How To Post On ANF and WordPress

To place our writers on the same page and offer a more visually stimulating visits for our readers, we present a guide help you to structure articles with In-Post code.

While the following is intended to show our writers how to post on American NonFiction, many of the typographic topics we discuss will be useful to all WordPress users. So you might want to stick around for….

Professionalism in a Procrastinators’ World

Words are great, they do most of the work for us, writers, but with a touch of type-setting you can really make your post look great and get them read all the way through.

A quality post is created through various revisions and line edits. The road to perfection is a long journey down Rewrite Lane.

While I make no bold claim of perfectionist results from this guide, the following steps will walk you through a couple various stages that will change the look of your text and thereby help you catch various grammar mistakes.

But don’t get discouraged, no matter how many rereads you do there will always be more grammar errors to find.

If you currently only use the bold and Italics tags, then you will want to spice up your words with the many visual effects that WordPress has to offer. However before we get into the nitty and gritty of post appearance, we shall start with the first step.

Write Your Post Off-line

The first step to any post is to write the “I Am.” damned thing. You want to finish your first draft on an off-line word processor application, that is not the WordPress Editor! I.G. OpenOffice.org, MS Word, or Pages.

Sure, it’s super cool of WordPress to provide an on-line editor, but if your aim is to be a writer then when in Rome, write your first draft in the manuscript format.

Off-line copies will also save you from the Binary hiccups that have lost so many of my words to the great Error Gods of the Internets.

The Manuscript Format

Margins: 1 inch all around
Font: mono-spaced, I.G. Couriers or Typewriter texts
Font Size: 12
Line Spacing: Double
Paragraphs: Indent

For a complete understanding, check out what Louisa Burton has to stay about the Manuscript Layout

Clock in to our Literary Zine

Once you have written your post in manuscript format, it’s time to log into American NonFiction and publish. To log in you have to open the log-in screen. An easy task when you know where to look… Hint check out the footer.

Located at the bottom of any page on ANF is the Footer. At the bottom of the footer, in the small print, is a link that says “Author’s Punch In”. By clicking this link you open the log-in page. Or you could always use the default WordPress log-in address:

http://www.yoursite.com/wp-login.php.

Both of which will bring you here….

Once logged in, you will want to add a new post by clicking the Add new link under the Post section; Post>Add New

And with a click of the “Add New” button, we find ourselves at the Post Page where we can get to work.

A SEO Note

Search Engine Optimization is a crucial element to all of your post. Through the implementation of SEO, you will provide an easy way for Search Engines, like Google, to find you.

SEO Edit Your Title

Search Engine spiders will crawl over your site and look for keywords that people search for. Your title is one of the first places those spiders look. Ergo, you will want to have keywords related to your post in the title and URL slug tags.

Good Post Titles

A good post title will tell a reader what the article is about. On this post, the title is “How to Post on ANF and WordPress” as this article is about how to publish words on American NonFiction.

Another example is a recent post by Ian McLeod, “Nuke Beyond Patroleum’s Oil Spill Now“. Originally Ian had named the post…

“BP oil spill could go on for years,” say engineers. “Nuke it, retards” says Ian McLeod

Funny but a tad long for the Search Engine Spiders. I changed the title to “Nuke Beyond Petroleum’s Oil Spill Now” and moved the funny title to the Post’s excerpt for a number of reasons that follow.

We have already discussed that the title is shorter. Spiders like Post titles that are 3 to 5 words long.

I also changed the term “BP”. Sure, it’s shorter but every blogging Tom, Dick, and Harry uses BP to describe the company who caused the notable oil spill. I opted for the full name of the conglomerate to cut down on Keyword competition.

In the end, both titles tell readers the same thing. The SEO title only does it in a way that the Search Engine Spiders like a tad better.

Good Post URL Slugs

The other crucial element of the title is the permalink url. WordPress give us the option to change a post’s URL slug and you should use this option to add another location where you can place keywords for the Spiders to find.

As you can see in the URL of this article, the URL slug is “how-post-anf” because these words describe how to post on American NonFiction.

http://www.americannonfiction.com/2010/07/how-post-anf/6319/

In Ian’s post the URL slug is “bp-oil-spill-nuke-it“. I should have taken out the “It” at the end, but here you can see how we use the keywords again to describe the content.

http://www.americannonfiction.com/2010/06/bp-oil-spill-nuke-it/4806/

URL slugs should be short. In Ian’s post, we brought back the “BP”, as the full name of the company would have made the URL way too long.

Upload Your Manuscript Draft

Once we have a SEO friendly title and URL Slug, we are ready to copy and paste your first manuscript draft into the WordPress text editor.

Steps to Copy and Paste

Step 1: Highlight entire manuscript document.
Step 2: Copy entire document; Edit>Copy
Step 3: Select WordPress Window and click in the Text Editor box.
Step 4: Paste manuscript document into Text Editor box; Edit>Paste

Remember to choose the HTML tab in the Text editor window and not the Visual Tab. If you paste the manuscript draft under the Visual Tab, you may import the style from your off-line word processor.

The HTML tag imports the characters of your document and none of the style. Therefore you get a clean slate to set your words on.

Now we have a SEO friendly post title, URL slug, and the manuscript draft in your post. Yet the resulting preview is a bit boring to look at. We need to spice things up with some easy to learn code.

Use Code To Beautify Text

Here on American NonFiction, we style our post with a few elements. Yet these simple elements can dramatically effect the layout of your post. What elements make up a good post? Links, Images, Hierarchy tags, and Blockquotes

Make HyperText look SEO Pretty

<a href="http://www.siteurl.com/" target="blank">Hypertext</a>

Hypertext are the words that make up the link, I.G. Learn to post on ANF

As you can see by the example above, we again put our keywords to work in the hypertext. By using your keywords in the Hypertext, you leave more food for the hungry, hungry Spiders.

Image More Than IMG

Adding Images to a document is easier than ever before. You can insert Images in a snap with the Upload/Insert Buttons along the top of the Text Editor.

Click the button and you are taken to a screen where you can choose to upload a picture. As you fill out the various fields remember what we did with the hypertext, URL slug, and Post Title. Be sure to include helpful keywords for our lovable Search Spiders.

Hierachy Tags Provide Structure

<h#>SEO friendly subheader</h#> (# = number)

The h in H Tags comes from the word Hierarchy. As the word denotes, these tags make up the structure of your words. While H1 is the most important H tag, you will never use H1 in post.

Google allows 1 H1 tag per post and we save that for the Post Title. In posts you will use from H2 up to H6, which appear as…

H2 Tag

H3 Tag

H4 Tag

H5 Tag

H6 Tag

Notice how the text goes from largest to smallest. This difference in size makes up the structure of your post.

Example H structure

<h1>Post Title</h1>
<h2>Important Topic Point</h2>
<h3>Somewhat Important Topic Point</h3>
<h4>Lesser Topic Point</h4>
<h2>Important Topic Point</h2>
<h3>Somewhat Important Topic Point</h3>
<h4>Lesser Topic Point</h4>
<h2>Important Topic Point</h2>
<h3>Somewhat Important Topic Point</h3>
<h4>Lesser Topic Point</h4>


Post Title*

Important Topic Point

Somewhat Important Topic Point

Lesser Topic Point

Important Topic Point

Somewhat Important Topic Point

Lesser Topic Point

Important Topic Point

Somewhat Important Topic Point

Lesser Topic Point

*used h2 tag because H1 is already used by the Post’s title

Blockquotes Are A Break

<blockquote></blockquote>

Blockquotes are useful when you want to quote, but here on ANF, we also use them to break up a long post. Too many words on the screen and no breaks for the eyes can detour even the most ardent reader. Take it easy on them and implement the mile stones to lead ‘em all the way.

We have all been there, we read something that kind of interest us. But we see the sheer size of the word count and opt for episodes of “Whipout!”

Use blockquotes To Keep Their Wondering Eyes

And leave a trail of breadcrumbs to whisk them away to the end of your words.

Finish with a Post Map

Many of the Posts on American NonFiction are related to one another. We host multi-part guides and recurring columns. If your post is part of a larger series then let the readers know by using this handy bit of code.

<blockquote><h3>Post Map</h3>
Join us next time for “<a href="www.POSTURL.com">Post Title</a>”
Or go back to last time “<a href="www.POSTURL.com">Post Title</a>”
Or check "<a href="www.YOURBLOG.com/tag/PostTagSlug">Post Tag Name</a>".

<h3>Bonus Binary</h3>
<a href="www.POSTURL.com">Post Title</a>- short sentience on relativity to your topic
<a href="www.POSTURL.com">Post Title</a>- short sentience on relativity to your topic
</blockquote>

The Meta End

Before you can click “Publish” and get the esteem of all the internets, you have to leave a bit more food for the Spiders to find. We have a couple places to check and fill out essential data to get your words spread throughout the binary.

The areas to check are the Category and Post tag Areas. Then we need to fill out the Meta Tag areas and the Excerpt.

Categories and Post Tags Expand Interconnectivity

Categories are simple and you might already know where your post is going. The way you use categories is different with each blog and there is no right or wrong way.

Here on American NonFiction, we have three Main Categories; Background Noise, Incorrect Grammar, and Fiction Theme. If your post is a pop-culture review or column, it goes in Background Noise. If your post is a poem or prose, it goes in Incorrect Grammar. And if your post is a fictional story, it goes in Fiction Theme.

Post tags are the bastard children from the unholy physical union of Categories and keywords. Like a Categories, they link together post on your site. However, like keywords, they are picked up by social network sites and grouped with other identical tagged posts.

As such, Post tags are a bit more personal to the post’s content.

Here on American NonFiction, we use tags in two ways. If the post is part of a larger series we have tags for the series names. I.G. Sam’s Your Uncle, Saved Admission, Economics with Ian. And we have tags for social sites like Google or Technorati. I.G. Writing and Poetry, Music, Movies.

You want to have 1 category and 3-5 Post Tags per post.

Fill Meta Descriptions For The Search Spiders

While WordPress doesn’t come boxed with a function to control the Meta Tags that are crucial for SEO, there are a number of plug-ins that can handle the job for you. “All In One SEO” is a popular plug-in and a standard among the blogging crowd.

However, on ANF are currently trying out Headspace, and are happy with features of the plug-in.

In any event both programs add the same three spots to your post; Page Title, Description, Keywords.

Page Title

The Page Title is like the title of the post plus a little more. Unlike the title of the post, Page Titles appear at the top of the browser above the File, Edit, View, ext buttons. And are also the title that Search Engines will use to display your link in search results.

As you can see at the top of your browser, the Page Title for this post says “How To Post On ANF and WordPress – a guide”. The “- a guide” was added to the Page Title to help Search Engine users know this is a guide.

Description

Meta Descriptions are the words that Search Engines will use, when they can find no instance of the user’s Keywords in your posts. You want to treat these like Status Updates on Social Networking sites.

If you linked the post you are writing on Facebook, what would you write for the status update? It should read like your Meta Description, or visa versa.

Keywords

Keywords are like tags. What is your post about? Can you condense your explanation down to 2 or 3 words? The result would be your keywords.

Keywords are more than one word at a time. “How Post WordPress” is one keyword. Separate your keywords by commas and only use 2 per post.

Let’s Excerpt and Out

Excerpts are alternate descriptions of the post to display when the whole post is unnecessary. Not all WordPress Websites use them.

However on the front page, we display excerpts from the most recent post in each of our main categories. Therefore, you will need one with every post you write.

Yet not all categories have the same Excerpt structure. On Incorrect Grammar, the excerpt is all words, but in Background Noise and Fiction Theme there are pictures.

Incorrect Grammar Excerpt

Like the Meta Description, text excerpts should be like status updates of your post, but don’t use the same descriptions for both. Find another combination of 150 characters to get those readers interested.

Background Noise and Fiction Theme Excerpts

These Excerpts need the same 150 character descriptions but posts in these categories also need to have covers. Good thing the code for covers is pretty easy.

Example Excerpt

<a href="http://www.URLofPost.com"><img src="www.URLofImage.com" alt="name of image" title="title of image" /></a>

Excerpt Description of about 150

Click Preview Before You Publish

All right, there you go. We have taken a manuscript draft and done all the steps to give it a good chance on the Internets. Now you want to give your post a good reread.

Once all the way through. I know you have been working forever and are sick and tired of your own words…But just one reread more.

This last reread is a double check of all your ducks, if ducks were words. Are they all in a row? Can your read your draft? Does it carry you all the way through with no hang ups or wandering minds?

If you answered yes, then go back to the “Edit Post” Screen and hit that “Submit” or “Publish” button.

Give a Pat to Your Back

There you go. Good job, and if you made it this far, then good job to me. Your arrival at the bottom of this page proves that I am not completely full of shit.

This is a long post (over 2600 words) and I used all the elements discussed above to help you not even think about the length. And now that you know how to post, you can too!

About Post Map

Join us last time for “About Background Noise”
Or check the “About Bookshelf”.

Tags: about, internet publishing, SEO, typography, wordpress