This is the 4th part in my ‘how to create a Blog’ series. Part 1 discussed how to buy some web space and choose a domain name. Part 2 discussed how to create a WordPress Blog in your web space.  Part 3 then discussed how to alter the appearance of your Blog using Themes.

Is this Article I’ll be looking at how to manage your blog posts.

When you created your WordPress blog a number of example entries were created automatically, we’ll take the opportunity to delete them to give you a completely blank blog to work with.

Firstly log into your WordPress Dashboard with your administrator credentials, and when your dashboard appears look down the sections along the left hand side and click on the word ‘Posts’ to open up the posts section.

This Section provides all the functionality you need to manage your posts. If you look at the main window you will see that it’s changed to the Posts Window, showing all the posts currently published on your blog.

You can see that at the moment there’s only the default post ‘Hello World!’ published. Underneath the post are 4 options, and you can use these options to either Edit, Quick Edit, Trash or View the post. Click on the word Trash and the post will be deleted.

This also deleted the default comment so you now have a completely blank Blog to work with

Related Posts:

• How to create a Blog – part 3 Choosing a theme
• How to create a Blog – Part 2 How to create a WordPress Blog
• How to create a Blog – Part One Web Hosting and choosing Domain Names

In Part 3 I’ll look at changing the Theme of your Blog to alter it’s appearance.

First log into your Dashboard by going to the following address http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin where yourdomain.com is replaced by the domain name you purchased. This will take you to the log in page for your blog, enter your admin details and click on Log in.

Your Dash Board will now load and will look similar to the Dashboard Shown below.

Along the left hand side of of the  Dashboard you will see the menu’s that are available to you, these provide the tools that you will use to configure your blog.

Click on the Appearance Button to expand the Appearance options, these provide you with the tools to alter the way that your Blog looks to your readers.

Themes provide your blog with colour schemes, font style, Widget options, & appearance settings and provide a very quick way to make your blog look stylish and attractive. Click on the Themes option and the Themes Pain will load in  the main screen of your Dashboard. Click on the Install Themes Tab.

This is where you can search for an appropriate theme for your site, for example perhaps you wanted a nature theme for you blog, you would enter the word nature into the search box and click on the Search button. All the nature themes will now be displayed on screen.

You can get a quick preview of each theme by clicking on the preview link. When you are happy with a theme click on the install option for that theme. You will be shown another preview of the theme and click on install now.

The Theme will now download and automatically install, to make the Theme active click on Activate.

The theme will now be active on your blog. Go to your Blog in your browser to see the end result.

You can install as many Themes as you want, and after you have installed a theme you can make it active whenever you like, so don’t be afraid to experiment

Related Posts:

• How to create a Blog – part 4 Managing Posts
• How to create a Blog – Part 2 How to create a WordPress Blog
• How to create a Blog – Part One Web Hosting and choosing Domain Names

When you joined Just Host they will have sent you your Log in details for your Control Panel, so using your Username and Password log in.

After you have successfully logged in you will see your control panel which offers you a large number of tools and utilities. Scroll down until you see the Popular Choices section which will look something like the box below.

Click on WordPress and the WordPress management tool will load.  Click on the New Installation Link to start the WordPress creation Process

A new Web Page will now load and you will be presented with a number of preferences to complete. These are shown in the Window below:

In the top pull down box choose the domain name which you have purchased to host your Blog.

Leave the Install in directory box blank.

Choose an Admin username and enter it into the Administrator user name box, and choose a Password to go with it and enter it into the Password box. These are your Administrator details which you will use to access your WordPress Blog Dashboard.

Think of a nickname for the administrator – this is the name which appears when ever the admin writes  a blog post – and enter it into Admin Nickname Box, make a note of your Admin log on details and keep them safe.

Enter your contact E-Mail address into the Admin e-mail box.

Enter the name of your Blog in the Site Name box, and enter a brief description of your Blog into the description box.

When you are happy with all the above details click on the Install WordPress Button.

A summary window (Shown below) will now appear and click on the Finish installation button. Your Blog will now be created.

To check that the process has worked enter your Blogs domain name into your Web Browser and a demo blog with your Blogs Name should appear.

Related Posts:

• How to create a Blog – Part One Web Hosting and choosing Domain Names
• How to create a Blog – part 4 Managing Posts
• How to create a Blog – part 3 Choosing a theme

The good news is that they are very easy to set up. This series of articles will help you get started and set up and publishing to your blog.

Before you can create a Blog you need to find space for it on the World Wide Web. You could setup your own server but it’s much easier if you use a Web hosting service to host your Blog for you.

I use JustHost.com and have found them to be great value for money providing unlimited web space and bandwidth for a low fee. When signing up to their service the first thing you will need to do is choose a domain name for your Blog.

Your Domain name is the address for your Blog, It’s how your readers find you, so it needs to be memorable, logical and appropriate for the content of your Blog, for example if your Blog is a personal blog about yourself then try and get a domain name that has your name in it, or if you are blogging about iPhones then try and get a domain name with the word iPhone in it. If your preferred domain name is already taken, be adventurous, and try variations or insert hyphens between words in your Domain name. For example I have chosen iphone-experience.com for my new iPhone blog.

When signing up with JustHost.com the first step is to identify the Domain name that you require, and they have systems which check to see if that domain name is available or not, if the Domain is already taken they will suggest appropriate alternatives, although you will probably want to try and find your own.

After you have found an appropriate available Domain Name you will need to enter your contact and payment details, following which your account will be created, you will have unlimited webspace and the domain registration process will automatically be started and then managed for you.

Related Posts:

• How to create a Blog – Part 2 How to create a WordPress Blog
• How to create a Blog – part 4 Managing Posts
• How to create a Blog – part 3 Choosing a theme