If you are interested in starting a blog, you need to learn about the different blogging tools that are available. One of the best and most powerful tools out there is WordPress. This program has many powerful features, yet it is also easy to learn. Keep reading to see how you can start using it.
Make sure your sidebar is not too cluttered. The sidebars on most WordPress blogs are a chaotic mess, full of social media icons and ads and links. Prioritize what goes in your sidebar. Make sure visitors to your blog don't have to search for anything they might be looking for.
Keep your permalinks clean and understandable. That means you should look at the permalink box every time you put up a new post. Does the title in the URL make sense? Does it help from an SEO standpoint? If not, click on it and alter it until it is perfect.
Create a members only section to your website to make it more exclusive to the people who visit your site on a daily basis. This will allow them to actively engage in discussions with other members who have the same level of intensity. This will develop a solid bond between your top visitors.
You may change your blog and update it, but then notice nothing has been saved. This isn't always true. You might be able to solve the problem by clearing out your browser cache. Save changes by holding the 'shift' key while refreshing the browser.
If you want to create a line break, but not a paragraph break, hold shift while you press the enter key. This moves the cursor down to the next line without including any blank space. If you want to put a letterhead-type address on your page, this should make it a snap.
Regularly check your site and content. All your plugins and everything else you work with needs to be current. This will help ensure that your visitors have a seamless experience on your site. If you have trouble remembering to do this, consider setting your phone to alert you once a month to perform this task.
Better your greeting at the very top of your site in WordPress. This allows you to communicate better with your audience. It personalizes the experience. Use WP Greet Box to do this.
Be sure to choose unique, difficult to hack passwords and keep them secure. It doesn't matter if you are a free WordPress blogger of a paid, self-hosted WordPress blogger: it is important to keep your passwords strong and secure. In this way, you will not have to waste valuable time cleaning up sabotage and changing passwords. This will help ensure that your blog is a success.
Your username should not be generic. The more simple your user name, the easier it is for your site to be hacked. This causes your blog to be at a security risk. Delete usernames that appear with "administrator" or "admin" on your user pages. Select a different user name.
Never forget to properly setup your WordPress page's timezone. Under the General Settings page, take a moment and make sure that your timezone properly represents where you reside. This can be very important as the times and dates are published along with your posts. Not having the proper date stamp can leave you in a time warp.
So, what is the difference between tags and categories and why should I care? Categories are broad and house many posts which fall into the same genre, such as "cleaning tips". Tags are more targeted, detailed words which describe what is in the content of a post, such as "removing blood stains" or "getting out grass stains".
Try to manage your comments. No one wants to look at spam. Don't let the spam in your blog's comment sections get out of hand. Try to eliminate spam entirely or, at least, keep it to a minimum. Install a plugin that can cut down on spam. Delete any spam that slips through in your comments.
Are you sick of clutter in WordPress? You can turn off a number of the on-page boxes you see. Click Screen Options. Click this to access a drop-down menu where you can turn boxes on and off.
Are the pictures on your site too big? Or, are you concerned that your visitors cannot see them clearly? Click on "settings" and then on "media." You will be able to adjust the default size of your pictures. Spend a little time playing around with this to see what suits you, and your site, the best.
If you want to improve traffic to your own domain, you should host your Wordpress blog in your web account instead of using Wordpress.com as the host. When you install Wordpress yourself, you have more control over what features you can install and customize. Any visitor will be counted as traffic in your domain and not in Wordpress.com's domain.
A great commenting plugin that is useful for WordPress is Disqus. This free commenting system works well with its API. You have the ability to import and back up your comments with it. It also adds essential SEO to your comments so that the search engines can index them easier.
The only way to learn Wordpress is by practicing it. You can sign up for a free account in Wordpress.com and start experimenting with its multitude of features. Change images, background color, font sizes, etc. The more you get your hands on it, the more comfortable you will feel about using it.
Use a variety of authoring tools. Do you dislike WordPress's dashboard? Consider using a blog writing program such as Windows Live Writer. There are several programs that are both compatible with WordPress and efficient. Try several before deciding which ones to use.
This article has shared many great tips and tricks about using WordPress to blog. However, there is a lot more information out there that will be of use to you. Use the advice that you have read here as a starting point, but keep looking for more tips about using WordPress.
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