![\"How](\"http:\/\/bobwptrainer-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/text-widget-simple-text-paragraph-break.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBut what if you want to do something a little fancier? Maybe a simple link to purchase your eBook. The good news is that the text widget works with HTML. The bad news, not all of us know HTML. So here\u2019s a workaround.<\/p>\n
Open a new post or page. Don\u2019t worry, you won\u2019t be publishing it or saving it. Now go in and format the text, add an image, add links, all that good stuff. Remember, as you are doing this, it\u2019s going to fit in a widget area, for instance, a sidebar, and will only be so wide. If you are adding images, keep that in mind. What you end up with might be something like this.<\/p>\n
Now that you have formatted it, simply click on the text tab<\/em> and copy the HTML or what I call the blob of code.<\/p>\n Now we head back to your widgets. Place the text widget where you want it. In this example, I am using the primary sidebar.<\/p>\n Now if we go and look at our site, we will find a nice little formatted widget, ready to go!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s\u00a0an extra tip. If you have a lot of images you need to put in various sidebars or widget areas, and don\u2019t want to go through this each time, I highly recommend the Image Widget. Here is a post on that<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n When you install your theme, you often get a homepage by default. And depending on your theme, it will decide what that page looks like. In a lot of themes, it just defaults to the list of your blog posts, like this homepage:<\/p>\n Or maybe it looks like this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But what if you have decided you just want a simple homepage. Maybe something like one of your inside pages. You looked at the demo and thought something similar to the content with the sidebar on the right would work. But\u00a0how the heck do you do that? And what about your blog? You want that to go inside somewhere.<\/p>\n First, you will create your page. For the sake of ease, I am naming it homepage.<\/p>\n I save that and of course could have added any images or video as well. Now I go in and create my blog page. Name it, choose blog<\/em> over on the right hand side under Template<\/em>, and save. No content needed. This will automatically make it your blog index page.<\/p>\n Now you are going to do your magic. Choose Reading<\/em> under Settings<\/em> and you will get this page.<\/p>\n Now you are going to do three things:<\/p>\n Save, and go check out your brand, spanking new homepage.<\/p>\n When you are naming files, some people tend to use underscores instead of dashes. Something like this:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.domain.com\/sub_folder\/file_name.htm<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.domain.com\/sub-folder\/file-name.htm<\/p>\n Your media files would be an example of this as well. In any case, it\u2019s best to keep it to dashes. Why? Because Google looks at underscores as joiners. That means it looks at it as one word. And that sucks for the Google search engines.<\/p>\n You are typing along in your editor in WordPress, and you do a return. Damn, just this one time you want no space between the lines.<\/p>\n There are two simple solutions.<\/p>\n Or use the old standard key combination of:<\/p>\n Are you still using Admin for your username? Or maybe someone else on your site is? In any case, time to get rid of that bugger. You see, anyone can easily find out your username if they know how. But those bots that roam in packs on the internet looking to break into WordPress sites, they are set to try Admin first. So in reality, you are giving them half of your login by using it.<\/p>\n There are a few steps to doing this, as you cannot change a user admin.<\/p>\n Create a new user name<\/strong><\/p>\n While you are logged in, add a new username. Make sure that you give it an Administrator Role. Also you will need to use a different email, because two users cannot have the same email. You can always change that later on.<\/p>\n Log Out and Log In<\/strong><\/p>\n Now log out and log in with your new user name. Once you are back in, go into your User<\/em> list and find that old Admin<\/em> user.<\/p>\n Time to get rid of it. \u00a0But there is one very important step here.\u00a0When you click on the delete, this screen will show up. Now since you may have already created various posts and pages while using that Admin<\/em> user name, you don\u2019t want them to go away. So make sure to\u00a0tick the box \u201cAttribute all posts and links to \u201d and this will be your new user name and the one you are logged into now.<\/p>\n That will do it.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t so much a functionality of WordPress, but an important tip. I have had people who either choose not to create an about page or if they do, decide to hide it in the navigation. Make sure it\u2019s prominent! These days visitors to your site want to know who is behind the blog or business. In fact, I know many sites where the About page is the second most frequently visited page.<\/p>\n Here is a story for you. Someone is using WordPress. They have comments open on all the posts. But they are creating one post\u00a0where they want the comments closed. When they Google it, they find all they need to do is untick the box on the post editor page, under Discussion, where it says Allow Comments<\/em>. Well, they don\u2019t see that. They look and they look and they look. Google it more, same answer. It\u2019s driving them nuts. Maybe a stiff drink will help.<\/p>\n Whatever the end results are, they typically find that somehow it got unticked in the Screen Options<\/em> at the top of the page.<\/p>\n A lot of pages in WordPress have Screen Options<\/em>. This allows you to declutter what shows on that screen. You can hide the stuff you don\u2019t care about or need to see.<\/p>\n For example, on the page when you open the dashboard. Don\u2019t care about WordPress news? Or maybe something else there that just clutters the page for you? You can do the same thing.<\/p>\n Or on your Post<\/em> page. As you add plugins, more stuff shows up in each row. Maybe it\u2019s time for some cleanup there as well.<\/p>\n Just remember, if you can\u2019t find it, before you grab that nearest bottle of booze in frustration, check out your Screen Options<\/em>.<\/p>\n Are you finding a lot of new users showing up in your user page? People who are subscribing to your blog through your RSS? Well, unless you have a plugin that requires this box to be checked, make sure it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n Have you ever landed on a blog index page, or blog page that has the full posts listed and the page goes on and on? For example, look at this theme demo.<\/p>\n To make your blog page more user-friendly, try placing excerpts or the first several words of the post instead, so people have to click through.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at this single post that is pulled out from that first screenshot.<\/p>\n Do you notice something missing? First off, there are not share buttons if you are using them. Likely you don\u2019t have them on your blog page, just on single posts. And where are the comments? What if I want to leave one? As you can see on this screenshot, both are there, resting at home nicely on the single post page.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n2. What Homepage?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n3. Underscores vs. Underlines<\/h2>\n
Wrong Way<\/h3>\n
Good Way<\/h3>\n
4. !#%!# Doublespace<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\nshift > return<\/h3>\n
5. Bad \u201cAdmin,\u201d Bad<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n6. Who Gives a Damn About You?<\/h2>\n
7. You Said It\u2019s Where?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n8. Where The Heck Are They All Coming From?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n9. Full Posts Are Not Meant For Your Blog Page<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n