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Blogging in WordPress
This workshop is an introduction to blogging and WordPress. In the workshop, we will use an online service call Edublogs.org to set up and maintain our blogs.
| What Will Be Covered in This Workshop? | | | Tuesday May 9, 2006 |
The word “blog” is an abbreviation for “web log.” A web log, or blog, is a term used to describe a web site that publishes content on a regular and ongoing basis. It can be a personal diary, a chronicle of commentaries on various issues and topics, or a creative journal, to name just a few. Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as web development teaching or politics.
For the purposes of this workshop, we will create a blogfolio, which is a portfolio and resume in blog form. At the end of this workshop, if you choose to change the content of your blog to something other than a blogfolio, that’s fine. Please remember though, at this time, SBISD’s policy about setting up a classroom blog to use with your students is not allowed. There is a committee that is in the process of researching possible blogging platforms along with potential policies, trainings, assessments, and criteria, etc.
If you decide that you’d rather create and maintain a personal blog, it is advised that you set-up a WordPress blog using one of the other
education blogs. For a list of the other WordPress blog platforms available on the web, along with a list of educator blogs, blog articles, and directories, please visit Landrum’s bookmark site on the web at http://del.icio.us/landrum.
So Let’s Get Started!
Each time you visit your blog, you’ll need to log-in as the administrator. It is from the “back-end” of the blog where you write and manage posts and pages, edit comments, manage users, and choose themes and plug-ins for your blog. From the home page, on the right side of the page, is the navigation bar that holds the links to the pages, posts, categories, and links for your blog. In order to log-in as an administrator, click on the link named Site Admin. You’ll be taken to a log-in screen where you’ll enter the user name and password that Edublogs sent you.
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The Administrative Area is the brains behind the blog. It is from these various panels that you will spend most of the time on your blog writing posts and pages, managing posts and pages, creating links, choosing themes and plug-ins, registering and managing users, and changing various options for your blog.
page of the Administrative Area. From this page you can see any recent activity on your site and any recent announcements from
sub-panels: “Write Post” and “Write Page.” Its here where you populate the content of your site by writing and publishing posts and pages. Posts are what you typically think of when you visit a blog.
They are displayed and organized chronologically. Pages on the other hand live outside the chronological order of your blog. They typically hold static content that changes very infrequently. An example of a Page for your blog might be “About Me,” or for your blogfolio, “Resume.”
(or edit) Posts and Pages that you’ve already written. You will also manage Categories, and Comments. More about all of this in a bit.
Links Panel quite a bit; some like myself, barely use it at all. Either way, this is the panel to manage
literally hours of fun and very addictive. This is where, in a matter of moments, you can change the entire look of our blog with a few clicks of the mouse.
bit of functionality to your blog. You aren’t required to add any of the plug-ins, if you don’t want to. In fact, all of the plug-ins in this panel are “deactivated” by default. Because this isn’t a WordPress blog that you host yourself, you can’t install your own plugins But you can recommend to the owner any new plugins that you’ve found that you’d like to have access to through the Edublogs Forum. More about all of this later.
can register and manage the users of your blog. This is also the area where you can change your password, if you desire.
where you can change how your blog functions and how people can interact with your blog.
The final three panels in the Administrative Area don’t really have anything to do with your blog, but I’ll mention them here. All three are fairly new additions to Edublogs, so I can’t comment on them in detail. Yacapaca is the organization that sponsors Edublogs. They offer free resources to Edublogs teachers. They are a European based company, so I know nothing about them. The Forums area is brand new and a great place to go if you have a question you need to ask the owner. And finally, Wikispace and a new service being offered to Edublogs subscribers. Basically, because you have an Edublogs blog, you also have access to a wiki. You aren’t required to use it...but if you’re interested, why not dive in?
Test Driving Your Blog
The Dashboard
Return to the Dashboard Panel. Notice at the top of your blog is a dark blue bar. In the topleft corner is the name (and tag-line) of your blog. You can change either of these in the Options Panel, but before you do that, lets take a look around. To the right of your blog’s name and tag-line, is a direct link to your blog (View site »). Clicking on this will take you to back to your blog. In the upper-right corner of the blue bar is your user name (you cannot change this), a Sign Out link, and a link to your User Account. These items are the same on every panel you work in inside the Administrative Area.
In the light blue bar are the links to all the panels that we just briefly discussed. Again, these main links are available in every panel
of the Administrative Area.
In the Dashboard Area, the primary thing of interest is the information in the Latest Activity Box. At a glance, you can see if anyone has made new comments to any of your posts, or if there are any comments that need moderation. The latest posts and pages are also visible. And finally, a summary of how many posts, comments and categories contained within your blog are calculated at the bottom of this box.
One note: At the top of the Latest Activity Box is a heading titled “Incoming Links.” Unfortunately, if you click on the More » button inside the SBISD firewall, you won’t be able to go anywhere. What is this? This is a link to a site called Technorati.com. It is basically a clearing house for all things “blog.” If you want to see if someone has linked to your blog from their site, Technorati can help you figure that out. This is also a great search engine for blogs AND a place to get your blog out there
in the blogosphere. For obvious reasons, I can’t really discuss its use here. So in the near future, I’ll send out a few supplements to this workshop and this information will be among that them.
The only thing remaining on the Dashboard are the latest announcements from Edublogs and the owner of Edublogs, James Farmer.
One final note: At the bottom of the page is a link to the WordPress.org site. There is a forum and support documents on the this site...just be aware that there is a difference between the version of WordPress represented on the WordPress.org site and the version you are using. Consequently, if you’re looking for information, you can certainly find it on this site...but not ALL of the information will apply to the version of WordPress you are using on Edublogs.
Navigating Your Blog
By default, your “home page” is an introductory post. We will delete or edit it in just a minute. But first, lets look to see how you can navigate around the blog. The title of the post is actually a clickable link that will take you to a full-page view (and any comments) of that post.
The navigation bar is made up of a list of Pages, Archives, Categories, Blogroll (or links) and something called “Meta.”
The links under Pages are links to any static pages you have created. The example I have is a “Welcome” page. By default, you have an “About Me” page.
The links under Archives will take you to monthly chronological views of your posts (no pages).
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Categories is a clever way for you to start organizing your posts into themes or subjects. Before you start writing posts, we’ll create some categories first. Then, as you write posts you’ll assign different categories for that post. This helps people find information of interest on your blog without having to trudge through the chronological view. There are no rules to using categories and you’ll probably change this many times until you get to something you like and enjoy.
Blogroll is a way for you to keep a list of links to off-site blogs and websites you find interesting and you ‘d like to share with people who stop by your blog.
Meta is a hodge-podge of links that will differ depending on the theme you use. Some themes do not even have this category. Site Admin and Logout are quite useful. But the rest...not so much. XFN is a “friends” network that many teens use. Valid XHTML is for the geeks in the crowd and proves (or disproves) that your site is validated by the W3C. And the Wordpress link is to Wordpress.org. Unfortunately, you can’t change or edit this list if you choose a theme that uses it...so just ignore most of the items in it. I do.
At the end of each post, you’ll see the tags assigned to that post, the number of comments for that post, and an Edit link (if you are logged in). Clicking on the one of the tag (or category) links will open a page of ALL the posts that have been assigned that tag. Clicking on the Comment link will take you to the comments posted, if any, or a form to post a comment.
At the bottom of the page is the name (and tag-line) of your blog along with another Wordpress.org link. Entries (RSS) and Comments(RSS) are ways for people to subscribe to your site using a site like Bloglines or a stand alone news aggregator like Feed Reader. I won’t talk much about RSS in this workshop...but will send along additional information in the coming weeks.
Design Your Blog
Change Your Theme
1. Now for the fun part. Changing your blog’s theme is easier than changing your shoes. Simply click on the thumbnail or name of the theme you’d like to use; wait a moment and choose (View
Site »). Its literally that easy.
2. Some themes have a little more customization built-in than others. Two of the themes that have this are the default theme and Fauna. For the themes that have customization, you’ll notice a second sub-panel inside the Presentation Panel when that theme is chosen.
3. While you choose your theme, keep checking the site and look at the changes
THOROUGHLY. Every theme has its
own quirks and features. One may not 6. include the tag-line in your header, while another may not display a navigation bar.
4. Think about what you want your site to be about. Will you use a lot of static pages? Or will you use very few. If you plan to use a lot of static pages like I did on my blogfolio, I don’t recommend using a theme that has navigation links that run across the top of the page. Strange things happen that you have no control over. http://www.karyboan.edublogs.org
5. If you plan on using a lot images in your posts, I don’t recommend using a theme that has a narrow content area. Images and text wider than the content area causes your blog to not display properly in some browsers.
Finally, be mindful as to what’s appearing in the sidebar for each theme. Again, every theme has its quirks. Sometimes its 95% exactly what you want but the missing 5% is just too important to overlook. Onward and upward. The good news is that there are many themes to choose from and James Farmer promises more to come.
Organizing Your Blog
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| Tweaking Your Categories Solution #2: Number Your Category Names The problem with categories is that they usu 1. Numbers appear in the list first. So addally display in alphabetical order. But, there ing a number to your category name will are times when you want them to display by force the list to display in numerical ororder of importance. There is no magic way der. to make this happen so you have to do a little tweaking. There are two solutions to force 2. Make certain that you do NOT change your categories to display in any order YOU the category name’s Slug to also include choose. the number. The Slug becomes part of | |||||
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| Creating Categories By default your WordPress Blog has only one category named “Uncategorized.” Categories are a great way for you to organize your blog into themes or subjects. Its a good idea to begin creating some of the categories you think you’ll need before you start posting. You can always create more later. | ||||||
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| 1. To create a category, go to the Manage Panel and choose Categories. 2. Click the (add new) link. 3. Type a name for the new category. Don’t make the name too long or your sidebar could get stretched or distorted. 4. Add a description, if desired. 5. The Category Parent should be left at None unless you’d like to create subcategories under the main (parent) category. An example of a parent/subcategory might be - Hardware: camera; printer; scanner. 6. Create several categories for your blog at this time. You can add to or change them later if needed. | ||||||
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Adding Photographs
Upload and Post an Image
The example above shows an image that I uploaded to my WordPress blog and inserted into my post.
1. In the Write Post or Write Page panel, scroll down below the post area until you see the area for uploading images.
2. Click the Browse...button and navigate to the area of your computer that has the photo(s) you wish to upload.
3. You may put a title for your image or leave this line blank. If you leave it blank, WordPress uses the name of the image the title.
5. When you have filled out all the information, click Upload. The image appears in the “bin” similar to the example shown above.
6. After your image has been uploaded into the image bin, click on it and you’ll see the options shown in the example to the right. Basically, you can choose to insert the Original full-size image or a Thumbnail of the image. You can Link the image (or thumbnail) to a larger version of itself. “Send to Editor” does just that. Place your cursor where you’d like
the image to appear and click on the “Send to Editor” link, or just and drop the photo into your post. “Delete” does as it says; it deletes the image from your post and your blog. “Close Options” closes the image options.
Managing Comments & Spam
Viewing, Editing & Deleting Comments
Comments can be the life’s blood of your blog. Its what keeps the content fresh and dynamic. Allowing others to express their opinions, ideas and views can add not only new information to your blog, but variety as well. But allowing comments isn’t required. Earlier, I showed you how to turn comments off for an individual post. In a moment, I’ll show you how to turn this feature off for the entire blog.
1. To view, edit and/or delete comments, choose Manage in the Navigation Bar; then choose the Comments Sub-Panel.
2. By default, your blog has one comment. You can view it here. Notice at the bottom of the comment are links to Edit and Delete the comment.
Turn Off Comments
You can turn the comments off for individual posts. But if you’re fairly certain that you never want anyone to comment, then your best bet will be to turn comments off for your entire blog.
1. Choose Options in the Navigation Bar and then the Discussion Sub-Panel.
2. Removing the check from “Allow people to post comments on the article” will turn comments off for all posts and pages.
Blog Settings to Handle Comments & Spam
If that’s too extreme and you want to allow some comments but you don’t want EVERYONE to be able to comment, then you’ll need to take some action. How do you do that? By choosing the way your blog handles comments.
1. The first thing you can do is require users to be registered and logged in before they can comment.
2. Choose the Options Panel. By default, You’ll be taken to the General Sub-Panel.
3. Place a check in the box that requires users to be registered. That’s it. Now, when a non-registered person tries to post a comment, they’ll get a message telling them they must register and/or log in first.
Blog Settings to Handle Comments & Spam, cont.
Scroll further down on the page and you’ll see even more options for managing comments.
1. When you place a check by either of the two options under Email me whenever, you will receive an email when someone posts a comment.
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Placing a check by An administrator must approve comment will hold all comments in moderation before being published to your blog.
3. Comment author must fill out name and e-mail provides some protection against spam. It is a good idea to keep this checked regardless of the other options you choose.
4. Comment author must have a previously approved comment is similar to a comment being held in moderation, but only for a poster’s first comment. Once a comment has been approved, all subsequent comments will automatically be approved.
5. Further down the page you can do a few things to try and combat spam. A typical ploy of spam-bots is to post spam comments with many links. This option tells WordPress to hold all comments for moderation if it has more than 2 hyperlinks. You can change this number if you like.
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Below that, you can even type typical words that spam-bots use in comments. Clicking on the link Common Spam Words will take you to a list that you can copy and paste into the box.
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The last option on this page allows you to place words in the list that you want completely blacklisted. Be careful. You will not be notified in any way when a comment is blacklisted. And any word that even contains a blacklisted word will trigger this action. Obviously, this is a great way to perhaps exclude curse words and other offensive words from your blog. The poster’s comment will automatically be wiped out.
So What’s Next?
Start Blogging!
That’s obvious...but the only way you’re going to really learn how to use WordPress is to use it. View More Tutorials
I have compiled a lot of tutorials and other resources related to
WordPress, WPMU (WordPress Multiple Users), Edublogs and blogging in general. They can be found at http://del.icio.us/landrum Create a Blog on Another WordPress Site
If you or someone you know would like to create a blog that is not education related, there are several free sites from which to choose. The list I’ve compiled is located at
http://del.icio.us/Landrum/WPMU
Start Looking for Your Blog on Google
Give it about three weeks. But in a short while, you should be able to find your blog doing a search on google. Look inside the Administrative Panel under Manage > Referers. This is a list of people and referring sites that have visited the pages of your blog.
Make Your Blog More Popular
1. Post regularly - at least once per day
2. Narrow the focus of the content of your blog
3. I know this sounds obvious, but it bears repeating: When writing posts, think about how your content “will read.” Is it witty? Funny? Informative is not always enough. What will keep someone coming back?
4. This is one area where using links might help. People searching for popular blogs and websites could be sent to your blog at some point. Someone might visit looking for the info and like what they see.
5. When creating and assigning Tags or Categories, make certain to use common subjects and themes that will be searched most often in everyday search engines and places like Bloglines or Technorati.com
6. Post comments on other people’s blogs, leaving your blog URL
7. Turn Pingback on and quote other blogs in your posts.
8. Submit your blog to directories and search engines
9. Set up a Technorati account and “claim your blog.”
10. Add a link to your blog in your email signature
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