Week 3: Write first blog post and About page

This post is the third in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the first and second posts if you missed them. Check back next week for more.

This week you’re going to get comfortable with the basics of creating content on your blog.

You can create two basic types of entries on WordPress: blog posts and pages.

Blog posts are just what they sound like. You’re reading one right now.

Pages are used for things like your resume, portfolio or blogroll. The tabs across the top of my Web site all link to individual pages.

So, now that we know what each is meant for, let’s create some content.

Write your first blog post

You might want to use your fist blog post to introduce yourself, give readers a little insight into why you are making your site and foreshadow what you plan to blog about.

Go to www.YourDomain.com/wp-admin and log in.

On the upper left hand side, you’ll see a button that says “Add new” underneath the “Posts” tab. Click it.

Now you’ll want to give your blog entry a title.

In the body field, you’ll obviously put the body of your post.

Some basic buttons you'll use

To style your text, pay attention to the blog and italics buttons, as well as the drop-down menu that says “Paragraph.” “Heading 3″ tends to be the one you’ll want to use for subheads.

You also may want to use the bulleted list and numbered list buttons, plus the quoted material button and indent buttons.

Speaking of all this stuff, allow me to go on a very important tangent for a moment.

Writing for the Web: Just the basics

Some things to keep in mind about writing for the Web:

1. Link. Link. Link.

• If you refer to an article online, link to it.
• If you mention someone who has a personal Web site, link to it.
• If you mention your favorite movie, link to its IMDB page.

I cannot underscore the importance of links. They help your Google search rankings, and more importantly, they make you look like you actually understand the Web. Get friendly with this button.

2. Make your posts easy to scan.

• Keep your paragraphs short, much like you do in news articles.
• Use bulleted lists when applicable.
• Use subheads to break up large chunks of text and make your organization stand out.

3. Use visuals when you can. Flickr often has good Creative Commons-licensed photos that you can use if you don’t have your own photos. Just make sure to credit them appropriately.

4. Especially when writing headlines, think about SEO, or search engine optimization.

This means that you should write your blog titles with Google search in mind. A months-old entry of mine titled “Getting Google to recognize my blog” still gets a decent amount of hits thanks to people searching that phrase in Google.

• Kill the cute stuff. Keep titles literal. Plays on words or puns don’t tend to work well.
• Be specific and use keywords. Nouns are especially important in Web headlines, while verbs tend to get more of an emphasis in print headlines.
• Be clear and concise.

OK, done with that tangent. Back to writing your first blog post.

You’ll want to type in whatever and hopefully add a photo, which you can do by clicking the icon that has a square on it. (It’s at the top of the bar with all those buttons.) There, you can upload a photo from your desktop or place one that’s already online.

You can also scale the photo down in side and add a caption to it if you want. Remember to credit photos appropriately if you’re not using your own. Once you have all that done, just click “insert into post” and it should appear.

When you’re done with your post, you can click the “Save draft” button on the upper right hand side to save it so you can come back to it later. You can also click “Preview” to double check that everything looks OK without actually making the post go live.

And once you’re ready, you want to click “Publish.”

Once you do that, you should see your first post when you go to www.YourDomain.com.

So, now that you have that wrapped up. It’s time to add another page to your site. For our purpose this week, we’ll start simple.

Create your about page

Most every blog should have an about page. It’s an easy way for someone who stumbles onto your site to find out who you are and what your schtick is.

So, to create a new page, go to your left hand sidebar in your Admin and click “Add new” under “Pages.”

You’ll notice that the controls for creating a page look very similar to those used to create a blog post. I’d recommend fiddling around a bit just to get comfortable with them. Remember, you can always click “Preview” to see what it looks like without saving it and making it go live.

So, what should you include in your About page?

Here are my suggestions. Take ‘em or leave ‘em.

• Where do you go to school, and what is your year and major?
• Where have you worked or interned? (Remember to link to the Web sites of those news organizations, too.)
• What jobs titles have you had in journalism? (I might want to know if you’ve been a photographer at XYZ newspaper or a features columnists or editor-in-chief.)
• Are you active on social media? If so, link to your page on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Wired Journalists, Publish2, etc.
• What do you look like? (I think including a photo makes it a bit more personal. You are now a face rather than just a name.)
• Is there something that makes you memorable? Including a fact that sticks out in people’s minds is never a bad idea.
• Are you looking for internships or freelance opportunities? It probably wouldn’t hurt to mention that, just in case.

Here are some examples of about pages by other student journalists or recent graduates:

• Josh Halliday, student at University of Sunderland in the U.K.
• Greg Linch, recent graduate from the University of Miami
• Vadim Lavrusik, student at Columbia University Graduate School
• UNL’s very own Alina Selyukh
• Albert Sun, student at University of Pennsylvania

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