New and confused – Links? Templates?
-
I was going to tell you I’m totally new to blogging and my entire post here disappeared so that proves it. lol I was thinking my “template” doesn’t work well for me and I’m wondering if I’ll lose everything I’ve posted and my comments if I change from what I have to a new one? Also, a friend who used to blog but no longer does told me to be sure and link blogs I like to mine and folks would do likewise. I can’t find or figure out what that really means or how to do it. Saw reference to it in support but without directions. I’m pretty clueless about blogging so I just filled in the template and thus do not know what I’m missing. I do know I am not getting as much “viewing” as I’d hoped for, so probably I’ve neglected to set up something. Thanks for you help!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
I’m wondering if I’ll lose everything I’ve posted and my comments if I change from what I have to a new one?
Nothing will change except the theme and the fact that the widgets you use now will migrate into the Inactive Widgets box.
You simply go here > Appearance > Themes and then choose a theme. There will be a preview button so you can see what it would look like on your blog. If you like the appearance you click “Activate” and the theme will then be on your blog.
Then you go to here > Appearance > Widgets and drag the widgets out of the Inactive Widgets box that you used on the old theme into the sidebar one at a time. You click “save” and “close” on each one until you have finsished them all. Then you view the front pf your blog.
-
… told me to be sure and link blogs I like to mine and folks would do likewise.
You can locate blog similar to your own here by using the global tag pages. You can visit similar blogs, leave sincere comments and form relationships with the bloggers who keep to them and if you wish you can link to them in your LInks (blogroll) and display the links in a Links widget in your sidebar.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/global-tags/
Example 1. http://en.wordpress.com/tag/christianity/
Example 2. http://en.wordpress.com/tag/jesus/Links (Blogroll) > http://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/links-widget/ -
Thank you. I understand on the template, but on the links I’m still confused. I set up a blogroll thingie but all I have on it is stuff that I never put there. I don’t know how that stuff got there and don’t know how to link others blogs to my list. I very much enjoy reading other blogs and find I constant connect with folks who share my spiritual beliefs so the sincere comments come easily. I’d love to be able to reference their blogs on mine and think (if I’m reading my stats stuff correctly) that folks might be somehow linking my stuff to theirs. Sorry – total newby!
-
I also can’t get anything to appear on my sidebars. I have dragged and dropped widgets but they all get squashed together at the bottom of my home page after a bunch of posts where nobody would know they are there.
-
Wow, I’m on dialup and it’s crawling along slowly just now. I read the paragraph on Global tags but didn’t understand it. Newby. I also clicked on the example 1 but didn’t know what it was supposed to be an example of. It just looked like the screens that come up when I click on “tags” from the tab in Freshly Pressed and not a menu or anything. Haven’t figured out how to make menus since the Blogroll thing just posted whatever it felt like on the bottom of my home page. Just as well that nobody can find it since I can’t seem to set up what I want. Gosh, I feel stupid.
-
You’re not stupid. You’re overwhelmed.
It sounds like you’re trying to understand everything at once. Stop.
Seriously, stop that. You’ll drive yourself insane.
Just concentrate on blogging and worry about links, widgets, SEO, pagerank, community management, tags, hierarchies, social media, and interactivity once you’ve got the BLOGGING part down.
Start here:
-
Thanks, I think you’re right. I actually haven’t discovered what some of the things you listed are. Not yet. Time to chill. I did change my theme successfully. 3 times before I decided I liked it. lol
-
That’s common. I recommend you pick one with a Custom Header and play with that for awhile. Custom Headers make a lot of difference to the look of a blog, and make it a lot more personal. You’ll get it all in time. There’s no prize for speed at this.
-
Here are two introductions to wordpress that will explain the basics for you, but as Raincoaster suggests, don’t try to do it all at once. The links in the blogroll are just sample links, and you can get rid of them and put in links you want.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-started/
-
I’m like marthalshaw, I’m just sort of cruising around wordpress checking things out and saw the question about templates. I’m still playing around with my theme, but I think raincoaster is right about the custom header. I had a blog on bloger.com but had a lot of problems, more than I care for anyway. so far I’ve been much more impressed with wordpress. this forum alone attests to that.
-
Thanks everyone. I also tried blogger and didn’t like them – quite honestly my primary reason for that was so much time that their system was “down” and their support system was sadly lacking.
I did (after several changes) go with one with a custom header. I haven’t decided how I’m going to play with it, but I’m looking at various photographs I’ve taken and am seeking one that I think will work well.
- The topic ‘New and confused – Links? Templates?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 