The first step, as always starts by logging into your Wordpress admin area.

Once inside your dashboard, on the left of your screen, there is a link in the sidebar under the Posts tab with the text Add New.

Click on it to continue.

The screen that opens, is your writing, editing screen.

This is where you create your post. I have numbered each of the sections you will need to fill out when writing your posts and have added a desciption of each of these below the image.

1. The Post Title. This is the area where you insert the title of your post, By changing the default permalink settings, your post title will also show up in the URL.
2. The WYSIWYG editor and Visual, HTML viewing tabs. The WYSIWYG editor in Wordpress performs similar functions as a Word processing program like Microsoft Word for example, but the options for changing text, fonts, and other special characters in your text are very limited and basic, If you would like to add extra features to your WYSIWYG editor, I highly recommend the TinyMCE plugin.
3. Your Post Content. This is where you write your post, insert images etc…
4. Save Draft. By clicking on the Save Draft button you can save your post without publishing it to the internet.
5. Publish. When you are ready to publish your post to the internet click on the Publish button.
6. Post Tags. This where you can add tags specifically related to the post content and category.
7. Categories. Choose the category of the post.

Located just below your Content editing area is the Excerpt section.

Excerpts are optional summaries of your post content that can be used in your theme. Not all themes use excerpts, so test this feature with your theme, but it’s a good idea to fill in this section just in case you ever decide to change your theme to one that does use excerpts.

If the text has already been added to the Excerpt section, it will automatically show up when the new theme is activated, saving you from having to come back later to add it.

If we take a look further down our post editing screen, you will see the section where you can choose to accept comments on your post.

If you decided not to accept comments as a default function in the Discussion section in your Settings, by checking the Allow Comments and Trackback feature here, you will overide that setting for specific posts.

1. Send Trackbacks. Trackbacks are similar to comments on other blogs, Use this feature when you write a review or mention another post in your article, this will send a link back to your post from the original article.
2. Custom Fields. Custom fields can be used to add extra meta-data to a post, they can also be used in conjunction with certain plugins.
3. Discussion. You decide if you want to receive Comments or Trackbacks to specific posts.

It is not nesercary for you to fill in all of the feilds when adding a new posts to your site, but I suggest the absolute minimum should be…

• Post Title.
• Post Content.
• Tags.
• Categories.

Whether you decide to allow comments and Trackbacks is entirely up to you, not every post you write will have a refference to another post, so you won’t need to worry about sending Trackbacks all that often.

But by filing the four basic sections listed above, you will be adding enough of the nesercary information to build a well structured post.

More On This Topic...

• Adjusting The Reading Settings In Wordpress
• Check Your Privacy Settings
• Managing The Discussion Settings In Wordpress
• How To Add Categories In Wordpress

Hopefully I will clarify the differences between the two and explain when to use a page or a post when adding content to your site.

What Are Pages?

Pages are usually used for content that is…

• Not placed into a larger group, category or cluster of information.
• A once off piece of content you may want to hide from normal site navigation.
• The landing page of your site.
• Content with specific layouts.
• For product downloading links for resources on your site.
• Your Legal and or Site terms and Conditions.
• Your Contact Us details.

To put it simply, and this is how I use pages instead of posts, I use a page when I want to hide specific content, for example if you sign up for my RSS feed via email or leave a comment on any of my posts, you will be taken to a “Secret” hidden page that will ask you to confirm a subscription to a mailing list.

I also use pages for content that I would consider static or a mandatory element to my site, Legal page, Sitemap, Archives, Contact and so on.

Another point worth mentioning is that your pages don’t have any tags associated to them, making them less valuable for SEO.

What Are Posts?

A post on the other hand is…

• A small piece of information that is specific to a much larger subject or topic.
• Grouped into specific categories, either through Categories or Tags.
• Listed in the order of when they were published, with the latest post always being shown at the top of it’s category.
• Content that encourages discussion, by allowing people to place comments on the content within the post.
• Archived by date, category and tags.

Most blogs use posts when adding new content, It’s how blogs were designed to work, it what makes them Blogs and not just Websites, and when you add RSS into the mixx, your posts can then automatically be delivered to your subscribed readers instantly after publishing.

I use posts for all new content added to my site, this for example is a post, and when you break it down, it’s simply a small piece of information about a much larger subject I cover on this site, namely Wordpress.

So What Are The Similarities Of The Two?

Posts and Pages do have some similarities though, They both are…

• Easy to create and publish to your site.
• Easily accessible from the navigation on your site.
• Easily hidden from the main navigation of your site.
• Spidered and indexed by the search engines.
• Easily password protected for specific visitors to your site.

In summary, Use pages for your Legal, Sitemap, and Contact Us information and then set up your categories so that the bulk of the content on your site uses posts.

More On This Topic...

• Adding Pages In Wordpress.
• How To Add A Post In Wordpress.
• What Is Wordpress?
• Adjusting The Reading Settings In Wordpress

Since it’s inception Wordpress has evolved to become a multi purpose, personal publishing system for creating easy to use  websites, or in other words…

Wordpress is the complete Content Management System for the technological illiterate.

With most Web hosts offering self installation scripts such as Fantastico or Simple Scripts, Setting up a Wordpress site can literally be as simple as a couple of mouse clicks, and some administration details, user-name and password for example.

Once you have filled in your admin details and follow the prompts, the installation script will automatically set up your MYSQL database for you.

Your Wordpress website needs a MYSQL database for it to work.

The Wordpress software is built using PHP, CSS and HTML code, and although you do not need to know any of these coding languages to use Wordpress, a basic understanding and knowledge will pay dividends when customizing your Wordpress website.

The beauty about Wordpress is, adding content to your site can be as easy as typing in some text and hitting the publish button.

Basically if you can send an email you can publish your own content on your own website.

Wordpress also has an ever growing community of users and programmers, making the software more and more flexible and powerful each and every day.

Wordpress also allows you to easily change the look of your site by using Themes, basically you can change your website layout with a single click of your mouse.

Wordpress also uses Plugins, you could easily describe a plugin as a specific piece of software that adds an additional function to your site by “Plugging into it“.

Plugins and themes are usually free and can be downloaded from the main Wordpress site.

Wordpress also builds itself.

Every time you add a new post or page, all of your links are automatically generated, meaning all you have to worry about is adding good quality content to your site.

You add content by using posts and pages.

Posts are usually placed into specific categories and sub categories where your pages can be arranged in hierarchies, for example you could have an “About” page that has several pages “About You” under it. There are no limits to how many pages you can have under your Parent page.

In a nutshell, Wordpress is very easy to install, use and customise, I use it and I recommend you do too.

More On This Topic...

• Understanding Posts And Pages In Wordpress.
• What Is A Wordpress Widget?
• What Is A Wordpress Theme?
• What Is A Wordpress Plugin?