For members of the Tribe and others who might be interested, here’s one of a series of tutorials I’m working on to help WordPress initiates get on their way to content publishing.
Just as a starting note, the layout of my page looks different compared to what WordPress provides from the jump. You’re more than welcome to leave your setup as is but I’ve learned that having the categories and tags before the publish section ensures I don’t hit ‘publish’ before I’ve had a chance to properly categorize it. Lucky for us, you can drag and drop the sections as you see fit – just click and drag the gray bar at the top of the desired section.
Moving on!
Number one, title considerations. Titles are just one of several ways you can optimize your search engine rankings. As a matter of fact, they are one of the first things seen by the robots so it’s important to use keywords (more on those soon) whenever possible. And be descriptive!!
Some examples from my own stash(es):
Do It Yourself Music: CD Cover Templates
Reverb Nation for the Artist
Umbravo and Lil 850: Southside Choppin 2.5
SEO Tips n Tricks: Awesome Links
All About Images and the Web
As a slight aside, if it is at all possible (you’re an administrator and your host allows), you should consider editing the permalink options in your WordPress settings (left menu again, in the bottom section). WordPress uses some very unfriendly links, like something with yourdomain.com/?p=123 – which tells visitors (and you) jack about the post. A bit of investigation will lead you to more options but I use a custom structure: /%postname%/. This allows my entry pages to use the title of the entry as the URL (another biggie in the whole SEO thing). So using the first of my examples as another example, the link would actually be http://authenticvisionllc.com/do-it-yourself-music-cd-cover-templates. Long, yes, but it provides more SEO credibility and gives your potential readers a chance to at least see what they can expect in the post. That said, most search engines only use the first 60 characters of a title (spaces included) and WordPress truncates titles after a certain amount of characters (unsure how many) so, while you should be descriptive, be concise! Also, take care messing with the permalinks. I know there are some web hosts who don’t know how to handle or allow postname settings. (Not an issue if I’m hosting your site! 
)
Moving down a step, we have the media buttons. (“Upload/Insert”)
From left to right, we have Add an Image, Add Video, Add Audio, and Add Media. The only button I ever use is the Add an Image. (One image tutorial can be found here and there will be another – for images in WordPress – coming soon.) While the other three might come in handy, WordPress only comes with the ability to link to anything other than an image. There is no embedding videos you’ve uploaded (versus sharing one from YouTube or another video site) unless you have a plugin or, I’d imagine, go at it manually. (Still working on that.)
There are lots of buttons below the media upload that help you format your post text but unless you at least half way know what you’re doing, you could end up with a jumbled mess and yanking your hair out trying to figure out why your whole post shows up as a link or doesn’t do what you want it to do. Soooo I’m skipping on down to number 3: the post body. (After a bit more chatter;)
Granted, I have the advantage of doing ‘this’ for a living but I think it benefits everyone to know at least a few basic pieces of code. (I’ll write on those soon, too.) WordPress comes with two options: HTML editor and visual editor. The HTML editor is where you can see everything that is going into your post, code and all. And you can think of the visual editor as similar in workings to Microsoft Word. In Geek terms, the visual editor is WYSIWYG – what you see is what you get. What you type in, or add, will show up in the published post just as it looks in the editor. While this comes in handy for certain users, it can come with a disadvantage to more advanced users who might have reason to switch between views. And yes, there are very good reasons to be switching unless you stick strictly to HTML (that I’ll get into soon). Anyway, if you’re editing in the visual editor, switch to code view and switch back to visual, you run the risk of losing elements (like an embedded video).
To prevent this, any time I set up a WordPress user the first thing I do is edit their profile to disable WYSIWYG. You can do the same through the Users section of the left-placed menu by either clicking on Users and the user you want to edit or by clicking on Your Profile (assuming it’s just you you’re doing this for). At the very top, there is a checkbox next to ‘Disable the visual editor when writing.’ Hit that, slide to the bottom of the page, hit save, and you’re all set.
Beyond that, write to your heart’s content. (Hopefully you know how to do that on your own! 
) Once you’re done, it’s time to move on to number four: categories.
Categories are just what they’d seem to be: a system of organizing your posts. Generally speaking, they should be…well…general. Some categories I’ve used on my sites include DIY Music, Graphic Design, and Web Design. Adding categories is as simple as checking the box next to the category you want to use. If you’ve not set up categories (or want to add another), you can do it right there by clicking ‘Add new category.’ In that section, you can type in the category name and choose a parent category to make the new category a subcategory of something else (if you want it to be a subcatergory, that is – if not, leave it blank). For instance, I have CD Covers, Flyers, and Logos as subcategories of Graphic Design. Once again, there is benefit to SEO here. Choose keywords and phrases that are descriptive and fitting.
Number five brings about tags. Tags are kinda like categories but they are more for other notable things mentioned in your post that don’t necessarily have a place in your categories. As another example of my system, I designed a CD cover for Alabama Blakk so I categorized the post as CD Covers (which automatically makes it show up under Grahpic Design since that’s the parent) and tagged it Alabama Blakk. And? You guessed it! Keep SEO in mind when you’re tagging as it’s another way to improve your rankings.
You can use multiple categories and tags for each post, just make sure you have a good system in place and stick to it! Trust me when I say it will save a lot of hassle in the long run – especially when it comes time to track down an entry.
Last, but certainly not least, we have the Publish section. If you’re not ready to publish yet, you can ‘Save Draft’ and post it later through your Posts page (left-placed menu under Posts section). The status section will remain ‘Draft’ until published. The other status option, Pending Review, has benefit to more advanced WordPress systems where users registered as Contributors (lower-level users) can send their articles to wait for approval from an Administrator or Editor (highest- and higher-level users). The visibility options are pretty self explanatory: public entries can seen by anyone, ‘sticky’ posts will remain the first entries listed in your blog (you can have several) regardless of its age in relation to later posts and password protected posts can only be seen by those who know the password (set in a box that shows up when the radio button is clicked). The private option is a bit misleading so bear this in mind: it does not mean you will be the only one able to see the post! It will be visible to you as well as other Administrators and Editors that are registered with the website. Below the visibility options, we have what will initially say Publish immediately. Clicking ‘edit’ will allow you to set the date for the entry. Setting the entry for some time in the past (say, January 1965) will assign that date to the entry and the entry will show up on that date. Setting the date to sometime in the future (June 2100) will automatically post the entry on the specified date – a great option for those who want to write multiple posts and have them show up later on – while you’re on vacation, for instance. Once all is written and set as you think it should be, you can hit ‘Publish’ and your post will be live for the world to see.
Three pages later, we have some very basic stuff that will (hopefully) get you on your way to becoming a most-awesome content manager. Good luck and happy posting!
