Installing wordpress and starting blogging isn’t enough to be professional blogger. It require lot of steps after installing it. I was setting my blog and making some thesis customization after my first post. During this time, I made many wordpress change. Some wordpress change need to be done before we start blogging. I made this post, for those, Who are new at blogging and Have no idea what to do after setting up their first blog.
Spammer are waiting for you to start blogging, so they can fill your comment box with spam. I still remember my first day of blogging when I got my first comment. I was excited that who is going to comment on my boring post. You guessed it right!!! It was spammer.
Akismet is wonderful plugin which will come installed in wordpress, but there is one problem, you need to activate. You have to have API key in order to activate it. If you don’t know what is akismet API, you can read it here and can get one.
“I hate spammer, just because they spam!”
You are safe! But now what? Domain is important in blogging. Default will be www.yourdomain.com. WWW. is not problem in blogging but if you want your name shorter, you can remove www.
For example: my blog doesn’t have www in domain name. There are other who do. Its up to you.
- Go to wp-admin>>Settings>>General (You will see page similar to below image)
Change both WordPress address and Blog address to http://yourdomain.com. Click Save chages.
Note: If you want www. in domain name, you don’t need to do this.
Favicon is unique ID of blog. Favicon is an image next to URL in Browser address bar. See below.
You can see small icon before URL is favicon. It is easy to locate your blog when someone has opened many tab.
Need one? Here is steps….
- Make one image. Go to Online converter to ICO.
- Browse your image and click convert. Download file for MAC or WINDOWS whichever you use.
- Now you can add favicon two ways.
1. Adding code in php files.
- Go to wp-admin>>Appearance>>Editor>>Header.php
- Add below code before </head>.
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="yourpath/favicon.ico" type="image/ico" />
- Remove saved cache and Reload page.
2. Using Personal Favicon wordpress plugins (We use this plugins)
- Download Personal Favicon wordpress plugin and install on your blog.
- Go to personal favicon plugins. (Refer to image)
- Add your .ico file URL and select option “Where to apply favicon”
- Click update and check out….
Permalink structure is link structure for you post, category and tags. Deafult link for post will be http://yourdomain.com/?p=9. I am sure that it won’t help you for SEO purpose. I recommend you to change to something like Http://yourdomain.com/post-title. If you were using blogger then default structure was http://yourdomain.com/year/month/posttitle.html and now moved to wordpress then I am sure you definitely don’t want to lose your traffic. Here is steps…
- GO to wp-admin>>Settings>>Permalinks. (Refer to image)
- You can see my permalink structure is /%category%/%postname%/. Change according to your choice. If you are migrating from blogger to wordpress, then check radio button next to Month and name. If you want to change category and tag link structure, you can do by adding whatever you want.
Contact form is most easy way for reader to keep in touch with blogger. But what if you don’t have contact page on your blogger. Make one..!
Simple way to make contact form is to use wordpress feature. Of course, I am talking about contact form 7 – WordPress Plugin.
Install WordPress plugins and Go to contact form setting page.
Set up blanks according to your choice such as Name, eMail, URL and Message. (Refer to image)
Make another page and paste RED BOX code in page and check preview. Check LiveDemo.
Do you really love to read book on messed desk? I don’t think so. Same rule apply to online blogging. Theme gives your blog new look and attraction, so visitor like to stay on your blog for while. So, we hunt some of most useful resources for you for theme and also wrote guide on “How to change theme on wordpress?“
If you can afford premium theme then it is wonderful, because you will have more feature and option to choose. We mostly prefer thesis theme, because it is most customizable theme available in market right now. Check out our services page for more info.
I used thesis theme and made customization.
Plugins are important for setting blog. There are lot of plugins for wordpress. But as blogger, we don’t need to install all. Here are top 5 plugins required for new blog.
1. All in One SEO Pack .
2. CommentLuv .
3. WP Easy Uploader .
4. TweetMeme Button.
Feedburner is best to setup your feed account. Create one. People can subscribe to your feed if they like your content, so in future if you post any thing, they will know it through email. You can use your google account for sign up.
You can add both RSS feed and email update. I prefer to set up both.
Please don’t forget to subscribe yourself. Why? It is way to keep track how will your post look when someone get update of your post. So, If anything wrong in your post, you can change.
Yes, site stat counter. To track of your blog, you need to sign up for any site stat counter. So, you know, what do people love to read, where do they spend they time while they are on your blog, where did they come from such as search engine or direct link.
Here is list of site stat provider:
- Google Analytics (Recommended)
“Without post, a blog is like boat with out sails”. It is as important to make your first post, as making other changes. What if, someone come and there is not a single post. First post – LetmeBuzz!!“
In first, please make a little introduction for your blog, like what are you going to post and logo of your blog. It gives general idea to your visitor about blog niche.
Don’t forget to check 5 things to check after you make brand new blog.
Free Wordpress Services!!!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Why you don’t active commentluv on your blog like you said above ?
Hey Dana, great to see you here!
I have more than 30 plugins installed right and I am scheduling to remove some of them with custom coding.
Thanks for your comment and let me activate it for you, one plugin isn’t going to slow my blog speed! What do you say?
from version 2,9 become go, we not must do #1 because we did it when our blog installed.
Thanks for your post!
Thanks for pointing out !!! Being Honest, I wrote some of post about 10 months ago and as I said, I started updating my blog few days ago. So decided to post some of draft I wrote at that time and forgot to remove that…I think this is silly mistake!!!!
In fact, I updated it with another things to do!!!
Once again thanks a lot!!!