Some Beginner Don’ts for WordPress

I found the article, “Beginner WordPress Bloggers: 10 Things You Shouldn’t Do” by Tom Ewer to be very helpful for a new WordPress student and I’d like to highlight a few of the suggestions in my own collection of do and don’t tips for those new to WordPress, especially students in the Clark College WordPress classes. This comes from a student who can say “been there, done that, didn’t get a t-shirt.” 😀

Don’t Moderate Comments

By setting your comments to be moderated on your site, comments are held back until you approve them.

If you check frequently or use an email or mobile app to get notifications of comments waiting to be approved, this is okay, but it takes extra time and attention.

Moderating comments doesn’t prevent comment spam, and can prevent a lot of your viewers from coming back because the experience will be lacking compared to a live conversation. Your delay in approving moderated comments can frustrate the commenters.

By default, WordPress moderates new commenters by holding their first-time comments in moderation until you approve them. Once you have approved them, you are basically telling WordPress that they are okay people and their comments will not be moderated in the future.

To manage comment moderation in WordPress:

Interview with Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress

I had a great opportunity to interview, Lorelle VanFossen. Lorelle is a keynote, trainer, and writer, consultant on web writing, blogger, author, and teacher, plus offers a variety of training programs that emphasizes on web publishing and the social web. This gives her the opportunity to travel to places like Holland, Texas, and Canada to name a few to help inspire and motivate individuals to “have their say” on the web. As you have noticed, Lorelle is the Jill of all trades.

I asked Lorelle about a mentor when she started WordPress, someone she was able to look to when she was learning WordPress. What I found out was that she didn’t have a mentor per say because the individuals she was working with were learning it at the same time she was by breaking it and putting it back together. She said:

It was kind of like a puzzle with all the different pieces.

During Lorelle’s many trips to WordPress Meetups and WordCamps she has had many individuals inspire her to continue on with WordPress. One of the many individuals that have inspired her was one female that was a prostitute, which was involved in the Literacy Program for Street People, that quit three weeks prior because her voice was finally heard, which ended up changing her life for the better. Lorelle goes on to also mention that WordPress helps connect individuals, from someone that is to shy or very gregarious, and by way of networking together the creativity among those individuals is endless.

How to Post a Picture and Video in a Comment on WordPress

This tutorial covers how to put an image or video into a comment on WordPress.

Images posted in the WordPress Comment box must be set in an HTML image tag.

<img src="http://example.com/image.jpg" alt="Description of Image" height="150" width="200" />

The HTML tag links to the image, stored off the site you are commenting on. The image may be on Flickr, Instagram, a public image on Facebook or Google+ or stored on a web server such as your own.

As long as the image is stored on a publicly accessible server, and access to the server continues, the image will remain linked in the comment box. If the server status or image is changed or moved, the link to the image from that site will break and not be visible, possibly reporting an error in the comments on that post, so do this with caution.

Difference Between Visual and Text Editor

There is a huge difference between the two editors in WordPress. If you are determined to be a serious blogger working with WordPress, you need to understand how both work, why you should use one over the other and when.

In general, if you are a novice blogger, then stick to the Visual Editor. If you wish to be a speed blogger or professional blogger and web publisher, then get comfortable with the Text (HTML) Editor – both editors in fact – because you will be able to publish at high speed. I’ll offer tips and information on both editors to help you learn more about how they work.