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NEWBIE SCHOOL

  1. tfockler60
    Member

    After many hours of learning my way around and trying in vain sometimes to find information or explanations for the many parts of WordPress, I sat myself down and created a "NEWBIE" site for all those who want fast, easy to understand information on the hows, and whys of creating a blog on here.

    Now I am no expert by a long shot but I do learn quickly and I think I am pretty good at sharing what I learned in a way that anyone really can understand. I don't claim to have all the answers but I do think my blog site can be a great starting point for a lot of people.

    I encourage any of you who are NEW to blogging to give it a peek. You will find it here: http://theguppypond.wordpress.com/

    Oh and please don't hesitate to ask questions via the comment boxes. If I don't know it already I will find it for you. Besides the more we talk to each other the more we ALL learn.

    Don't have a question then just let me know what you think of the site...rate it if you want or just sound off.

    The blog I need help with is theguppypond.wordpress.com.

  2. t3ck
    Member

    This thread has been moved over to the showcase forum.

  3. tfockler60
    Member

    Thanks t3ck...I realize I should have put it in here after the fact...LOL

    Yes I am blond at times.

  4. tfockler60
    Member

    Ok the next set of classes is now up (201 SERIES) ...It covers POSTING and all the boxes and buttons you see on that page along with a full breakdown of their functions. I also covered the 'right side" of your screen so you have the low down on how to PUBLISH those posts. check it out...I am sure you will find something here you didn't know already.

    http://www.theguppypond.wordpress.com

  5. t3ck
    Member

    Just a suggestion it would be better for the site to receive more visitors if you turned those pages into blog posts instead of pages because the search engines would receive notice faster when you write a blog post compared to writing the content on a page.

    I also recommend adding some screen shots for visual learning it helps with drawing in the conclusion of what you're trying to explain.

    If you have a PC I recommend screenpresso it's free http://www.screenpresso.com/

  6. tfockler60
    Member

    Thanks T for the suggestion. I will do just that. The only reason I used pages was to allow for easy of viewing one subject at a time under a master heading but I will definatly try it out in posts to see what happens. The whole purpose is to make it as easy to find as possible. As for the screen shots I didn't even think about that so thanks for that tip too. Only drawback is that usually they post so small that you really can't see much (at least that has been my experience) but I will check out the link you gave me and see if that is workable.

    I think I may look for a different Theme...any suggestions?

  7. t3ck
    Member

    Your welcome! tfockler60, I recommend either inuit types or iNove but personally like the 2010 theme since it's the only theme that offers nice readable font size and offers the ability to have nice size-able images.

    I used screenpresso for screen shots on this tutorial blog and they turned out pretty nice size. http://wpxpert.wordpress.com

    Also you can see from this screen shot how nice the 2010 theme handles nice size images.

    Tip of the day if you want to reserve space on your blog you can use http://imageshack.us and hot link your images.

  8. wordmaster1889
    Member

    Cool info!

    http://www.realworldhope.wordpress.com

  9. t3ck
    Member

    Oh I almost forgot to mention you can put your posts in key categories for easier post finding for the reader I recommend if you go that route to use the category widget on the side bar.

  10. tfockler60
    Member

    @T3 I picked up the suggested program for screenshots but I think I need to play around with it some because I am not able to get clear shots, big enough to read easily. After seeing them on your site I now know it is at least possible so that a good thing. So...after I do some quick moving around to change out the pages to posts as you suggested I will be heading off to figure this screenshot thing out. I love learning new things so you can be sure I will be adding this to a future class so others can benifit too.

    yeah...I love 2010 as well so for at least now I think I will just stick with it.

    Oh I do have a question for you however. When I looked at your wpxpert site I really liked the way your home page shows only portions of your posts with a "read more" options. That would be great for this blog but I am not sure how to accomplish that. Right now as it stand if I switch these from pages to posts I am ending up with the full text, and thats gonna take up tons of room...Yours is much cleaner and leaner...care to share how you do that?

  11. tfockler60
    Member

    @T3

    Ok, made some BIG changes at http://www.theguppypond.wordpress.com and I have to say THANK YOU because I LOVE the way YOUR suggestions turned out. Not only do I think its a much more user friendly place now but its so much cleaner looking too I think.
    Oh and I even infused it with a bit more humor...now when visitors scroll over any of the "fish" each one has something to say!
    LOL...and I figured out how to do the "excerpts" so no full text! Woot!

    Anyway..if you get a chance I would love to know what you think of the changes. So far you have been right on the mark so I trust what you tell me. Thanks too for recommending my site to others...I am honored that you see some value in my hard work.

  12. t3ck
    Member

    Hi tfockler60, I checked out you're site and it's shaping up really nice but the only thing I see as a problem is it's hard to find the posts because you have a static landing page so I recommend checking out this WP.com FAQ about setting up a landing page and blog page » http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/

    Please note that having a static front page causes the search engines to crawl your site at a lesser rate compared to a site that has their blog as the home page..

  13. tfockler60
    Member

    @t3ck, I read the suggestion you made and thanks again. I understand the difference between the static front page and just letting my blog be the landing page but I still am wrestling with the problem of how to then convert these posts so that they only show "summeries" on the front page and not full text. It seems that only if its a static page does this work.

    I have read everything I can find on the topic in support and followed all the instructions offered but its still not working for me. I know it isn't the theme becasue you use the same one. So I guess what I am really after is step by step instrucitons that will give me a front page set-up like this.

    Blog Title - Summary- read more

    <lightbulb just went on> is it possible that it is actually showing that way, but I just don't see it because it is my blog??

  14. t3ck
    Member

    Okay I see that you're post don't have the more tag on the articles so I recommend checking out this FAQ if you haven't already read it http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/

    You will need to re-edit each post to insert the more tag

    I also recommend adding tags to the posts so search engines can find your posts faster when some puts a search term into the search engine of their choice.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories-vs-tags/

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/post-tags/

    Please note that if you add to many tags to a post you could be consider as an tag spamming and kicked off the global tag page. The recommend number of tags and categories combined per post is like 12

    So for example if you use one category per post it's safe to say you could use 11 tags per post and not be considered as a tag spammer.

    Edit: P.s. I also forgot to mention that when viewing a post from the permalink. (Post URL) you won't see the excerpt

  15. tfockler60
    Member

    @t3ck I read the info about the more tag after I had posted and to be honest was a bit leary to mess with it at that time but now that I have gotten my feet wet I think am going to give this a shot so I went back and read it again and I have a question for you about it.

    In the information it tell me that placing the more tag after a post has been published can cause some nasty problems but then it goes on to say that you can if you make sure to add it after closing html tags. So let me ask this...

    what if I were to copy a post, open a "new post" page and paste the original in. Could I then add the "more" tag before I published it as a new post?

    lol I have a feeling the answer to this is no because if I copy and paste its should include the original html code as well, but I figured I might get lucky here.

    Yeah, I know I forgot to tag the posts when I switched them over from pages...heading back to work on that now...thanks for reminding me :)

  16. sl1k
    Member

    Hi tfockler60, [This is T3CK new username] You can edit the existing post and just click where you want the more tag to be then press the more tag button the tags will automatically close for you if you're still not sure about it you can switch over to the HTML view and click the close tag button also...

    I also recommend activating the following setting if you haven't already which can be found by going to the following setting category » Settings » Writng » check mark the option 'WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically' then click save changes.

  17. tfockler60
    Member

    Got it... :) Thanks a million!

  18. sl1k
    Member

    You're welcome happy blogging!!!

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