Tutorials

So, you want to sign up for a blog, but you need a little help?  No problem!  Here are a few step-by-step tutorials for getting started, and customizing your blog.

To Get Started With A New Blog:

Click on the Sign-Up page link.

Enter a user name and an email address and click the NEXT button.  REMEMBER – your user name will be the first part of your blog URL.  So, if you choose SusieJones as your user name, your blog website address will be susiejones.thenanablogs.com

After you click the NEXT button, you will reach a new page, asking you to confirm your username, and enter a title.  You will also be asked about privacy.  Fill in your title, and answer the question.  Again, click the NEXT button.

You will reach a confirmation page, telling you to activate your account.  At this point, you should check your email to find your activation email.  Click the link in the email you received.

After activating your account, you will be taken to a final page where your user name and new password will be displayed.  You will also receive this information in an email.

After You’ve Signed Up:

Your new theNanaBlogs blog will be: http://yourusername.thenanablogs.com/

Your log-in address for administering your blog is at: http://yourusername.thenanablogs.com/wp-login.php
Just remember to replace “yourusername” with…your actual user name!

And it’s official – you now have a FREE wordpress-powered blog from theNanaBlogs.com!

THE ADMIN PANEL:

Your blog is powered by a software called WordPress.  Once you log in to your admin panel, you’ll be directed to the wordpress “Dashboard” page.  (Dashboard is just another name for admin panel). This is where all the behind-the-scenes stuff happens, like customizing your blog, writing your posts, uploading images and more!

Here are a few links to the WordPress website that explain your dashboard in detail:

• Users > Your User Profile – set the user information you want published on your site
• Options > General – set your site name and other site information
• Options > Writing – set the settings of your Write Post screen
• Options > Reading – set how many posts to show on the front page and in categories and your feed requirements
• Options > Discussion – Turn on or off comments and set how to handle them
• Manage > Categories – add a few categories to get started from your category list
• Manage > Posts – After you have written a few posts, this is where you will manage them by editing or deleting
• Presentation > Themes – maybe change the look of your site?
• Manage > Pages – add a Page or two like “About Us” or “Contact Me”
• Write > Write Post – start adding content to your site
• Writing Posts – step-by-step instructions on writing posts

WRITING A POST:

There is a lot to know about getting started with a blog, but probably the most important is HOW to WRITE a blog post!  And how to publish it so everyone can read it!

In your Dashboard, one of the first tabs on the left sidebar is called POSTS.  Click on that tab, and you should then be able to click on Add New.

The Add New Post page looks something like this:

To write a post, you simply type a title, then type your post in the box below it, and then click Publish.

You can also “tag” the post with key words to help google find you and your posts/articles, and to make your blog user-friendly when it comes to searches.

If you don’t want to publish the post immediately, you can click on Save Draft, and it will be automatically saved in a list of posts.  You can find it again later to finish and/or publish when you are ready.

CUSTOMIZING YOUR BLOG:

The blog accounts at theNanaBlogs.com all come with several free themes installed.

To change the look of your blog, you can click on the Appearance tab, and then click the Themes link.  A list of the available themes, with screen shots will come up, and you can click and preview each one.

If you find a theme you like, you just click Activate.  This automatically changes your blog theme – you can open your blog in another browser window to check on it. (Sometimes you have to hit Refresh or Renew to see the changes).

GETTING HELP:

Are you overwhelmed yet?  If so, it’s ok – that’s normal!  WordPress is a pretty sophisticated blogging software, and you’ll need to take a few days to get familiar with it.

If you have questions that aren’t answered here (and there is no doubt that it will happen), please send an email to help@thenanablogs.com or send a note through the Contact Page.  Char Huskins is our site manager, and she will try to answer your questions and email within 24 hours.  If you don’t hear back, please check your SPAM folders or try again.