Blogging Expertise

So, you have gone ahead and installed WordPress 2.1 on your own Unix server. You have logged into the administration end of WordPress using the url “http://www.yourWordPressblog.com/wp-admin” and you have been confronted with the “Dashboard”. To get you used to the various WordPress features and conventions we should make some preliminary alterations to the default installation.

Just Another WordPress Blog
First, there’s your blog title up there in the left-hand corner, and beside it in brackets a hyperlink saying “View site »”. This handy link is always present and extremely useful if your browser uses tabs. So, right-click (or control-click) on the link and open it in a new tab. When the new tab loads you’ll see your freshly pressed blog. Looks nice, doesn’t it? The blog is using the WordPress default theme which defines the fonts, colors and layout of your blog at the moment. Below the title in the masthead area you’ll see it says “Just another WordPress blog”.

Options
We should change that, shouldn’t we? Make it more personal. Click back to the admin page tab and select “Options” in the light blue horizontal bar. The page will refresh and you’ll see that by default the “General Options” tab displays. You’ll see that “Weblog title” is filled with your original choice of title (you can change this now if you’d like) and the “Tagline” field is displaying the generic description, “Just Another WordPress Blog”. Replace this with something more appropriate.

A tip: the description can be changed whenever you like, just like the title, but its function is to explain the purpose of the blog both to your audience and the search engines. When we are looking at a new description we often jot down a few keywords and try to include as many in the description as possible, while keeping to a maximum of around 10 words altogether — more just looks excessive.

URLs & Emails
You should also do some housekeeping as well while you are here: first check that the “WordPress address” and the “Blog address” are correct. These will only differ from each other if you have installed WordPress in a sub-directory of your server, and for the purposes of this tutorial we will assume you haven’t. So each should read “http://www.yourWordPressblog.com“.

VERY important note: If you do decide to change these address settings, make sure you have easy access to the MySQL database just in case you get it wrong and you get locked out — and if that didn’t make you throw your hands in the air and say, “Never, never … ” I don’t know what will!

Next your email should be yours. Seems an odd thing to say, doesn’t it? But just check that you typed it in correctly during installation because this is the address which your WordPress installation will use to communicate with you. OK, it won’t be discussing existential philosophy, but it will certainly be using this email address to tell you when someone comments on one of your posts, or links to you, or even subscribes to your blog.

And subscribers are dealt with in the next couple of check boxes and pop-up. “Membership” and “New User Default Role” might seem meaningless to you now, but make a mental note of them and when these things become important, revisit them. At first leave these at default because unless you have specific requirements with regard to your user’s input on the blog, they will serve you well.

UTC?
Time and date are used to label all interactions with your blog, and this can be particularly important if your blog is time-critical or using time-specific features. The UTC time (or Zulu Time) is approximately the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). You should offset this accordingly using the “Times in the weblog should differ by” field. You’ll probably be aware of the number of hours plus or minus your timezone differs from GMT/UTC but for more information there’s a pretty complete article on wikipedia. If you are hours minus GMT/UTC, then simply enter the relevant negative number (e.g. I’m “-7″).

That’s it. Click on “Update Options” button, bottom right hand side and the page will refresh giving you the lovely Ajax-powered “Options Saved” dialogue at the top of the page.

Congratulations!
Now, we need to check that this has updated your page properly, so return to the other tab and refresh. Your new description should now adorn the masthead. Superb! You have just taken your first step in making your blog your own.

You have also learned about the most important WordPress convention: the admin panel updates your whole site straight-away. This means a mistake can be corrected immediately, an event can be recorded as it happens, or the blog’s appearance can be changed in a few seconds flat (I kid you not). You have also seen how straight-forward the back-end is set out. Mostly, if not all the time, WordPress takes a very unambiguous, user-friendly attitude towards its own administration and is therefore robust and nice to know(!). And that is the final thing: your freshly pressed WordPress is designed to be prodded and poked, mucked about with and turned on its head, so don’t be afraid to experiment; you can’t do much to break it (unless you make a mistake with those addresses of course!).

Next, we’ll be saying goodbye to “Hello World”.