In many ways writing a blog is simple. You just pick a site, write out a few posts and bam, you’re done! Well that is true if you’re just trying to get away with the bare minimum, but my job isn’t to make you a somewhat average website creator. My job is to show you tips for how you can have your site go above and beyond and be something that you are proud to show off to people!

I have already submitted a link to one of my previous travel blogs, but for those who’ve missed it I’d highly recommend checking it out, as it contains examples off all of the things I will be talking about below.

https://sites.psu.edu/2019studytoursouthaftica/

Creating a photo slideshow

If you are using a WordPress site, you probably already know how to add media including pictures. But did you also know you can create a slideshow as well. I recommend these if you have a bunch of pictures as these won’t clutter up the page. Plus you can even write short descriptions of the photos on the bottom, which will help visitors of the site understand what it is exactly that they are looking at.

To create a gallery, simply click the “Add Media” button on the top left hand corner. Then hit the “Create Gallery button and select the photos you want to add. You can then put captions on the bottom of the photos and rearrange their order. Just remember to hit the “slideshow” option on the right hand side instead of gallery. Here is an example of a slideshow from my trip to Europe:

Creating a menu

One good way to organize the website is to create a menu on the top of the page that will help people figure out where to go to next. As you can see I have already added my own menu to the website which includes topics I feel will help people find the specific posts they’re looking for. But you can make the menu categories whatever you’d like, including days of the trip, daily posts, or an image gallery. To make a menu simply click the menu option under the “Appearance” tool on the left hand menu (this is also how we can change our site template which we’ll get to another day).

You can then adjust which pages will appear on the menu and what order you’d like them to appear with a simple drag of the mouse. But how do I link the content I want to my menu pages? Well this is my last tip which is:

Creating custom links

A menu is useless if it doesn’t link anywhere. So in order to create a working menu page, simply write out what you want your title to say, such as “My Blogs” and write out the names of each of your blogs below it. Then highlight the blogs name and click this little image on the top of your editing bar

This will allow you to insert a link. Just copy and paste what you want it to link to, and ta-da! You’ve created an organized and convenient way for anybody to find where your content is without having to dig too much through your website. Of course all of this stuff sounds pretty basic, but it is all key to making a functioning website of professionally quality. Let me know in the comments if there is anything else you’d like to know how to do when building your website or if you’d like me to teach some more advanced techniques. See you all next time!