General Formatting Tips

Formatting

Because the current theme only displays the title and the first three lines (about forty words) of your post, make sure you use them wisely. For fiction, the title should be the title of the piece. Optionally you could add a short descriptor. e.g. (Beta Readers Wanted). Consider writing a short introduction starting what kind of feedback you would like or a brief summary. Put the introduction in italics, and then offset and highlight it by using the quote format (the quotation mark button in the top format bar).

Non-fiction titles should be brief and descriptive, and should set the tone of the piece. Try to avoid the temptation to be cute or clever, unless your piece is satiric or comedic.

Pictures

There are two different kinds of pictures you can use.

Banner style

1. The Featured Image will not appear on your post, but it will be seen on the homepage and the WordPress feed reader. I recommend you use a banner style image that is at least six times as wide as it is tall (e.g. 500 x 80 pixels). This will highlight your post without hogging space on the homepage. Add a Featured Image to your post by selecting “Set Featured Image” on the sidebar near the bottom.

2. 

   150 x 150 pixels, right aligned

   Other images inserted into the post will not be seen on the homepage, but may be seen on feed readers. Banner-style pictures should be centered of the page. Other photos should be between 150 and 300 pixels in both dimensions and pushed to either the left or right side. Please resize images before uploading as storage space is finite.

SEO

While SEO is a moving target at the best of times, there are some simple practices which will help improve your ranking in searches and drive people to your post.

1. Use descriptive titles as mentioned above.

2. You can edit the permalink to add keywords. Press the edit button just below the title and insert your name, important keywords, or any other information that may attract searchers.

3. Complete the metadata when uploading images. All search engines will record the information in titles, captions, alternate text, and descriptions. Include important items such as your name, website, and important keywords in the description.