Here’s a quick crash-course in some of the popular lingo associated with WordPress blogging. Learn the various definitions for each term and you’ll be a blogging master in no time!

A

Avatar

An avatar is an image that represents you as a user online for things like your blog, forums and other online communities (like Twitter). You can choose to use a picture of yourself or a particular animal or object that you like. In addition to the static avatars, there is the possibility of using an animated image or a 3D model of yourself.

B

Blog

This is a shortened version of the word “weblog,” which is essentially an online diary written by an individual or group of people on a chosen topic. Many companies use them to communicate the very latest news on projects they’re working on as a kind of informal press release – to their clients, fans and the media. Meanwhile, individuals use blogs as a creative outlet to communicate their thoughts and knowledge on a particular subject.

Blogroll

This is a list of links to other people’s blogs – kind of like a “favorites” list from the person whose blog you are reading. You will normally see the blogroll in its own column down the side of a blog page. The blogroll can also include various websites that the blogger likes to visit. For this blog, the blogroll is in the sidebar, and is titled “Friends of Design Cookbook.” We used image links instead of text links.

C

Category

Categories can be used to organize your blog into sections. Every time you write a post, you’ll have the option to file it under a category. It’s best to create one that is relevant to the subject of the text to help your readers navigate their way around your site. You’ll find that most of your posts can be grouped under a few headings, but if they don’t then you can always add more.

Comments

This is a feature you can enable on your blog posts. It’s where the readers can add their thoughts on an article you’ve written, as well as providing feedback on your blog in general. Comments can also be set up so that you have to authorize them before they are made visible on your page, which is helpful to prevent offensive remarks or spam.

Content Management System (CMS)

A CMS, or content management system, is a piece of software that enables you to add to, edit and organize the information on your site. They are present in WordPress blogs and are great because it means you need no knowledge of HTML code to set up a blog or keep it uploaded.

D

Dashboard

This is the control center of your blog. It’s normally the first thing you see after you log onto your blogging account. Here you can do such things as view your blog’s stats, add or edit posts and change its appearance. In a WordPress blog you’ll have all the sections you can click on down the left-hand side of the page; in the middle will be a summary of all your blog details, such as number of posts, categories and tags, plus any recent comments.

F

Feed (RSS)

This piece of software keeps people up-to-date with any changes to your blog. Reader can subscribe to the RSS feed and then receive summaries of what’s been added to the site. Many people choose to add the RSS feed option to their blog as it’s a great way for visitors to stay informed and encourages revisits.

G

Gallery

A gallery is a collection of images that are attached to any particular blog post. When you click on the Upload/Insert button, you’ll be presented with an “Add an image” window. Along the top of that is a selection of tabs one of which is labelled “Gallery.” By clicking on this you’ll be able to see all the images you’ve uploaded to that post.

H

Header

This is the top of your blog. The header displays the name of your blog and sometimes, depending on the template or layout you choose, your blog’s tagline (a small snippet or summary of what the site is about).

N

Nextpage

This handy command is used to break up a lengthy post into a series of pages when views in Preview mode. Simply insert <'!--nextpage--'> into the desired line of your post code to force a page break and automatically add subsequent page links to the post.

P

Permalink

A Permalink is an individual web address for every article you have produced. The post is permanently stored at this location and another Permalink is created each time you add a new article. They are particularly helpful since users can bookmark a specific blog post they particularly like, or find useful, without its address ever changing.

PHP

PHP stands for Hypertext Pre-processor. It’s a scripting language that is designed to be integrated with HTML and used with content management systems. WordPress is actually written using this language. PHP is a piece of open source software that is available on Windows, OS X and Linux.

Pingback

A Pingback lets you know if anyone links to an article of yours. If they see something they like and then decide to comment on it while providing a link then you’ll be notified. It does it automatically and it’s great because then you can se who’s writing what about you!

Plug-in

These are a group of PHP functions, or small files, that add new features and better functionality to your blog. It helps expand a standard blog, adding in all sorts of fun extras and generally making life easier. Popular WordPress plug-ins include WP Super Cache, whch helps your blog load faster, and TweetMeme – reducing a ReTweet to one click of a button.

Post

These are individual articles that form your blog. You can create a post on any subject you like and then edit or add new tags and categories to it. When you’ve written your post you can preview it first or simply go ahead and publish it. There are plenty of options to format the text, add things like bullet points and insert images into the article.

S

Smiley

These are also known as emoticons and they represent a human face. They’re normally constructed with the colon, semi-colon and bracket symbols to display a particular emotion, such as or but some plug-ins and even WordPress itself turns them from pieces of punctuation to little graphic faces by default.

T

Tag

Tags are keywords that are relevant to each blog post. They tend to vary a lot more than categories, since each piece of text you write is likely to be different. Tags are formed by simply typing them in the Post Tags bar, separating each one with a comma.

Tag cloud

This is a widget you can add to your blog; it’s a collection of all the tags you’ve applied to your blog posts. It’s useful for readers visiting your site because it can provide an at-a-glance guide of what your posts are about.

Themes (Templates)

A theme or a template is how you can go about altering your blog’s appearance. WordPress provides free themes, which vary to suit people’s needs and tastes. To choose them, just visit the Appearance tab down the left-hand side of the Dashboard. If you’re not sure that one will suit your blog, simply click on the Preview button to take a gander first.

Trackback

This lets a blog author know that you have written something related to his or her bog post, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to provide a link to their site. It’s nice for them because they are being recognized for something that they have written, which may also lead to them taking a look at your post and increasing your traffic.

U

URL

URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is a location or address directing you to where a particular piece of information can be found on the worldwide web; also known as a website link, for example: http://designcookbook.com/