WordPress Setup Routine: Preparing for Content
More sharing, oh buddies o' mine....No, I don't think this is anything new or original. But since I'm doing this stuff at the moment, why not paste (and comment on) my list.
BTW, Louise, your comment made me laugh. Because MY first thought was, oh good, I guess this means I'M doing it right. He he. I think the solitary nature of this business makes validation moments especially nice.
Preparing for content--I see it as being a bit like sweeping out a house. Getting the debris out and the surroundings right before you start moving your stuff in.
Once again, I'm just going through rapid-fire. Go ahead and comment if you're new to WordPress and have a question.
1. Delete the “Hello World” post. I know, it's just so welcoming and warm--and it makes your blog look bloggier. But it shall be the first debris to get swept out.
2. Delete the “About” page.
3. Change default “Uncategorized” category to your keyword
4. Delete all of the links.
5. Activate your theme. (BTW, the new 20-10 default theme is not a bad one, I've decided. Give it a new header, though. It's really about as good as any of the free ones I've seen.) All things being equal, I keep thinking Thesis is better and better, the more I see. I'm using one that is no longer for sale: Blogging Success from iThemes. I like its simplicity, but I have been hearing that if you want to flip your site at some point, Thesis adds value. And it pretty much rocks in every other way you can imagine. Yeah, I've got an affiliate link. And no, after all the discussion on the blogs here this week, I'm not going to post it. (Big grin...my, I feel so virtuous. A regular Mother Teresa I am forswearing my linking rights and taking vows of WA blogging poverty.)
6. In “General Settings” edit your blog title to reflect the keyword. (No matter what kind of SEO plugin you're using, I think it's still best to address the General Settings right off the bat.
7. In “Writing Settings”, make the size of the post box 20:
8. Change your “Reading Setting” to "Use Static Page for Home Page. You'll designate what that page that will be once you've created it.
9. For discussion settings, check:
“Allow people to post comments on new articles”
“An administrator must always approve the comment”
10. Check the privacy settings to make sure the following is checked: “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines...." What a kick in the pants THAT would be to go to all of this trouble and somehow end up with the privacy settings set to ON. Alack and alas, the irony of it all.
11. Set Permalinks to "Custom" and enter one of the following (depending on whether you want the category names to show in the URL's:
/?tegory%/%postname%/ (Guys, I don't know why this is coming out wrong--it looks fine in the editor, but it's coming out weird after I click Save. It's forward-slash, percent-sign, the word "category," percent sign forward slash and then the postname stuff that you see there.
or just
/%postname%/
12. Get a ping optimizer plug-in (can't remember the name of the one i've got at the moment...I'll check.) But anyway, set up the following as your ping list (and make sure you designate that you want pinging limited to no more than once every 30 minutes.)
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
The floor of the empty house is now swept...which means there is no excuse not to be rolling up your sleeves and researching/writing the content. Have you thought about treating it like a scavenger hunt? (Back to my English teacher thing again...consider yourself forewarned.) I'll talk about that next.
p.s. For any of you technically minded readers looking to do a techie review site with comparison table and such, the domain smartphone-comparison.net is available. Check the numbers and competition. Not bad for a niche site idea. And only a single hyphen.
Recent Comments
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Thank you sooo much for sharing. I'mfinding your posts and the comments very, very helpful.
Quality stuff! Thanks for posting it. You are such a valuable member of this community and I, for one, highly value your many and continuing contributions.
Larry (famousplumber)
Fantastic :)) I spent last evening adding my plugins after virtuously doing the garden and bladidbla. Can you believe it? I'm still in the kennel for having an affair with my laptop?!?! Anyway I decided to give 20 10 a run out for my first blog just to ease me in, so to speak. And I'm not doing half bad so far (though I am having to limit affair time!) but I'm pretty excited about graduating to thesis and learning all the magic [lol] ... I too have taken the WA vow of poverty and am feeling pretty saintly about it too so it must be right. My (Little Sister of the Poor) great aunt May will be looking down thinking I'm not such a lost cause after all [lol]. Anyway, I find I've done a fair bit of what you suggest so I'm happy I'm on the right track with my little practice offering! Thanks again Maureen :)
Thanks for this Maureen. I'm starting a series of blogs that relate to products on my website, and have been intimidated by using WordPress. It's just technical stuff that scares me. I'm always afraid I'll leave something important out. Only beginners resistance. This helps, so off I go.
Hey, I'm doing it right, too! :) have you seen the Genesis theme framework? I'm using it instead of thesis right now because of all the drama surrounding thesis and the GPL... Google it if you want, but basically my take home from the whole thing is that the thesis developer is a real jerk. His co founder left the partnership recently. Ahhh, tech gossip...lol. Anyway, there are two thesis like free themes...and to tell you the truth... They are really good! I was surprised. One of them I can't spell, but it's something like atalhaupa.... The other is called suffusion. I'm also really liking the squeeze theme, and I always like woo themes. Umm, hi, my name is Stacy, and I'm a theme-a-holic. :) next on my list to try is the Socrates theme. Oh! Another good set of themes I like, that are super cheap- elegant themes. Ok, I'm going back to bed. :) have a good day!
WOW! Great advice here! Thanks!
SusanRocks