – Gallery

Single Post – Share Buttons on uploaded image

Social Proof with “I Recommend This” – Letting users like posts

Notes

Chapter Eleven – Customizing Social Sharing & Follow Buttons with WordPress Theme Customizer

How to access the Theme Customizer

Customizing Social Media Sharing Links

Customizing Social Media Follow Links

Chapter Twelve – Integrating Social Media Feeds

Instagram feed in sidebar widget

Pinterest feed in sidebar widget

Pinterest Pinboard Widget

Pinterest RSS Widget

Facebook fan page & feed in sidebar widget

Twitter feed in sidebar widget

Chapter Thirteen – Adding to Our Child Theme: Logo, Favicon, Main & Footer Menu

Uploading a logo

Adding a Favicon

Create our main menu

Create a footer menu

Chapter Fourteen – Have Colours Your Way with WordPress Theme Customizer

How to access the Customizer

Live-previewing Colour Changes

Before you go crazy with colours: Have a look at colour theory

Chapter Fifteen – Sticky Header with Social Follow buttons & Customizing Mobile Menu Colours

Activating the Sticky Header – Accessing the Theme Customizer

Customizing mobile menu colours

Chapter Sixteen – Migrating Local Site to a Live Web Server

Exporting our site to file

Importing to live site

Chapter Seventeen – Combatting Spam with Google reCAPTCHA

Revisiting our image submission form

Signing up for Google reCAPTCHA

Chapter Eighteen – Essential WordPress Plugins for Speed, Security & SEO

Reduce image file size with Ewww Image Optimizer

Caching your site with WP Super Cache

Fighting comment spam with Antispam Bee

Site is getting too popular? With the shady elements as well? Install Simple Security Firewall

For On-Page SEO: Yoast SEO

Chapter Nineteen – One More Thing: Let Users Subscribe to New Content with Jetpack Subscriptions

Chapter Twenty – WordPress Housekeeping When Going Live

Deleting unused plugins

Check Permalinks set to post name

Install a backup plugin: UpdraftPlus or BackWPup

Make your site visible to search engines

After launch – Sign up for Google Analytics & install Google Analytics Dashboard

After launch – Add your site to Google Webmasters

Chapter Twenty-One – Tips to Market Your Content & Making It Go Viral

What is virality and the science behind it?

The STEPPS and how WordPress can help

Social Currency

Triggers

Emotion

Public

Practical Value

Stories

10 tips to market your idea, your site

1. Build a modern mobile-ready web site that makes it easy and visually appealing to share content

2. Build up your social media presences

3. Reach out personally to some key users on social media and ask them to share

4. Comment or help users in your niche on blogs and forums

5. Let your users create the best content possible

6. Let users subscribe to new content

7. Write press releases and send it to relevant bloggers/authors in your niche

8. Market your content in offline ways like books

9. Pay attention to SEO: Make it easy for Google to find your content

10. To promote your social media pages, ask for reciprocal links by fellow promoters

Chapter Twenty-Two – Making Money with Your Social Sharing Hub

Affiliate Marketing

Advertising with GoogleAds and direct ads

Sell your own products and services via your online shop or newsletter

Sponsored articles or banners from relevant companies

Build your site to sell it

Thank you for reading!

Visit GitHub for the code snippets of this book:

Visit our web site for more books and info:

Did you like this book? Please share your thoughts!

About the Author