Getting Started in WordPress

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: bbnixon@seniversity.edu

Twitter: barbaranixon

Skype: barbara.b.nixon

Blogs: publicrelationsmatters.com