The Mortgage and More Blog

Archive for the ‘Tutorial’ Category

Over my 2 plus years of blogging, I have used many platforms. I have to say that WordPress has to be one of my favorites simply because of it’s ability to allow an author to write posts and then schedule them out to be posted at a later date. In this tutorial we will discuss how to do just that. Accomplishing this is much easier than you might think. I have added a couple of pictures to help you with your learning.

In the first picture to the left, you will see two arrows. The first arrow is red and it is pointing to the section that says ‘Publish Immediately’. To the right of that verbiage will be a section that says ‘Edit’. Click on it and it will open up an option to pick the date and time. Our second arrow, the green one, points to this section. Once you chose the date and time, simply click ‘OK’. Now our first step is completely done.

To finish scheduling a post, write all of your article. Once you are done with that portion, you are then ready to schedule your post. This might be the easiest of the steps as all you need to do is click on the word ‘Schedule’ that our purple arrow in the image to the right points to.

In closing, that is all you need to do to be able to schedule a post. Now you can go on vacation and appear to still be posting on a regular basis.

© 2010 My WordPress Tutorial All Rights Reserved – Copyright notice by Blog Copyright

Using The Schedule Function in WordPress For Posts is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

***There have been changes to the widget discussed in this tutorial since the original publication (9-02-2009) of this tutorial. I have updated the tutorial to reflect these changes. Yellow font indicates where changes have been made. I have used the strike thru to indicate procedures that no longer apply. Also note that some images have been changed or deleted to reflect the changes to the widget.***

In this tutorial you will learn what tags are and how to use them. If you consider the amount of information on the internet it is no surprise that there must be a way to categorize that information for future reference by web surfers who are looking for it. The same holds true for information contained on your site.

To use tags you begin on the same screen where you write a post. After writing a post look to the right of the box where you have just typed the body of your post. You will see a white box labeled ‘Tags’ (notice the RED arrow in the illustration to the right). This is where you enter the tags which accurately describe the content of your post (see the GREEN box in the illustration to the right). Once you have added your tags they will appear under the header entitled ‘Tags used on this post:’ (inside the PURPLE box in the illustration to the right). If your post is about some aspect of the ‘$8000 Tax Credit’ then that phrase would be a good tag. You do not want to use non-relevant tags as visitors might get upset and/or frustrated if they click on ‘$8000 Tax Credit’ and the post(s) which are displayed are not directly related to that tag.

A wonderful tool that is available to help visitors easily use the tags you have entered is the Tag Cloud Widget. This widget is accessed via the dashboard; YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN. From the Dashboard this is the path:

Dashboard>Appearance>Widgets>Tag Cloud

If your tag cloud widget is not active and you want to use it, look for the ‘Appearance’ header on the left side of your Dashboard. If you hover over ‘Appearance’ a GRAY dropdown arrow will appear; click on this arrow. You then click on WIDGETS to open the list of widgets widget page. Simply add the ‘Tag Cloud’ widget to your sidebar by clicking ‘Add’ dragging it to the desired sidebar.

Tags which accurately relate to the content of your post are a great organizational tool. This organization can make your site much more visitor friendly. Imagine for a minute that you are the visitor and you arrive at a webpage looking for information on the ‘$8000 Tax Credit.’ If the site owner uses accurate tags then a visitor can simply click on the topic they are looking for in the tag cloud to display all of the posts that are tagged with that term! See the tag cloud to the right for an example of how a well utilized tag cloud might look.

How To Use Tags ***UPDATE*** is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

***There have been changes to the widget discussed in this tutorial since the original publication (August 13th, 2009) of this tutorial. I have updated the tutorial to reflect these changes. Yellow font indicates where changes have been made. I have used the strike thru to indicate procedures that no longer apply. Also note that the first two images have changed to reflect the changes to the widget.***

One of the most powerful developments on the internet for both business and personal connections is the emergence and widespread use of social media outlets. I would surmise that most internet users and even many people who do not use the internet have heard of at least one social media network; even if they do not realize it. MySpace? Twitter? Facebook? One of these three will generally ring a bell with most people as they are mentioned often on television, the radio, and in print media. In addition to these three social medias there are others, lots of others.

As a PREP member you have access to a pre-loaded widget from your Dashboard that can easily allow visitors to your site to connect with you via numerous social medias. This tutorial is going to give you step by step instructions (with illustrations) on how to:

1. access this widget
2. enter your social media usernames
3. place this widget on your sidebar

To begin with you will need to be logged into your Dashboard. From your dashboard, here is the path to access the widget:

Dashboard > Settings > Social Media Page (SMP)

As you can see from the graphic to the left, the Widget named ‘Social Media Page’ is where you need to begin. Locate the ‘Setting’ tab on the left hand side of your dashboard. When you hover over the settings tab a grey arrow will appear next to the tab name; click this arrow. When you have clicked this grey arrow a dropdown with numerous options will appear. In this list of dropdowns you will need to locate ‘Social Media Page.’ This is the widget we will be working with. In the image to the left I have placed a red box around the widget with a red arrow pointing to it. Click on ‘Social Media Page’ to begin working with this widget. Follow the directions on the image to the left.

When you click on ‘Add profile to list‘ the image to below  will appear on your dashboard:

From this point you fill in your Username/User ID for each of the social medias that you belong to and that you would like to utilize to easily connect with visitors to your site. Be sure that once you have filled in this information that you click ‘Update Profiles & Options’ at the bottom of the page to save the information you have entered. WARNING: If you do not click update the info you entered will not be saved and you will have to re-enter it. Now you are ready to place the widget on your sidebar.

To place the completed Widget on your sidebar, here is the path:

Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets > Add

On left hand side of your dashboard, locate the ‘Appearance’ tab. Just like you did with the ‘Settings’ tab above, hover over Appearance and a grey arrow will appear. Click this grey arrow to open up a dropdown. In this dropdown, locate ‘Widgets’ and click on it. I have placed a blue oval around widgets in the image to the right.

When you click on widgets, a new screen will open on your dashboard. From this screen, you can now add the completed ‘Social Media Page’ widget to your sidebar. Simply click ‘Add’ to place it in drag the widget to the sidebar you have selected. Once you have added it to your selected sidebar be sure to click ‘Save Changes’ or it will not be added.

That’s it! Now if you open your PREP site you will see the widget added to your sidebar with the various social media icons present and linked to your accounts. Just another way to connect with those potential clients.

Integrating Your Social Media Accounts ***UPDATE*** is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

Whether you hold classes, set up at local events, or simply want to promote an open house you are hosting then The Events Calendar is the perfect tool for you. This tool allows you to not only add the specifics of your event to both your blog and your calendar, if you enter a specific address it will embed a Google map in your post! If you have experienced underwhelming attendance at any of your events then this tool can help you to get more publicity and provide a map to help boost attendance. In addition to increasing attendance at your event, it will also help to garner more Google juice through the use of Google tools!

See the two images below for both visual and written directions on how to use this tool; clicking on either image will enlarge them. THIS TUTORIAL ASSUMES THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY INSTALLED THE EVENTS CALENDAR.

How To Use The Events Calendar is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

Lets face it, your website, be it for personal or professional use reflects who you and your business are. Most people realize this and in an effort to make it more accurately reflect who they are use the easily customized HTML coding intended for sidebars. Whether you are integrating a (Face Book Like button), local weather widget coding, or any of the numerous other features that can be added to your sidebar, the process is very easy and definitely helps to personalize your website. In this tutorial you will learn how to integrate this coding into your website’s sidebar.

For those of you who are visual learners there is a graphic at the bottom of this post that should be helpful. To view a larger image of this graphic simply click it!

Here is the path to add HTML coding to your sidebar:

Dashboard>Appearance>Widgets>Text>Sidebar (Drag to desired sidebar and add HTML coding)

1. Login to your Dashboard.
2. From your Dashboard hover over the Appearance tab. This will allow you to click on the gray dropdown arrow to the right of that tab.
3. Click this gray dropdown arrow.
4. You will now want to click on the Widgets tab (under Appearance). This will open up your widgets page.
5. Drag a Text widget to your Sidebar or open an existing Text widget in your Sidebar. IF YOU OPEN AN EXISTING TEXT WIDGET BE SURE NOT TO DELETE (OR REPLACE) THE EXISTING CODE UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET RID OF THE EXISTING WIDGET.
6. Insert the HTML coding and hit SAVE.

That is it! Visit your site to see the new widget you just added.

Inserting HTML Into A WordPress Sidebar is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

All you do to embed a video is to use the URL of the video, being sure to place it on its own line. Below is an example of how this works: the pink writing represents ordinary text in a blog page or post while the yellow represents the URL of the video (you would leave the quotes off when posting an actual video).

This would be the normal text for your post or page leading up to the video you wanted to embed.

“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8″

You would then continue with the text of your blog or page beginning on its own line.

That’s it!

Embed Videos Using URL is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

Today was a good day for PREP admins and hopefully for the general public who have their own website or blogsite built on a platform. This is because we launched SEO Info Now. This site is independent of the Positive Real Estate Professionals network.

Why did we build this site?

The reason for this site is rather simple. Since many of our PREP members find our SEO posts helpful, and the tutorials on the Test Account helpful as well we wanted to launch a site that combines both.

Will all the articles from PREP be on this new site?

While we are using a syndication from PREP’s main blog and the Test Account, these are going to be the only two sources of information for this site. Also, we have set up the syndication to hold posts in draft for the simple reason that if they are mainly concerned with PREP and not SEO or SEO enhancements or Wordpress tutorials we can simply leave them in draft.

What is the benefit to PREP overall (why should I care)?

This new site will provide backlinks and deeplinks to PREP. This will strengthen and enhance even further our positioning as a network with the search engines.

If you have a chance check out the new site and if you know someone whose site is built on a Wordpress platform that might appreciate the articles, send them on over too!

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

PREP Launches SEO Info Now is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

From Deep Linking to Do Follow v. No Follow links in your comment section, the use of links is an important aspect of SEO. WordPress makes it easy to add links to your business partners, resource sites, or any other website that your site’s visitors might find of interest. In this tutorial you will learn how to add links to your sidebar’s blogroll. The image at the bottom of this tutorial is ‘clickable’ (and will open a larger version in a new window).

To begin with you MUST be logged into your Dashboard. Once logged on this is the path: Dashboard>Links>Edit or Add New (depending on which you are doing).

I am going to approach this tutorial as if you are adding new links. Editing links works the same way you just have to select ‘Edit’ under your list of links that you wish to edit.

1. After clicking on Add New a screen will open that looks like the screen in the image at the bottom of this post. This is where you add links.
2. The first field on this screen is the Name field. This is where you enter the name of the website you are linking to; this does not have to be the site’s actual name but the best name that you and your site visitors will recognize and remember. NOTE: This is not where the URL goes.
3. The second field on this screen is the Web Address. This is where you enter the actual URL of the website you are linking to.
4. The third field on this screen is the Description. This is a completely optional field. Anything you enter here will appear when someone hovers over the site’s name on your website.
5. The fourth field on this screen is the Categories. This is where you organize your links. Many people choose to place all of their links in the Blogroll category. If you want to organize your links in a more specific manner this is where you can add the various categories you want to use. NOTE: You can put a link in multiple categories if you want.
6. Though this isn’t the last field on this page, the fifth field Target is the last field that most people utilize. In my opinion the Link Relationship and Advanced fields don’t add to your links. The target field allows you to determine how your link will open. I always recommend that you check the top option _blank as this option has your links, when clicked on, open in a new window rather than in the same window (_none).  The advantage to a link opening in a new window is that your site’s visitor who clicks on a link is NOT taken away from your site.
7. The final step is clicking the Add Link button to place and activate the link on your website.

Add A Link To Your WordPress Website is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

In this tutorial you will learn how to change your font’s size and color. Before we get started you should understand that the font style is built into the FREE custom theme you received (12 month membership) when you first signed up. What this means is although you can change the color and size of your font, the style will remain the same. There is an exception to this, if you are comfortable editing code, you can use the HTML tab to change the font style.

To get started you must be in the visual mode where you write a post; here is the path Dashboard>Posts>Add New>Visual. You can either change the font size and color as you write your post or you can write your post and then go back, highlight the portion you wish to change, and then make the changes. I would make sure to click the button before the button just to be certain that the size and color changes you made are what you intended. BE AWARE: Changing font size from the visual tab will change it for that entire paragraph or section, not for individual words. If you are comfortable editing code, you can use the HTML tab to change individual words or phrases. Below is a visual roadmap to how you change the font size and color from the visual tab (Click for a larger image). PLEASE NOTE: Learning to write in code is an involved process, I will not be explaining how to write or re-write code. Many communities have classes available through community centers, high schools, and other continuing education centers that can teach you how to write code if you are interested.

In the second image (Click for larger version) you can see an example of a post that has changed font size and color. Below the image you will see a point by point explanation of this; numbers and colors correspond to those in the image.

1. Title has a default larger font with underlining – though it is not bolded.

2. Links have a default color built into your theme – though the size can be changed.

3. This is the un-altered font size and color – built into theme.

4. Changed font color (and increased size, bolded, and underlined).

5. Default font color with increased size, bolded, and underlined.

6. Default font color with increased size.

Fonts – Size And Color is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

One of the best things aside from the versatility of Positive Real Estate Professionals members’ websites is the ability for visitors to do virtually everything without ever leaving your site. This eliminates the need for the back arrow on your browser. This also allows you to have numerous tabs or windows open at once for ease of movement between those tabs or windows. *Let me clarify: tabs are multiple sites opened in a single browser window while windows are opened in their own browser window*

To make pictures or text that you are linking within the body of a post open in a new window rather than directing a visitor away from your site there is a simple but important step that you must remember when creating the link. To link pictures you must select the image by clicking on it. You are then able to insert the link by using the For text, you highlight the text you wish to link and then click on the to attach a link. NOW FOR THE STEP THAT MAKES YOUR LINK OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW! When you click on the link icon a window will open in the middle of your page. This window is where you put your link’s URL. This is also where you can make your link open in a new window. Directly under where you put the link’s URL is the ‘Target’ field. This field has a dropdown arrow that allows you to make your link open in the same window or in a new window. Select ‘Open Link In A New Window’, hit insert, and you are down. Now your link will open in a new window.

Make Your Links Open In A New Window is a post from: Test Account

©2010 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.