Blogging 201:  A WordPress.com University Course | 2 Weeks Long

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This week I began taking my first-time ever course, offered by WordPress University.  It’s called Blogging 201.  It’s aimed at helping people improve blogs or websites that are already up and running on WordPress.com.

I need this course a lot!  My website isn’t the simple, clean design I’d envisioned.  I have no readers or followers from within the the WordPress community…although I don’t know that my site would ever strive for that goal just because of the nature of my content.  But everyone likes to have more readers and followers…it signifies that what your doing is worthwhile and useful.

So, although the course is half over already and I’m not even fully connected to actually receiving the assignments yet…I am still trying to get ‘into the swing of things‘…in my own way.

www newbie tips

I’ve always wanted to include a section on my website about learning to create a website, or about becoming a blogger, and the resources I’ve found that might be helpful towards those goals.  I decided that now is that time.

Blog Posts versus Webpages

Some of my content that I believe has better longevity, and that I don’t want to be part of my Blog section, I add to my site as webpages instead of as Blog posts.  Posts are essentially a running list of my most recent articles, news or tips…they comprise my Blog.

Webpages by contrast, are static…they stand alone. I don’t want them to be in my list of Blog posts because those ultimately get pushed further and further down the page as I write new things.  I make something a webpage instead of a post when I don’t think that the information will ever get ‘old’ or irrelevant over time.

There’s One Inherent Problem With Adding a New Webpage to My Site

The problem is this:  Unlike Blog posts which automatically notify my followers each time I post something new, no one actually knows when I add a new webpage.  There is no built in mechanism to notify my followers when  a new webpage is added.  This isn’t a limitation of just WordPress alone…its pretty much the same everywhere from what I understand.

It’s just the way things work on the web.  So I just came up with a great (I hope) work-around for this.  Rather than trying to remember to email my family and friends who like to follow me, I just figured out that by adding a new post which in turn points to that new webpage, then everyone would get notified…just like if I’d added a new post (which essentially I did…but purely for pointing purposes.)

So please check out my newest webpage which introduces my new website section www newbie tips