The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

An Instructional Booklet by AARP

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IntroductionThis booklet is meant to guide you through the process of

making a blog. By the end of this guide you will; create your blog, make your first blog post, be capable of posting images and other documents to your blog, view and reply to comments on your posts, visit and comment on other blogs, and return to your blog later by logging in.This guide will not make you a master of blogging, nor will it teach you all there is to know about blogs. This guide is simply the basics, intended to help those with little to no prior blogging experience.

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Computer Basics and Beginner’s InformationGCF Learn Free is one of the best resources available for new computer users, users who would like brush up on the basics, or anyone looking to expand their computer knowledge. You can find this information at http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computerbasics.They also have a section about email,here: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/emailbasics. This is important because an accessible email account is required when starting your blog.

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Getting StartedNow that you’ve got a basic understanding of a computer

and the internet you can begin the steps necessary to creating your first blog.

Go ahead and open up a web browser, type wordpress.com into the URL bar, and press enter. This will bring you to WordPress’s website. Here you will choose an address for your blog. This is what other people use to get to your blog, so make sure you pick something that fits you. Just click in the box that

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says “enter your new site address”. After you’ve entered your desired address into the box, click “Create Website”.

You should now be on the “Get started with WordPress” page. Type your email address in the first box. Make sure you are able to check emails sent to this address, as you’ll need to do this later. Enter a username. This can be just about anything, but typically it’s just the beginning of your email address. Now choose

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a password. Your password should be something you won’t forget, but isn’t easy for others to guess. WordPress provides some advice for choosing a password in the link below the password entry box. The next box should contain the address you chose for your blog on the previous page. If you don’t like this address or it is already taken, type something else here. Simple alterations to the address like adding a number or two on the end may allow you to keep the same basic address while still being unique. The last thing to do on this page is decide whether a basic, premium, or business account is right for you. For a vast majority of users the basic account is enough. If you plan on uploading videos directly to your blog, don’t want

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“.wordpress.com” at the end of your site address, or you don’t want ads displayed on your blog, then a Premium membership may be right for you. Finally, if you plan to use your blog as a store front then you will need a Business Membership. Once you’ve determined what membership, if any, is right for you, click the corresponding button at the bottom of this page.

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PersonalizationThe next step is to give the blog a title and, if you’d like, a

tagline. The title is another way for people to find your blog; it’s entirely up to you want you want your blog to be called. A tagline is a short description or brief explanation of what your blog will be about or what your purpose for blogging is. Under this you can select the language that you will be blogging in; English will likely be set by default. Click “Next Step” when you’ve finished on this

page.

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Choosing a theme is one of the easiest ways to personalize your blog. WordPress has a wide variety of themes to choose from, but, unless you upgraded to a Business account, some must be purchased before they can be used. Clicking on your desired theme will bring you to the customization page. Customization is only available to Premium and Business account users. Click “Next Step” to continue.

This step allows you to connect your blog with your Facebook or Twitter account. Just click either button to be brought to a page asking you to confirm that you want to link your blog to the account you selected. After you’ve finished connecting accounts click “Next Step” again.

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Your blog has now been created. However, before you can make your first post you’ll need to confirm your email address. To do this, go to your email inbox and look for an email from WordPress with a subject similar to “Confirm your email address”. Open this email and click “Confirm Email Address” to return to WordPress and start your first blog entry.

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Making a PostIn the lower-right portion of this new page there will be a blue

pencil next to a link to .Give your post a title at the top. Below this there is an option

to add media: pictures, documents, or even videos if a Premium account was made. The large text box after that is where you will type the content of your post. There are formatting options at the top of this box that allow you to format text, make lists, align paragraphs, and insert links to other pages.

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To add media to your post click . Once the “Insert Media” window has opened you can click and drag a picture or document from your computer and drop it into your browser to add it to this post. Another way to add a file is to search your computer using the “Select Files” option. The third way to add files is using their URL. After you’ve located the file on the internet, copy its URL and paste it into the “Insert from URL” tab.

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Each file can be given a title, caption, text to appear if the picture fails to load, and a description. The size of the picture can also be changed using options to the right of the “Insert Media” window.

When you’re finished selecting files to add just .After inserting files, you can rearrange them by clicking and

dragging them to their desired location.There are additional options available for each post. These

can be chosen using the dropdown menus to the right of your text entry box. Entries can be saved as drafts or set to publish at a later date. More social networking accounts can be connected at

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any time. Posts can be given a tag, category, location, featured image, or summary excerpt as well.

Once you’re satisfied with the post go ahead and it. Now take a look at your post.

If there’s anything you’d like to change about this post hit

. When you’re done editing just the post. If you want to delete an entire post will do that.

Using Your Blog15

You can make a new post from almost anywhere on the WordPress site. At the top of the page there will be a link. To get back to your blog at any time just type its address into your browser’s URL bar.

If you close your browser you’ll need to login next time you want to post to your blog. Go to wordpress.com, in the top left corner, enter the username and password you used when making your account, click in the top left, and choose your blog from the list. From the page you can also make a new post, change your theme, or upgrade to Premium or Business, among other things.

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If someone comments on one of your posts, you can see this by scrolling below the post and reading the “Thoughts on your post” section. To comment back just , type your comment in the box, and

You can also view other people’s blogs by using their blog’s address. Comment on their posts using the comment button below the post or share the post on your social media site using the associated button below it.

Final Thoughts

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Now that you’ve completed the basics you are ready to start blogging on your own. Remember to post regularly; an active blog will generate more followers. You should also visit and comment on other’s blogs. People are likely to return the favor.

WordPress has made a useful document for improving your blogging. This document includes some more advanced topics and is not essential for your blogging success.

One important thing to keep in mind is no matter what your reason for blogging may be, enjoy what you post, and have fun!

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GlossaryBrowser or web browser a software program that allows the user to find and read encoded documents in a form suitable for display, especially such a program for use on the World Wide Web.

Page or web page a document on the World Wide Web that can incorporate text, graphics, sounds, etc.

Tab a second or further document or page that can be opened on a spreadsheet or web browser.

URL (uniform resource locator) is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to a resource. In most web browsers, the URL of a web page is displayed on top inside an address bar.

Window an area of the screen that may be manipulated separately from the rest of the display; different files can be displayed simultaneously in different windows.

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