Apr 21, 2017 / First Friday

First Friday

New blogger? Welcome! Share a link to your first post, say hello to other new faces, and find your first few readers.

For other help:
If you’re not new and are looking for support or feedback, the Community Pool is the place for you!

For technical questions, visit the WordPress.com Support Forums.

To learn more about blogging, take a Blogging U. course.

To find, copy, and paste your link:
Head to your blog’s home page — not your dashboard, your blog itself. Click on the title of your post to open the individual post.

Highlight and copy the URL you see in your browser’s address bar, and paste the entire URL into a comment here.

Welcome to First Friday, a weekly open thread where any new blogger can share a link to his or her very first post with the larger WordPress.com community. To share your first post with us, copy and paste the link right into a comment here. If you’re not new, you can still be a part of First Fridays: visit a link or two, and leave the blogger a like or comment.

Please don’t use this as a space to share your first post…. that you published three years ago; ditto for simply sharing your latest post. Posts should have been published within the last month, and should be your first post. We’ll remove other posts to keep this space focused for new bloggers.

We ask that you help us keep this space focused by following a few additional guidelines:

  • We encourage anyone who shares a link to visit a few other bloggers. New readers for all!
  • When commenting, the third time is not the charm: don’t share the same link repeatedly, or in multiple First Friday threads. We’ll remove repeat posts.
  • Link directly to your new post, rather than to your blog generally — it makes it that much easier for folks to like the post or leave you comments.
  • Avoid repeated “Follow for a follow!” comments. (Tip: if you’re trying to build a readership, it’s much more effective to visit and comment on individual bloggers.)
  • To keep from losing your place while you visit others’ blogs, right-click on links to open them in a new tab or window.
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      2. Hi, diyingmachine! It’s wonderful to see you supporting so many new folks here — I can see how much it means to people, and a kind word when you’re just getting started is so motivating!

        We’d appreciate it if you didn’t include a link in every comment; everyone here can find you by clicking on your name, and the repeated links take the focus away from the newbies, which is what First Friday is all about. Thanks!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Welcome 🙂

      I noticed that you still have some placeholder text in your blog’s sidebar, to the right of your post — you can remove or edit that by going to My Site > Customize > Widgets. Look for the Text Widget!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Welcome 🙂

      I noticed that you still have some placeholder text in your blog’s sidebar, to the right of your post — you can remove or edit that by going to My Site > Customize > Widgets. Look for the Text Widget!

      Like

  9. I find strength and beauty here, I am a recovering alcoholic, and have Epilepsy. Many people in my life as I have walked in every shoe imaginable have some form a mental illness. Compassion! Can not express that enough. Thank you for sharing. I am now following, and will read your beauty for all to see. I am new here as well, God’s grace is why I am able to sit here today. For without it death was reaching for me. I am free, my chains are gone I have been set free…blessings blogging friend❤

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Welcome 🙂

      Looks like you haven’t given your site a title yet! If you’d like to add one (we recommend it), you can do that my going to My Site > Customize > Site Identity.

      Like

    1. Welcome!

      FYI: that link goes to your dashboard, which is private, so people won’t be able to see your site. The simplest way to get the public link is to go to your blog’s homepage and click on the post title. Then, copy the address you see in your browser’s address bar and use that.

      Here’s your homepage: https://lucidame.wordpress.com/

      Also — Looks like you haven’t given your site a title yet! If you’d like to add one (we recommend it), you can do that my going to My Site > Customize > Site Identity.

      Welcome 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I’ve looked at your blog, too, and will definitely agree with Michelle that you should choose a title.

      Also, I’d encourage you to edit your first post. To do this, under My Site on the pop-up left side menu, click on Blog Posts (Click on that little block of lines on the far left.)

      You’ll get a short version of the posts you’ve done so far. Under each of these, you’ll see the edit option. Right now the first says nothing but First Post. Even if you just title it Hello Everyone and type up a bit of a “Nice to meet you” sort of introduction — or paste in a little poem. Although it will eventually travel down as you post more, right now anything would be better than leaving it blank.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I find as long as I write for me, it’s not a chore. I also communicate with the WP community a lot, and that really helps urge me on. Meeting new people here is fantastic. I hope the rest of your travels in North/South America go well!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Welcome 🙂

      I noticed that you still have some placeholder text in your blog’s sidebar, to the right side of individual posts — you can remove or edit that by going to view one of your posts, then heading to My Site > Customize > Widgets. Look for the Text Widget!

      Like

    2. I believe writing is the first step in a series called “feeling better”. Power to you for taking that step, Charlie.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Welcome. I think you’ll find a lot of bloggers struggle with depression, so maybe you can encourage each other. And with blogging, sometimes it helps to “write ahead”, plan and/or write a few posts, save them in your word processor. Or type in a quote you find inspiring. Then you’ll have something to post on days when you can’t face generating another blog post. I’ve been blogging for years and still have those days!

      I’d encourage you to install a ‘Recent Posts’ widget and a ‘Follow this blog’ widget in your right hand sidebar. Under My Site on the the left is a pop-out menu. Click on the Themes Customize button and you’ll get another pop-out menu. One of the choices on this is Widgets. (Actually there are a number of interesting options available to you, including background color, fonts, etc.)

      Once you see the list of widgets, if you click on Recent Posts you’ll get another box that gives you the option of where you want this. Click on Right sidebar and save. Same with other widgets you may want to install, like a Tag cloud.

      Hope this helps you.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thanks for the feedback Christine. I really appreciate it! I’m actually struggling a bit with my themes and customization at the moment! My laptop is broken, so I’m using my phone. Do you know if it will look different on a pc?

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I can’t say if your blog will look much different on a phone. Mine looks about the same. But maybe you can give it a final check on a friend’s PC or at a library? As long as you have your password you can edit from any PC, not only your own.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Hello everyone! I have been writing for myself in journals for years, but I thought I’d try out blogging. While journaling I always highlighted the notes and advice I wanted to give to my younger sisters one day, but why stop there? I hope I can prevent some of what happened to me from happening to other young girls or show people they are not alone. Warning, my first post deals with some sensitive subjects but I’d love to hear feedback on this post or any of my other posts 🙂
    https://brightpurpledaisies.blog/2017/04/07/this-was-not-okay/

    Liked by 5 people

  20. I feel dumb and It’s awkward. I’ve been sending people to my dashboard instead of to my blog. ;/ Yeah. So – for the 3rd and final time ~ I’m coming up on a year of sobriety on 11 May – I’m a recovery coach student – I’ve given myself 365 days to reinvent myself, and I’m using the blog to hold myself accountable for all the new habits I’ve started. 🙂
    http://oneearthorbitblog.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 5 people

    1. You’ve actually been sending people to their own dashboards, not to yours, so it’s not as bad as all that (and it’s a common thing to do! You’re not alone). And everyone’s here to learn.

      Congrats x1000 on the year — that’s a big accomplishment!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Welcome to the wordpress community!
      I love your posts!
      Just a couple words of advice: 1. include a link to your blog so that people can have a direct way to get there. Just copy and paste the URL.
      2. Your widget on the side is the default text! You can edit this by going to “my site,” then “edit theme.”

      Liked by 2 people

  26. “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” (Robin Williams)

    –>Magic happens when you let go. A Blog about (Human) Nature, my love for the ocean, Travelling and the Quest called life – and Poetry.

    https://jopoepoetry.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 4 people

    1. One thing I noticed — you’re using a *lot* of tags on your posts. The WordPress.com Reader actually filters out posts that use more than 15 tags and categories (combined) as an anti-spam measure, so using this many tags actually makes it harder for folks to find your posts, and not easier.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Very nicely written. And you’re right, people’s opinions can hurt a lot. I’m sorry for the pain you’ve gone through but writing, I’m sure, will help lessen that. Good luck.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Ooh I love travel blogs 🙂
      I noticed that your font is too light for your background and it makes reading a little painful. You should play around with different colors or switch out your background image. Hope this helps.

      Liked by 1 person