So without further adieu here are some of the basics when using the WordPress Editor:

WordPress Editor Basics

Okay…so I said I was going over the basics. Well that’s not exactly true…I expect that you know how to use most of the buttons on the toolbar including “bold” and “italics“. I wanted to go over some of the more common things you will use that might not be so familiar to you.

• Hyperlinks - You will definitely want to insert hyperlinks into your posts and fortunately it’s very simple to do. Just highlight the words you want to hyperlink and click the button with a picture of a link. In the image it’s the button on the left. To break the hyperlink you highlight your text and click the button with a picture of a broken link (in the image the button on the right). Next you see the insert/edit box: Type your:
  • Link URL: http://theglobalworkplace.com
  • Target: either open in current window or open in new window
  • Title: this title will appear when you roll over the hyperlink
  • Then click enter and you’ll see your highlighted text turn blue with an underline like this: The Global Workplace.
• Images - It’s important to insert images throughout your post to break up text and help make your articles more interesting.
  • Click on the little Add media image button on the toolbar. It’s the button circled in yellow:. The screen will grey over for a few seconds and you get a new box that looks like this:click the Browse… button and find the image file on your computer. Click the Upload button and you’ll get a box that looks like this: you might need to scroll down a little to get this exact image, but it’s there. Type in a proper Title, Caption, and Description. Set the Alignment and Size. Click the Insert Into Post button and your image will appear in your post.
  • If your having problems with the image you can make adjustments by single clicking the image then clicking the other image button on your toolbar that looks like this:
• Tags - Directly below your WordPress Editor is the Tags Section. Tags are descriptive words that describe what your content is about. For instance on this post I’m going to use the following tags: WordPress Editor, Basics
  
• Categories - I suggest you use only one category for your blog posts. Checkmark the blog category most relevant to your post. If you need to add a new category click the + Add New Category hyperlink.
• Publish - When you are ready to publish to your blog click the Publish button located on the right side of your WordPress editor.

That’s it! Hopefully this helps explain some of the basics of the WordPress editor. It should be fairly basic for you and if you fiddle with it long enough I’m sure you’ll find all the quirks. One last thing….you can stretch the size of your text editing box by hovering over the bottom right corner of the box and clicking and dragging the box upwards or downwards.

Hope this helps. Do you have any quick hints to help a newbie with the WordPress Editor?  By the way, I just re-read this post and seems a bit confusing to me.  Is it confusing to you too?  I think I might try Camtasia for my future tutorials (video software).  Let me know what you think.

So, for the newbie (actually we focus on what I want people participating in my Minds Like Water project to know) here’s a quick run through of the new WordPress Dashboard.

WordPress Site Admin Login Basics

Lets start with your site administrative login page. There are a couple ways to get to the login page:

1. Type http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin into your browser. For this site that would be http://theglobalworkplace.com/wp-admin
2. Most blogs keep the Site Admin/Login link directly under the “Meta” Category in your navigation bar. Check out the screen shot below.
3. Click on the “Site Admin” (the hyperlink will actually say “Log in” if you haven’t yet logged in, but if you have it will say “Site Admin“) hyperlink and you’ll see the Wordpress Login Page.
4. The Login page is fairly standard…just enter your username and password.

That’s it you should be logged into the WordPress Administrative Dashboard.

Dashboard Basics

I just want to go over the basics here. This will not be an exhaustive list of all the things you can do with the WordPress dashboard.

Here’s an image of The Global Workplace dashboard.

There’s plenty of information on the dashboard, but I want to only concentrate on two things right now. The Write A New Page and the Write a New Post buttons.

• Write A New Page - this creates a new page in your blog and you will rarely (if ever create a new page). However, you do need to edit your existing pages. Your existing pages are located on your navigation bar at the very top of your home page on your blog. Your existing pages are underlined in yellow in the image below.

• Write A New Post - this is where you live. Log into your dashboard click the Write A New Post button which will bring you to the WordPress Editor.  At the WordPress Editor you can begin writing your new post.

You will need to get very comfortable with the WordPress Editor. It really isn’t too difficult it’s very similar to a scaled down version of Microsoft Word. I’m confident that you’ll get very comfortable with the WordPress Editor in a short period of time. In our next lesson we’ll become closely acquainted with the WordPress Editor.

Action Items

• If you have access to your WordPress Dashboard and Administrative area then login and play around. Be careful though changes made here may effect your entire website/blog.

Have you upgraded to WordPress version 2.5 yet? Have you had any problems with the new administrative interface? What are your thoughts? Better or Worse?

Arson Dogs - Denali and Gator

Halloween, OCGDA, And CCI

While the content may be good (that’s up to the reader and a very subjective question…I hope at least some people like my content), here are my suggestions to improve my older articles.

Creating Good Content - The Basics

Take a look at the article to the right. You can get to the full article by going to Halloween, OCGDA, And CCI.

Here are a few simple hints to help improve upon this short article:

1. Better title- Think about the keywords you’re trying to market to and make sure they show up in your title. Try to keep your titles 5-7 words (I have a hard time doing this).
2. Use Bold And Italics - Use bold and italics with any words you’re trying to emphasize. This helps people and search engines find the important words.
3. Keywords in first and last sentence - Try to get your keywords in the first and last sentence or at least first and last paragraphs of your article.
4. Use Headlines - Use headlines to break up your content. I generally use the H2 tag for my headlines within my content.
5. Use Paragraphs - Use paragraphs to break up your content.

That’s it!  Those are a few basic strategies on how to improve your content.

Action Items

• Use these 5 hints in all your articles moving forward.

Do you have any great hints to add to this list?  Now that I’m writing this portion I can add one more:  Invite your readers to comment on your blog by asking them questions at the end of your article.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to leave a comment on a blog. Of course commenting is a marketing strategy that we will explore deeper in a later article.

How To Leave A Comment

If you’re on the front page of a blog then you will not see a text box for leaving comments you’ll probably see a hyperlink for commenting at the end of the article. Take a look at this image from my Puppy In Training blog.

That’s the end of the article and to get to the comments area you have to click the “No Comments” hyperlink. That will bring you to the following page:

There are four text boxes and one check box to fill out:

1. Name - this is required. You want to always use the same name.
2. Email Address - this is required, but will not be seen by other users.
3. Website - this will provide a link back to your website (however, because this is a wordpress blog it doesn’t count as a link back in the google search algorithm - we’ll talk more about this in another article).
4. Notify me of follow-up comments - check this box to receive an email when someone else leaves a comment
5. Comment Text Area - this is where you write your comment.

Commenting Basics

The one thing I want to point out here is leave something meaningful when you make comment on another blog. Add to the conversation. Don’t just leave a comment for the sake of commenting.

To Be Continued…

There’s a lot more to commenting then what I’ve written here. Commenting is a great strategy for getting more visitors to your blog, but for now just concentrate on adding to the conversation.

Action Items

• Get out there and start leaving some comments on my three blogs:
  • Puppy In Training
  • The Global Workplace
  • Minds Like Water

What do you think? What is your commenting strategy?

How To Subscribe To A Blog

There are two ways to subscribe to a blog. Although not all blogs will offer you both options (all of the blogs participating in the Minds Like Water network will offer you both methods of subscription). The first way is quite simple. Subscribe to the blog feed through email. The only problem is not every blog gives you the option to subscribe by email. However most blogs will give you the option to subscribe through their RSS feed.

Subscribe To A Blog With Email

Take a look at the upper right corner of this blog…you should see the following:

Just type your email address into the text box and click subscribe. You’ll get one of those challenge questions asking you to type the text in the box to confirm you’re not just spamming. Click the “Complete Subscription Request” button and you’re done. You’ll receive an email everytime the blog posts new content.

Subscribe To A Blog Through The RSS Feed

The second method for subscribing to a blog is through it’s RSS feed. This is only slightly more difficult and requires a little setup beforehand. For now we’re not going to go over subscribing using the RSS Feed. All I’d like to say right now is once you setup your RSS feed reader you can simply click on the little orange button found on the far right of the address bar (the bar that should say something like http://globalworkplace.com) or use the orange button found in the top right corner of most blogs (sometime it’s humongous). That little orange button looks like this:

We’ll go over setting up your RSS Feed reader a few days from now. It’s actually the preferred method for subscribing to a blog. Just think…if you subscribed to 10, 20, or a 100 blogs using your email address you’d get bombarded by 100’s of emails daily. RSS Feed Readers is a better way to go and will help you to organize all of the blog feeds you subscribe to. We’ll talk about it soon.

Action Items

• Subscribe to my three blogs using the email method.
  • Puppy In Training
  • The Global Workplace
  • Minds Like Water - a little different then the other two, but I’m confident you can figure it out (hint - click on the BLOG link on the main navigation bar) .

It’s pretty simple, but for now just subscribe via email to my three blogs. I don’t want your email to get bogged down with tens to hundreds of blog feed subscriptions.

What do you think? Was that pretty simple? Do you have other ways you like keeping abreast on the latest blog news?

5 Reasons You Want Your Own Domain Name

You’ve probably heard of domain names before, but what actually is a domain name. An example of a domain would be:

www.example.com

The domain name for this website is theglobalworkplace.com.

5 Steps To Choosing A Domain Name

1. Branding Versus Keywords - should you use keywords (words that describe your blog) or a name that is more brandable or generic. I prefer keywords for a couple reasons:
   • Keywords communicate to your reader as to what your blog as about.
   • It helps with search engine rank. Search engines take a look at the keywords in a domain.
2. Length - technically you can have up to 67 characters, but you want to keep it short (easier to remember). This domain name is about as long as I’d like to get: theglobalworkplace.com. 18 characters in this domain name.
3. DotCom - The letters after the dot (.com, .net, .org) is called the Top Level Domain. You preferably want to get a .com top level domain. If that’s not available then a .net or .org is a second choice. If at all possible try to get a .com, .net, or .org.
4. Hyphens, numbers, and other characters - I prefer using only the 26 letters of the alphabet.
5. Finding an available domain name using domain tools. The Domain Tools website is a great site for finding alternative domain names.
   • Go to the Domain Tools website
   • Click the “Suggestions” tab on the top horizontal navigation bar.
   • Type your preferred domain in the “Domain Suggestions” text box and click Search.
   • You’ll see your domain, if it’s available, and suggested domain names.

Of course there are many other things too consider when choosing a domain name. However, I just wanted to get a quick and easy way for average users/bloggers to quickly find that perfect domain name. If you want to do some extra research on the topic try visiting Problogger.net’s article Choosing the Domain Name for your blog.

One last thing…a great resource are your friends an family. Tell them your blog topic and have a brainstorming session. Your sure to find a great name with the collective minds of friends and family.

Action Items

• Choose a domain name

What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions for choosing a domain name?

However, paid hosting and owning your own domain name has many advantages. Here are 5 reasons you should stay away from the popular blogging platforms and go out and get your own domain name.

5 Reasons You Want Your Own Domain Name

1. Flexibility.  You own your domain and hosting.  You can use any blogging software you’d like or even create your own dynamic or static web pages.
2. The free blogging sites have the ability to completely shutdown your blog - the downside (of course) is you lose all of your search engine links - and possibly content if you don’t back it up.
3. You get your own email addresses with your domain name: colby@theglobalworkplace.com.
4. Your domain name selection can help build your brand.
5. Your own domain name gives you credibility and a sense of professionalism. An example could be this blog. Which domain name would you prefer:
   • http://TheGlobalWorkplace.com vs
   • http://TheGlobalWorkplace.Blogspot.com

If you are a part of the Minds Like Water Network then you will have your own domain name. However, if you are not a part of our network then choose wisely. There are definitely advantages to starting your blog with one of the free networks. If you want to start a professional blog then take the time and small expense to get your own domain name. It could save you a lot of time and money down the line.

Action Items

• Start thinking about your domain name.
• Next lesson we’ll go over steps to choosing your domain name.

What do you think? Do you own your domain name? What advantages and disadvantages do you see in free blogging sites?

Of course we are also concentrating on monetization…that is we are trying to make a little bit of money while we write about the things we are passionate about. So, if you have several topics you are interested in (most of us have more than one interest), then we will also consider which topic is most profitable.

Why Something We Are Passionate About?

One of my early lessons with the Puppy In Training blog was consistency. I was not consistent with my blog and it reflected in my readership. I’d write 5 articles then not write at all for several weeks. No one wanted to follow a blog that didn’t produce articles weeks on end.

I finally hit my groove several months after starting my blog and it showed in the results. My page views, unique visitors, and rss readers have all steadily increased since December 2007.

So what does passion have to do with consistency. I find that it’s much easier to write about things you are passionate about and therefore it is much easier to be consistent with your writing. We are expected to write at least one article a day 5 days a week (Monday through Friday).  So my recommendation is choose something you are passionate about.

Action Items

• You’ve probably already started thinking about your topic. Choose a topic before your next lesson.
• If you already know your topic start thinking about a domain name for your blog.
• Discuss your blog topic in the comments area.
• Next Lesson will cover domain names

How do you choose your blog topics? What blog topics do you currently write about?

Everyone has a different opinion on exactly what a blog is. I have two explanations to present to you. One comes from a great little website called Common Craft Explanations In Plain English. I love their videos and will be using them throughout our lessons here on the The Global Workplace. The other explanation is basically what I think a blog is.

What Is A Blog? - The Video

Take a look at this great video about blogs from The Common Craft Show.

What Is A Blog? - My Explanation

Blog is short for Weblog. I consider a blog just an online journal. If you’re a part of the Minds Like Water network then your blog will revolve around a specific topic.

Basically a blog is a website with a few key differences:

1. Articles are listed in chronological order a with the newest articles at the top.
2. It’s easy to add new content.
3. Content is updated frequently.
4. Blogs allow people to leave comments.
5. People “trust” blogs more than normal websites because blogging is a conversation.

Action Items

• Now that you know what a blog is start thinking about your blog topic.
• Also start thinking about a domain name for your website (ie. www.mytopic.com).
• Discuss your thoughts on blogs in the comments area below.
• Our next lesson will cover choosing a topic

Now it’s your turn. What do yo know about blogs? What is your explanation of a blog? Add your comments in the comments area.