This is a basic walk through of a WordPress post. There are the basics as well as a few hints and tricks you might not know about.
Here's what we'll cover (a link below means I have written other posts as well):
- Enabling the Kitchen Sink for more formatting options.
- How to edit your permalink for individual posts.
- How to link and manipulate text.
- How to get a clutter-free writing window.
- Insertion icon for images, videos, audio and other media (such as PDFs).
- How to override the default settings for comments, trackbacks and pingbacks on individual posts.
- How to set your status (Drafts and Pending Review).
- How to set post visibility (Public, Sticky, Password Protected and Private).
- How to schedule a post to automatically publish at a later time.
- Where to assign tags and categories.
How to Enter a Post in WordPress
Can't see the video? See it here.
Other mentions:
In this video, I also mentioned the SEO plugin by Yoast and Genesis.
I have never blogged before. I was given a link to your site and I'm right here in the process. I was thrilled to get 52 unique visits to my site on the first day! Thank you for all your help! I am not sure how to use permalinks or link internally. I've looked up the WordPress instructions and can't figure it out there either. Do you have tutorial or link you could refer to me for this?
laughwithusblog.com
Do you mean creating a link? Whether you link internally or link externally, you create the same way.
You simply copy the URL of the page you want to ink to. Then as you write your post, you highlight the text that will be linked. Then click on the icon in your WordPress dashboard (check out the Kitchen Sink post and video) that looks like a two chain links. A little window will pop up and you can paste the URL you copied in there. Insert your link and you're done! Does that make sense?
Something weird is happening with my links.
I have been doing a new site: berrienrocks.com and I have a lot of internal links. When you look at the blogroll from the home page, non of those links show up (they aren't highlighted). However, if you click on the post, and visit each page, the links are there and they work. Do I have something selected somewhere funny. I don't know how to fix it, because it appears correct when I am in the edit post window.
Have you seen that before?
Amy,
I follow Money Saving Mom, and under each blog entry, I notice Crystal has a row of little buttons like a Facebook "like", Tweet this, Digg this, Stumbleupon. How do I get something like that? I've seen it on lots of other blogs too. I thought it would be in my Feedburner PlugIn, but that doesn't seem to have done it. Any ideas?
Jessica
If I remember correctly, Crystal's are hard-coded. However, you could try a sharing plugin. Sexy Bookmarks is popular (you can upload it from Plugins–>Add New–> Search for "Sexy Bookmarks").
Thank you so much! I think that makes it look a lot more like a "real" blog.
Now if I could only find more designs to choose from than the Atahualpa default…
There are all kinds of free themes online, just google "free WordPress themes 2011" and you'll find boatloads. (I suggest you put in 2011 in there since things are updated so often and you are more likely to find something that's up-to-date with the current version(s) of WordPress that way.) If you want to spend a little money (which often means you get support and/or access to user forums — a good thing to have for many of us — I use and recommend Prose (w/ Genesis). It's an excellent theme. (P.S. That's a flink.
)
How much is a "little" money? I'm on a tight budget…
About $85 or so (depends on what child theme you choose).
I am on a super-tight budget and did spend the $85, and I think it was worth it. Truly, a good design is so important. There are so many blogs out there that when I look at one I give it like 5 seconds to catch my attention. Prose was pretty easy for a beginner who knows no css to format and it looks professional. Now to get to work and earn that money back….
Awesome, I was wondering the same thing!
Hi Amy! Ok I have my menu line with all my cat. Now my question, all my pages, tags and post that I try to write all show up on my front page of the blog. How do I have my pages just show under the correct cat?
I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly, but pages are not assigned to categories and will therefore not show up under category archives. Pages are their own separate deal. If you want something to show up under a category, make it a post instead of a page. I hope that helps!
Amy,
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am technology challenged and appreciate that you explain things so that I understand them. I was finally able to insert a link in my post … and it worked! I am very grateful for the information that you provide. Next on my agenda is to earn some cash.
Awesome!
hi Amy – trying to add AUDIO to a blog post. I have a song on i-tunes on my computer that once was imported from a CD. So, not purchased via i-tunes.
Clicking the Audio button, let me find it in i-tunes..but is shows as a regular link and it initially worked but on other computers, don't work.??
It does not have a youtube version. So… my question – how do people add audio?
Do I have to save it first somewhere else…and how do they get the nice playback button in the post? It is on my blog – post of 15 Nov – Today, one year ago..??!
I was wondering if you use any of the Jetpack features on WP. Will connecting to these make my blog more"amateurish"? I'm totally an amateur so it won't matter right away, but I guess I was wondering if it will make it harder to monetize later.
I'm still a bit baffled by Pingbacks. When one comes in to my blog, I can see it in my Comments section (admin area), I don't see it appear on my blog post, and when I click through to the url from where the pingback originated, I don't see the text that was written on the pingback in the first place. Is this all just spam?