What’s a Blog Post?

Post or Page?

First, what’s the difference between a POST and a PAGE?

The blog post is where you add your content to share with others; it shows up on your blog home page as a list of posts in reverse chronological order [See here].

A blog page shares information like About You, Contact, or Guidelines. Pages do not usually change and are found in a menu for readers to find:

For more information, see Edublogs Help post Differences Between Posts and Pages.or WordPress.com Help Posts & Pages.

What’s in a Blog Post?

Each blog post includes many elements when it’s finally published. Let’s take a look using yesterday’s Sharing Hobbies post.

A short primer with links to Edublogs Help documents:

The Blog Main Page Blog Post List

On the main page of my blog is preview of my posts.

Depending on your theme and set-up, readers arriving at your blog will see a list of your blog posts in reverse chronological order. Depending on your settings, each “preview” could include the categories of topics the post belongs to, the title of the post, the date published, the “featured image,” and the “excerpt” chosen to introduce and entice your readers to “Read more.” Edublogs provides a great overview of “Publishing a New Post.

The Blog Post

Depending on your settings, each “post” could include the categories of topics the post belongs to, the title of the post, the author, the date published, and the number of comments.

After that, your post contents that you add would include images, headings, texts in short paragraphs with hyperlinks to mentioned resources. You can learn all about these in a great Edublogs Help Document: How to Publish a Blog Post. Information about the parts of a post are explained here by Edublogs.

TIPS for Writing Blog Posts:

Title: Write a short, interesting title to draw your reading into the topic. Be specific: What will they learn? Perhaps ask a question.

Include images: Choose images that make a point about your message. Be sure to use images with licenses for reuse and cite your source.

Use headings: Headings separate your topic ideas so your reader can follow the flow of your ideas and find the information they want.

Short paragraphs: Online reading is different: readers want to skim through, so make it easy with lots of white space and short paragraphs; add those headings at the change of topics.

Use color: Add interest by using color for your headings.

Hyperlinks: Link to sources and resources that you mention in your post; this is the beauty of online writing: you give your reader information and resources to learn more.

The Blog Post Conclusion

Questions: End your post with questions for your reader to invite them to add value to your information by commenting with theirs. Use color to highlight them.

Add Tags !

Tags: When drafting your post, add tags — the specific ideas within your post.

What’s in a blog post?

Now you know!  Are you ready to blog like a pro? What would you add to help a beginning blogger?

PDF: What’s in a blog post?

Online Clickable Image here.