Week 3: Write first blog post and About page

This post is the third in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the first and second posts if you missed them. Check back next week for more.

This week you’re going to get comfortable with the basics of creating content on your blog.

You can create two basic types of entries on Wordpress: blog posts and pages.

Blog posts are just what they sound like. You’re reading one right now.

Pages are used for things like your resume, portfolio or blogroll. The tabs across the top of my Web site all link to individual pages.

So, now that we know what each is meant for, let’s create some content.

Write your first blog post

You might want to use your fist blog post to introduce yourself, give readers a little insight into why you are making your site and foreshadow what you plan to blog about.

Go to www.YourDomain.com/wp-admin and log in.

On the upper left hand side, you’ll see a button that says “Add new” underneath the “Posts” tab. Click it.

Now you’ll want to give your blog entry a title.

In the body field, you’ll obviously put the body of your post.

Some basic buttons you'll use

To style your text, pay attention to the blog and italics buttons, as well as the drop-down menu that says “Paragraph.” “Heading 3″ tends to be the one you’ll want to use for subheads.

You also may want to use the bulleted list and numbered list buttons, plus the quoted material button and indent buttons.

Speaking of all this stuff, allow me to go on a very important tangent for a moment.

Writing for the Web: Just the basics

Some things to keep in mind about writing for the Web:

1. Link. Link. Link.

• If you refer to an article online, link to it.
• If you mention someone who has a personal Web site, link to it.
• If you mention your favorite movie, link to its IMDB page.

I cannot underscore the importance of links. They help your Google search rankings, and more importantly, they make you look like you actually understand the Web. Get friendly with this button.

2. Make your posts easy to scan.

• Keep your paragraphs short, much like you do in news articles.
• Use bulleted lists when applicable.
• Use subheads to break up large chunks of text and make your organization stand out.

3. Use visuals when you can. Flickr often has good Creative Commons-licensed photos that you can use if you don’t have your own photos. Just make sure to credit them appropriately.

4. Especially when writing headlines, think about SEO, or search engine optimization.

This means that you should write your blog titles with Google search in mind. A months-old entry of mine titled “Getting Google to recognize my blog” still gets a decent amount of hits thanks to people searching that phrase in Google.

• Kill the cute stuff. Keep titles literal. Plays on words or puns don’t tend to work well.
• Be specific and use keywords. Nouns are especially important in Web headlines, while verbs tend to get more of an emphasis in print headlines.
• Be clear and concise.

OK, done with that tangent. Back to writing your first blog post.

You’ll want to type in whatever and hopefully add a photo, which you can do by clicking the icon that has a square on it. (It’s at the top of the bar with all those buttons.) There, you can upload a photo from your desktop or place one that’s already online.

You can also scale the photo down in side and add a caption to it if you want. Remember to credit photos appropriately if you’re not using your own. Once you have all that done, just click “insert into post” and it should appear.

When you’re done with your post, you can click the “Save draft” button on the upper right hand side to save it so you can come back to it later. You can also click “Preview” to double check that everything looks OK without actually making the post go live.

And once you’re ready, you want to click “Publish.”

Once you do that, you should see your first post when you go to www.YourDomain.com.

So, now that you have that wrapped up. It’s time to add another page to your site. For our purpose this week, we’ll start simple.

Create your about page

Most every blog should have an about page. It’s an easy way for someone who stumbles onto your site to find out who you are and what your schtick is.

So, to create a new page, go to your left hand sidebar in your Admin and click “Add new” under “Pages.”

You’ll notice that the controls for creating a page look very similar to those used to create a blog post. I’d recommend fiddling around a bit just to get comfortable with them. Remember, you can always click “Preview” to see what it looks like without saving it and making it go live.

So, what should you include in your About page?

Here are my suggestions. Take ‘em or leave ‘em.

• Where do you go to school, and what is your year and major?
• Where have you worked or interned? (Remember to link to the Web sites of those news organizations, too.)
• What jobs titles have you had in journalism? (I might want to know if you’ve been a photographer at XYZ newspaper or a features columnists or editor-in-chief.)
• Are you active on social media? If so, link to your page on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Wired Journalists, Publish2, etc.
• What do you look like? (I think including a photo makes it a bit more personal. You are now a face rather than just a name.)
• Is there something that makes you memorable? Including a fact that sticks out in people’s minds is never a bad idea.
• Are you looking for internships or freelance opportunities? It probably wouldn’t hurt to mention that, just in case.

Here are some examples of about pages by other student journalists or recent graduates:

• Josh Halliday, student at University of Sunderland in the U.K.
• Greg Linch, recent graduate from the University of Miami
• Vadim Lavrusik, student at Columbia University Graduate School
• UNL’s very own Alina Selyukh
• Albert Sun, student at University of Pennsylvania

Week 2: Find a theme, install it and customize it

This post is the second in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Find out more about the series and read the kickoff post if you missed it. Check back next week for more.

So, now that you’ve done everything that’s covered in Week 1, you should be ready for your next step: find a design for your site and install it.

Now I know what you might be thinking: “Wait, find a site design? You mean you didn’t make yours from scratch?”

Well, no. I’m not that talented.

Wordpress has a fabulous community of designers who pride themselves in creating designs that you can download (often for free) and use on your own site.

In Wordpress terminology these ready-made designs are called themes.

So, this week we are going to learn how to find free, professional themes and install them.

What do you need out of your theme?

Before you go pick a theme, consider what you will be using your site for.

• Is it going to house your photography portfolio?
• How about video packages?
• Maybe text stories with some multimedia?
• A mix of all of the above?
• Will you blog frequently?
• Do you want a classic color scheme or a bright one?

Some themes work better for certain tasks than others. Keep that in mind when you’re looking. (For instance, if you’re a visual journalist, do you want to have a big header image in your theme so you can play your photos big?)

Check out some themes

The best way I know to find a good theme is to look at oodles and oodles of them, download quite a few and try them out.

(Sidenote: Many many many Wordpress themes are free. Some cost a bit - usually starting at around $20 and up. I’ve paid for a theme before, but the one I use now was free. Lesson learned: You very likely can find a free theme that you’ll love. If you want to pay up, you can, but you certainly don’t have to.)

Most themes will have a “live demo” or “preview” link somewhere. Meta-Morphosis here on the right is a good example of what you’ll often find.

If you like it, click the “Download” link that is most likely very near the “live demo” link. That will get you the zipped file for the theme.

So, where do you start looking? Here are some places to check out.

For everyone: 100 Amazing Free Wordpress Themes for 2009

For photogs and designers, specifically: 21 Premium-like Free Photoblog Themes for Wordpress

For everyone: Google search

Other options

• You can go to Delicious and do a search for Wordpress themes to see what users have bookmarked. (I have a few under my account.)
• You can also use Wordpress’s own search to find themes, but there are literally thousands to choose from. I like it when someone else has done some of the filtering for me. Nevertheless, the search is there if you want to use it.

Now that you’ve downloaded a few themes, it’s time to put them on your Web server space that you bought last week. To do that, we’ll use an FTP client.

Download an FTP client

Don’t know what FTP even means? Don’t worry.

Basically an FTP client is a program will take files from your computer and put them on your hosting space.

It gets things from here to there. (It’s much like when you copy and paste something from one folder on your hard drive into another.)

In our case, what we’re going to be transferring is a folder containing your Wordpress theme.

Sidenote: Your hosting company probably has an FTP program built into its site somewhere. (Godaddy does, but quite frankly it’s not the easiest way to do things in the long run.) In my opinion at least, it’s much easier to download a handy dandy program on your computer that allows you to do the same thing but with fewer clicks.

So, what program should you get? (I’m sticking with free options for now. You can pay for higher-end FTP programs, but I’m trying to give you a bare-bones how-to on setting up a site for cheap.)

If you’re a Mac user, I’ll talk you through Cyberduck, the FTP program I use and love.

If you’re a PC user, I’ll give you some resources for how to use Filezilla.

(Ed’s Note Part A: I’ll apologize now to my PC-using friends. Because I’m a Mac user with no access to a PC right now, your instructions may be less detailed than those for your Mac-using counterparts. Sorry. I’ll always try to find online documentation to help you along wherever I can’t.)

(Ed’s Note Part B: You can use whatever FTP program you want. I’ll talk you through one that you can use on whichever operating system you’re on, but by no means are these the only two options. Thanks! -Emily)

For Mac users:

Download Cyberduck.

Once you download it and install it on your computer. You’re going to want to start the program and then select File->Open Connection.

This will ask for your server number, username and password. All of this can be found by logging into GoDaddy with your username and account there at the top of the homepage. Then go under Hosting->My Hosting Account and then clicking “Manage Account” next to the domain you bought.

Your server IP address should be listed in that first screen that will pop open. It will be something like 123.456.789.01. Copy that and paste it into Cyberduck’s Open Connection window where it says Server. Then put your GoDaddy username and password in where it asks for them.

This, hopefully, should get you logged in.

Sweet. Now you’re ready to install a theme.

Hopefully you’ve downloaded a ZIP file of some theme you like (really any will do for the purpose of just learning how to install one). If so, unzip it.

Now, that Cyberduck screen is much like a Finder window on your Mac. It shows you what files are on your server space. So, we want to find the right folder to drag and drop that theme folder. It’s going to be in one of two places. If you installed Wordpress directly into your root folder (the base level of your server), you’ll find it by going here:

wp-content/themes/

If, however, you installed wordpress within a folder itself, you’ll need to go to:

wordpress/wp-content/themes/

Either way is fine and dandy. Once you get to that folder, you’ll likely see two other folders inside it: classic and default. Those themes come already installed with Wordpress.

All you need to do is drag and drop that theme folder you unzipped over on top of that Cyberduck window. It’ll bring up a screen that shows the status of the upload and you’ll see when it’s reached 100%.

For PC users:

Download Filezilla and install it.

Go here for more instructions on how to use it. (I’m suggesting you use Filezilla mostly because these instructions are about as detailed as I try to make mine for Mac users.)

Some of the instructions on that page are probably more advanced than you’ll need. Going on a pure educated guess here, I’d bet that the portions that will be most useful will be under the following headings:

• Using the Quick Connect bar
• Navigating on the server
• Navigating on your machine
• Transferring files

Just like your Mac-using friends, you’ll be putting your theme folders under one of two places depending on where you installed Wordpress. You’ll either be putting them in:

wp-content/themes/

or

wordpress/wp-content/themes/

Either is perfectly fine. Once you get to that folder, you’ll see two folders already inside it: classic and default. Those themes come packaged with Wordpress when it’s installed.

That’s how you get your theme from your desktop to your server. Now you need to activate it. (This takes just a couple clicks, I promise.)

Activate your theme

Open Firefox or whatever browser you’re using and go to wwww.YourDomainHere.com/wp-admin/

Log in using your username and password that you picked when you installed Wordpress.

Now, off to the left hand side, you should see a light blue bar that says Appearance. Under it should say Themes, Widgets and Editor. (If it doesn’t, just click “Appearance” and those options will slide down.)

So, click “Themes.” That will bring up a window that should show you a preview of every theme you have installed, which will most likely be 3 for you (classic, default and your new one.)

Click on the new one, let the popup window open and then click in the upper right hand corner where it says “Activate ThemeX.”

If you go to www.YourDomainName.com now, you should see your new theme in action.

You can install as many themes as you want, provided that you don’t exceed your hosting space limit, but you shouldn’t need to worry about that for a while. (I have probably a dozen themes installed for my site. I tried out quite a few before I settled on the one I have now. I’d recommend you try out a few, too.)

Customize your settings

Right now, the subtitle of your blog probably says, “Just another Wordpress blog.” Not very original, huh? To change that, you need to go into your Settings menu.

In your Wordpress Admin, look on the left hand side. You should see a blue bar that says “Settings,” and under it should be a list of sub-categories. (If these don’t show up, just click “Settings” and those options will slide down.)

You can change the “Just another Wordpress blog” chatter under “General.” You can also change various settings including what page will appear as your homepage at www.YourDomainName.com.

The best thing you can do at this point is to click through those settings pages and just get a feel for what you can change.

Play around with things. I promise you won’t break anything so badly that it can’t be fixed with just a few clicks.

So, are you finding these tips useful? I’m curious to see who is following along with the series. If you would, post the URL to your site in the comments. I’d love to see what everyone has so far.

Week 1: Buy a domain and install Wordpress

This post is the first in a weekly series that will take journalists through how to set up a professional-looking portfolio Web site. Check back next week for more.

First things first: If you know anything about me and how-to guides, you know that I’m a bit of a screen cap nut. I’m a big believer in showing you what you should click, so apologies if this post looks a bit gargantuan. Also, some of the screen caps were too wide to fit on my blog at their full size. If you’re having problem seeing what they say, click them and they should pop up in full size so you can read what they say.

Also, I promise this isn’t too hard. This is a huge post, but only because I’m just trying to make sure I don’t leave any steps out.

Step 1: Choose a domain

You need to get a domain. You can register a domain through tons of Web sites. (I use GoDaddy and have few complaints, so that’s what I will use to walk you through things. If you want to use another host, go right ahead.)

(Update: Check the comment section for some suggestions for alternative hosts.)

One you think of a domain you like, go ahead and do a search on GoDaddy’s home page to see if it’s available.

I’d recommend you a .com domain that is derived from your name. EmilyIngram.com wasn’t taken when I set mine up. If your FirstnameLastname.com domain is taken, just stick to something professional sounding that you’ll be happy to keep for many years to come.

Some alternatives for you to consider:

• www.byJohnDoe.com - Joey Baker’s www.byjoeybaker.com is one example of this.
• www.DoeReporter.com or www.DoeDesign.com or www.DoePhotography.com - Andrew Dunn’s www.dunnreporter.com is one that comes to mind.
• www.JohnADoe.com - See Andy Boyle’s www.andymboyle.com.

Find one you like that no one else has laid claim to? Awesome.

Step 2: Buy it before someone else does

(I already have a GoDaddy account, so I hope that my instructions here are the same if you don’t have one. That said, if GoDaddy is trying to get you to add on anything I don’t mention here, you probably don’t need it.)

So you’ve found a domain you want and it’s available. Now, it’s time to buy it. GoDaddy will try to get you to buy all sorts of additional domains, such as the .net and .biz alternatives of what you picked. You don’t need them.

(Update: Adam made a good point in the comments below. Though you certainly don’t need to buy the .net or .info or .biz versions of your domain, you can buy them if you want to block other people from doing so. It’s definitely not a bad idea, but it’s up to you.)

Click the orange “Proceed to Checkout” button.

This next screen will likely be another attempt by GoDaddy to get you to buy more domains that you don’t need. Just click “No thanks.”

Now you’ll need to put in your personal information to create an account with GoDaddy. Then click “Continue.”

On this next screen, you’ll want to choose how long you want to register your domain for. (I go on a year-to-year basis, and GoDaddy will call you when you’re near the end of that year so you know you need to renew.)

You’ll also want to check the button that says “Economy Hosting.” (It’s in that first yellow column. One year of hosting will run you about $55.)

Now scroll to the bottom of the screen and you’ll see two lines of text. One of them will say something about customizing your order. The other says “No, proceed to checkout.” (Or something to that effect.) Click that one and go to the next screen.

This, I think, will get you to your actually checkout. (GoDaddy may give you more options to buy stuff. Like I said, you probably don’t need it.)

Your domain plus one year of hosting will run a hair less than $60.

Because I’m a big fan of coupon codes when shopping online, here’s a way to save about $11: Enter “BTPS7″ (without the quote marks) to save 20% on any order of $50 or more.

(I don’t know when that one expires, so as a backup you can try “Rev6″ (again, no quote marks), which should get you 20% off your hosting plan. That’s basically the same deal, and that code will likely not expire for a while.)

You’ll have to select how you want to pay. (Again, because I already have an account, you may need to enter extra information that I already have stored in their system.)

Agree to their terms of service by checking the two checkboxes.

Click “Checkout Now” and you should be all done.

Do a little happy dance.

Step 3: Install Wordpress

On the green navigation bar, scroll over Hosting and select the last option on the list, “GoDaddy Hosting Connection.”

Because GoDaddy’s site design is a little screwy sometimes, it may treat you like you’re not logged in even if you are. Just click the “Log in to your account to get started” line, and you’ll be good to go.

This screen should show your newly purchased domain. Click “Manage Account” next to it.

This will bring up a new screen. You want to click on the gray horizontal bar that says “Content.” Now you want to click on the last button that says “GoDaddy Hosting Connection.”

(Yes, GoDaddy makes it difficult to get to this page. I know. I wish they didn’t.)

On this screen, you’ll see along the left hand side a bunch of options. Click “Blogs.” That will present you with a bunch of other options. Click “Wordpress.”

A new screen will open and you should see a gold “Install Now” button. Click it.

You might need to select which domain you want to install Wordpress on. (That’s easy as you only bought one.) And you’ll need to choose a username and password.

That should be all you need to do. (I’m not 100% sure as I don’t want to click the button now and risk overwriting any of my installs already on my domains.)

The installation process takes a little while. (Something like up to 24 hours, if I remember right. You can see the status of the installation in the upper right hand part of that page. It’ll say Wordpress and then undernearth it something like “Installation Pending.”)

When it is done, you should be able to go to www.YourDomain.com/wp-admin/ and see a login screen like this:

Enter your username and password that you chose earlier, and you should be golden. That means Wordpress is installed and you’ll be ready for next week’s task.

Did you run into a problem? Did I leave out something by accident? Leave a comment and I’ll look into it.

How to build a portfolio Web site: A new blog series

For a while now, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a series of blog posts that takes my blog readers, who are mostly journalists, step by step through the process of setting up a personal Web site with Wordpress on their own server space.

But I didn’t know if it’d be of any use, so I posed the question to my friends on Facebook. The overwhelming response was that it would be, so here I go.

What you can expect

This will be a weekly blog series. In each post, I’ll take you through the details of getting one step closer to having a personal portfolio Web site much like mine. If you have questions, leave a comment and I’ll find you an answer or at least start you in the right direction to finding one on your own.

What you’ll need

• A little cash: A domain and server space will run you about $60/year based on the rates from GoDaddy, the host that I’ll be talking about in my blog posts and the host I use for my site. (You can use another host if you want, too. No big deal.)
• A little time: I built my site in my free time last summer, so this is absolutely something you can accomplish on your own. No need to hire a Web designer or quit your day job.

One caveat: The free option

I’m going to talk you through setting up a site on your own server space because I honestly think it’s the best option if you’re OK with investing a few bucks into the project.

That said … you can go the free route and go straight to Wordpress.com and set up a site that way. Wordpress takes you through the pros and cons of either option.

Personally, I look at my site as an investment well worth the $5/month I pay in hosting, and I think the extra skills I’ve learned through having to host it on my own come in handy. (I can go into interview now and say that I know what it means to transfer a file via FTP. I couldn’t do that before.)

Plus, as an journalism and advertising double major, I think it’s important to be able to market yourself in a professional manner when you’re applying for jobs and internships. Having a short and simple URL for my site allows me to do that.

So that’s my two cents. If you or someone you know might get some use out of this series, feel free to send them a link here.

Chat: How can students use the summer to set themselves apart?

I just wrapped up a great chat with the folks over at Poynter. (If you’re not already devouring all the news and tidbits Poynter has to offer, I’d recommend starting now.)

Poynter faculty member Sara Quinn, along with a handful of Poynter College Fellows, joined in for a lively discussion centering on one question: How can students use the summer to set themselves apart?

If you didn’t get a chance to participate in the chat, Poynter has your back. All chats are archived so you can read them at your leisure. (The full chat archive page is a great resource.)

Sidenote: The opportunity to host this chat came about from a tweet I sent Ellyn Angelotti, Poynter’s interactivity editor and adjunct faculty member. Consider that my Reason No. 428 to use Twitter.

Off to Minneapolis

I’ll be hitting the road later this afternoon, headed for Minneapolis for the 2009 American Copy Editors Society National Conference.

Can’t make it to conference this year? Check the ACES Web site for resources from speakers and panelists. (Click on Schedule at the top of the page.) Some sessions already a PDF or PowerPoint posted.

Happy editing!