
Publishing the First Post and Page on Your WordPress Blog
WordPress is one of the most easy-to-use web publishing and blogging software made – ever.
In spite of this, it is quite understandable that you might get a little confused when it comes to publishing posts and pages – especially if you are new to blogging.
Here is a guide that would get you going pretty quickly – you would be publishing posts and pages on your WordPress blogs in just a few minutes!
Publishing a Post in WordPress
To write and publish a post in WordPress, go to Posts > Add New. You would see a screen like this (please click to enlarge):
Now let’s take a look at each of the sections in this screen so that you can start publishing posts right away!
Post Content
The area on the left 3/4th of the screen has the fields that contain details of your post – the post title, post content, etc. Here is a close-up look at this area:
Post Title
Put the title of the post where you see “Enter title here”.
Post Content
Write the actual post in the large text area that you see right in the middle of the screen. This is a visual editor for the post – after publishing, your post would look more-or-less the same way it looks here.
You can format the text (like bold, italics, underline, change alignment, change text color, etc) using the toolbar that you see just above the box. You can also select a line of text and change it into a heading.
If you are comfortable with HTML, you can also make changes by switching to the HTML mode – you can do that by clicking on the “HTML” text on the top-right corner.
Inserting Image
You can insert images in a post by clicking on the small icon next to the text “Upload / Insert”.
Once you upload the image, you would be able to specify its title, alternate text, description, caption, etc.
You would also be able to choose its alignment and text wrapping.
All In One SEO Pack Options
If you have installed the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin (which you should), you would see some SEO options at the bottom of the screen.
Fill in the title (this shows in the browser title bar), description and keywords for the post you are publishing.
Post Categories, Tags and More
On the right side of the screen, you would see options like the following:
Basics – Save Draft, Preview, Publish, Schedule
Whenever you are writing a post – especially a long on, its advisable to save it from time to time. To do this, just hit the “Save Draft” button.
To see how the post looks like, hit the “Preview” button, and it would open up in anew tab or a new window.
When you think your post is complete, you can publish it by clicking on the “Publish” button.
If you want to publish the post at a later date, click on the “Edit” link next to the label “Publish immediately”. Put the desired date and time on the dialog box that opens up, click on ok. The “Publish” button would change to “Schedule”. Click on that, anf your post would be automatically published on the date & time you have specified.
Categories
Please select the appropriate category / categories for your post.
Tags
Please add the relevant tags to the post. If you have used some tags before, clicking on “Choose from the most used tags” link would open up a list of tags from which you can select appropriate tags.
Featured Image

Set the Featured Image for Your Posts and Pages
You can select the most important image of the post using this feature.
Some themes prominently display the featured image as a part of the post (like on my New York blog), and most themes display the featured image as the post thumbnail on the homepage, category pages, archives, etc.
Publish the Post
That’s it – when you are done, just click on “Publish” and your first post would be live!
Publishing a Post on Your WordPress Blog – A Video Guide
Publishing a Page on Your WordPress Blog
The process of publishing a page on your blog is very similar to publishing a post. the only major difference is that a page doesn’t have categories or tags.
So, what pages should you have on your blog? Is there a rule of thumb?
Yes! Stay tuned for a post on the basic pages you must have on your blog.
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