How to Write Your First Post on Bubbajuju "Like a Boss"

Photo Credit: Like a Boss

You may want to check out my other posts on "Bubba" before you continue.


Bubbajuju is Going to Become the Next Great Online Writing Site
Before You Write Your First Post on Bubbajuju

If you don't want to know why I'm writing this series go ahead and skip the next paragraph.

You may be wondering why I am taking all this time to go over how to get started at "juju".  What is in it for me?  And the answer is...I am a teacher.  That's it.  I like to learn things and then teach what I know to people.  So am I going to get some sort of bonus for referring you to a new site?  Nope.  Is there a referral system.  Nah-ah.  I keep thinking...I should be doing the stuff that I know will make me money because quite honestly...a post like this will probably not make me diddly squat.  So...yeah...I just had to share that real quick...   : )

This is a kinda long post.  If you're looking for something in particular you can always press crtl f and enter what you're looking for.


Now...Let's get you to your first post!


You are going to want to have the getting started forum up in a different tab.

Even though there is a guide it can still be a little overwhelming. I have a few tips that I accumulated for along the way.

First Things First...

Did You Edit Your Profile Yet?

If not go to your profile, change your password, (in the welcome email you were given a password) and check to make sure that you have changed your gravatar (you can wait but why not take care of it right from the start.)

While on your profile page make sure that you have your user name, nickname and display name filled out.

The only required contact info is your email but it is beneficial to have everything filled out there.  If you don't know where to find your google+ number just go to your g+ profile. Then in the address bar (the box where you see the url) you'll see some numbers.  Those are the ones you want to copy and paste it into the Google+

*Did you change your password yet?

Finally if you have an adsense account make sure that you add your ID to your profile.  It should start with "pub-" 

For Signature I just put my user name: Elaine K.  But you can do whatever you want.  If you need visuals there are pictures and arrows here, on the quick start guide.

Now You Are Really Ready to Write Your First Post...Well Almost

Bubbajuju uses Wordpress to write articles. If you are familiar with WordPress you will probably be able to skim through most of this.  If you haven't worked much with WP this will probably be a big help.  You can think of it as a how to wordpress guide as well as a Bubbajuju guide.

Titles

I titled my first post History for Kids.  You can leave the custom title tag blank if you want or add more like I did.  I put History for Kids for Homeschoolers in the custom title spot.

Meta Description

This is an SEO thing. Choose 2-3 search phrases that you think someone might use when they are searching (most likely on google) to find the information on your post and write your description based on that.  For me I put This article has history resources for elementary kids that are useful for homeschooling or anyone wanting some ideas to make history fun for kids. I'll devote more on SEO in a future post.

Meta Keywords

Similar to the description only not in complete sentences.  My keywords for my first article are: History for kids, kids history websites, history for first graders, History for elementary kids, and  Homeschooling history ideas.

Photo Credit: http://bubbajuju.com/forums/topic/quick-start-guide/

Meta Robots

Don't freak out about those guys.  They're Robots and they're Meta but just ignore them altogether for now.  If you are someone, like me, that likes to know the ins and outs of things check out this site.  It has some good definitions there. Or do a google search.  Here's a quick example...(I just can't seem to stop myself)...ok.  noindex tells search engines not to allow your post to show up in their results.  Does that sound like something you want to do?  Um... Not so much.  There is a time and a place for everything.  Now is not the time to check those boxes!

Canonical URL Override

This is another one of those things that you can totally ignore for now.  Basically if you wanted to you could change the way your URL would look.  But this is already SEO optimized so that you really don't have to worry about it.  I ignored it and my url came out like this: http://bubbajuju.com/history-for-kids/  Nice and clean with the pretty little dashes in between the words just like they're supposed to be.  And I'll make this part short and sweet. https is used instead of http in online banking and when you need to make sure the site is more secure.  That's all I'm going to say about that!  Go here to learn more if you're a nerd like me.

Ready to ignore some more stuff?  Good!  It's getting late and I'm ready to post this thing!

Ignore the following...cuz you don't need to worry about these and if you ever do you can leave a question in the comment section...

Ignore: Custom Body Class and Custom "Read More" Text

Now you should be at Thesis post image.
Upload the image that you want to feature for your post. By the way Dwayne (creator) emphasizes that ALL articles must have a featured image. Post the URL for it if it has one.  Add the alt text.  Alt text is basically a description of the photo.  It is supposed to be used for the visually impaired.  Here is what I used for my featured picture:  "Cover of the Book History Stories for Children.  Men in a boat at night dumping tea in the water."  Always make sure you credit your image even if the image is yours! : )

Post Image Caption

Here is how mine reads "-- Photo Credit <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932971076/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1932971076&linkCode=as2&tag=essquidoo-20">History Stories for Children</a>"  This is a place where you can add html coding.  See the screen shot below.

Leave "frame this image" unchecked. I tried it both ways on a picture and it didn't seem to change anything.  Maybe it would be different on another image.  Play around with it if you want.  You can always go back and change things.  Nothing is final.

For now leave the alignment "as recommended."  Again, if you want to mess around with it go ahead.  I get it.  It's a new toy.

For thesis thumbnail...quite honestly?  I left it blank on my first post and right now I suggest you do the same.  Since then I have gone back and added it and to be completely honest (cuz I'm cool like that) I'm not really sure what this does.  If you want to get the thumbnail done right now just do the same thing we did for Thesis Post Image above.

You can leave the "301 Redirect"  blank.  Here's what google says about it.

Now...for the moment you've been waiting for...

Fill in your article's content at the top and press the blue "publish" button on the right.  If you are editing a post it will say "update" instead of "publish."

Woo Hoo!!  You did it!  By the way...my high school basketball coach used to say "If it were easy, everyone would do it."  I hope I made it easier for ya.


Please and I say please!  (I can do that cuz this is my blog!  My blog.  My rules!)  Feel free to leave the link to your FIRST post in the comment section.  Can't wait to see what you all do!  I'll leave mine in the comment section first.  I'm rooting for ya!

If you just want to comment go ahead.  I love comments!

PS.  You can leave HTML coding in your comment section.  It's ok!  I did it like this:  <a href="http://bubbajuju.com/history-for-kids/ ">History for kids</a>