How to Publish Your First Blog Post

This article explains the steps involved in writing and publishing your first blog post.

Follow the steps below and you’ll be a blogger in no time!

The Administration Panel is a private part of your web site where you log in and administer your web site. In this case, we’ll be using this to write and publish a blog post, however this is just one of many things that you can do in your Administration Panel.

Using your web browser, browse to your website.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Your site’s footer will contain a Login link. If you are already logged in, you will see several links including a Logout link. Click on Login.

Enter your username and password, and click the Login button. If you like, you can also check the Remember Me option if you don’t want to have to log in again next time.

You will then be taken to the main screen of your Administration. This main screen is known as your Dashboard. You will be able to see many menu options:

Today we’re going to be writing a new blog post, so click on the Add New link from the Posts menu.

The Add New Post screen will look something like this:

There are many options and features on this screen. For our first blog post, we’re only going to use a few of them. Later on you’ll get to know all the other powerful features too.

Enter Your Post’s Title
The Title text field is where you enter the title of your blog post.
Try to keep the title short (4 – 8 words), whilst at the same time making it eye catching enough to make your audience want to read it.

Enter Your Post’s Content
The Post text field is where you enter the content of your blog post. You can enter as much or as little as you want here. A few tips:

• Write in Small Paragraphs
  Having your content in small (several sentence) paragraphs makes it much easier for your visitors to digest.
  To use paragraphs, finish your sentence and then press the enter key twice. You can then start typing again.
• Use Pictures
  A picture is worth 1,000 words, provided it is relevant to what you’re posting about. Pictures also make your posts more interesting. We won’t be using any pictures in your first blog post, however we will later on.
• Save Your Post Regularly
  The last thing you want is to lose your post if your computer crashes or your internet connection has problems. Your post is automatically saved every few minutes, however we also recommend clicking the Save button every now and then too.

Categories and Tags
Categories are a great way to “group” related posts together. Think of each category as being an entry for your Table of Contents, to allow your visitors to find related posts on your web site. For example, you may have a “News” category, a “Sport” category or even a “Music” category. Put each post in only one category until you are more experienced.

Tags are a way of indicating what is in your blog posts. Vistors can click on tags to see all the posts that include these tags. Think of tags as creating an index for your blog posts, with each tag representing an index entry.

Your existing categories will already be listed. If you don’t have any categories, there will be an “Uncategorized” category. You can either allocate your post to an existing category by ticking the checkbox next to it, or you can add a new category by typing in it’s name and clicking the Add New Category button.

Control Visitor Interaction
By default, each new blog post will have Comments and Pings enabled. Typically you want this to be the case, however if you don’t want your readers to be able to comment on your blog post, untick the checkbox. Generally it’s a good idea to leave comments and pings enabled.

Save Your Draft Post
When you’ve finished, click the Save Draft button. This will save your post as a draft and reload the page.

Time to Publish?
Once your post is saved, it can only be seen by you (and any other users with access to your Administration Area). This gives you a chance to get a coworker to review it and make any changes before it is published for the world to read until you publish it.

Preview Your Post
While your post is in draft mode, click on Preview (top right near the Publish button). Clicking this will open your draft post in a new window, where you’ll be able to see your post exactly how it will appear once you’ve published it.

Close the window to return to the new post page, where you can continue making changes to it.

Publish Your Post
Once you are happy with your post, click on the Publish button. Your new post will then appear on your web site for all visitors and search engines to see. Once you have published your post, click on View Site » at the top left of your page to return to your web site.

Congratulations!

Well done. You’ve successfully written and published your first blog post. There’s no turning back from here!