The Blog Answerman

One of the most commonly overlooked features available in any WordPress blog admin is the creation and use of categories.  Categories are a little like the signs in the supermarket aisles that group similar items into logical sections, thus making it easier (presumably) to find what you are looking for.  Without using categories on your blog you are leaving your blog posts to be forever lost in the past and making it difficult for them to be found by people who really want to read what you wrote on ________ topic.

Setting up and using categories on your blog is a simple process, but before you do anything in the admin itself, grab a piece of paper and make a list of categories that your posts will generally fall under.  Categories can be as general as you like or as specific as you need to be depending on the topic of your blog, but having a list of categories you want will make this process a lot faster for you.  Don’t worry either, you can always use the steps in this article to create new blog categories at any time.

To start, log into your blog admin control panel dashboard.  When you do, you should click on the text link labeled Manage my blog.  It will be in the bar across the page.  Now click on the text link on the sub menu labeled Categories.  This is what you should see if you are in the right place:

Now just below this link bar is the section we are going to focus on for a minute.  Look for this:

The link we want is the one that says “(add new)”. Clicking on this link will allow you to create a new category.  Now you will see this:

To create a category, type in the Category name, ignore the Category parent for now (we’ll cover that in a future post) and if you like, type in a short description of the category.  Then click the Add Category > button.  That’s all there is to it!

When your category has been added, you will be brought back to the category screen showing that your new category is created like so:

Now that you know how to create a category, using it is no sweat.  When you are on the page that allows you to write a post, you will see this image in the  upper right of the page next to the content entry field.  Just place a mark next to the category that your post falls under and the rest, as they say, is history!

Categorized history!

Keep on blogging and don’t forget to bring your blogging questions to the Blog Answerman!

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