{"id":306,"date":"2018-03-21T22:09:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T21:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/blog\/?p=306"},"modified":"2018-09-06T08:50:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T07:50:44","slug":"beginners-guide-to-writing-a-blog-post-in-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wordpress\/beginners-guide-to-writing-a-blog-post-in-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginners Guide to Writing a Blog Post in WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit:\u00a0blogpros.com\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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WordPress is one of the top blogging platforms for a lot of different reasons. One of them is the ease of use. It\u2019s pretty easy to get some basic hosting, throw up a WordPress blog, slap on a theme and a couple of plugins, and go to town. You can have a fully functional blog up and running in just a few hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

The depth of customization is another factor, of course. WordPress is such a flexible and variable framework it\u2019s crazy\u00a0how much\u00a0you can do with it. For example, did you know that The New Yorker, the PlayStation Blog, BestBuy.com, Fortune, the Facebook Newsroom, and Reuters are all running on some variant of WordPress? They have custom themes and a whole host of plugins, but it\u2019s still WordPress at its heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the purposes of this post I\u2019m assuming you already have a WordPress site set up, and\u00a0you\u2019re just looking for a guide for a writing process<\/strong>, tailored to publishing through WordPress itself. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve put together here; a step by step process to writing a post for a WordPress blog.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: Determine a Topic<\/span><\/h3>\n

The first thing you need to do for any blog post, regardless of platform, is\u00a0determine a topic.<\/strong>\u00a0A lot goes into this, more than you might think if you\u2019re a novice blogger. It\u2019s easy to come up with the first few, beginners guides and basic topics that get your feet wet in the industry, but those aren\u2019t going to get you a ton of exposure because they\u2019ve already been covered in detail by brands with a lot more reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, all you really need is an awareness of your brand and your industry. As long as you have an idea for the keywords and topics in general you might cover, you can use one of a dozen or so tools to come up with more specific ideas. We wrote a pretty detailed post about doing just that\u00a0over here, if you want to check it out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you have a topic, you can start with the writing. I\u2019m not going to tell you how to write, that\u2019s a skill you develop on your own, but I do believe that\u00a0writing at least a basic outline first is always a good idea.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2: Write an Outline<\/span><\/h3>\n

At this point, I wouldn\u2019t have even logged in to my blog.\u00a0I like to write outlines locally<\/strong>, where I don\u2019t have to shuffle around browser tabs or windows. I can benefit from tools as simple as Google Docs or Microsoft Word, or I can go minimalist and just jot down notes in Notepad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outlining is also a skill you develop over time. A simple method is to just come up with a series of subtitles you would use for the post. Take this post for example; a simple outline is nothing more than each step written out. It\u2019s a mere 11 lines long, which is plenty to get me to where I need to be in terms of content.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/span><\/p>\n

I can rearrange the steps to adjust flow, I can add new ones to clarify a step, I can remove redundant steps or minimal steps that don\u2019t need to be covered outside of a footnote, and so forth. If you find that you prefer a more detailed outline, that\u2019s perfectly fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3: Find Sources and References<\/span><\/h3>\n

At this point I like to\u00a0run some Google searches to find other posts<\/strong>\u00a0that have been written on the same topic I\u2019m covering. Some of them will be redundant, and I can use them to see if I have the right ideas, or if there\u2019s something obvious I\u2019m forgetting. I can see what they\u2019re doing and strive to make my posts better than theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can also find posts that supplement what I\u2019m writing about. Some will take a topic I gloss over and explain it in detail. Others will be sources for data I cite. Finding quality links now is a good shortcut for writing later, because you don\u2019t need to fish for them when you\u2019re working.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Google<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s better in general to find sources from sites you recognize as high quality, which means you have to have some level of awareness of your industry. Newcomers will take some time to get the sense of things, to learn the lay of the land, but that\u2019s okay. There\u2019s nothing wrong with linking to sites other than the top end.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 4: Pick the Visual or Text Editor<\/span><\/h3>\n

Now you get to log into your WordPress installation and\u00a0click to create a new post<\/strong>. You will be brought to a post composition window with a lot of stuff hovering around it. Don\u2019t worry about anything except the big, central composition box. In the upper corner you will see a selector between \u201cvisual\u201d and \u201ctext\u201d and you will want to choose one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The visual editor is like your standard word processor. It has formatting options and everything built in. Highlight a section and click bold to bold it, etc. The text editor, meanwhile, is more like notepad or coding directly. If you want to bold a section, you will need to type in the appropriate HTML.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Visual<\/span><\/p>\n

I prefer the visual editor<\/strong>, though it can sometimes make precise formatting a little annoying. Use whichever one you prefer; if you\u2019re a coder by habit, perhaps the text editor is better for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 5: Write the Post<\/span><\/h3>\n

Now you have an outline and a text editor;\u00a0write your post!<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019ll see a word count in the bottom corner keeping you up to speed on how many words you\u2019ve written. If you\u2019re shooting for a specific length, you can take the number of subheadings you want and divide the target word count by it, so you know how many words per section you should aim for. Otherwise, you can just write as much as the topic calls for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally,\u00a0a good blog post is going to be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.<\/strong>Some blogs get away with much longer posts, and some with shorter, but if you\u2019re under 1,000, you\u2019re probably getting too short for comfort. This is because Google doesn\u2019t like short content, and since you\u2019re asking for a tutorial using WordPress you\u2019re probably a relatively new blogger. This means you don\u2019t have the clout built up yet to be able to get away with the occasional shorter post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 6: Add Media for Images<\/span><\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a button called \u201cadd media\u201d up in the corner. If you were wondering how to insert images into your blog posts, this is how you do it. With WordPress, you have to upload images to the media library. Once in the library, you can use them in as many posts as you want, and they will always come from the same source, so you\u2019re not using up excess space on your web host.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Add<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s one important thing to know about images, and that\u2019s\u00a0how to get them.<\/strong>No, you can\u2019t just do a Google search and take whatever you want. You need to find images you have the rights to use, which means you either need to make them yourself, you need to buy the rights to them, or you need to find images\u00a0available under creative commons<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 7: Add and Check Formatting<\/span><\/h3>\n

Once you have a post written,\u00a0it\u2019s time to do an editing pass.<\/strong>\u00a0This is where I like to add formatting, the bolds and the italics you see throughout a post, the heading code, and so forth. It\u2019s also where I do a pass to make sure images are aligned properly, their captions are in place, and there are no typos in the post. Of course, some slip through occasionally, so it\u2019s not perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

WordPress saves your post automatically as a draft every so often, depending on your settings. However, I recommend saving an official draft and clicking the preview button now. This allows you to make sure everything looks good, everything is in place, and it looks like a post you would want to read on the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure you hit preview, not publish, by the way. Publishing it makes it go live; preview just shows you what it would look like if it was live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 8: Create a Compelling Title<\/span><\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a certain art to creating a blog post title, and it\u2019s something you develop with experience, much like writing along the way. Thankfully, up until you do develop that skill, you can fake it. You just need to read about the\u00a0types of titles<\/a>\u00a0you can create and use them to develop formulas that will work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 9: Fill Out Meta Data and Category<\/span><\/h3>\n

Technically, the title can fall under the meta data category, but I\u2019m putting it in its own place just for the added emphasis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Editing<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s look at the other forms of meta data surrounding your post composition box.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • The permalink<\/strong>\u00a0will fit in one of a few different formats. Ideally, it should be human readable, probably with hyphens in it. If not, feel free to make it so.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The category<\/strong>\u00a0will typically just be a basic checkbox for \u201cuncategorized.\u201d However, you can add new categories, which creates sortable pages for all posts in that category. I recommend establishing a couple now, and expanding as you find need for them.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Tags<\/strong>\u00a0help search engines find you and help users read all the posts on your site using specific tags, if they want.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The description<\/strong>\u00a0may or may not be available to customize depending on your plugins. If it is, write a short one or two sentence summary of your post in a way that entices people to read. This is what shows up in Google\u2019s search results.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    At this time, you should also make sure you filled out the meta data associated with the images you added to your post. I don\u2019t mean the caption, I mean the filename and description when you uploaded it. It\u2019s easy to skip them in the rush to add them to your post, so go back and add them now.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Step 10: Pick a Featured Image<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Featured images can be\u00a0tricky.<\/strong>\u00a0On many WordPress blog layouts, they are what you see as the thumbnail for the post. If you don\u2019t set one, the post won\u2019t have a thumbnail, and your blog layout will look empty or half loaded. On the other hand, a featured image is automatically added to the top of your post. That means if you already had it up top, it will be duplicated. Of course, you can tamper with theme files to fix this, but it\u2019s easier to just adapt your image positioning to fit the images you want to use.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Step 11: Publish or Schedule the Post<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Now you decide;\u00a0do you publish now or schedule for later?<\/strong>\u00a0I like scheduling even if you could publish immediately, simply because that allows you to publish at a more opportune time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you want to schedule the post, all you need to do is change the publication date in the publish box to something in the future. If you change it to a date in the past, it will be published and backdated. There are occasionally uses for this, but it\u2019s not as valuable as you might think, so I generally don\u2019t bother.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Once you have the post ready to be published,\u00a0give it one final once-over<\/strong>\u00a0to make sure all the typos and formatting errors you can think of have been squashed. Make sure the post timing is accurate for your scheduling, and hit the schedule button to set it for publication. This will save the finished product and publish it when the time comes. Congratulations! You\u2019ve now published a post on WordPress, with as much ease as you can.<\/span><\/p>\n

    You may have discovered that some aspects of WordPress are less than ideal for your purposes. Thankfully, you can customize every aspect using a variety of plugins. Simply figure out what you would prefer to have happen, and\u00a0look for a plugin; I can almost guarantee one exists.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Credit:\u00a0blogpros.com\u00a0 WordPress is one of the top blogging platforms for a lot of different reasons. One of them is the ease of use. It\u2019s pretty easy to get some basic hosting, throw up a WordPress blog, slap on a theme and a couple of plugins, and go to town. You can have a fully functional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":6173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wordpress"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Writing-a-Post-in-Wordpress.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}