Chapter 3
In This Chapter
Signing up for a blog
Familiarizing yourself with the Dashboard
Understanding important options to set before you begin
If you’re just starting out and don’t want to spend money purchasing a domain name and hosting your site with a third-party web host, WordPress has a great solution for you.
This chapter takes a complete look at the hosted service offered at WordPress, and in this chapter, you discover how to create a free blog through this service. You also find out how to get your hosted blog up and running.
You’re taken to the WordPress signup page at http://signup.wordpress.com/signup.
This address isn’t made public on your blog; rather, it’s used for communication between you and WordPress. You can change this address later in the Options section on your WordPress.com Dashboard.
Your username must be at least four characters with letters and numbers only. WordPress automatically fills in the Blog Address box with the same username you entered in the Username box; however, you don’t have to use that one and can choose to type in a unique name in the Blog Address field.
For security purposes, choose a username that’s different from your blog address because that makes it more difficult for anyone to guess.
You can change the username on the blog you’re creating right after you log in and have access to the Dashboard. (See the “Setting your public profile: Tell us a little about yourself” section later in this chapter.)
You use this password to log in to your new WordPress account. Choose and then type a password that you’ll remember but that won’t be easy for anyone to guess. Your password must be at least four characters. WordPress gives you a visual indicator of the strength of your password choice, with strength meaning how easy or difficult it is for someone to guess what your password is.
Whatever you enter here becomes the URL address of your blog. It must be at least four characters (letters and numbers only), and don’t worry about choosing the perfect thing; you can change this later. You can use any blog address you want; however, if you choose a blog address that doesn’t follow certain rules, WordPress displays a message, as shown in Figure 3-2. If you see this message, you need to pick a new one because WordPress doesn’t allow duplicate blog addresses. Keep in mind that search engines catalog your content based on your chosen URL, so use a domain name that relates well to your site’s content.
In the drop-down list to the right of the Blog Address text box, you have several options. One is free, and the others cost you $18 to $25/year. In Figure 3-3, I typed wpfd6e
as my blog address and chose the wordpress.com
suffix, which creates the full blog address of wpfd6e. wordpress.com
. However, WordPress gives me the option to purchase the available domain name wpfd6e.com
if I want to spend an additional $18. WordPress also makes the .net
, .me
, and .org
suffixes available for purchase. See Chapter 6 for more information about domain names and suffixes. For now, select the free wordpress.com
suffix; you can always upgrade to a paid domain later if you want.
WordPress has several upgrade options such as domain names, space upgrades, and custom design. During the signup process, WordPress offers a Premium upgrade that provides you with upgraded features for $99, which you can add to your blog by clicking the Upgrade button in this step. For now, though, move on to Step 9 to obtain a free blog — you can find out more about the upgrades offered by WordPress in Chapter 5.
This step completes the signup process, and a new page opens with a message that WordPress has sent you an e-mail containing a link to activate your account. As you wait for that e-mail to arrive, take a moment to fill out the Update Your Profile! form on this page. Enter your first name, last name, and a few sentences about yourself. Then click the Save Profile button. Later, you can choose to display your profile information on your blog. (See the later section, “Setting your public profile: Tell us a little about yourself.”)
By clicking the Create Blog button, you also indicate that you fully agree to, and understand, the WordPress Terms of Service. If you’d like to read the fine print, you can find the Terms of Service at http://wordpress.com/tos.
The final signup step is to choose one of several themes (or template designs covered in Chapter 5) that WordPress provides for your blog. Don’t worry about your choice here because, as you discover later in this book, you can come back and change your theme anytime. For now, find the Twenty Eleven theme (on the screen shown in Figure 3-4) and select it for your blog by clicking its thumbnail.
The Dashboard for your WordPress account loads in your browser window with a message welcoming you to WordPress. The Dashboard also displays a few helpful items to help you get started, including
If you don’t want to see the Welcome box at the top of your Dashboard page, click the Hide This Screen link in the bottom-right corner of the Welcome to WordPress.com box, as shown in Figure 3-5.
Your new blog is yours to use for the life of your blogging career on WordPress.com. You can log in to your blog anytime by going to wordpress.com
and clicking the Log In button in the top-right corner of the WordPress website.
If you delete your cookies in your browser and then visit WordPress again, you won’t see the WordPress menu bar and will have to log in again. Likewise, after you delete the cookies in your browser, when you visit your new blog, it appears to you as though you are a visitor. (That is, you see no menu bar with quick links for logging on to your Dashboard.) In this case, you have to revisit the WordPress main site to log in again.
When you successfully log in to your new account from the main WordPress home page, WordPress returns you to the main WordPress website, but this time you see a slightly different display on the home page — the navigation menu shown at the top of Figure 3-6.
The top navigation menu contains shortcut links to some important areas of interest:
Hover your mouse pointer over your username at the top right of your browser and you see the following links in a drop-down menu:
When you click the link to your blog in the navigation tab (covered in the preceding section), you go directly to your WordPress Dashboard page shown in Figure 3-7. Several modules on the Dashboard provide you with information about your blog, as well as actions you can take to navigate to other areas of the Dashboard, such as writing a new post and adding a new link or blogroll.
You can configure the Dashboard modules by moving them around on the page and changing the way they display. Hover your mouse pointer over the title bar of the module you want to move. Click and drag the module to the spot you’d like to move it and release the mouse button. This drag-and-drop capability is available not only on the Dashboard page but also on all the inner pages of the WordPress Dashboard, so you can truly configure the panel to suit your needs. You can also expand (open) and collapse (close) the individual modules by clicking the mouse anywhere within the gray title bar of the module.
This configuration feature is really nice because it allows you to use the Dashboard to see just those modules that you use regularly. The concept is easy: Keep the modules you use all the time open and close the ones that you use only occasionally — you can open those modules only when you really need them. Additionally, you can click the Screen Options tab at the top right of your Dashboard screen to configure other options for your Dashboard display, such as which modules you would like to show or hide.
The Right Now module of the Dashboard gives you some stats on what’s happening in your blog this very second. Figure 3-7 shows what was happening in my WordPress blog when I took a picture of it.
The Dashboard displays the following information under the Content header in the Right Now module:
Clicking this link takes you to the Edit Pages screen, where you can view, edit, and delete your current pages. Find the difference between WordPress posts and pages in Chapter 4.
Clicking this link takes you to the Categories page, where you can view, edit, and delete your categories or add brand-new ones. For details about the management and creation of categories, see Chapter 4.
Clicking this link takes you to the Tags page, where you can add new tags and view, edit, and delete your current tags. You can find more information about tags in Chapter 4.
The Dashboard displays information about comments on your blog under the Discussion header in the Right Now module. Specifically, you find the total number of comments currently on your blog. Figure 3-7 shows that I have 1 Comment, 1 Approved, 0 Pending (waiting to be approved), and 0 Spam. Clicking any of these four links takes you to the Edit Comments page, where you can manage the comments on your blog. I cover the management of comments in Chapter 4.
The last section of the Dashboard’s Right Now module shows the following information:
The next module is Recent Comments, which you may have to scroll down to view. Within this module, you find
Scroll further down the Dashboard page to find a module titled Your Stuff; in it, you see items such as recent posts and recent comments on your blog.
The What’s Hot module provides information about happenings in and around WordPress, including WordPress news, top blogs, top posts, fastest-growing blogs, and the latest posts made to blogs on WordPress. This module helps you stay in touch with the WordPress community as a whole.
The tabs across the top of the What’s Hot module include navigation for
The Quick Draft module is a handy form that allows you to write, save, and publish a blog post right from your WordPress Dashboard. The options are very similar to the ones I cover in the section on writing posts in Chapter 4.
If you’re using a brand-new WordPress blog, the Recent Drafts module displays the message There are no drafts at the moment
because you have not written any drafts. As time goes on, however, and you have written a few posts in your blog, you may save some of those posts as drafts to be edited and published later. These drafts will be shown in the Recent Drafts module. Figure 3-7 shows the There are no drafts at the moment
message in my Recent Drafts module.
WordPress displays up to five drafts in this module and displays the title of the post, the date it was last saved, and a short excerpt. Click the View All button to go to the Manage Posts page, where you can view, edit, and manage your blog posts. Check out Chapter 4 for more information on that.
The last module of the Dashboard page is Stats (shown in Figure 3-8). It includes a visual graph of your blog stats for the past several days. These stats represent how many visitors your blog received each day. The bottom of the Stats module shows some specific information:
If you find that you don’t use a few modules on your Dashboard page, you can get rid of them altogether by following these steps:
Clicking this tab drops down the Screen Options menu, displaying the title of each module with check boxes to the left of each title.
The module you deselected disappears from your Dashboard.
If you’ve hidden one module and find later that you really miss having it on your Dashboard, you can simply enable that module again by selecting it on the Screen Options menu.
The options in this section help you get started managing your own WordPress blog. In this section, you discover how to set the primary options that personalize your blog including creating your user profile, setting the date and time stamp (based on your own time-zone settings), and uploading a picture of yourself.
To begin personalizing your WordPress blog by setting the General options, follow these steps:
The General Settings page opens, as shown in Figure 3-9.
You can revisit this page anytime and change the blog name as often as you like.
The tagline should be a short (one line) phrase that sums up the tone and premise of your blog. Figure 3-9 shows I used the tagline by Lisa Sabin-Wilson
, which goes along with my chosen Site Title of WordPress For Dummies.
Enter the e-mail address that you used to sign up with WordPress. You can change this address, but be warned: If you change the e-mail address here, it won’t become active until you confirm that you are in fact the owner of said e-mail address. Confirmation is simple: WordPress sends an e-mail to that address, providing a link you click to confirm that you are the owner. This e-mail address is used for administrative purposes only, which consists mainly of communication between you and WordPress.
After you configure the name, tagline, and e-mail options that I discuss in the preceding section, the remaining items on the General Settings page include setting your local time zone so that your blog posts are published with a time stamp in your own time zone no matter where in the world you are. Use the following options to establish your settings in this area, as shown in Figure 3-10.
If you’re unsure what your UTC time is, you can find it at the Greenwich Mean Time website at wwp.greenwichmeantime.com
. GMT is essentially the same thing as UTC. WordPress provides some major city names in the Timezone drop-down menu to help make it a bit easier to select your correct time zone. If you live in an area that recognizes daylight saving time, your WordPress blog will automatically update and make that adjustment when the time comes.
Finally, set your language preference by clicking the Language drop-down menu and selecting from the several different language options provided by WordPress. This language is the language that your blog is primarily written in.
The next set of options you need to update is your profile. In this area, you configure your personal settings to individualize your WordPress blog and tell the world a little more about yourself. This blog is, after all, about you, and this is your opportunity to brag and promote!
To get started telling the world about yourself, follow these steps:
The My Public Profile page opens, as shown in Figure 3-11.
You can adjust all sorts of personal settings to let your visitors get to know you better. You can be liberal with the information you share or be as stingy as you want. It’s your blog, after all.
Make your blog your own. Stake your claim and mark your territory in this section!
In the Basic Details section of the My Public Profile page, you can see seven settings for your blog, only six of which you can change:
In the Contacts section of the My Public Profile page, you can add different types of contact information and make them public on your profile. Followers of the blog use this information to keep in touch with you and ask you questions. Here’s what’s included (you don’t need to fill in all this information):
To include several different photographs on your WordPress.com profile, click the Add Photo Through Gravatar button to upload photos from your computer. Any photos you add in this section will be displayed on your Profile page on WordPress.
Add any links to websites that you’d like to have listed on your Profile page. For example, if you have several different websites other than the one you’re creating on WordPress, you can add the links to those websites here so that they appear on your public profile for people to visit.
Verified external services are online services such as social networking and social bookmarking sites that you use in addition to your WordPress blog. WordPress wants you to include your online identities with these services because, in the words of WordPress, “they help people to confirm that you are in fact who you say you are.” Your verified external services will be listed on your public profile. The different types of external services available in this section include
Want to show the world your pretty picture? In the Current Gravatar section of the My Public Profile page, you can upload a picture of yourself or an image that represents you. This image is called a gravatar. This section is located on the right side of the My Public Profile page. (Refer to Figure 3-11.)
The picture/avatar that you insert into your WordPress blog is used in several ways:
Follow these steps to insert a picture or an avatar into your profile:
Upload an image that’s at least 128 pixels wide and 128 pixels tall. Later in these steps, you see how you can crop a larger image to the perfect size.
The Gravatar.com window appears. Click the Upload a New Image from Your Computer link. The Select File from Your Computer window opens.
No matter what size image you chose, the Gravatar.com page allows you to crop your image to the correct size and lets you decide which part of your image to use for your picture display. When you click the Next button, the Crop Your Photo page appears, and you can crop your chosen picture to the desired size. See Figure 3-12.
In Figure 3-12, the box with a dotted line outlines the part of the image I’ve chosen to use. This dotted outline indicates the size the picture will be when I’m done cropping it. You can move that dotted box around to choose the area of the image you want to use as your avatar. The Gravatar.com crop tool gives you two previews of your cropped image on the right side of the window: Small Preview and Large Preview.
The Choose a Rating page opens, where you can choose a rating for your new Gravatar.
The rating system works very much like the movie rating system we’re all familiar with: G, PG, R, and X. A G rating means that your Gravatar is suitable for all ages, whereas an X rating means that your Gravatar contains some unmentionables that you would not want any kids to see.
If you have more than one e-mail address associated with your WordPress account, you can assign your Gravatar to a particular e-mail address so that your Gravatar images appear on any blog you comment on, provided that you use your assigned e-mail address to do so.
When you’re done, you get a message from Gravatar.com that says Your new Gravatar is now being applied
.
The My Public Profile page now displays your newly uploaded Gravatar. Visit this page again, anytime, to change your Gravatar.
WordPress gives you the capability to set a few different preferences based on your individual tastes for publishing, proofreading, and passwords. On the WordPress Dashboard, click the Personal Settings link on the Users menu to load the Personal Settings page. Here, you have several options available.
This section gives you the opportunity to configure some basic settings for how you would like to manage your WordPress.com site, including the display color of the Dashboard, use of keyboard shortcuts, text messaging, and more.
Click the link that says Learn More (about these options) to read about how the proofreader can help you publish better content on your blog. You can also select the box next to the words Use Automatically Detected Language to Proofread Posts and Pages
to be sure that WordPress auto-detects your language preferences when proofreading.
In this section, you manage WordPress.com account items such as your username, password, e-mail, and website URL.
When you finish setting all the options on the Personal Settings page, don’t forget to click the Save Changes button to save your changes.
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