The one thing to remember about blogging or writing for computers in general, is that paragraphs are not traditional paragraphs. They are small blocks of text, leaving lots of white space.
People will likely read some or all of this:
But fewer people will read this:
So the first thing you do, is log in to your dashboard and go to Posts/Add New Post. These small images are clickable so that you can see the details larger if you want.
Make sure you add a keyword rich title. What would people search for to find this article? If you need help with keywords, you can use free tools such as Wordrtracker’s SEO Blogger Tool which opens on your desk top as you blog, or you can use Google’s free Adwords Tool.
Note that moments after naming your blog, the full page name will appear under the title with dashes between the words. You can edit this if you want, but be sure to keep the dashes and do not include anything other than alphanumeric characters.
Next, fill in your content, remembering to leave lots of white space.
You can bold, italicize very much like using Word. If you want to add a link. Highlight the text in the content that should be the link (and it better not be “click here,” make useful link text like “See my eBook about panthers” by clicking here.)
Now you may want to add a picture. Above the content box are the words Upload/Insert. The first icon is a camera. Click it to open the Insert Images popup.
You will be able to drag and drop files from an open folder, but the easiest way is to browse to the photo you want and upload it. You can also get a url from another website (although that is frowned upon) or use a photo from the media library that you have previously uploaded. For instance if you write a lot about the Prime Minister, don’t upload a new photo every time, just upload one, and continue to use that one.
Once you have uploaded it, you must enter details. The title is there already, but you can change it to something more readable and copy it into the Alternate Text. Alternative text is text associated with an image that serves the same purpose and conveys the same essential information as the image. It is used by the visually impaired who use screen readers. It is also read by Google. Search engines do not “see” photos. So make this accurate.
Other choices are entering a caption? Are you putting in the full sized photo or would you like a smaller, clickable version to appear so that if people want to see a larger version, they can. That is what I have done on this blog. Do you want it to align left, or right. “None” will have the text not wrap, as I have chosen here. Lastly, click Insert into Post.
For those you you who like working with html as I do, this is what you will see:
Many people will prefer to work in the visual window (select your choice at the top right of the content frame.) What you will get will not be precisely what the final version will be once you click Publish, but close enough.
But before you click Publish, be sure to select a category on the right, or create one if there is no matching category. Add some tags if you like. Again, these should be keyword rich phrases that people would likely search out.
WordPress has many more features, but this should get you up and running.
