If you have been on the fence about installing a WordPress blog, it’s time to make a decision and start blogging. Recent upgrades to the WordPress platform have made it super easy to install a beautiful blog and tweak it to your heart’s content.
HOW TO INSTALL YOUR BLOG
The fist thing you’ll want to do is to go to your site’s control panel, click the Fantastico icon, and let your server set up and install your blog. Once the blog has been installed, you will want to go into your administrative panel, which is called a dashboard. The dashboard allows you to update the blog software, add plugins, change the look of your blog and, of course, add content.
UPDATING THE BLOG SOFTWARE
Recent updates to the blogging software have allowed you to update the software with just a click within your dashboard, and also to search, review and install plugins directly from the administrative dashboard. Plugins enhance your blog’s capabilities.
HOW TO WORK WITH BLOG THEMES
In its June 2009 update, WordPress took the plugin capability a step farther by expanding it to include easy theme installation. The new WordPress Version 2.8 offers an outstanding and super easy to use theme feature that is similar to the plugin feature. You simply specify the type of theme that you want; for instance, a 2 column blue and gold theme, click search and then preview the free themes that are available. Select the theme that you like and WordPress will install it right from your dashboard. The days of unzipping and then FTP’ing your theme to your site are over and you’ll save a heck of a lot of time.
When you have installed a theme, you can change it around to how you want it to appear by editing the php pages. The page editing process is a lot easier with WordPress’ new color-coded theme editor. When you review PHP and stylesheet pages in the theme editor, the code is now numbered and colored, making the job thousands of times easier.
If you have installed a more complicated “magazine style” theme, you will be working with Timthumb to create thumbnail images on your front page. It is easy to work with this, but sometimes the documentation that comes with the WordPress theme provider is not very good. At Not Guru, you can find a step-by-step tutorial, replete with screen shots, which show you how to work with magazine style WordPress themes.
WORDPRESS IS NOW FASTER
Not only does the new WordPress software make your life easier in adjusting the appearance of your blog, but it runs a lot faster.
REASONS TO BLOG
A frequently updated WordPress blog is an incredible search engine traffic magnet. If they are updated on a consistent basis, new posts generally show up in the search engines within hours. There’s a way to make this process even faster and it is free. What you do is install what is called the SEO blog plugin. With the new plugin installation platform in WordPress, installing the blog traffic plugin takes only a few minutes and a couple mouse clicks from your dashboard. Once installed, the plugin will tweak your blog, have you install other traffic-pulling plugins, and optimize the search engine capabilities of your blog. As you tweak your blog using the SEO blog software, you can see your SEO grade, like 80% or 90% optimized. You will see a huge difference in your blog’s performance once the SEO plugin is installed.
Because you will keep your web visitors happy with up-to-date content and the search engines constantly visiting your site, adding a blog is a powerful tool to add to your website. Installing and maintaining a blog has never been easier, thanks to the new WordPress release. Blog installation tips, computer help and other practical guides are provided daily at the Not Guru blog.
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Posted under Blogs
This post was written by Robjohn on June 14, 2009
