How does the dashboard work on a Wordpress blog?

Understanding the main dashboard

Step-by-step instructions on the first half of the dashboard to get a feel how the blog can work for you. My other visual e-course ‘Setting the dashboard settings’ completes the dashboard’s details.

Click on the button to download a pdf of this page.

First, a glossary (important = read it to understand this e-course fully):

Blog = an online diary that can be adapted for business purposes.

Post = an entry, article, piece of writing or message in your blog.

Wordpress.com = the recommended blog programme software provider I’m using for ‘free’ blogs.

Domain name or URL = the web address of your blog or website.

Internet Spiders = robots that search the internet looking for keywords and new material to help with SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) = improving organic or natural search engine results using spiders.

Interaction = the ability to contribute or comment on the internet via blogs and forums.

Keywords (Tags) = words that are currently being searched for in search engines and are therefore attractive to internet spiders.

Categories = archived topic pages to store posts for research or retrieval purposes.

Permalink = each posts’ own specific URL created from its headline or title.

Widget = blogging programme for the sidebar.

Here’s a picture of your dashboard soon after you’ve created your new blog.

As you can see, there are a number of links in the left sidebar, and below I will explain those that are applicable to you. Further details on certain elements are explained more fully in my accompanying visual e-courses.

What you see here shows the number of posts, pages, categories, tags and comments (more about these in their respective visual e-courses), plus how many comments have been approved, are pending and spam. There are quick links to post, change your blog’s theme, view comments and view your most recent statistics of your blog’s performance.

Underneath ‘Dashboard’ in the left sidebar are various items for the advanced blogger. Here are the most important that you should be aware about:

• Blog Stats reports on how your posts, top posts and pages are doing.

• My Comments shows the comments you have made on other blogs.

The next section on the Dashboard is about Posts, which is divided into: Edit | Add New | Post Tags | Categories. For more detailed instructions on how to create a post, buy my visual e-course ‘Writing posts’.

Click on ‘Edit’ to view your posts for editing:

Mouse over the post’s title for pop-up links Edit | Quick Edit | Delete | View

Clicking on ‘Add New’ brings this page, which is where you write your posts:

The next two links are for tags and categories, of which further details can be obtained from my visual e-course ‘Creating categories and tags’:

and

Although you don’t have to use these menus to create your tags and categories, this can be achieved in the menu to Add New Post. Every time you type in a tag, it is added to your tag list and there is a link to add a new category at the bottom of the category box if a suitable one is not already listed.

The next dashboard menu is about Media (divided into Library | Add New), and is mainly used for pictures:

Get more information about how to add pictures into your blog from my visual e-course ‘Putting in pictures’.

The next dashboard menu is about Links (divided into: Edit | Add New | Link Categories), and is used to list other URLs of websites that you wish to publicise (more information can be found from my blogging visual e-course ‘Editing the blogroll or links’):

This enables you to provide links to other websites or blogs that you own or recommend. This Blogroll consists of links to the blogs you admire or wish to promote that are relevant to your blog’s subject.

Wordpress have provided their own examples, but you can edit them. I suggest you should put up your own choices via the Add New link, or mouse over the existing blog title to get quick-links to edit or delete them.

Here you can fill in the fields with your own details, providing a name of your website/blog which disguises the link on display by not showing the URL. The description helps with Search Engine Optimisation along with the categories associated with it. The target means you can choose whether the link opens in a new browser window (_blank) or not. To create a new link has the same page as above but with blank fields.

The next Dashboard menu is about Pages (divided into: Edit | Add New), to create other static pages on your blog:

Mouse over the title of the page (eg About) to get the quick link options: Edit | Quick Edit | Delete | View and click on Edit to get:

Here you can see all the elements of a page and how it can be edited to suit your business.

More details can be obtained from my visual e-course ‘Creating pages’ to find out how to create them, what to include in the content and their importance to the blog and your business.

The menu to create a new page is exactly the same as this one but with blank fields; just select it from the next option in the Pages menu on the left sidebar.

The next dashboard menu is about Comments, which are allocated to the post they are associated with (find out more from my visual e-course ‘Comment Control’).

You can also check who provided the comment by checking out their URL under their name, and on the right see which post the comment refers to with a link to it.

You can also click the box next to the author and select from the Bulk Actions menu: Unapprove | Approve | Mark as Spam | Delete

You can edit comments to include only the good bits before approving it – but that’s not very polite! You really should add your own comments within your own reply.

And don’t be afraid to treat a comment as spam if necessary – Wordpress will acknowledge this by keeping the same kind of spam away through Akismet, an application already installed for you to sort out spam.

The next dashboard menu is Polls, which I wouldn’t bother with unless you are so inclined. You will need an account with Wordpress’s sister product PollDaddy.com

The next dashboard menu is about Appearance, which is divided into six sections:

• Themes, templates, or skins, which consist of the necessary software to show how your blog will look.

You are automatically given the default theme Kubrick, which is a good practical theme with lots of adaptable elements. Wordpress have provided many different themes for free. See which one you prefer, as you are allowed to view your blog in a new theme before you select it. More information can be obtained through my visual e-course ‘Creating a visual identity’.

• Widgets – these are applications or bits of programming that go into the side bar of your blog. There is a huge amount to choose from, and Wordpress have provided Pages, Archives, Categories, Blogroll and Meta.

The ones I suggest you add are: Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Top Posts and Tag Cloud. Others can be added as and when you start to feel more adventurous, like the Text widget which I have suggestions for various uses later. For more information, read my visual e-course ‘What and how to use widgets’.

• Extras – I wouldn’t worry about this one, as everything is set up here.

• Custom Header – here you can change the header of your blog if your theme allows it. Kubrick has a nice big header to play with, and your can play with the colours, display or hide the text, or upload an image you’ve created (Wordpress provide the size in pixels) to continue your corporate identity or match your existing website. The words in the header can be changed in Settings further down the menus in the sidebar.

Guidelines in how to do this can be obtained from my visual e-course ‘Creating a visual identity’.

• Header Colors – this allows you to change the header if you don’t want to upload a separate image.

• Edit CSS – unless you’re particularly techie, I wouldn’t worry about this one, and anyway, you have to upgrade to get access to the code to change anything.

The next dashboard menu is about Users, which is divided into three sections:

• Authors and Users – here is listed all the people who are allowed to post or change the blog. They are listed with their avatars (portraits), their usernames, emails and role.

There are various roles: Administrator | Editor | Author | Contributor – each with their own responsibilities and various degrees of access into the blog. The creator should always have the Administrator’s role so you can make all the changes necessary, but if you wish to limit what another posting individual can do, they should be listed under another role.

• Your Profile – you can provide details about yourself here, and this is where your API key is stored (as it’s a kind of password, it’s really private, so I’ve disguised mine) which is used to confirm certain applications and plugins. You can upload your Gravatar (web portrait icon), which is used whenever you comment on other people’s blogs. The menu continues further down where you provide your contact details, details of other blogs and a short biography, and at the bottom you can change your password if necessary.

• Invites – you can invite people to see your new blog here using their fields, plus a personal message, and their URL can be added to your blogroll and their details as a contributor if you wish.

• Tools – provides certain applications to improve the performance of your blog and set up a quick post application in your browser, or import characteristics from another blog or blogging system into your blog, or provide an XML file to export this blog’s features to another blog. If you’re feeling adventurous have an explore, otherwise it is something you needn’t bother with at the moment.

The dashboard continues with Settings, which you can find about in my visual e-course ‘Setting the dashboard settings’. This is important for adapting how efficiently your blog performs.

And if you want to know more, why not view my other blogging visual e-courses from designed to complete your blog. And if you have any questions, click on the fairy blog mother logo to email them to me.