After installing WordPress there are a few options that should be addressed for optimal performance. This is a short general WordPress Guide for those new to WordPress blogging. If you haven’t configured the general options yet then start by reading this post: WordPress General Options Guide

After configuring the general options, next click the Users panel and the users assigned to the WordPress blog will be displayed. Click edit on the far right next to your account to open it. Add and update the information in this area. You can also change your password here if you wish. At the very top of this panel is an option to “Use the visual editor when writing”. Checking this option will allow you to use a slimmed down version of a WYSIWYG write post editor. Unchecking it will show only a “code” editor when writing posts, with limited options for those not familiar with HTML code.

Click the main Options panel again and then the Writing subpanel. In the writing subpanel you can specify the size of the write post box and the default post, and link category. You can also setup an email account to post to your blog by email. The last option in the writing subpanel is Update Services. This is a list of blog services to notify when your a new post is made. I suggest and install the Smart Update Pinger plugin for this purpose. You can add some or all of the following list into this area or in the options for Smart Update Pinger:

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://www.technorati.com/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.myblog.jp

The next Options subpanel to click is the Reading subpanel. Clicking it will give you the option to use a static front page for your blog. This will show a page that you create instead of the regular blog loop. To learn how to properly use the static front page option check out this post: How To Use A Static Front Page With WordPress.

You can also specify how may posts to show on the main blog page, and if pulling content from a syndicated feed whether or not to show them as a full post or just a summary.

Next is the Discussion subpanel; here you can specify how to handle comments and incoming links (trackbacks). I suggest all options but two be checked in here. The only two to uncheck under Before a comment appears: should be An administrator must always approve the comment and Comment author must have a previously approved comment. This will allow for people to comment easier. The remainder of this area is to blacklist nasty blog comment spammers. I suggest holding a comment if it has more than 2 links in it. And you can also blacklist certain spammers in this area if you wish but I have found either the Akismet or Spam Karma plugins to effectively stop most comment spam.

The Privacy subpanel only has two choices in it; either to let your blog be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers, or to hide it from them. I highly suggest you allow it to be visible unless you want to share your blog with only people you give the URL to.

The last options subpanel is Permalinks. This option will change the actual URL of your blog posts to one specified by you in this area. For more about permalinks I have a guide posted here: WordPress Custom Permalink Structure

I hope you found this post useful and be sure to use the search function on the sidebar or read the WordPress Optimization Guide for more.

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