This article aims to provide beginner tips for WordPress blogs. It starts with tips to get started with WordPress and then moves forward on how to build it up by customizing it. WordPress is a free blogging platform that allows you to setup and maintain your own blog easily without the knowledge of any coding. If you are totally new to WordPress, PHP and HTML codes, this article may give you some beginner tips for WordPress blog creation.
Tip 1: Installation of WordPress
• Visit the WordPress website and download the software link. Installation is a step by step process with instructions and would take not more than 5 minutes. You will have to register a domain name and sign in to use the software.
• Log into the administration panel. This panel is the brain behind your blog.
Tip 2: Test drive your WordPress blog
• At the top of the screen menu, choose View Site to know what it looks like.
• Take some time to know about the features available. See the default page and understand how things work out.
• The default theme has a blue header with a little placeholder of your blog. On the side bar menu there would be some titles and links. Within the middle section of the page is the post and at the bottom of the page is the footer.
• In the post there would be a title below which would be some information. This is called post meta data and contains information about the post such as date and time the post was made, the author, etc.
• Get familiarized with the Dashboard which helps to keep you up to date on interesting bits of information from many WordPress resources. It also provides feeds of your recent activity.
Tip 3: Design your blog
• Login to your dashboard and make simple adjustments through Design, Image, Header and Color tabs. Click on these tabs to change the color, the font size, the font style and other basic things.
• For some large scale changes, replace the default theme. New themes can lead to new layouts and a completely new look. These themes can be freely downloaded from WordPress and other sites. Different themes will feature different layout styles and schemes. Choose one which best complements your content.
• If you don’t like any of the free themes, there is an option to choose a premium theme by paying a small amount of dollars. If not, then you could build it yourself if you have some knowledge about coding.
Tip 4: Create the post
• Once you are familiar with blog features and have designed it, move on to creating a post. The initial user is name admin which can be changed to put your own identity. Once this is done and you become an author with access to all admin settings.
• Start posting by clicking on the Write tab which is placed on the upper tab of the screen. Create a title and add some text. Make sure you keep saving your work every few minutes.
Tip 4: Add Images and Widgets
• WordPress allows you to add images in the gallery. Click on the rectangular picture icon and put the pointer on Add an Image. Upload files and transfer your pictures on the server. WordPress will automatically edit the size to fit on the page. Similarly videos can also be added by clicking on the Add Video tab.
• Moreover, add widgets to your blog. These are gadgets or gizmos that can help personalize your WordPress theme and enable the user to add or rearrange different components without using HTML. Widgets put on a blog, can provide visitors user specific and user friendly information, extra functionality and some fun.
Tip 5: Tag and Manage content
• The next task is to add tags or simple words and phrases to help reader find posts on the same topic. Use keywords that describe the post. Several tags or keywords can be added with commas. The more tags the better search engine optimization this WordPress blog would get.
These beginner tips for WordPress have been compiled for those who are not familiar with blogging on WordPress. Follow these initial steps to get your blog started with. Once it is up, you can keep altering and make changes as and when your knowledge about WordPress grows.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Related posts:
