If you’ve chosen a domain name, found the perfect host for your needs, installed WordPress, and selected a WordPress template, you’re ready to publish your first WordPress post. At its core, WordPress is software that allows you to manage the content appearing on your website.
This platform lets you update your website with new text, images, and video information. Long gone are the days when you submitted a request to a Webmaster so he could perform his HTML magic. Instead, you can create a page or a post. We’ll see how they differ from one another next.
Post Versus Pages
Let’s say you want to add an “About Us” section on your website. This page will be updated every year or rarely. You can create a page to hold this information. You’ll probably add this section to your main menu.
Now, let’s say you wish to publish weekly or monthly information. Maybe you want to share content your audiences can see that is time sensitive. In this case, your preferred method of publishing can be through posts.
Posts usually include the publication date and allow the inclusion of comments from your visitors. As you can see, it all depends on what you want to achieve.
The WordPress Dashboard
WordPress follows many of the rules found in a wide range of applications. Proof of this is after you install the software, you’ll find a link pointing to login to the backend. This backend is where you update and upload content, so users can see it on the front end, which is the public face of your website.
As your website grows, you’ll find more menus and notifications. Likewise, as you work on your website, you’ll find more features, especially after you install a few necessary plugins.
WordPress Plugins
To avoid deviating from publishing your first post, I must explain what plugins are. They are pieces of code that enhance the functionality of your website. Maybe you want to speed up your site; there is undoubtedly a plugin for that (way more than 1, actually)
Perhaps you wish to add SEO features to your site. You got it. As you can see, WordPress is a robust platform that has access to some of the most brilliant programmers on the planet. So why do I mention plugins right now? So you can be sure that your writing and learning will stand the test of time.
Creating your first post
Finally, after a brief introduction, you can begin writing. First, on the left menu, hover your mouse over the Posts section, then click over the Add New option.
You’ll go to another page. Again, you’ll see other options. If you don’t know what they are, don’t panic since you first need to write your title and content. As time goes by, you’ll become more familiarized with the myriad options at your disposal. You don’t need to understand each option available.
The more you know, the more you can achieve. So take this learning attitude towards learning WordPress as a system; the sky is the limit.
Crafting your title
I could say: “Write a title,” but I wouldn’t be honoring some of the best advice given in the field of marketing: Your headline is one of the essential parts of your blog post. You can write an award-winning piece of content, but it will go unnoticed if you don’t have a catchy title.
This harsh truth provides the seed of achievement: If you craft your titles with care, you have a fighting chance to be read, which is what you want.
Writing your content
If you are testing how WordPress works, you can write “Hello World!” and see what happens. On the other hand, maybe you don’t know what to write, but you can begin by stating what you want to achieve with your new blog and sharing it with the world.
It’s best if you have a plan, maybe you’ve done some keyword research, and you can’t wait to show or teach what you have in your head. Then, no matter how you approach writing, place your cursor over “Type /to choose a block” and click. Now you can begin writing, or you can paste your content here.
Blocks are a relatively new way of interacting with your content. For example, you can add media, including images, to your blog post. Spend some time exploring this game-changing functionality.
A simple workflow
You can write your post directly on your browser. What I do is use Microsoft Word to write my posts, and then I paste them into WordPress. This workflow is ideal since you’ll catch many errors that naturally come up while writing. That is why editing my articles tend to be more accessible.
You can use Google Docs and paste your copy to your WordPress editing section. However, no matter your workflow, you must feel comfortable with it since these tools will accompany you for the foreseeable time.
Publishing your content
Once you have your content ready, you have a few options at your disposal. First, you can keep your post as a draft if you won’t be sharing your copy yet. Saving your post means it’s recorded on the database but not yet available to the public.
If you are ready to publish your content, click “Publish” and any other dialog boxes that appear, and that’s it. You just went live. Click on “Preview” to see how your new post appears to a regular user visiting your website.
In retrospect, you may find that sharing your content is easy with WordPress. Many brilliant programming minds have worked ceaselessly to simplify how you share your hard-earned knowledge, offers, or information through WordPress
Final words
Publishing your first WordPress post is just the beginning. You don’t have to understand every single checkbox and menu available to you to contribute. Think about your goals and the direction you want your website to take. Maybe you want to modernize your company with a content marketing strategy, and perhaps you want to blog for a living.
No matter your goals, publishing your content is straightforward. You can check what you’ve written if, instead of clicking on Posts > Add new, you click on “All posts.” You’ll find your content in an abbreviated way. You can click the title of each post if you want to make changes or update your content.
Have fun sharing with the world!
