Switching to Wordpress?

I started this blog to give short Wordpress blog tutorials to my friends who just started using the Wordpress platform. I was actually the one who installed their blogs for them and because I didn’t have enough time to teach them individually, I created this blog and I told them to visit this blog every now and read about how to use their Wordpress blogs.

But after a few times of logging in to their Wordpress blogs, they told me that it wasn’t difficult at all to blog because the platform is user friendly. They find it as easy as using MS Word and I agree. I think that it doesn’t take a scientist to use Wordpress. As long as you are not afraid to navigate the platform and as long as you can easily learn from your mistakes, learning how to use Wordpress for blogging should be a piece of cake.

Wordpress is the best blogging platform out there because other than it is user friendly, it is also flexible. Free themes are scattered all over the net and there are free plugins for each purpose.

So if you are unhappy with your blogging platform, don’t be afraid to switch to Wordpress.

Start Your Blog in a Paid Hosting

Many would say that creating a blog in free blog hosting sites is ideal for first time bloggers for them to get their feet wet but for me it is the best to host your own blog early on. Why? Because when you think you are ready to move from a free hosting site to your very own paid hosting and paid domain name, you’ll feel a great loss for having to leave your blog which you have exerted a lot of time, effort, and creativity in.

If you are afraid of not knowing how to start your blog in a paid hosting, you’ll find several “how to” articles about it in the net. Plus there are also a lot of web hosting plans that offer a ready to install wordpress blog. At Web Hosting Choice for example, they offer quick start guide for first time webmasters and bloggers. And normally, Web hosts have their 24/7 support to cater to clients questions. And there is also the option to hire somebody to do it for you but you need to be extra cautious when finding somebody to do it for you. Normally, web hosts have this service too but if you prefer other people to do it, it’s better to research about them and carefully check their portfolios before hiring them.

Starting your blog in a paid domain and paid hosting can be scary and difficult at first but it is worth it to have 100% control of your blog.

Embedding Multimedia in your Blog

If you are not embedding enhancements such as music, pictures, and videos in your blog then you are left behind. Multimedia has been in the mainstream blogging since the rise of YouTube and free photo hosts like PhotoBucket and Flickr. More advance bloggers even create podcasts and vblogs to voice out what they normally just write.

Now since this blog caters to beginners, I will explain how to embed videos and photos to your wordpress blogs but first there are two things you need to know. When you go to “Write”, you’ll see that there are two tabs on your editor’s page. I’ve explained use of these tabs earlier in one of my posts so I suggest you should read it as well. Now going back to our topic, you should click on the “HTML” tab (or “CODE” tab in earlier wordpress versions) and paste the third party codes there. DO NOT paste the third party codes in the “VISUAL” tab.

What are third party codes, some might ask so below is a photo showing where you normally get third party codes. YouTube or Photobucket provide these codes for users to easily embed the multimedia in their blogs.

Another Blog Coming Up!

I have a lot of blogs and at this point I realized that I can’t keep them all anymore. I am too busy with other things but I still like to blog. In fact, I want to start another blog (I’m crazy I know). I will leave or give away blogs that are doesn’t have their own domain like My Take on Things, Penny Wise, Digitally Designed, and The Last Thing I Am. That’s 4 blogs off my shoulders. BlogLeafs will stay but I plan to ask somebody to co-author this blog with me.

In exchange to these four blogs, I will start one blog. At first I wanted it to be about living here in Shanghai but I realized that it is a very broad topic and there is already My Pink Notes blog and Vienna Lopez blog that cover about my life in general including my life here in Shanghai so I narrowed it down to something else. The new blog will be about Shanghainese girls’ lifestyle and fashion. Why? Because they fascinate me so!

It’s still just a plan and I don’t have a concrete date to launch it yet but it will come. I already have a good collection of Shanghainese girls’ photos waiting to be uploaded and posted (wink*). Once my schedule start to loosen up a little bit and once I picked a good domain name, I will start it.

Writing Your Posts

Given that you’re new with Wordpress Blog Platform, I have listed things to remember when writing your post.

1. Create your draft in Microsoft Word. MS Word corrects your grammar and spelling. Although it is not 100% right, it’s better to have some thing to warn you about our typographical and grammatical errors.

2. Now copy and paste your article from Word to your blog’s editor. This is very important—click on the “CODE” tab and paste your article there. DO NOT paste your article directly on the “VISUAL” tab. Why? Because when your copy something from MS Word, you also copy it’s formatting which will later on cause problems within your Wordpress pages and posts. Pasting your article from Word to the “CODE” tab is the way to do it because this strips out MS Word’s built-in formatting.

3. Don’t forget to give a title to your post.

4. If you want to further edit your post, click on the “VISUAL” tab and edit it from there.

5. Categorize your post. Tick the category your post belongs to. You may add categories by typing it and clicking the Add button.

6. Give tags to your posts before hitting the publish button.