Your first blog post

Welcome to your new website! We've created this first post to get you on your way, and get you used to the interface, and how it all works. It's fairly simple-looking to begin with, basically a blogging platform where you can add, edit, and delete posts, manage comments, upload media (images and documents), and manage the site users (basically who may log in to the site, and how important they are)!

The most important element to get used to right now is the Blog section. Every post you create can be saved as a draft, and worked on until you're happy with it, and at that point, you can publish it by clicking the nice blue button to the right. You'll see that this post is published, so that means it is visible to everyone, on the main site. You can unpublish posts to work on them, save their drafts, and even go as far as completely deleting them if you're not happy. Be sure also to associate Categories with each post - this will help classify the post itself, and make it easily searchable by your visitors. You'll see that this post has a category of Blogging - but you can add or remove categories as you see fit.

The Media Library is a list of images and documents that have already been uploaded to the site. You can copy a media item's URL to link to it (ie a document for download), or create an image within a blog post - can you see which button on this rich-text editor allows you to specify an image?

A couple of tips on blogging, to help you get the most from your posts (some points taken from here):

1. Write at least 3 paragraphs. Your readers love to be engaged in an interesting topic or point of view, so be sure you write enough to get your viewpoint/case/account across. Try not to make each paragraph overly long, though.
2. Develop a unique voice. Don't be afraid to polarise your audience with what you have to say - these kinds of blogs engender a healthy community interaction. However, always remember to treat your audience with the respect they deserve - if somebody "flames" you with an angry reaction and you decide to respond, be measured and accepting in your reply.
3. Create useful content. Perhaps the best way to stand out from the crowd and make an impression upon people is to produce content that impacts them in some way. Write something that matters, that helps people, that solves a problem, that enhances people's lives and you drastically increase the chances of them coming back and bringing a friend with them.
4. Get Visual
   
   
   

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