Blog Help | How To Use Blogspot/ Write Your First Post

Starting a blog can be a daunting experience so I wanted to share with you some tips of writing a first blog post. This will be for people using Blogspot as that is the platform I use to write my posts, however if you are using Wordpress there are a lot of posts out there to help you. So let's get started!



So once you open the Blogspot new post page you will see a header I'm going to go through what each button means for you!

• The first arrow means undo the last thing you do, the second arrow means redo - if you press undo by mistake you can just redo it.
• Next up is font - pick one that is easy to read and is nice and clear
• Up next is text size - I use normal as you don't wanna go to big or to small
• Now you will see a box that say's normal, heading, subheading this means it will create a heading for you on your posts which makes the writing rather large and bold
• Then you have B for bold, i for italics , U for underlined , and ABC for strikethrough
• After that is a button to change colour of text and the little highlight pen changes the background of the text 
• Next up is Link this is a place to add a link to a website to your blog, clicking on it takes you to a box that will say website or email which you fill into the box, a box to say what you want the word to say and then at the bottom two boxes to tick one that says open in new window which is great if you want to person to stay on your site and also the No Follow box which is very important to click if you don't want Google to follow the link which is highly recommended.

• Ok onto Insert image which is a little picture icon - clicking that allows you to add an image onto your post either from the blog, your media files or from Google album archives. I use a large image on my blog posts.

• The movie icon is next clicking it pulls up a box the same as the image one and again you can upload from  your files, Youtube or Google Album archives

• Onto the smiley face which allows you to add symbols and smiley faces to your posts, pretty handy if you want to add arrows!

• My favorite little gadget next the page break ever see on this blog a little read more under my post clicking that icon gives you that for your posts, I use it under the first paragraph of writing which allows the reader the have a snippet of writing before reading the main post
• The writing icon allows you to move the writing either the left hand side, middle or right hand side
• Numbers will give you a numbered list 
• The little dots you give a bullet list which I'm using now
• Quoting give you a quoted piece of text handy if you are quoting another blogger!
• The T with the X means removes formatting on the post which I wouldn't click if you do it will remove all the structure to the post!
• And lastly my favorite the spell check! One I use all the time due to being dyslexic 

Above the header is the post title this is where you can create a title for your blog, think of something catchy that describes what your writing about but doesn't give to much away. This will be the first thing people see for the blog so you want it to be something that people will click. You can also go into the HTML part of the blog this is mainly used if you want to add a link or a third party item to the post such as a rafflecopter giveaway link. 

 

• Onto the sidebar which has a few little topics to click and use first one being labels once clicked onto the labels box it will open allowing you to add labels such as beauty, lifestyle and fashion all need to be added with a comma and then click done when you have finished.

• Next onto Schedule this is a place to add blog posts to your blog either when you have finished writing the piece to do that just click Automatic or on a later date by clicking on the day and the time you want and then clicking done. If you pick to schedule your post remember to still click Publish! it won't make it live on your blog but it will schedule it for you.

• One button next I've never used it Permalink this means that it will be linked automatically to this post or it will link to another blog post or page. I've never used this button as I always keep it on automic however is helpful if you want to direct to another blog post or page.

• Location is if you want to add a location to the post for example if you do a review on a shop, bar, city or town you can link it to the post! Very handy if you are running a travel blog and want to let people know where something is or an exact location to a shop.

• Lastly is the Options menu something which I hardly use again! This is where you can allow readers to comment, or show html in the blog post. I don't tend to touch this box unless I have a post that I don't wish to allow people to comment on then I will unclick the box!

Ok onto the final thing for writing your first post and that is the publish button area:

• Orange button means to publish the post, you still need to click this even if you are scheduling the post
• Save means to save your work
• Preview will show you what it will look like on your blog
• Close means to exit from the page

That is pretty much all you need to know on how to write up your first post on the blogspot website, I really hope this was helpful and I was able to help or inspire someone to start there first blog, let me know if you have any questions!