New student and faculty members might be finding it difficult to set up their blogs and make their regular posts show up on their homepage. By default each student and faculty member is assigned a template that focuses mainly on their “About Me” profile and not their blog posts. The actual blogging feature of WordPress is obscured through this profile-centric approach, however it is still an integral part of your personal page. By regularly updating your blog and posting new material it will keep your page looking fresh and active. Here’s what you can do.

Navigate to the dashboard and on the sidebar go to Appearances > Widgets then drag and drop the Recent Posts widget onto the sidebar. This will enable you and your visitors to see your latest blog posts and navigate to them by clicking on the respective hyperlinks.

NOTE: By doing this your sidebar will be completely wiped out and replaced with only the Recent Posts widget. This will leave a significant amount of whitespace on your sidebar so I suggest adding at least one more widget to give your page(s) a more “filled in” look. I suggest adding some of your favorite links and (if you intend to post a lot) add a categories widget.

Now you’re ready to post by simply going into your admin bar (grey bar on top of page) and selecting your blog/site and clicking on New Post. WordPress has a very rich posting interface where you can add images, video, tables, polls, and even forms into your posts. Have fun!