How to Personalize Your WordPress Blog
After you install the WordPress software and log in, you can put a personal stamp on your blog by giving it a title and description, setting your contact e-mail address, and identifying yourself as the author of the blog. You take care of these and other settings on the General Settings page.
To begin personalizing your blog, start with your general settings by following these steps:
1
Click General link in the Settings menu list.
The General Settings page appears.
2
Enter the name of your blog in the Site Title text box.
The title you enter here is the one that you gave your blog to identify it as your own. Give your blog an interesting and identifiable name. You can use Fried Green Tomatoes, for example, if you’re blogging about the topic, the book, or the movie, or even anything remotely related to the lovely Southern dish.
3
In the Tagline text box, enter a five- to ten-word phrase that describes your blog.
The general Internet-surfing public can view your blog title and tagline, which various search engines (such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN) grab for indexing, so choose your words with this fact in mind.
4
In the WordPress Address (URL) text box, enter the location where you installed your WordPress blog software.
Be sure to include the http:// portion of the URL and the entire path to your WordPress installation — for example, http://yourdomain.com.
5
In the Site Address (URL) text box, enter the web address where people can find your blog by using their web browsers.
Typically, what you enter here is the same as your domain name (http://yourdomain.com).
6
Enter your e-mail address in the E-Mail Address text box.
WordPress sends messages about the details of your blog to this e-mail address. When a new user registers for your blog, for example, WordPress sends you an e-mail alert.
7
Select a Membership option.
Select the Anyone Can Register check box if you want to keep registration on your blog open to anyone. Keep the check box unchecked if you’d rather not have open registration on your blog.
8
From the New User Default Role drop-down list, select the role that you want new users to have when they register for user accounts in your blog.
Subscriber is the default role. Subscribers have access to the Dashboard page, and they can view and change the options in their profiles on the Your Profile and Personal Options page. Contributors can upload files and write, edit, and manage their own posts. Contributors can write posts, but they can’t publish the posts. Authors can publish and edit their own posts. Editors can moderate comments, manage categories, manage links, edit pages, and edit other authors’ posts. Administrators can edit all the options and settings in the WordPress blog.
9
In the Timezone section, select your UTC time from the drop-down list.
This setting refers to the number of hours that your local time differs from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This setting ensures that all the blog posts and comments left on your blog are time-stamped with the correct time.
10
In the Date Format text box, enter the format in which you want the date to appear in your blog.
This setting determines the style of the date display. The default format displays time like this: January 1, 2011.
11
In the Time Format text box, enter the format for how you want time to display in your blog.
The default format displays time like this: 12:00 a.m.
12
From the Week Starts On drop-down list, select the day on which the week starts in your calendar.
Displaying the calendar in the sidebar of your blog is optional. If you choose to display the calendar, you can select the day of the week on which you want your calendar to start.
Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of any page where you set new options. If you don’t click Save Changes, your settings aren’t saved, and WordPress reverts to the preceding options. Each time you click the Save Changes button, WordPress reloads the current page, displaying the new options that you just set.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
archive
1. (noun) A list of previous blog posts, in chronological order. 2. (verb) To place files or blog posts in a safer place (on DVD or another server) for longer-term or backup storage.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
attribute
Used in an HTML tag to give an instruction to a Web browser. For example, in This link goes to <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the <a> tag gets an attribute (href) and a value ("http://www.google.com") to go along with the basic tag. In this case, the attribute indicates to the browser that what comes next is a hypertext reference — in this case, a Web page.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blacklist
An often-centralized list of e-mail addresses, URLs, and IP addresses used by spammers that are then forbidden in any blog post on your blog. With an up-to-date blacklist, a lot of spam is stopped before it becomes a comment.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
block
To stop all contact with a MySpace user. He can’t comment on your blog page or send you any message that you actually receive.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blog
A combination of the words Web and log. Bloggers (individuals, groups, or businesses) post a chronological log of information. Content is determined entirely by the author(s) of the blog; many are personal journals.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blog post
An entry in a blog, possibly containing text, images, and other media.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogger
The author of a blog.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogging policy
Outlines what you’re allowed to post in your blog.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogging software
Technology that enables you to blog. Can be either hosted or nonhosted.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blogroll
A collection of links used or recommended by a blogger.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
cookie
A short piece of computer code, stored on your computer, that enables Web sites to remember certain settings and information the next time you visit that site.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Dashboard
A kind of control panel in Blogger that shows you the blogs you’ve set up, giving you access posting, using help resources, or even creating another blog.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
definition list
A type of HTML list that gives a term and then its definition and has built-in spacing to lay out those elements properly.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
disk space
Amount of room available on your hard drive.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
domain
A domain is the address, or main URL, that people type in the browser to get to your Web site. The domain name you choose can’t be used by anyone else.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
domain registrar
A service that enables you to register a domain name.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
entry
An single posting in a blog containing text, images, or other media, or any combination of those things.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Facebook
A social-networking service that enables you to keep in contact with families and friends via the Web.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Flickr
A Web site that allows you to share, organize, edit, and otherwise manage your photos.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Friend List
Your virtual online address book in MySpace. You can become someone’s friend by either sending a fellow MySpacer a Friend Request or by being on the receiving end of a Friend Request from another MySpace user.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hosted services
Manages the data, software, and Web hosting of a blog; the blogger just manages the content.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
HTML
The computer coding used by Web designers to create Web pages.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hyperlink
A navigation tool that allows a user to go from one Web location to another by clicking. Hyperinks (or just links) are typically underlined.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hypertext reference
In HTML, the address that a hyperlink connects to when clicked. For example, in This link goes to <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the hypertext reference (href) is http://www.google.com. Hyperlink references can also jump to new positions on the same page, open a new e-mail message, or begin a file download.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
link
Short for hyperlink, a navigation tool that allows a user to go from one Web location to another by clicking. Links are typically underlined.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Mom test
A self-test that flags inappropriate blog posts. If you’d let your mom read the post, then it’s probably passed the Mom test. Specifically, don’t blog about topics you think will hurt others; don’t blog about others without their permission, even about topics you consider inconsequential; and don’t identify friends and lovers by name without their permission.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
MySpace
A social-networking service that enables you to keep in contact with families and friends via the Web.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
MySpace profile
Your MySpace identity. It can contain as much or as little information about you as you’d like.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
news aggregation
The ability to aggregate news by using RSS feeds. Having a news aggregator included with your blog package allows your site to pull in information from another blog.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
nonhosted service
Blog software that you set up on your own Web server. It allows you to take on all responsibilities related to maintaining your blog.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
ordered list
Contains items that must be listed in a particular order, such as a list of ranks or preferences. It may also indicate a list of steps for the reader to follow.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
pinging
An automated notification system for search engines and newsreaders, letting those services know that your blog has been updated. A ping occurs when one computer asks another whether it’s there; the second computer confirms its presence.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
post
1. (noun) An entry in a blog containing text, images, other media, or any combination of these. 2. (verb) The act of creating and/or uploading a blog entry.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
private profile
A MySpace profile that’s limited on who can view it, such as only people on your Friend List.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
public domain
The status of publications, processes, and product designs that are free from copyrights and/or patents and are available for anyone's use.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
social network
A service, such as Facebook or MySpace, that enables to keep in touch with people you know — and meet people you don’t know.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
spam
Unsolicited electronic messages sent in bulk that may be commercial, nonsensical, or malicious. In addition to e-mail spam, blog comments and blog forums can be targeted by spammers.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
tag
A relevant keyword associated or assigned to a piece of information, such as an image, a blog entry, or a video clip. Tags are usually chosen informally by the content creator or by the online community; they help give content to nontext media and organize information for ease of searching.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Trackback
A technology that tracks references to a blog posting that occurs on other blogs. They allow bloggers to link to blog posts on related topics.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
transparent
1. Being honest and truthful on your blog. Also means that you admit mistakes and engage in dialogue with readers who leave comments. Considered proper blogging etiquette. 2. Integration of applications, programs, and media from different sources in such a way that the end user is unaware that the content is not self-contained.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
unordered list
unordered list is a series of bulleted items and is used for lists that don’t require numbering.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
video blog
A blog consisting of video files, or the practice of placing a video file in a blog post.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
video-sharing service
A service, such as YouTube, that enables you to share video with others.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Web host
The Web server where you software, graphics, and other files live online.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Web server
Technology that looks at what Web page is requested and then feeds the browser the appropriate file. It does most of the hard work of serving Web pages to visitors coming to your Web site.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
whitelist
A list of preselected users who are allowed to comment on your blog.
Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
YouTube
A video-sharing service.
