WordPress training for beginners

Join a 2-day (10 hours) WordPress basics training held at PPNT Gdynia. The workshop is built for people who want a working site by the end of day two, not a slide deck they never open again.

#What you walk away with

By the close of the second evening you should be able to:

• Install WordPress on shared or managed hosting without breaking DNS
• Tell posts from pages, and categories from tags, without guessing
• Build a primary menu, upload media, and place a widget in a sidebar
• Install, update, and remove plugins without chasing a white screen of death
• Take a backup and restore it on staging before you change production
• Apply a short checklist for titles, permalinks, HTTPS, and basic speed

The room format matters. Each participant works on a real install. Questions are answered against that install, not against a demo site the trainer controls alone.

#Why PPNT Gdynia and why two days

PPNT Gdynia is a practical venue for Tricity founders and teams who need tools, not theory. Ten hours split across two evenings keeps energy high and leaves overnight homework: publish one post, fix one broken image, write one page title that matches search intent.

A one-day crash course usually stops at “here is the dashboard.” A two-day path reaches themes, plugins, and the first optimization pass - the moment beginners either give up or start shipping.

#Curriculum map (aligned with official docs)

We keep vocabulary aligned with WordPress documentation, theme docs, and plugin docs so what you learn in the room matches what you will read later.

#Training topics at a glance

• Introduction to WordPress - what a CMS is, WordPress.org versus WordPress.com, when each fits
• Front end versus back end - what visitors see versus what editors manage
• First blog - hierarchy, templates, readable titles and excerpts
• Menus and media - navigation that does not break on mobile, alt text that is useful
• Sidebars, widgets, CSS, responsive themes, plugins - enough to choose tools without drowning in options

#Day 1 agenda

#Day 1 deep dive: the seven install mistakes

We walk through the failures beginners hit in the wild:

1. Wrong document root (WordPress in a subdirectory nobody linked)
2. Database credentials mistyped and cached in a half-written wp-config.php
3. Mixing http and https siteurl/home values
4. Uploading via FTP as root and locking the web user out of wp-content
5. Leaving DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT unset while giving editors too many capabilities
6. Skipping a unique table prefix on shared hosts that already host other installs
7. Installing sample content and never deleting it, then ranking duplicate thin pages

Fixing these in class is faster than debugging them alone at midnight.

#Day 1 deep dive: dashboard navigation

Editors need a mental map: Posts, Pages, Media, Appearance, Plugins, Users, Settings. We practice finding Settings → Permalinks, Users → Add New, and Media → Add New without hunting. The goal is muscle memory, not memorizing every submenu.

#Day 2 agenda

#Day 2 deep dive: choosing a theme without regret

Criteria we use in class:

• Last update date and WordPress compatibility
• Accessibility statements on the theme page
• Whether you need a classic theme or a block theme
• How much page-builder lock-in you are willing to accept
• Whether a child theme is required before CSS edits

We install one free theme, create a child theme when needed, and change one visual detail so you feel the separation between parent updates and your customizations.

#Day 2 deep dive: plugins without the white screen

Rules of thumb:

• Prefer fewer plugins that do one job well
• Update on staging first
• Disable, do not delete, when diagnosing conflicts
• Read the changelog before major version bumps
• Keep a written list of must-have plugins for your site type

When something breaks, we practice enabling WP_DEBUG_LOG, switching to a default theme, and disabling the last plugin - a sequence that ends most emergencies without panic.

#Day 2 deep dive: backups and first hardening

Before anyone leaves, every install gets:

• A full file + database backup verified by a test restore on staging
• Strong unique admin username (not admin) and a password manager entry
• Automatic updates policy decided for core, themes, and plugins
• Limit login attempts or equivalent, plus generic login error messaging if we have time
• HTTPS confirmed in Settings → General

#Who should book this workshop

Good fit:

• Small business owners who will edit their own pages
• Marketers who need to publish without waiting for a developer
• Freelancers who resell WordPress sites and need a clean onboarding story
• Hobbyists who tried YouTube tutorials and still fear the dashboard

Poor fit:

• Teams that need headless / React architecture (different curriculum)
• Developers who already ship custom themes (too basic)
• People who only want WordPress.com blogging with no hosting control

#After the workshop: 30-day practice plan

If you get stuck, bring the staging URL and the error log - that is enough to help without guessing.

#How this fits WPPoland work

We run beginner workshops because weak installs create expensive rescue projects later. Teaching FTP, backups, and plugin hygiene early prevents white-screen emergencies and “someone deleted the homepage” tickets. If you later need custom theme work, WooCommerce, or performance hardening, you will already share vocabulary with the team - see our WordPress developer guide when you outgrow the beginner track.

#What we practice live (not just slides)

Most beginner courses stop when the dashboard loads. We keep going until each person has published a draft, fixed a broken image path, restored a backup once, and written down their update policy. That sounds small. It is the difference between a site that survives the first plugin update and one that becomes a ticket the following Monday.

In the room we also talk about decision hygiene. When do you hire a developer? When is a page builder fine? When should you refuse a free theme that has not been updated in two years? Those judgments matter more than memorizing every menu label. We use short scenarios from Tricity small businesses: a café that needs a lunch menu page, a consultant who needs a contact form that actually sends mail, a nonprofit that needs bilingual pages without duplicating the whole site by hand.

#Common questions we answer during breaks

People ask whether WordPress is “still worth it” in 2026. For content-led sites, membership hubs, and many WooCommerce shops, yes - if hosting and update discipline are real. They ask about AI writing. We treat it as a draft assistant, never as an unsupervised publisher: you still own fact checks, internal links, and tone. They ask about security. We show updates, least-privilege users, backups, and why random “security suite” stacks often fight each other.

Another frequent question is WordPress.com versus self-hosted WordPress.org software. We draw the boundary clearly: .com can be fine for a personal blog with no custom code; self-hosted is what you need when you want full plugin choice, custom themes, and ownership of the database. The workshop is built for the self-hosted path because that is where most of our clients eventually land.

#Logistics and preparation

Bring a laptop you can install software on, hosting login details (or we help you pick a starter host before day one), and one site idea with a real audience in mind. Optional but helpful: a password manager, a second screen or notebook for checklists, and FTP or SFTP credentials tested the day before. If your host uses a one-click installer, still attend the manual install block - understanding what the installer did will save you when migration time comes.

PPNT Gdynia sessions are in person. That means peer debugging: when one person hits a permissions error, half the room learns the fix. Remote-only courses miss that texture. If you need a corporate private session later, we can reshape the same curriculum for your team’s roles (editors only versus editors plus a technical owner).

#Summary

Two evenings at PPNT Gdynia are enough to move from “I heard of WordPress” to “I can install, publish, back up, and update without fear.” The agenda is deliberate: day one makes the site exist; day two makes it maintainable. Bring a laptop, hosting credentials, and one idea for a site you actually want to run. Leave with a written checklist, a working install, and enough vocabulary to ask better questions when you hire help later.