To write your first blog post, you need to understand the WordPress “Add New Post” page and the formatting options on the page.
By now you should have a fully working WordPress blog on your own domain name. You should have also added the top 5 important blog pages and other relevant ones.
Now you’re ready to make your first post.
There are new versions of WordPress namely Version 5.0 and more.
If you’re using the new version, go through the first part below, and for older version users, you can check the second part below.
Writing Your First Blog Post Using the “Add New Post” (NEW WordPress VERSION)
The latest version of WordPress as at the time of creating this lesson is WordPress 5.0.
Since you’ve gone through the old version, Here’s a video that demonstrates how to add posts to your blog using the latest WordPress Version.
Writing your first blog post using the “Add New Post” page (OLD VERSION)
To add a new blog post, Click o mouse over the “Posts” section on the left hand side-menu of your dashboard, and then click on “Add New”.
You’ll land on a fresh page….
As you can see on that fresh page, I have added a sample post title, and sample post content in the bigger box just below it.
IMPORTANT
Crafting an irresistible, powerful and converting post title goes a long way to getting people to read what you’ve got.
So, you should read about 6 ways to write powerful and converting headlines for your blog in this article and 60 blog post title ideas that works.
Let’s talk about some of the buttons below the post title.
Adding Images & Other Media
To add an image or other media into your post, click on the “Add media” button.
Next, click the “Upload Files” tab on the screen that pops up, then click “Select Files”.
Once you’ve selected your preferred image, double click it and WordPress will upload it automatically.
When the upload is finished, select the image as seen below, then click the “Insert into post” button at the bottom to add the image into your blog post.
The “Add Media” button can also be used to add audio files, infographics, etc into your blog post.
Editing your content fonts
You can bold, italicize, underline and even change the color of your text in a click or two.
Where you have Verdana font is for font options. You can style your blog post content by choosing a font style.
Next to it is 11pt. Clicking the drop down button can help you increase the font size of your whole post or highlighted portion.
Also you have the B and I
- “B” is for bolding highlighted portion in your blog post
- “I” is for italics
- “U” is to underline your text, Just press Ctrl + U on your Keyboard after highlighting the portion you wish to underline.
- “A” will open a dropdown menu where you can select font color (There’s a plugin which I use for that. It’s the TinyMCE Advanced Plugin.(more on this later in the course).
So if you’re familiar with Microsoft Word then this part will be a no-brainer
Using Headings to edit your texts
Headers can be found in that space where you have “Paragraph”. Click on the drop down and you’ll see the Paragragh,H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 heading formats.
Using headers and making them bold makes it easy for your readers to quickly scan through your content. They’re like sub headings focusing on key points in your content.
Meaning of the H tags
H1: Your post title is already in H1 tag, so use it just once in the body of your post.
H2: You can use this for other sections or sub headings in your post.
H3: Is also used to highlight specific points or sub headings in you post. You can use this in a list post where each list is formatted in H3.
Highlight the text you wish to format using any of the H tags, click on format as seen in the picture above and select.
I actually don’t used H5, H6, H7, So I won’t talk about there. In very rare cases I use H4.
Adding Links In Your Blog Post
Linking out to a source of information on your blog or other websites is a great way to present your readers with value. Not only that, you also build relationships with other blog owners and share interesting content.
This is what the hyperlink feature looks like..
To add a link, First Highlight the text(s) you want to use as a pointer, click on the link icon in the toolbar that looks a bit like a chain link, paste the link in the space provided, click on setting to fill in other information, the click on enter.
Other hyperlink information
- URL is the web address of the link you want to share. Make sure you include “http://” before the “www.” address, or your link will be broken.
- “Link Text” is the text you want people to click on to get to your link. It is just a like a set of text pointing your readers to where you want them to go.
- “Open link in a new window/tab” – Ticking this box helps your readers to open a link on a new tab, without leaving the current page that they are in. It’s a smart idea to check this box if you’re linking to another blog, otherwise, when someone clicks your link, they’ll leave your blog instantly.
- If you want to link to an existing page or post on your own blog, you can use the “Search” section to find a post or page you’ve already created and click it to add a link.
Finally, click “Add Link” or “Update”, and your link will be added where you left your cursor in the post you were writing.
Setting a featured image
There’s a difference between adding an image into your post and selecting a featured image. We have inserted a media or picture into the blog post right? So what about the featured image?
A featured is not necessarily inserted into the post; rather, it’s attached to the post to then be used as your theme or post picture.
In other words, it’s a picture that people see first above or below your post title. Here’s an example:
To set your featured image, go to the right panel of your “Add new post” page that you are currently, and click the blue – “Select featured image”
Go through the same process of adding media. Select the image, click “Set featured image”. And you’re good to go.
Screen options
Some of the options on the post edit screen are hidden by default to present a cleaner and simpler editing experience. These options are not commonly used by beginners. However, you may need them later.
Simply click on the Screen Options button on the top right corner of the page. This will show a menu with check boxes next to option names.
As you can see some of the options will already be checked. For the others, you can display them by clicking on the checkbox next to an option name, and it will appear on your post edit page.
Let’s take a look at some of these options and what they do.
Excerpts
Checking this box adds a meta box below your content editor. You can use this box to add a short summary or excerpt for your post.
Ideally, you should display summary or excerpt for your posts on your site’s front-page and archives. Full content should only be displayed on the post’s single page.
Discussion
While comments are a great way to engage your audience, sometimes you may not want to have comments on a specific post or a page.
The discussion option displays a meta box below post editor to turn on/off comments and pingbacks for your post.
Since pages are supposed to be like static pages, most users want to turn off comments on them. You can do so by editing each page.
Slug
A slug is a cleaner title that can be used in URLs.
WordPress automatically generates a post slug and displays it as the post URL just below the post title.
http://example.com/2015/07/this-is-post-slug
You can edit the URL slug by clicking on the edit link below the post title. You can also enable the slug option from the Screen Options and edit your post slug there.
Saving your posts & publishing
Although WordPress automatically saves the posts being created, you may want to save it yourself so as to later work on it.
You’ll see the “Save draft” option at the right panel of the current post being created.
When you close the whole of your browser and want to later work on this post, login to your WordPress dashboard, go to “Posts” at the left panel and you’ll automatically see this post saved as drafts, click on it and start working on it again.
Publishing your post is just beneath the save as draft. When you’re satisfied and want to make your post go live hit the “Publish” button.
Other Tips
- In the footer area of the content editor, WordPress will show you the word count for your post.
- As you write, WordPress will automatically save a draft of your post. This auto save is stored in your WordPress database temporarily.
- Preview button shows a live preview of your post. You can use it to see how your post will look after publishing.
- Status allows you to set a status for your post. WordPress automatically handles post status for drafts and published posts. Unless you are using a plugin to add custom statuses, you don’t need to worry about this option.
- Click on the Edit link next to visibility to expand it. The first option under visibility will allow you to make your post sticky on front-page.
- Sticky posts in WordPress are like featured content that are displayed on top of all other posts.
- Under visibility you can password protect a post in WordPress.
- The third option under visibility is labeled private. This allows you to privately publish a post on your WordPress site. The private posts will be visible to users who have the editing privileges on your site.
- Click on the edit link next to Publish, and WordPress will display the time and date options. You can use this option to schedule posts or create back dated post in WordPress.
- Move to trash allows you to delete a WordPress post. Deleted posts live under trash, and you can restore them if you need to for up to 30 days.
And that’s it on how to write your blog posts. Have any questions?, use the comment box below. See you in the next lesson.
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