The main hall is the space that you’ll be using for this class. You can create as many subdomains as you would like on the server space you’ve acquired. Your class subdomain is a second web site, with its own address and its own dashboard, that will be devoted just to this course.
This help document walks you through the steps for building a class subdomain.
Create the subdomain folder
Your domain is really akin to a folder on your computer. When I point my web browser to davidmorgen.org, it goes to that address and looks in the folder of files stored in that space, finds an index file and loads it in the browser. So the first thing you need in order to create the class subdomain is to create a subfolder, which is the simple process of going to the Subdomains area in your cPanel and naming a subfolder. You probably want the subdomain for this class to be eng181 or maybe readwriteplay. When you click on the create button after entering the subdomain name, all it does is create that subfolder on your server.
Install WordPress
The next step is to install files in that subfolder, which you do by installing WordPress a second time. The second time you install WordPress, choose the subdomain you created from the location menu, and make certain you delete the /blog/ subdirectory that Installatron suggests.
Make certain when you install WordPress that you name your site something other than “My blog.”
Configure WordPress & Create a Menu
Just like you did with your primary directory, you need to configure your WordPress settings. In this case, I’ve got some additional directions to add though.
If you left on two-factor authentication with Clef, then on entrance to your dashboard you’ll go straight to the Clef setup. If you already setup Clef on your primary domain and installed the app, you’ll just need to login once and it will configure the settings pretty much automatically.
Go to Plugins and activate Akismet, which will open add a box at the top of the Plugins screen that says “Almost done – activate Akismet and say goodbye to spam.” Click on the blue “Activate” button, then the “Get Your API Key” button. You can choose the basic plan and then set the slider to however much you want to pay for the service–you’ll probably want to set the cost to 0. Enter the key that they send you in the Akismet Settings.
Just as you did with your primary domain, create two new pages–one will be your static front page and the other will be your posts page. Also, create a third page called Achievements (don’t worry about putting anything in the page just yet).
Once you’ve created those two pages go to Settings > Reading to make your front page display the new home page and to designate the other as your posts page.
Next, go to Settings > Discussion. The first box at the top of the page says “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article” and by default is unchecked. Make certain to check that box. Save the changes to this page.
Go to Appearance > Menus and create a new menu. You can call it Main or Top or whatever you want. Once you’ve created the menu, you need to tell the site where to display the menu, so check the location box (different themes will have different locations available. The image shows the default theme for 2016, but if you’ve changed themes you might have other options). I generally advise that when you’re starting out, you automatically add new top-level pages, which you can always turn off later if you want more manual control.
Notice in the Menu area to the left, you have a palette of items that you can add to the menu. In the default setup, you can add Pages, Posts, Custom Links, or Categories. Pages, Posts, and Categories are just those items that you’ve created in the dashboard.
Custom Links allows you to add a link to anything on web in your menu. Add a Custom Link that connects to your primary domain by entering the address for your primary domain in the URL box and a title in the Link Text box.
Add another Custom Link, this time directed at the class page.
Save your menu.
(Later, go the dashboard for your primary domain, create a menu, then add a Custom Link for your class subdomain too.)
If they didn’t add automatically, make sure you add your Posts page and Achievements page to the menu as well. You should have a menu which looks basically like the one on the left.
Later, you can rearrange your menus however work for you and if you’re already comfortable with WordPress and want to arrange your menus in some other style or you’ve got a theme with other menu locations, feel free to do something different. But if you’re starting out with WordPress, following these steps will help you to make your subdomain usable quickly.
One last step remains for basic setup. In the dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets and find the widget called Meta. Click on the title, then add it to one of the widget areas on your site. This widget adds some basic links, most importantly a link to the dashboard for your site. In the future, when you’re not logged into your WordPress account, you can pull up your site and click on the login button to get to the dashboard–there is no need to go through the cPanel to get to your site’s dashboard.
You should have a site which looks something like this now:
Eventually, I will definitely encourage you to try different themes and to customize your site. If you want to try very basic customizing of this Twenty-Sixteen theme, go to Appearance > Customize in the dashboard and try playing around with colors and/or add a header image.