You now have your Big Idea and a nice design to boot. The only thing you need now is to start publishing to show the world what you’re made of.
This is the point where procrastination can kick in – moving from that endless list of the possible, and narrowing it down to that first vital post that moves you into publishing mode. So resist the urge to go back and tweak the way your blog looks, or make changes to your settings for the fifth time in a row. Instead, break out that napkin or scrap of paper for some brainstorming.
You’ve now cooked up some ideas about the driving idea behind your blog. Take a look at those ideas now and you might already start to feel less uncertain about what you’re going to write about. If not, don’t worry, we’re going to generate some ideas for your first and future posts right now.
We’ll also show you how to publish your first post!
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.“
~Mark Twain
Stage One: Brainstorming your first & future posts
So you’ve had a look at the ideas you scribbled down, and now you’re ready to get a little more specific. Grab another scrap of paper, napkin, or whatever you’re using, and put a single word in the center – the one word or short sentence that defines what your blog is all about. If you can’t do that, you might need to focus your idea a little more. Here’s mine:
Now, reset your timer for 2 minutes. And race out as many random post ideas as you can think of that relate to that key idea. They don’t need to make sense and you don’t need to ever use them, this is just an exercise in letting your hand do the thinking. Here’s mine:
If any of those look promising, give yourself another minute to make a hard, fast decision about which one you’ll write first.
“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.“If that didn’t work out as well as you planned, you can try the exercise again, or:
E.L. Doctorow
- Set yourself a strict five minute limit to scan through as many of your favorite blog, news, or niche-focused websites as possible and scribble down as many posts or news items that really interest or call out to you. Then, take a second minute to select one of those posts that you’d like to tell your readers about with a line or more of your personal commentary
- Take five minutes to write as much as you can about why you’ve decided to write a blog about X. This will be the basis for your introductory post
- Take five minutes to introduce yourself, and let your audience know what you’ll be writing about.
- If none of those take your fancy, head over to Plinky.com, our site dedicated to giving you ideas for things to write about. That should get your ideas flowing.
- Does my idea give people a sense of the type of blog they’ll be reading?
- Does my idea give me a chance to really show off what I’m passionate about, and communicate something unique to me?
- If I were checking out a similar blog, would this make me want to read more in future?
Stage Two: Publishing your first post
Time to go for it. Log in to your WordPress.com dashboard, and over on the left you’ll see a bunch of menu options. Click on the little arrow to the right of the word Posts, and choose the “Add New” option.
Write your title in the box up at the top, just like you would with an email. This is your blog’s title, like a headline. It’s important, so be sure to use your blog title as a way to captivate your readers by intriguing them with a fascinating, well-written headline. Verbs are important. For more on on writing good blog titles, check out Are You Writing Rockin’ Blog Post Titles?
Now, write the body of the post. This is what comes below the headline/title.
If you make sure the “Visual” tab is selected (top right of the editor), rather than “HTML,” you’ll be able to use a familiar set of Word Processor-like tools for bolding, italicizing and otherwise formatting your content.
Should you need additional formatting options, you can expand the editing toolbar by selecting the Kitchen Sink icon.
Type in what you want here. You can save it at any time (without sharing it with the world) by hitting the “Save Draft” button. When you’re ready to share your content with the world, it’s as simple as hitting “Publish.”
Once you’ve done that, click on “View Post” and you can check out exactly how your content looks to the rest of the world.
Congratulations, you’re a published author!
Stage Three: Getting the hang of the visual editor
A blogger’s best friend is our nifty visual editor. To get the hang of it better, let’s take a look at one of the most commonly used features of the editor — the linking buttons. First, what are links? They’re what make the internet the internet. If you need further proof, this link right here should convince you. <– See that blue text there? That’s a link to another page, another portal – like magic! And you can do it. Here’s how:
- Highlight the text you’d like to turn into a link by left-clicking and dragging over it
- Click the button that looks like a chain
- Add the URL (web address) that you’d like your text to link to
- If you decide to unlink your text, reselect it and use the second, broken chain – your link vanishes.
Stage Four: Go back to edit stuff
If you ever decide you’d like to go back and edit your content (which might be a saved, unpublished draft or an already published post), just click on the Posts menu:
Now you’ll see a list of all of your content. Clicking on “Edit” just under the name of a post will take you right back to the editor, where you can make changes.
From this same list you can also delete posts. Let’s kill the default “Hello World” post (which is automatically added to all new blogs!). Hover your mouse over “Hello World” and you’ll see an option called “Trash.” Click on that, and it’s gone. No more Hello World.
Get more help
Saving and Returning to Draft Posts & Page: Video Tutorial (WordPress.tv)The Edit Posts Screen (WordPress.com Support Document)
Writing & Publishing Post Video Tutorial (WordPress.tv)
Writing a New Post (WordPress.com Support Document
Bonus Round: Add an ‘About Me’ page
While you’re on your wild publishing bender, you might want to add an About Me (or any other) page to your blog.
Pages are a lot like posts. The big difference is that while posts act like updates, the latest always pushing their way to the top of the pile, pages stick around as keystone content that people can easily access right away. They’re best suited to slightly more timeless content, like your personal bio.
To write an About Me page, just choose Pages > Add New from the menu on the left, and write and publish your page just as you did a post.
If you aren’t sure what to write, picture yourself writing the short “about the author” blurb inside a book, only about you.
That’s it, you’re double published!
Get More Help
Adding an About Me Page: Video Tutorial (WordPress.tv)Pages (a WordPress.com Support Document)
What’s Next?
Get Flashy »
