Bloggerdashery
Ready to Wear Designs for Your WordPress Blog
Creating a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog
Creating a self-hosted WordPress blog can seem daunting when you contemplate doing it off of the official WordPress site where you simply point and click your way through the options until it’s published.
When you install WordPress, there are technical installation steps to carefully follow, aesthetic issues to consider, search engine optimization strategies to address and content creation to intimidate you right out of having the blog you’ve always wanted.
Manually installing WordPress can be tricky for those who are not experienced in working with web files. You will need to go to WordPress.org and download the software yourself. Unzip the file and follow the install instructions on their site verbatim.
You’ll be renaming files, integrating it into your domain, and running the install scripts. It’s best if you have an FTP client available for this so that the process goes smoother for you.
Once you get past your fears and find a good set of tutorials, you’ll have the confidence it requires to create a WordPress blog with ease. The first time you do it, go slow and make sure you implement all of the steps. I will be discussing some easier options in a future post.
As you become accustomed to the blog navigation on the dashboard, you’ll soon be tweaking it to your own preferences without hesitation. Take advantage of the clear, easy to understand tutorials here at Bloggerdashery, or visit the official WordPress support site at WordPress.org.
Creating Your WordPress Blog
Making the decision to create a WordPress blog is a good business move for entrepreneurs whose business is online or even an offline entity that needs an online web presence. Virtually any business model can be supported through the use of a WordPress blog, including affiliate marketing, info product sales, tangible promotions, services, and more!
When you go through the process of setting up your WordPress installation, you’ll need to take it in stages, breaking it down into specific steps along the way. For instance, you’ll be registering a domain, getting hosting, installing WordPress, and then customizing the site to suit your business needs.
As you work more with WordPress, you’ll find that sometimes you have some tough choices to make. The wonderful thing about these sites is you have the ability to quickly switch things around, tweaking them for your personal preferences or so that your site performs better for you in the search engines.
By creating a WordPress blog, you’re setting up a home for your brand on the ‘net. Don’t think that the entire setup has to be done in a day. You can make a blog go live as you customize it and allow your visitors to see the changes along the way.
Bloggerdashery makes it easy to get just the look you want, and our clear tutorials make it easy to personalize your WordPress site to get the most out of your efforts.
Changing the Title or Subtitle of your WordPress Blog
It is easy to change the title or subtitle of your self-hosted WordPress blog. Sign into your Dashboard and go to Settings/General. From this page you can make a number of changes to your blog.
It is best to choose a title or subtitle that explains clearly what your blog is about. You should also include in your title or subtitle the keywords that people will use to find your site in a search engine like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.
For example, the title of this site, Bloggerdashery, might be clever, but it doesn’t necessarily explain what the site is about. The subtitle, Ready-to-wear Designs for your WordPress Blog, describes the purpose of the site and includes the keywords that searchers will use to look for it: designs, WordPress, and blog.
Choosing a good title and subtitle will help get more traffic to your site and enable you to reach your goals sooner.
How can I have a WordPress page with no widgets?
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Suppose you are happy having sidebars and widgets on most of your blog pages, but would like to have some pages with just one wide column. You can do this with WordPress 3.1.1.
First, log in to your dashboard. Then, create a new page using the Pages menu at the left side of your dashboard. Select Pages, Add New. |
Adding the Tag Cloud widget
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In your dashboard, choose Appearance, Widgets, to go to your widgets page. |
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Drag and drop the Tag Cloud widget into the sidebar of your choice. If your sidebars are closed, use the triangles at the top right to open them. As you add tags to your blog posts, your tag cloud will grow. |
Tags used more frequently will appear in a larger font, so your readers will see what your most popular topics are.
Using Post Tags
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When you add a post to your WordPress blog, it is always wise to add the appropriate tags. Use keywords from your post that represent the subject matter. |
Ask yourself, “What words would cause a search engine like Google or Yahoo to place my post in the top of its results list?” These are the words that you should use for your tags.Try to make your tags as unique as possible and don’t overdo it. You should never need more than five or six tags.
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Using tags wisely will help your blog to get noticed, as they are an important part of Search Engine Optimization, SEO, for your blog.
You can also use Tag Clouds to help your readers find what they are looking for. |
Scheduling your posts
Would you like to be able to write your posts ahead of time and have them be posted on a certain day or at a certain time?
In the Publish box on your post editing page, click Edit next to Publish immediately. Date and time boxes will appear that you can change as you wish. Hit OK.
When you hit the Publish button your post will then be scheduled to be published automatically at the designated time on the designated date.
Adding a new post to your blog
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WordPress is very intuitive. It is easy to add a new post to your blog. From your Dashboard, the default page of your administration pages, you can simply use the QuickPress box and start typing.
For more options, however, you will want to click on New Post, at the top of the Dashboard, or Posts/Add New in your left menu bar. Then you will see the full-featured post editor that will make your blog sing and dance.
The Visual Editor functions in much the same way as your word processor. Continue reading
Adding a picture to your post
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To add a picture to your post, click on the Insert Picture icon at the top of the Post Editor. This will open a dialogue box that will enable you to download a picture file from your computer. Continue reading |