If you’ve made it this far in our little tutorial series, then there’s a good chance your thinking “When can I start blogging? I’ve been following all your advice, when can I start posting?” Does now sound good? Welcome to part six of the Starting a Great Blog tutorial series. Today, you will learn about posting. Sound like fun? Just because we’re letting you post now, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the series. Don’t worry, there are quite a few more installments to go. 
First up, how do you post? You login to your blog’s admin panel and click the “Write” tab. Welcome to the post editor, here is the page where you will write all your posts (by choosing the “Write Page” link, you can write static pages, like an About page. You won’t need to do that too often though). Don’t freak out, it just looks complicated. Here’s a brief rundown of the important functions:
- Title field: Enter the post’s title here.
- The big box in the middle of the screen: That would be the spot where you write your post. It works just like a word processor, though you create new paragraphs by pressing the return key, instead of the tab key. If you click the “Code” tab just above the editor, you can use XHTML code instead of the WYSIWYG editor.
- Categories box: How do you want to categorize the post? Just check the categories you want. You can add new ones by typing a category name into the box above and clicking “Add” (or you could use the “Manage Categories” page).
- Trackbacks Field: Want to send a Trackback? Enter the Trackback-URL in the field. More on Trackbacks and Pingbacks later.
Simple, or what? Most of the options aren’t used vary often, but the WordPress website covers how to use them.
So, you’ve published you first post already, have you? Now what? Well, you should decide how often you want to post. I’d recommend no less than three posts per week. Some bloggers, myself included, post nearly every day.
What about recurring posts, like the Weekly WTH or Speedlinking? A lot of bloggers do posts like that, sort of like magazines do, a recurring feature. If you’d like to learn more about different types of recurring posts, take a look at Essential Posts that Every Blogger Should Know (North X East again? Can I not do a post without mentioning that blog anymore?). Speaking of posts, you may want to keep this fact in mind: Readers like big lists. Lists? You know, like 29 CSS and AJAX Resources. Magazines seem to like publishing lists too.
What was I talking about earlier…oh yeah, Trackbacks. Take a look at this Wikipedia page for more info. They’re useful. If you want to learn how to send them, then take a look at this great tutorial.
Well, that’s all for today. See you tomorrow.
