Barbara B. Nixon :: Southeastern University & Florida Southern College
GETTING STARTED IN WORDPRESS
BLOGGING DO’S & NO-NO’S
BLOG DO’S
1. Write in short paragraphs
2. Use images for visual impact Find Creative Commons-licensed images at Compfight.com
3. Proofread. Then proofread again. Even ONE error is too many in a post
4. Always give credit to original sources Example: For Reading Notes, link back to textbook
5. Review Blogging Guidelines Write “enough” posts in each category
Write posts that are long enough
BLOG NO-NO’S
1. Never “scrape” another writer’s content It’s plagiarism
2. Never let reader see a URL (http://address.com) Simply hyperlink from the appropriate words
3. Avoid tiny text, especially on a dark background Makes it hard to read
4. Avoid changing text colors from the default Makes your blog look “My Spacey”
5. Avoid boring or non-descriptive titles for posts “TOW #4” will mean nothing to a reader outside of this class
STEP ONE: SIGNING UP FOR YOUR WORDPRESS ACCOUNT
SIGN UP FOR AN ACCOUNT
Go to WordPress.com
Choose account name wisely
Don’t use your student login name
Choose a real name Either your name or some combination of your initials,
or
A phrase
Avoid a random-looking combo of letters & numbers
Your new blog’s address will be
username.wordpress.com
STEP TWO: SETTING UP
GO TO YOUR DASHBOARD
SETTINGS :: GENERAL
Site Title
Change this to something other than the default of “User123’s Weblog”
Tagline
Change this to something other than “Just Another WordPress Blog”
Or delete it
Time Zone
Choose New York
for Eastern time
APPEARANCE :: THEMES
Try out several Themes until you find one you like
Preview
Then Activate
Be sure your Theme allows you to use Widgets
Click Feature Filters, then check Widgets
Recommended Themes for our class
INonve
Cutline
Misty Look
Blix
Avoid Themes with dark backgrounds and tiny text
APPEARANCE :: WIDGETS
To add Widgets, click and drag to the Sidebar on right
Required Widgets
Categories (or Category Cloud)
Search
Calendar
Links
Recommended
Widgets
Recent Posts
Archives
CREATE CATEGORIES
From Posts, choose Categories
Under Add New Category, type category name
Click Add New Category
Delete or rename the Uncategorized category
Uncategorized = “I don’t care enough about my readers to organize my blog”
CATEGORIES :: REQUIRED
For my PR classes, create a category for each of the following
Topic of the Week [course name & number]
PR Connections [course name & number]
Blog Comments [course name & number]
Personal (if you have any personal posts) [course name & number]
Additional categories as you choose
LINKS (FOR YOUR BLOGROLL)
Blogroll = List of your favorite blogs
Under Links, choose Add New Link
Name = Name of the Blog (or Blog Author)
Web Address = URL
Target: Choose _blank to open a
new window/tab (so readers don’t
navigate away from you!)
Click Add Link
BLOG STATS
Under Dashboard, choose Blog Stats
See
Graph of hits
Referrers
Top posts & pages
Search engine terms
Clicks
STEP THREE: WRITING POSTS & PAGES
POST V. PAGE
Post
Newest information shows up at top of blog
As information is added, older posts “sink down”
Eventually, older posts will move to another place in your blog “Previous Posts”
POST V. PAGE, CONT’D
Page
More permanent
Accessible from anywhere in your blog
Often shows up in header of your blog or in a sidebar
POSTS :: EDIT POST
From this part of WordPress, you can see and edit all the posts on your blog
Trash the default “Hello World” post
POSTS :: ADD NEW POST
Create a title for your post
Type your post in the large text box
Format the post much like you would in Word
Click Save Draft often
Click Publish when
you’re ready for the
world to see your post
FORMATTING POSTS :: USE KITCHEN SINK
USING WORD TO WRITE YOUR POSTS (OPTIONAL)
Write post in Word
Copy text
Click Paste from Word icon
NEVER paste from Word without using this icon
Really ugly things will happen. Trust me.
HYPERLINKING
Highlight text you want to link
Never show the address; always link from the words
Choose Insert/Edit Link
For Link URL, paste URL (website address)
For Target, choose Open link in a new window
Click Update
ADDING AN IMAGE
Only use images that you have the rights to add
Use Compfight.com to find images
Choose “Creative Commons Only”
Choose icon for Add an Image
Choose From URL tab
Paste URL
Paste URL again into Link Image To
For Image Caption, include the name of the photo & the photographer
Click Insert into Post
RESIZING AN IMAGE
Click on image in edit area
Choose Edit Image
Choose desired percentage
Click Update
NOTE: You may need to repeat this procedure
several times to get image small enough
ADDING A YOUTUBE VIDEO
Choose icon for Add Video
Choose From URL tab
Paste URL of the video
Click Insert Into Post
ADDING A POWERPOINT FROM SLIDESHARE
In SlideShare, choose the WordPress icon
Copy the text under WordPress.com Hosted Blogs
Paste the “shortcode” [slideshare id=…] into your post
ADDING A PAGE
Similar in almost every way to adding a Post
Under Pages, choose Add New
CREATE YOURABOUT ME PAGE
Lets reader know a bit about the blog author
Keep it professional
Include information such as
Your name
Photo (if desired)
University affiliation
Major
Career goals
Links to other places you can be found online (if desired)
STEP FOUR: BLOG COMMENTS
FINDING BLOGS TO COMMENT ON
See list of your classmates’ blogs at PublicRelationsMatters.com
Visit my Diigo bookmarks for PR Blogs
http://www.diigo.com/user/barbaranixon/pr_blogs_2011
Subscribe to Ragan’s PRDaily.com
TRACKING YOUR BLOG COMMENTS
Copy your comment BEFORE you submit it
Sometimes blog authors moderate comments, so you might not see it posted for a while
In WordPress, under Dashboard : My Comments, you can see SOME of the comments you have written on others’ WordPress blogs
It does not always capture all of them, so don’t rely on it
TRACKING YOUR BLOG COMMENTS
Create ONE post with
Comment # (keep a running list)
Title of blog post you commented on, followed by the author’s name
Hyperlink to the blog post
Date of your comment
Your complete comment
Comment should be 50-150
words
ATTRACT MORE READERS: PUBLICIZE VIA TWITTER & FACEBOOK
From My Account, choose My Blogs
In row with your blog information, under Publicize column, click Twitter (and Facebook, if you wish)
With every post you write, a tweet will automatically publish on Twitter helps draw in readers
QUESTIONS?
CONTACT ME
Barbara B. Nixon, Ph.D. (ABD)Public Relations Faculty Member at Southeastern University & Florida Southern College
Life Member & Past President of the International Listening Association (listen.org)
E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: barbaranixon
Skype: barbara.b.nixon
Blogs: publicrelationsmatters.com