Do you get out the trusty old HTML editor, roll up your sleeves, and begin writing the HTML code from scratch? Well, if you have the skill to do it, and you have the time to do it, and you have the patience to do it, then that is one way to get it done.

Or maybe you just get out the trusty old checkbook and write someone a hefty check to do it for you. Well, if you have the money, then that is definitely the easiest way to do it. And then, when you need something added or changed, you can get out the old checkbook again.

What if you need it yesterday, not a few days or weeks or months from now?

What if you want a web site that is easy to add pages and content to, and you want to be able to do it yourself, quickly and easily and without having to get out that trusty old HTML editor, or the old checkbook for that matter?

What if you want a web site that search engines love, and you want to start getting some traffic without spending a fortune on SEO and then waiting and waiting to see the traffic?

What if you want a web site that you can change the look and feel of with just a few clicks of a mouse, and if you don’t like the new look, you can change it back with just a few more clicks?

Well partner, it sounds to me like you are in need of WordPress! More specifically, you need to learn just how powerful WordPress really is!

What kind of WordPress am I talking about when I say “powerful WordPress”?

I’m referring to WordPress “jazzed up” with all of the 100′s and 100′s of themes and plugins that are available to turn plain old WordPress into a thing of beauty as far as web sites go.

And before you roll your eyes and say that WordPress is just for blogs, you better take a closer look. In fact, WordPress, along with all of the readily available plugins and custom themes, can do just about anything you want, and it can do it either at no cost or very low cost, and it can do it very quickly.

You can have a WordPress site installed, configured with basic settings, and some popular plugins and themes installed, in just a few hours, and for zero cost. How’s that for fast and cheap?

• You can create a WordPress site that is a traditional WordPress blog.

• You can create a WordPress site that is suitable for the smallest business right on up to the largest corporation.

• You can create a WordPress site that is a membership site where members pay for your content.

• You can create a WordPress site that is an internet storefront to sell your products.

• You can create a WordPress site that is a content management system.

• You can create a WordPress site that is a combination of any or all of the above.

You can install plugins that do SEO for you, backup your database for you, create Google compliant sitemaps for you, handle product sales and delivery for you, handle membership signups for you, and on and on and on.

Do you begin to get the idea that I like WordPress and think WordPress is a great way to create a web site?

So, exactly what is WordPress, and how can you get it for free?

You can find out all about WordPress, and download it for free, at http://www.wordpress.org/. WordPress is an open source blog software package that anyone can download and install for free.

If your hosting provider has cpanel with Fantastico, and most do, then you can install it in a matter of minutes from there. If not, you can install the files manually.

WordPress makes it easy for anyone to set up, manage and maintain a website, and you can do it without being a total geek.

What if you get stuck and need help? Simply go to http://wordpress.org/support/ and you will find active forums full of people ready to help you solve your problem. How easy is that?

Since WordPress is open source, it’s free. That’s always a nice little benefit.

Since it’s open source it also has a thriving community of developers (geeks) constantly improving the software and creating those plugins I mentioned.

WordPress lets you quickly and easily create pages, which are basically content that is static, and not open for comments, and not organized by time.

WordPress lets you quickly and easily create posts, which are basically the blog part of WordPress, and they are usually organized by time-of-post, are usually open for comments, and they are the content to build out the meat of your site.

With WordPress, there are hundreds and hundreds of free themes available so you can easily manage your site’s look and feel. Check them out and download them for free at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ .

There are also some really great looking professionally designed themes available for purchase, most at very reasonable prices. These are well worth the money if you want a really professional looking web site. You can see examples of these at iThemes

There are hundreds and hundreds of free plugins available for WordPress, and you can take a look at them by going to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ . There are also many great plugins available that you will pay a reasonable fee for, but if you need a specialized plugin, they are well worth the money.

WordPress is highly customizable, so you can use it for just about anything, and make it do just about anything.

A Few Benefits of Using WordPress:

* Free Or Very Inexpensive! Using WordPress for your web site means it’s either cheap or free. WordPress itself is free, a custom theme is usually in the $50 to $100 range, many themes are even free. End result, you save loads of money compared to the cost of paying someone to design a web site for you.

* It’s So Easy! If you’ve got basic computer skills, WordPress is easy to use. If you can use a word processor like Microsoft Word or even lowly little Notepad, then you can use WordPress. It’s web site creation at it’s easiest.

* You Can Do It Yourself! Get ready Mr. Do-It-Yourselfer! No more need to find and pay a programmer to fix a tiny error, saving you time and money. Need to add some more content or a new page? No problem, you can do it yourself.

* Multiple Users And Accessible On The Internet. WordPress is accessed through an online administrative interface and can allow access to multiple administrators if desired, which means more than one person can login and fix problems that might develop, and you can access it from anywhere that has internet access. So, you lucky dog, if you’re on some beach in the Bahamas, you can access your site. Since your site is on a secure server through your web host, and you have a backup of your site and database on your own computer (you did create that backup, didn’t you?), you are well protected against data loss.

* Content Pleasing To The Great Google. WordPress makes it easy to have a web site that is search engine friendly. That means your web site is more likely to land on the first page of Google results, which means people are more likely to find you, which means people are more likely to spend time, and money, on your web site.

Since this is a rather long article on WordPress, I decided to break it up into three parts.

Coming up in Part 2, we’ll roll up our sleeves and get into the “down and dirty” details of installing and configuring WordPress.

As promised in part 1, part 2 will go into the basic steps to follow in building your WordPress web site.

If you’ve never even heard of WordPress, and you’re wondering what the heck it is, learn all about it at http://www.wordpress.org/

Roll Up Your Sleeves And Let’s Get Started…..

You need to master a few basics and understand a little of the WordPress “lingo”. So, here we go.

With WordPress, you can produce and manage several types of content very quickly and very easily.

Built right in and ready to go is the ability to create and edit Posts, Pages, and Links.

Posts are your basic blog content and are used for standard blog entries. You can create new posts, anytime you want and as often as you want, for your site visitors to read. Posts are normally arranged in chronological order and you can allow viewer comments or not, just as you please.

Pages are basically just posts that aren’t time-driven, they are more permanent content, not open to comments, and they don’t show up in your “recent posts” list. Pages are added as a link in your menu, if you choose to, and serve as the basic meat of your site.

Links are just what the name implies…they are links to whatever outside web sites you wish to make available to your site visitors. This is where you put links to sites you are an affiliate of, sites that are recommended resources for your visitors, and anything else you feel would be of interest to your site visitors.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…..

Before you start, you need to spend a few minutes and make some big decisions on what type of web site you want and need. If you don’t spend the time now, you may not end up with the web site you want, and then you will have to start all over.

The biggest thing to figure out is what you actually need your website to do. Will it be just a simple blog, will it be a news site, will it be an ecommerce site to sell products, will it be a membership site, will it be a place to post mp3′s produced by your rock band…..what exactly do you need it to be and how do you want it to look?

Once you decide what you want it to be, you need to decide what type of content you will have on it. What kind of content will you need to create and manage?

Do you need posts? Maybe, maybe not. If you’re not creating a blog, you may or may not need to use the post feature in WordPress at all. Or maybe it’s not a blog you’re creating, but you want a section to give site visitors your latest news about your products or services. You can use posts to do that. Since posts normally show in order by date created, visitors would see the latest posts first.

What about pages? Do you need pages at all? If so, how many pages will you need? Since pages normally show up as menu items, will your pages have a hierarchy type dropdown menu, or will each post be a top level menu item?

What about your homepage, how do you want it to look, what do you want to feature on the homepage? You may want just some basic text about your web site, what you do and what you offer, or maybe you want to feature your latest news or latest post.

These are a few of the questions you need to answer. Basically you’re trying to figure out what you want and what you need from your website. Once you have that figured out, it’s easier to find a theme that offers exactly what you want and need.

Next Step…..

Pick a theme that suits your needs and also looks like you want it to. There are free themes and there are professionally designed themes that you purchase, usually for a very reasonable price. If you are building a business web site, you will probably want to invest in one of the professionally designed themes.

The theme on the right is an example of the 100′s and 100′s of themes you can download for free for WordPress.

Now that you know what you want and need in the way of a web site, you need to be sure and pick a theme that can meet those wants and needs. Keep in mind that WordPress makes it very easy to switch themes, so if you find more than one theme that you like, you can install all of them, and switch back and forth until you decide exactly which one is the perfect fit for your web site.

Here are some things to consider when searching for that “just right” theme:

What type of menu system does it feature? Can it display the number of pages you plan on having? Can it handle the hierarchy your site menu will require? If you plan on having a fair amount of hierarchy (categories and sub-categories), a drop down menu might be a must.

How is the theme laid out? Most themes are laid out in “sections” or “boxes” and with various sidebars, such as sidebar left, or sidebar right, or both. Most have a large center box or section, or maybe several smaller ones side-by-side, so make sure the theme’s homepage is laid out like you want.

Very important, is the theme widget ready? If so, you can add and delete sidebar items, and possibly others, with ease. You can do it without widgets, but it’s much harder.

As mentioned in Part 1, there are hundreds of free themes available, and you can check them out at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

Two custom themes that I personally use and recommend are iTheme Custom WordPress Themes and StudioPress Custom WordPress Themes. These companies have specialized themes for most any application or niche you can think of.

iThemes has just introduced their new Builder Theme which is probably the most advanced and versatile WordPress theme on the market.

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you’re ready to install WordPress.

There are two ways to install WordPress, the easy way and the hard way.

The hard way is to download the WordPress files directly from www.wordpress.org and then do a manual install. Don’t worry though, even the hard way is not really that hard. Just go to http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress to view the very through instructions provided by WordPress.org. Follow the instruction and you shouldn’t have any problems.

The easy way is to install WordPress from the cpanel in your hosting account. Most hosting accounts have cpanel and a feature called Fantastico which make the install extremely easy.

Coming up in part 3 we will cover:

* Installing your theme
* Installing your plugins
* Entering your site details
* How to write pages
* How to write posts
* Using widgets on your site
* SEO for WordPress

So, be sure and continue with Part 3 to learn more about the power of WordPress.

Next Step…..

Once you’ve got WordPress installed, you’re ready to start setting up your site.

Once you’ve picked a theme and downloaded it, simply unzip it and upload the theme folder to your server at /public_html/wp-content/themes. Then login to your Dashboard, go to design>themes, and click on the theme to make it your active theme. You can click on any one of the themes that are showing to make them the active theme.

Plugins that you want on your site need to be downloaded, unzipped, and uploaded to /public_html/wp-content/plugins. Then go into your dashboard, go to plugins, and click on the activate link to activate any plugins you want to be active on your site. Remember, you can find free plugins at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

Go into settings and fill in the information on your site details. These items are pretty self-explanatory.

Go to Write>Page to start adding pages to your site. While editing a page you can choose the page parent to determine how it will show in your menu. Remember, the page title will become a menu link. You could write a page titled “My Family” and set it as “Main Page, No Parent” and then you could write a page titled “MY KIds” and a page titled “MY Wife” and set them to have the “MY Family” page as parent. That would give you a dropdown menu, assuming your template supports dropdown menus, with “MY Family” as the main menu item and “MY Kids” and “MY Wife” as dropdowns under it.

You also have the ability while writing the page to select if you want to allow comments or not, if you want it to be password protected, and a few other things.

Go to Write>Post to start writing posts to populate your site with content. As with pages, you can choose some options to determine how the post will display.

With posts, you need to first setup some categories under the settings>manage>categories tab so you can organize your posts into the order you want them in. For instance, you could have a category named “General Interest” and one named “Latest News” and one named “Cooking Tips”, and then organize your posts under the appropriate one.

Under Design>Widgets and Design>Theme Editor, you can customize widgets and theme files if you know a little html, php, and want to give it a shot. The widgets tab usually gives you a list of widgets and a list of sidebars and other areas where the widgets can be placed, and you simply drag and drop the widgets you want into the areas you want them in. You can then edit each widget to make it display as you desire.

Search Engine Optimization…..

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to optimizing your website’s position in search results. Many books have been written about SEO and websites are dedicated to it.

Showing up higher in search results usually means more traffic and more business. That is another reason why using WordPress is such a good idea, because WordPress is especially well suited for boosting your site’s rank in search engines.

How to make your WordPress site SEO friendly…..

You need to research the right keywords for your site and then put those keywords in the right places. Those right places include the title bar (the text that shows up at the top of your browser), any headers, headlines or bold text on a page, and the meta data (helpful information in a page’s code that is not visible in a browser).

How WordPress Helps Your SEO Efforts…..

Right out of the box, WordPress is SEO-friendly. It puts important information in the right places by default, so as long as you fill in the appropriate information in your dashboard settings, you’ll have a good start in the search engine rankings.

However,there are also a number of extra steps you can take to optimize your search engine rank, many of which are either built in to WordPress or easily managed with plugins that are available to download.

Permalinks are the direct urls to your content and optimizing how those links appear is good SEO. There is a place in your dashboard to change the way your permalinks are setup.

There is a plugin you can download and install that creates a sitemap, which is a widely adopted standard among search engines, and helps improve your search rank.

There are SEO plugins available that specifically deal with improving your sites SEO. They are worth the effort if you want to improve traffic to your site.

And Finally…..

Once you have your site up and running and optimized the way you want, you just have to keep it updated with new content. Updates are a breeze with WordPress, which means you can spend more time on your content and less time trying to figure out the tech stuff.

So, what are you waiting for? WordPress can be the right answer for just about any need. It can be the answer to quickly and easily building a professional looking web site for:

• The smallest “mom and pop” business right on up to a giant corporation.

• Service-oriented companies like home builders, plumbers, HVAC contractors, real estate agents, car dealers, etc.

• Consultants, freelancers, and coaches.

• Schools, nonprofit agencies, and churches.

• Bands, artists and creative professionals.

So, that’s it, you are now the proud owner of a great looking web site, a “WordPress On Steroids” web site.

Hope you enjoyed this series on installing and configuring WordPress.

It also is a place where hopefully other caregivers that are coping with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and caring for wives, husbands, parents, patients, or others can share their experiences, feelings, and knowledge with each other.

Alzheimer’s disease is a much worse disease than I ever imagined until I found myself having to care for a 72 year old wife and a 95 year old mom, both of whom are afflicted with this terrible disease. Stressed and frustrated to say the least.

I thought Alzheimer’s disease was just forgetting where your car keys were, or where you put the TV remote control. I never dreamed that it has such a debilitating effect on persons afflicted with the disease, and I surely never realized just how difficult and stressful it can be for caregivers.

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder and it was named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described the disease in 1906. Scientists have learned a great deal about Alzheimer’s disease since that time.

Here are some facts about Alzheimer’s:

• Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and fatal brain disease. It is estimated that as many as 5.3 million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease destroys brain cells. It causes memory loss and creates problems with thinking and behavior. These problems can be severe enough to affect work, hobbies and social life.
• Alzheimer’s normally gets worse over time, and it is fatal. You may be surprised to know that it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.
• Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a general term describing memory loss and other intellectual abilities that are serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for a whopping 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases.
• Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. However, there are treatments for symptoms and these treatments combined with the right services and support can help make life a little better for the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer’s. There are worldwide efforts under way to find more and better ways to treat the disease, or to delay its onset, or prevent it from developing altogether.

What Causes Alzheimer’s?

Doctors and scientists are still trying to answer that question. They are pretty much in agreement that plaques and tangles are a major factor. They also agree that there are risk factors that affect a person’s likelihood of developing the disease.

What Are Plaques and Tangles?

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a build-up of proteins in the brain. While this can’t be measured in a living person, autopsies have revealed this to be true, and the build-up manifests itself in two different ways.

One Of These Is Plaques, which are deposits of the protein beta-amyloid that accumulate in the spaces between nerve cells.

The Other Is Tangles,which are deposits of the protein tau that accumulate inside of nerve cells.

Doctors and scientists still don’t know exactly how plaques and tangles are related to Alzheimer’s disease, but they do have some solid theories. One such theory is that they block the nerve cells’ ability to communicate with each other, and this in turn makes it difficult for the cells to survive.

Autopsies have shown that nearly everyone will develop some plaques and tangles as they age, but those with Alzheimer’s disease will develop far more than those who do not develop the disease. Scientists still don’t know why some people develop more than others, but they know it is true.

Known Risk Factors For Alzheimer’s

Factor One–Age

Simply getting older is the number one risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s.
Fact– One out of eight people over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s.
Fact–One out of every two people over the age of 85 has Alzheimer’s.
Fact–The odds that you will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s nearly doubles every five years after age 65.

Factor Two–Family History

Those people who have a parent or sibling that had Alzheimer’s disease are two to three times more likely to develop the disease than those with no family history of Alzheimer’s. And, if more than one close relative has the disease, the risk increases even more.

Scientists have identified two kinds of genes that are associated with this family risk factor. The first, known as ApoE 4, is thought to be a “risk gene” that increases the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s, but does not necessarily guarantee it. In addition to ApoE 4, scientists note that there may be up to a dozen more risk genes that are yet to be discovered.

The second kind of gene is a “deterministic gene”. These are much rarer than risk genes. Deterministic genes are only found in a few hundred extended families around the world. If a deterministic gene is inherited, the person will almost surely develop Alzheimer’s, and most likely at a much earlier age.

Factor Three–Lifestyle Factors

Age and family history are something we can’t control, but scientists have also identified several lifestyle factors that can possibly influence a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. A connection has been shown to exist between serious head injury and future development of Alzheimer’s. In view of that finding, persons who practice safety measures such as wearing seat belts and not engaging in activities where there is a high risk of falling are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

It is also likely that exercise and a healthy diet lead to a reduced Alzheimer’s risk. Also, avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol consumption, and staying socially and mentally active have been shown to have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease.

Finally, there appears to be a strong link between heart health and brain health. Persons who are free of heart disease or related conditions are at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or another kind of dementia than persons who have cardiovascular problems.

Stay tuned for more information…..

I will be making regular posts giving information on possible causes, treatments, and cures for Alzheimer’s disease. I will also be outlining my experiences coping with Alzheimer’s as a caregiver, and I invite readers to make comments and share experiences that may help all of us provide care for loved ones while at the same time maintaining our own health and well being.

Lewis S Poteet