What’s a favicon you ask? It’s that little image that comes right before the URL address when a person pulls up a blog or web page (see photo below). The following instructions will work for any theme on a self-hosted site. Some themes will have a spot for you to put a favicon without […]
22 Ideas to Help Your WordPress Website Look Customized and Professional
When you first install WordPress, it’s fairly bare bones. You are given a default theme, no plugins (or very few) and all the default settings for comments, timezone, favicon, etc. In order to make your blog or website stand out, here are 22 ways to customize your site to look like one of a kind. […]
Set Up Self-Hosted WordPress Like a Boss
Let’s start at the beginning. In order to have your own website or blog, you need two things—a domain name (otherwise called a URL) and a server to hold all your files. Most people don’t have a dedicated server in their homes, so you’ll need to buy space somewhere. In layman’s terms, the URL is […]
20 Tips & Tricks For Making Awesome Canva Graphics
If you haven’t taken Canva for a test run yet, you should. It’s a fantastic graphic design tool for bloggers who want to create custom photos, newsletters, buttons, and more. There are over 1,000,000 stock images for $1.00 each plus oodles of free elements. You can sign up for an account and have a graphic […]
Using Categories and Tags on WordPress to Create a Great Reading Experience on Your Blog
Today’s post is going to be a complete explanation of how categories and tags work on WordPress, how they help your readers discover older posts, and how to use them in unique and interesting ways to add functionality to your site. What is a category on WordPress? A category is a way to organize your […]
The Ultimate Guide to the #Hashtag
It’s time to pay attention to hashtags if you’ve been ignoring them as some quirky “twitter language”. Hashtags are now on every major social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Pinterest, and Instagram). I’m going to break down the hashtag into normal everyday language in hopes that beginners will be able to see the value […]
A Beginner’s Guide to Hootsuite
Social media can be overwhelming. Scratch that– it is overwhelming. As bloggers, it seems mind numbing that after all that work to write a post, you then have to be your own PR and market it on every platform known to man. Hootsuite aims to make social media just a bit easier. There are a […]
An Introduction to WordPress Shortcodes
I’m sure if you’ve been working in WordPress for even a few months, you’ve run into (or used) shortcodes and not even known it. This article will give you an introduction to shortcodes – what they are, how they function, and a few you can use yourself. Shortcode = Shortcut A shortcode is a shortcut. Everything […]
How to Make a Header Background that Spans the Width of Your Site
Do you ever feel like your blog is too small? It’s called blog claustrophobia, and I have a solution. People often give their blog more columns, or menus, or footers, but sometimes it’s a matter of simple design. If you look at this blog, you’ll notice the header spans the width of the site. It […]
20 Common Mistakes New WordPress Users Make
When someone sets up a self-hosted WordPress site, I see the same mistakes over and over and over. In an attempt to help beginners (and veterans too!) – I’m going to make a list of the most common WordPress mistakes that newbies make. If you are a true beginner, I have a blogger’s glossary of terms that […]
Setting up an Account with Bloglovin’ and Claiming Your Blog
With the death of the Google reader, Bloglovin’ is poised to be the primary way bloggers follow other bloggers. The platform is a fantastic and easy way to keep up with those writers you love. Here are step by step instructions for setting up your account and claiming your blog. 1. Sign up using your Facebook credentials or […]
How to Use Twitter | Tips for Beginners and Bloggers
*Early 2015 – Twitter has a new interface so I need to update these screenshots. In the meantime, it’s still a helpful tutorial! Most of you reading this have a Twitter account. You may be a Twitter addict or simply one of those bloggers who signed up for an account but hasn’t really “gotten” it. […]
Why Bloggers Should Pay Attention to Pinterest
Pinterest is not just for photographers and foodies. If you are a blogger, you should be on Pinterest. It is the fastest growing social media site and can offer you a lot of exposure. For every repin, you may get 100′s of hits (depending on the following size of the pinner). In fact, some bloggers are reporting that Pinterest has surpassed both Facebook and […]
Creating a Header Image for Your Blog
So you want to make your header awesome, but you don’t have Photoshop or money to hire a designer. No worries – you can make one for free…today! Depending on your platform and theme, headers can be anywhere from 800-1200 pixels wide and 100-400 pixels tall. (A good reference is 1140 x 300px). The pictures below […]