WORDPRESS GUIDE - PBworksprbooks.pbworks.com/f/WORDPRESS+GUIDE.docx · Web viewWORDPRESS GUIDE. 2010. HOW TO USE WORDPRESS ... like Moveable Type and Type Pad, WordPress and Blogger

WORDPRESS GUIDE

2010 HOW TO USE WORDPRESS.COM

Learn to use the online tool that 9.2 million blogs already take

advantage of and how to make the most out of it for you.

Clare Siobhan Callery WORDPRESS GUIDE

WORDPRESS GUIDEC O N T E N T S

INTRODUCTION 2Why Blog? 2

Blogging rules 3

What is WordPress? 4

WordPress vs Blogger 5

WORDPRESS.COM 7Signing up 7

Your Dashboard 9

Creating a New Page 10

Homepage Tools 11

Stats 12

Appearance 13

TO SUM UP... 14Find Me 14

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Introduction WHY BLOG?

Blogging has become a big part of the internet with many blogs gaining a lot of interest and visitors and even profit. Blogs come in many variations, with some being personal blogs in an almost ‘journal’ form tracking the writers day to day life and others based more around a particular subject in which the writer then gives reader information and opinion.

Companies are also now using blogs both to communicate with their customers and shareholders. Keeping a blog as a company is a good idea and gives you the chance to get feedback and comments from readers that would usual be hard to come by. It allows you to form a connection and keeping people informed on the going son in the company is a great way to keep interest and attract new reader – which could be potential clients.

Blogging as an individual gives you the chance to channel your thoughts and opinions, get involved in the community and let you’re your voice heard. Your blog is your own area to talk about anything you want. You can make your blog almost diary-like and use it to connect with friends and family, or you can blog of subject you are an expert in of have a real interest in. This is a great way to make a name for yourself on the topic as well as hear from others who have the same interest and network.

If you’re blogging as an individual about the industry you work in, this not only shows you are a dedicated and motivated employee but also makes potential employees aware of your presence, which can lead to

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future employment. A successful blog in your industry makes a great addition to any CV, and shows you are interested in your work and know how to use technology to demonstrate this.

BLOGGING RULES

Becoming a blogger has great potential. However, you must ensure you are aware of what you are saying and who you are saying it to. The internet is a huge place, and anyone can read your blog. There are a few things to remember when setting up a blog:

1. Blogs must be updated regularly. Every 1-2 weeks is a good goal, and more often is better. Blogs that aren’t updated will just end up forgotten about or if people check the blog and see it hasn’t been updated in a long time they will assume that the writer doesn’t care or is no longer around.

2. Blog posts must be interesting. Blogs will boring content will not be read and will give the image that the writer is also boring. Similarly blogging with very formal or press release style posts won’t go down well. A blog should have personality – after all it is being written by a person.

3. As will all things online, nothing can ever be really deleted. So be careful what you write and who it may offend. Don’t blog on things that might affect your future employability. If something is controversial, it may be best to avoid the subject unless you have a valid, justified argument.

4. Become a ‘Grammar Nazi’. This internet slang term basically means you should be very aware of the way you write. Always check spelling and grammar before posting. If you don’t know your “there” from your “their” and “they’re” then write in Word and paste into WordPress. The same rules apply when commenting on other blogs.

5. Comment on other blogs. Not so much a rule as a general guideline. Commenting on others shows you are in touch with the blogging community and increases the chances of people commenting back. Plus you display your own sites URL when commenting, driving traffic to your blog.

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You will learn more tips and tricks the more you immerse yourself into the blogging world. Blogging is a very rewarding experience when your hard work pays off, so make sure you abide by the ‘blogging rules’ above to make sure you make the best of your blog.

WHAT IS WORDPRESS?

The name ‘WordPress’ does not actually apply to the online tool you will soon learn to love. WordPress is an open source blog publishing application, available to download at WordPress.org. It offers much more flexibility in blog layout and design then WordPress.com as it is a templating system, but is much more complex to use. If you are quite the computer whizz, then by all means have a look at WordPress.org. However, this tutorial will focus around WordPress.com.

WordPress.com uses the technology from the WordPress tool to give blog enthusiasts a one stop shop to start and maintain a stylish and easy to use blog. WordPress hosts your blog for you, and the site is mostly free. The only time you have to pay is if you want to buy your own domain name (so from mysite.WordPress.com to mysite.com) or use advanced tools, such as CSS editing. Creating a blog is free of charge.

As of November 2009 9.2 million blogs were in use on WordPress, many generating profits and receiving big hits. Some of the biggest WordPress blogs are:

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WORDPRESS VS BLOGGER

There are many websites out there offering blog hosting. Most sites are free, and usual you only have to pay to purchase a domain name, something that only needs to be done later on if the is successful.

Though there are other blog series available like Moveable Type and Type Pad, WordPress and Blogger remain the two biggest hoisting sites so using those means you can draw in more traffic and get traffic from their communities. However, they both have their pros and cons and choosing between them can be difficult.

WordPress

WordPress lets users create a blog and personalise it with a template. The template choice is not huge, but many offer custom headers allowing you to put your company logo on and some allow a few colour changes. However, in terms of making your page really unike, there isn’t a huge amount you can do on. However the templates they have are attractive and allow a large amount of content to be displayed on each page, including add-ons like Twitter feeds and RSS. WordPress also allows for catagories, allowing you to organise your blog and make it easier for readers to navigate.

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WordPress allows users to purchase a domain name, but it will not be hosted by WordPress and is tricky to set up and can be expensive. For company use, WordPress has a good avantage in that it gives the blog good search engine optimization. This gives you a lot of freedom to add tags to draw more traffic and in time your blog may appear on the front page of Google when keywords related to your blog are search for.

Blogger

Blogger allows more customisation then WordPress, so a blog can look more personal or more based around your companies present style or colour theme. Editing is also easier than on WordPress, and a range of add-ons are also available. Unlike WordPress, Blogger does not support categories.

Blogger is the Google owned alternative. Like WordPress you can buy a domain name for a small fee each year, however Google owns the domain name so if you decide to move you blog elsewhere you will have to change the name. The pro is that it’s pretty easy to do and hassle free. But Google also owns all content on your blog and so can shut you down at anytime if they don’t like what your writing. Also Blogger doesn’t have as much edge as WordPress when it comes to search engine optimization, so more work will be needed to make sure your blog is at the top of Google’s ranking system.

Which one?

As both sites have their pros and cons, the final decision is up to you and which blog you think will suit your best. If you find the platform you pick really isn’t to your taste, change earlier rather than later so that you don’t confuse any followers your blog may have and be sure to link to your new blog.

The WordPress Dashboard and blog configuration is very useful once you get used to it and provides a very good blogging platform, perhaps giving it an edge over Blogger. I have used WordPress for almost two years now, and I really enjoy the set up and find blogging easy and fun using WordPress.

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WordPress.comSIGNING UP

After typing www.WordPress.com you will arrive at the homepage and can click the ‘Sign up now’ button show here. You will then be taken on to next screen to set up your account.

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http://www.wordpress.com/


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Your username will be what you use to log into any number of blogs you create.

You can only have one username per email address, so make sure your username is something you won’t regret later

Keep ‘Gimmie a Blog’ checked, as you will want to go straight to creating one.


After you have clicked ‘Signup’ you will receive an activation email to the email address you supplied. Simply click the link, and your blog has been activated. While you are waiting for you email, you can fill in your name and details on the page you are referred to.

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This is your domain name – your unique address on the web. It can’t be changed, so make sure your happy with it.

This is your blog name, which can be changed at any time.

If you don’t want search engines to find your blog, uncheck this. However getting traffic will be difficult!


YOUR DASHBOARDYour Dashboard will become the base for your blog. It may look a little confusing at first, but will soon become easy to understand and a great resource for checking up on how your blog is doing.

CREATING A NEW POSTTo write your first post, click on the ‘Posts’ ( ) tab on the left hand side bar and go to ‘Add New’.

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My account

This drop down will give you quick links to many of the dashboard, including the global dashboard and is also where you can log out.

QuickPress

Here you can quickly write a post and add tags before saving to a draft and publishing. It is not as in depth as the usual post creator and is designed for quick

Right now

This allows you to keep track of your posts, pages etc, as well as see how many comments you have and if you have any pending.

Recent Comments

New comments will appear here. Click to view them and then allow, deny or reply to them.

Incoming Links

Other blogs and sites that link to your blog. The more you get, the better as it will drive more traffic to your blog.

Your Stuff

Updates of what has been happening on your blog recently. Write your title

Click here to add a title to your post

Upload/Insert

Add images, video, music, media and polls respectively from your files or a URL.

Publish or Save

When finished, publish your post or save as a draft to edit later.


HOMEPAGE TOOLS

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Add your body

This is where you write your blog post, as long or short as you want.

View HTML

Further edit the way your post looks by viewing it in HTML script

Excerpt

Enter this if you want a certain section of your body to appear in a search. Otherwise the first few lines will show.

Discussion

Keep these checks to allow people to comment and allow trackbacks (links to your blog).

Tags

Tags are words or phrases linked to you blog and the more you enter (separated by a comma) the more likely people are to type one and land on your blog. Make sure your phrases are relevant and also list variations of some of the key words.

Categories

A great way to keep your blog organised, many blog layout show categories allowing views to easy navigate your blog and read the posts that interest them.


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Edit Posts

Here you can quickly view and edit posts, as well as check their categories, tags, stats and the number of comments they have received.

Media Library

WordPress lets you store up to 3GB of media to use on your blog posts.

Edit Links

Here you can add and edit your ‘Blog Roll’ – links to other blogs.

Edit Pages

Organise blogs into ‘pages’ which can be divided and sub-sectioned.

Edit Comments

Check your most recent comments, approve or disapprove comments and reply to them direct from this page.


STATS

WordPress has a really useful way to keep track of how your blog is doing, in the Stats section of the Dashboard. This enabled you to track how many blog views you have per day, week or month and shows them to you in a graph format, allowing you to easier check how many hits your blog is receiving.

The stats also have been on and what search terms have been used. Looking at search terms is particularly useful, as you can see the most popular words used to find your blog and ensure that you always tag your posts with these words to draw more traffic. The stats also show if viewers were referred by a link, and allows you to check the link.

Checking up on statistics can help identify what posts people view and the type of posts that get the most comments, so you can tailor future posts to the preferred format.

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APPEARANCEThe best way to make your blog personal is to write about something you find interesting and bring your own style and personality to the blog. However, WordPress also has ways to make your blog stand out from the crowd.

The Appearance tab sits on the left hand side of the homepage with the other controls. There are various themes available which serve as a base for your blog. Have a look at the description under the theme, as it will tell you how many columns the theme has as well as how much customisation it allows you. Some themes have a customisable header, which is a great way to make your blog look personal. Others allow colour changes. Click on a theme to preview how it will make your own blog look. To completely change a theme of use a custom one, paid subscription is required.

Most themes allow Widgets. Widgets are very useful tools which dictate what makes up your blog. You can see on the image above that this blog has its active widgets on the right hand side ‘Main Sidebar’ (appearing on the left or right side of the blog) and ‘Footer Sidebar’ (appearing along the bottom of the blog). The main sidebar in this case has a widget to show recent posts along the side of the blog, as well as a category cloud, Twitter feed, recent comments and links (blog roll).

The result of the widgets can be seen on the image on the right, taken from the blog itself. There are many more widgets to experiment with and connect to your other social media, so give them a go to find out which ones work best for you.

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To sum up...

Hopefully this guide will help you if you decide to set up your own WordPress blog. Blogging can be great fun and as social media grows, being part of the blogosphere community advertising your skills to a wide audience and shows you are able to use new media. Just make sure you try and keep up to date. If you find it too much of a task to keep updating then maybe blogging isn’t for you – don’t panic, there are lots of other social media tools out there that aren’t as tedious or time consuming.

As you begin to get more involved in blogging, you will start to follow others blogs. Using and RSS reader like Google Reader will help you keep on top of many blogs and make commenting easier. Most blogs have a handy RSS button hanging around somewhere and it appears as the orange box shown on the left.

Good luck!Find me at:

http://claresiobhanpr.wordpress.com/

Drop by and leave a comment – I’ll be more than happy to answer queries.

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WORDPRESS GUIDE - PBworksprbooks.pbworks.com/f/WORDPRESS+GUIDE.docx · Web viewWORDPRESS GUIDE. 2010. HOW TO USE WORDPRESS ... like Moveable Type and Type Pad, WordPress and Blogger

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