Aug 18, 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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    3. Hey nice blog and variety of topics you are posting. Yes your blog looks like a magazine.. Great work! Since you are posting wide variety of stuff I recommend you create categorized menu that way people can find their stuff easily. If you need help on doing that check my blog I have a post on that topic. Rest all looks very good… Keep writing and good luck!

      Liked by 10 people

      3. Looks good! Your home menu could be the first one in the list and about be the last.. Also instead of showing the email address open in public add a contact page, that way your email address remains private and not be spammed. If you ever grow your category types into too many you might have to do as I have done in my blog. Cheers!

        Liked by 4 people

    1. This is quite the deep piece. It must be a very hard struggle for you. Thank you for being so authentic, I can’t imagine it is easy to put yourself out there like that. I would love to see an About page added to your site, so we can learn a bit more about you!

      Liked by 3 people

    2. Hey nice blog and fantastic looking theme.. Interesting stuff you have there! 🙂 Please note those social icons at the bottom of your blog may be linked to your social channels if you want or can be removed. Also I see you have put up your email address instead why not use the contact page and link that email address to that? this way you can keep your email address private. Hope this helps… Good luck!

      Liked by 4 people

    4. Wow. What a poignant, personal post you have shared. I am incredibly humbled you allowed us to read it. I applaud you for your courage and am sending warm wishes your way. While I haven’t been in the same situation as you are in, I think even trying to find a similar experience takes away from yours; moreover, thank you for your authenticity! Also, you’ve got a phenomenal layout and content going for you. I wish your journey all the very best. Welcome to the blogging world! 😃💫

      Liked by 3 people

    5. My only suggestions, and please don’t take it the wrong way, try to use a simpler language. You are trying to sound overly fancy, even if you are not aware of this and sometimes you make mistakes. It takes away from the content which is lovely and making it easier to read would add to it.

      Liked by 4 people

    2. Well, you’ve gotten past the hard part of writing your first few posts. By writing, you get a pattern ingrained into you and it starts to make up what will become your blog voice. I would suggest an afternoon in the Customizer and getting to know your blog’s theme and playing around with looks. Perhaps a new title, more about you in the About page, cleaning up (or adding content) in your Text Widgets, whatever you want to do. Gotta make this blog more of a home for your thoughts, why not rearrange the furniture a bit?

      https://scicasual.wordpress.com

      Liked by 4 people

    3. Hi there! I enjoyed that story, love the perspective you took. As Jonny mentioned you may want to edit some of the content. If you go to your blog post page you can delete that place holder one that comes standard with the them (i.e. “This is your first blog post…..”). You can do the same with the widgets.

      Good luck!

      Liked by 4 people

    1. Welcome! Great job already getting those affiliate links set up 🙂 The only thing I might suggest is editing your contact form. You can change the text so that it says your own words, rather than the placeholder text. Simply go to pages, and click edit. Good luck!

      Liked by 2 people

    3. Beautiful site! That is the theme I started with 🙂 As the others said, you definitely want to get that like button activated! I am interested in reading more about what it is like to be a female drummer.

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Welcome! Love your theme. You definitely may want to edit some of the other pages. For example, the text widgets, and about page! This can be done through the customization tab. Good luck!

      Liked by 4 people

    1. Very interesting to hear your cultural experience. Your site looks great, seems like you put your text in for everything except for the widget. You can update that (or delete it) by going to your customization tab and selecting widgets. Good luck in your blogging journey!

      Liked by 3 people

    2. One thing I noticed — you’re using a lot of tags and categories on some of 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, which is sad! If you cut your tags down to the most relevant, you’ll actually draw more readers.

      An easy way to start cutting down: get rid of super-general tags like “life” or “blog.” Think more specifically about your post and what it’s really about, and think about what *you* would search for to find a post like this.

      Liked by 3 people

    2. Hi Milley! You may want to consider editing some of the additional text on your site. For example, you can delete the place holder “first blog post”, you can add an about you section, and you can edit the text widgets. Play around with the customize tab, it is very user friendly! Good luck and keep up the writing 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

    2. Beautiful poem 🙂 You may want to take some time to play around with your customization tab and get creative with some menu’s. Even if you simply do a “home”/”blog”, an “about me” and a “contact” one, it is a good place to start!

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Though I’ve been on WordPress for about a month I’m still trying to figure out some things. I’m mostly afraid to change things because I might lose the one I want my blog to look like. Thanks for the compliment though.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. Hi 🙂 I enjoyed your intro, poetry certainly can be very powerful! I would have liked it, but it looks like you haven’t enabled the like button. This might be something you look into if you are interested in receiving “likes”. Good luck with your blogging journey!

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Lovely first post 🙂 You may want to create a menu (even if it is as simple as home/about/contact), it also looks like you haven’t put any widgets up. It is fun to play around with the widgets tab and find ones that suit you, and you can remove the placeholder one that is there. Just go to your customize tab!

      Liked by 4 people

    2. Welcome 🙂

      I noticed that you still have some placeholder text in your blog’s sidebar, over to the right of your posts (when you’re looking at an individual post, rather than the homepage) — you can remove or edit that by going to view one of your posts, then to My Site > Customize > Widgets. Look for the Text Widget!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Beautiful post. The positivity in that post is really encouraging. And I’m also new to blogging.

      Loved.

      This is my second post
      I hope you like it *fingers crossed*
      And if you dont, please let me know how I can improve my skills
      Thanks!

      Liked by 1 person

    3. 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 by going to My Site > Customize > Site Identity.

      Like

    4. Great job! you have set your blog up very nicely. I also like that you are not branding yourself as the individual who is writing it. I have been doing a lot of reading about this, and it is apparently a good move and sets the blog up for future development of added authors. Have fun with this project! I am looking forward to reading more.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Thank you, Laura! I hadn’t thought about that specifically but it does make sense. I did think of making it more of a community for expats. Let’s see how things flow.
        Your blog rocks! I love the title! Girl power all the way! 🙃

        Liked by 3 people

      1. Thank you! I checked out your blog too and loved your intro. The design is also very simple and clean which makes it easy to navigate. As soon as you fill out the rest of the template pages you will be all set. Looking forward to reading more about your life in lovely Costa Rica:)

        Liked by 3 people

    7. I loved that you shared your story about moving to Germany! I was just there this summer and understand completely how hard it would be to find a group and start speaking right away! Pretty intimidating! Great post 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

    1. This is such a cool concept. Most ppl don’t even think about the experiences of graduate school so having this platform can be super helpful especially to those interested in pursuing higher ed.

      Liked by 7 people

      1. I really appreciate the feedback, I’ve never blogged before so I’m always looking to improve. I’ll definitely work on that! I haven’t quite found my feet yet in terms of what to post as I haven’t started yet, but this will give me something to work on in the meantime.

        Liked by 7 people

    3. Congratulations on this PhD experience, you’ll do great. I loved reading your blog and it was easy to navigate too, which is a plus. Good luck dear!

      Liked by 6 people

      1. Many thanks! I hope it is easy to read, I am definitely not a writer! I enjoyed your article, it has given me something to think about. I have some self improvement to do!

        Liked by 5 people

    4. I am sure this will be an exciting journey with lots of ups and downs! I think your template is perfect for a medicine based PhD program blog. It is clean and clearcut. 🙂 Good luck with school!

      Liked by 4 people

    2. Looks like you are off to a very good start! Things are set up very well, you have all your menu’s ready to go, which is great. I look forward to reading more, I have been very successful as well, but as I wrap up my twenties, it is clear that I have enjoyed very many a lazy moment!

      Liked by 5 people

    1. I love your about section! It is so genuine, and I can certainly appreciate the stance of I am still growing. I think it will be a breath of fresh air for some bloggers. Your set-up is nice, you may want to add a menu item to return to your blog after you click about or contact.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you for the king words! I really appreciate it. And I’ll look into that ASAP. Thank you! I hope you keep reading ❤

        Liked by 5 people

    2. Hi! I got an error message to this page but was able to click through the tabs. You may want to add a disclaimer if you get some sort of benefit from selling with amazon. It is great to let readers know up front! It is also part of amazons affiliate policy that it be posted in plain site. Good luck!

      Liked by 4 people

    1. Welcome 🙂

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

      Like

    1. It’s kind of rude to post a comment on someone elses post telling them to go to yours and I deleted them. That’s not how this works. It’s better to leave a meaningful comment and then ask them here, in this thread, if they wouldn’t mind also checking out your content.

      Liked by 4 people

    1. Very cool template, especially when you have good photographs to go in those spaces. The only think I noticed that you may want to fix, is the standard text that comes on the contact page. It is a place holder, and you can edit it to say anything!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Great site!! Love your two new posts- it’s great how you’re talking about things like snubbing because so many people do it. Just a footnote, at the end of your page, you have a text widget. You can go and customise that so it can say something like an end message on your site. Great blog!

        Liked by 3 people

    1. Very nice site 🙂 it seems like you have an “about me” and an “about” menu item. The “about me” is showing an error message. It can be deleted using the customize menu. While you are in there you can also play around with new widgets and find some you like to add to your page. The one on there is simply a placeholder.

      Liked by 4 people

    2. All I have to say is, you are my hero. That many people in a one bath, 1300 sq ft house! whew! I love you color scheme, and the setup of you blog. You can use the customizer to try out some fun widgets and replace the placeholder widget on the right. Goodluck, I am looking forward to reading more as you post!

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi Allison! I love the soft color scheme. Has a nice simplistic and romantic feel to it. I also love the simple cursive A at the top, very feminine. I will keep an eye out for you to start writing blog posts!

      Liked by 5 people

    2. One thing I noticed — you’re using a lot of tags and categories on some of 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, rather than easier.

      An easy way to start cutting down: get rid of super-general tags like “X” or “X.” Think more specifically about your post and what it’s really about, and think about what *you* would search for to find a post like this.

      Liked by 3 people