This is the (hopefully) most anticipated sequel to my previous post!
This post and my previous post were originally part of one gigantic post that I planned to write called Tips I’d Give to New Book Bloggers, but then I realized that one half of the tips was related to WordPress, while the other had to do with how to build an audience.
These tips are things that I think a lot of newbie bloggers don’t know about. As a newbie, I didn’t know about these things, and I’m pretty sure other newbie bloggers, or maybe some veterans too, don’t know about them yet! So I’m here to impart the little wisdom I’ve gained in my half a year of blogging to those who need it!

HTML
Did you know that there’s a way to have different text sizes in the same paragraph? Shocking, right? Because I’m convinced that WordPress hates formatting–and it does–but luckily, html is here to help us undermine WordPress.
Simply choose to edit a part of your post as html, and you can do all kinds of magic. Here is the html coding I use to make my letters different sizes:
<p>regular text <span style="font-size: 20pt;">new size text</span></p>
To make the text bigger, I choose to make it 20pt, and to make it smaller, I use 8pt. But you can input any number and play around with different font sizes! These are just the ones that work for me!
There’s also a way to align two or more images in a row using html codes! This is pretty helpful if you want to align images of book covers!



I used this code format to align these three images of Gideon the Ninth:
<div>
<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538.jpg" alt="42036538" width="154" height="238"/>
<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538.jpg" alt="42036538" width="154" height="238"/>
<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538.jpg" alt="42036538" width="154" height="238"/>
</div>
Html is not limited to these two tricks, but I think that these are the most helpful ways to use it. I’m a very baby user of html, so if you want to learn how to do other things with it, I suggest searching for formats on google because a lot of sites offer different code formats!
Post Scheduling
When I first started blogging, I didn’t know that scheduling posts was a thing. When people talked about writing posts and then scheduling them, I’d get so confused. Like, what is this scheduling thing? Luckily, I found out soon enough!

Scheduling posts is extremely helpful if you’re an international blogger. Chances are, the majority of your audience is asleep while you’re awake, but not to worry, you can schedule a post to go up in the early morning hours of your timezone. Scheduling also helps if you have a posting schedule and pre-write a lot.
Until now, a scheduled post of mine has never failed to go up on it’s scheduled time. It may not post on the exact minute you schedule it, but in a few minutes, you’ll get a notification that your scheduled post is now published!
But when I first started scheduling posts, I was so confused because every post I scheduled went up eight hours after the time I had originally selected it to go up. Little did I know that I still hadn’t customized my site timezone to the timezone in the Philippines.

Unless you change your site timezone, it’s gonna stay at UTC, which will affect your post scheduling. Customizing your site timezone is pretty easy to do. Just click your site settings, and site timezone is probably the first or second thing you’ll see!
Pingbacks
Pingbacks are notifications that you get once someone provides a link to one of your posts in their blog post. Their pingback will become a comment on the post they provided a link to.

Pingbacks are incredibly useful when you’re tagging someone in a tag or blog award. Giving them a notification eliminates the need to comment on one of their posts informing them that you’ve tagged them in something!
To give a pingback, simply provide a link to the blogger’s post in one of your posts. You can just insert it in any piece of text. Ex: I tag Caitlin Althea. The link embedded in Caitlin Althea is a link to one of my blog posts!
The biggest tip when it comes to pingbacks is not to link to the blogger’s homepage. Linking to their homepage will not give them a notification for some reason.
I’ve also learned that pingbacks are pretty funky if a self-hosted sites links to one of your posts. Sometimes I get a notification when one links back to my post, other times I don’t.
Linking Your Website to Your Name
This is a pretty niche tip, but it’s incredibly useful if you’re a blogger who comments on other posts a lot. It ensures that when you comment on a post, a click on your name will immediately lead an interested user to your site.
Usually, your web address isn’t a direct link to your site–it’s probably something like caitlinaltheahome.wordpress.com. If your web address is like this, users who click on your name will not be redirected to your blog. To make it convenient for them, change your web address.

You can do this by clicking on your profile picture and then Account Settings. Here, you’ll find your username, email address, etc. Your web address and primary site will also be there, so you can change them to the url of your home page!
Plus, when someone gets the notification that you followed them, or that you liked one of their posts, it’s easy for them to follow you back because a follow button will appear directly under your name!

As you can see from the picture, the first two people in my recent followers don’t have their sites linked (or simply don’t have sites), so there’s no follow button that will allow me to follow them back easily. However, the bottom three have follow buttons, which I can easily use to follow them back, or unfollow them (but I won’t do that of course).
Get Theme
Fun fact: when I first started blogging, I had no idea what WordPress themes were, so I was hardcore wondering how everyone got their blogs to look a certain way. Honestly, my life is just a series of events like this.
For those who don’t know what they are, they’re basically how your blog is formatted. If you embed a link in a word, some themes will show that there’s a link embedded in it by changing its color (like in Penscratch 2), but in Libre 2, which I’m currently using, words with links in them are simply underlined with no color change (unless I change the color myself). Little things like that are decided by your theme.
But have you ever come across a beautiful site and wondered what theme they use? Not to worry, you can actually see which theme a site uses (as long as it’s a site hosted by WordPress).

On the lower right hand corner of any site hosted by WordPress, you’ll find the follow button. Just click the three dots beside it and you’ll see the option to get the theme. Note: you must be logged into your WordPress account while doing this.
You can then search for this theme name in WordPress themes and choose to activate it in your own site! (Some themes require you to pay for them though, grrrr.)
Connecting Twitter (or other social media accounts) to Your Site
Connecting Twitter to my site was incredibly helpful because I always forget to notify my Twitter followers about new posts. If you connect Twitter to your site, your Twitter account will automatically tweet a post’s link at the same time that the post is uploaded. You can customize what the tweet says too!

You can connect Twitter to your site by going to Tools, Marketing, and then Connections! You also have the option to connect your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Tumblr to your site, but the most common social media site to connect to is Twitter.
Additionally, if you have the Subscibe via Email widget on your blog, and choose to let it display the amount of followers you have, your total number of Twitter followers will be added to the total number of WordPress followers and email followers you have! It’s a great way to make your follower count seem higher.

I hope you found this post helpful in some way! I’m definitely not a WordPress expert–there are still some WordPress mysteries I’ve yet to solve, but these are the ones that I have–at least to some degree!
I had a lot of fun writing this post! Until next time,
This is such a useful post! Thank you for this as I didn’t know about the HTML!!
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thank you!! html is actually really helpful if you’re a blogger, and I hope to find more code formats to enhance my book blog 💖💖💖
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I have taken notes so I can utilise it more 💜💜
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I’m so glad!! (but also fyi that if you read this post through the WordPress reader, the code formats will be wrong. i really hate the wordpress reader sometimes.) also, if you want more code formats that can help you do different things, I suggest checking it out karlita’s amazing blog post on it: https://taleoutloud.wordpress.com/2019/01/21/helpful-html-tutorial-every-book-blogger-needs-to-know/
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Do you know how badly I wish that this post had existed when I first started blogging?! You even included some things that I, a book blogger for the past year, still didn’t know. Interestingly
enough, I was going to DM you on Twitter the other to ask how you change your font sizes in the same paragraphs. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that since I started!! This is SUCH a useful and helpful post. Like, I will be giving you views on the post for the rest of my blogging lifespan because I will need those HTML pointers nonstop.
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aww, THANK YOU. I’m so glad I helped 😭 haha, i only learned about how because olivia @ purely olivia talked about html in one of her blog posts, and said that it was how she changed font sizes. i then scoured the internet for a format that would do just that, and with a few tries, I found one!!
AHH THANK YOUUUUU. (btw, i hate the wordpress reader because the code formats I provided show up differently on it. the ones on my actual site are the correct one–why do you do this to me, wordpress reader?!)
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I’m still so bad at html and really don’t understand it😂 I tried using it for one of my recent posts but it completely failed and I ended up having to rewrite the whole thing oops.
Timing with scheduling is something I still need to sort out. I posted this morning through scheduling and I don’t think I did it at the right time haha. I keep forgetting to change my time zone so it’s super confusing – thanks for reminding me!
I also still have yet to set up any bookish social media – I’m thinking of setting up a twitter soon but we’ll see!
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haha, MOOD. the only thing about html i’ve been able to get right is making my letters different sizes. i’m still a little confused about how to make pictures line up in a row! i’m so sorry you had to rewrite the whole thing!! as someone who has lost progress on a draft multiple times, i relate.
i think 8:00 am Philippine time is the time that works best for me. but I’ve learned that it doesn’t really depend on the timing–it’s more on the title and type of post. but more than once, i schedule a post at 8:00, only to find out that I actually scheduled it to go up at 8:00 PM and not am hahah. (actually, that’s what happened with this post.) so glad I reminded you!!
oof, book twitter can be really toxic sometimes, but I’m sure it would be a better place with you in it hehe. I would love to follow you on there if you ever set up one!!
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This is amazing!!!!! Even though I now know the WP stuff after using it for 2 years, it’s always great to learn some new and useful html stuff… Thank you 😊😊😊
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thank you!! yes, html is very useful, and I hope to learn more codes to use for my blog! I’m glad you found this post helpful!
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This is such a helpful post!!! These were all the things I wish I had known when I first started blogging too 😭 I rarely see anyone mentioning how to link your own website to your name even though it’s such a useful thing to do, and it took me months to figure out how to do it myself. Also, this is the first time I’ve heard of Get Theme feature! This may come in handy in the future 👀
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thank you!! i think Xandra mentioned it in a post of hers a while back–but I really wanted to reiterate it because it’s so helpful! i honestly don’t even use the Get Theme feature for myself :”) I just really like to stalk people’s themes I guess 😭😂
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These are some great tips! I hope this post takes off!
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thank you!! ahaha, I hope so too, but I’m glad if it helps even just one person 💜
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I do really need to know more how yo use html because it’s so helpful! 😭 As far as I know Karlita @ Tale Out Loud is quite good at it. I do the rest of the tricks you mentioned and I do love ’em. Thank you for this post, Caitlin! Hope your studies is doing wells. 💖
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Same!! the only html mystery I’ve fully solved is how to make your text different sizes. Yep, I saw her post about html codes, and I was amazed!
I’m so glad you found it helpful, Karina! and thank you 😭💛 i really needed that. I hope adulting is going well <33
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Such a helpful guide, thanks for putting this together!!
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I’m so glad that you found it helpful, ilsa 💛💛💛
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This is definitely going to help a lot of us that have no idea what we are doing – even still, like me! – with WordPress. Thank you so much for taking the time to show mini tutorials on how to do these, and being patient with us ❤ Seriously, you are the best ever Caitlin.
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same, I have no idea what I’m doing. these are some stuff I picked up along the way! it was my pleasure! I actually had so much fun making the mini tutorial hehe.
thank you 😭😭💛💛 but YOU are Leelynn!
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aaa caitlin thank you for the html advice!! i’ve been scratching my head here thinking how tf people get different-sized text in the same paragraph. some of the other points I knew but it took time and many mistakes! I know this post is going to help a lot of newbie bloggers.
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I’m so happy that I helped, Sabs!! also, I hate the wordpress reader because the codes I provided look different there. the correct formats can be viewed on my site!!
haha, it took me a while to realize these mistakes too. I really hope it does!!
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I’m not a user of wordpress, but I am saving this post incase I ever move!
– Emma 🙂
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Tbh, Emma, I would LOVE to see you move hehe. I just feel like WordPress offers more quirks, but by all means, do what you and Bruno want to do!
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Thank you Caitlin – very helpful tips!
I’ve been so frustrated with trying to get my goodreads account to link. I’ve followed the directions exactly but it never finds my account. Have you ever dealt with that?
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I’m so glad that I was able to help, Lindsay!
Do you mean linking your goodreads account like I showed how to link your twitter account? because if so, there’s no option to link your goodreads! but if I misunderstood you, please feel free to expound–I would love to help!
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I didn’t exactly mean that (like to post on both). I meant more with the goodreads widget that puts the list of what you’re currently reading on your site
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Oh that! Honestly, it was pretty easy for me? I just clicked the widget option for that, put in everything they asked for, and then selected the shelf for it to display? Maybe you should do it again?
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This is a wonderful list of WordPress things that took me FOREVER to figure out! I remember being so confused on how to ping for like 3 months lmao
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Thank you so much, Kal 💗💗💗 same, it took me a long time to figure these things out, and I only got them because of other people!!
haha, I feel like pingbacks are the most common thing about WordPress that newbie bloggers don’t know about 😂
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I’ve been using WordPress for nearly 4 years now and I still haven’t really gotten the hang of it. I mean I still have trouble scheduling my posts and I don’t know why huhu
Great post Caitlin 💕
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4 years?? Zia, you are a CHAMP.
ahhh, that’s so sad :((( I hope you work it out soon!!
Thank you 💚💚
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This was very helpful ! Thanks to you, I was able to solve the problem of my scheduled posts being published later than planned, I had no idea the timezone needed to be changed !
Also I relate for the WordPress themes : I was totally at sea with them ! I still need to process the html thing but this will help me ☺ Thank you Caitlin
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You won’t believe how happy I am to find out that this post helped you!!
hahaha, I just can’t with myself 😂 seriously, my blog was so ugly when I first started blogging–it’s unreal. Oh yeah, html is hard to get, but I’m happy that I’ve learned a little about it to utilize for my blog! btw, the wordpress reader sucks, and the html codes I provided are not the same in the WordPress reader as they are on my actual site. reason #34958585 why I despise the WordPress reader
You’re so welcome 💖💖
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I loved your post, it has got a lot of great advice! 🙂 Scheduling is an absolute must for me, it’s how I get all of my posts published without having to stress about them 👍 Back when I started blogging I too made the mistake of linking to the website instead a specific post by a blogger – I actually don’t know if linking to the about page still works though!
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Thank you Caro! Oh gosh–same. I can’t remember the last time that a post of mine wasn’t scheduled. it comes with being an international blogger I guess. Plus, I find scheduling posts so satisfying!
I don’t think I made that mistake? but only because nobody had tagged me in any tags yet, so I wasn’t really doing any tags. then someone did a tag and I got this weird notification, and from there I pieced together what pingbacks were! me too! i actually didn’t know that linking to the About page was a thing? I think the practice was long dead already when I joined the community 😂
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Same here, I find it so convenient to just have posts ready to go 🙂
I think it was when I started doing some Tags I saw around and then tried to tag other people, but I learned quickly 😄 I have seen people linking to the about page I think, but that was a longer time ago xD
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Ahh Caitlin you are ON FIRE with all of these posts lately, you’re killing it. I loved that one so, so much, filled with tips and tricks that took me years to figure out haha. Honestly, I love it when the text stands out in a blog post and I like changing some of the text size a little bit for that, too. And scheduling saves my life, I wouldn’t be blogging if this scheduling thing did not exist hahaha 🙂
LOVE this post!
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Thank you so much, Marie! You are the QUEEN of these posts though!
I love it when you do that in your posts too! I think that it contributes to a distinct blogging voice, and that’s why I do it. It’s just a little annoying because those changes don’t show up in the WordPress reader 😦
I can’t remember the last time a published post of mine wasn’t scheduled! I love scheduling, especially as an intl blogger!
Thank you 😭💗💗
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Ahh you’re too sweet, you are really really doing so awesome with these posts, I love them so much. You’re doing amazing with everything, actually, I admire that so much ❤ keep on going ❤
OH really?? I had no idea! I always, always read the blog posts on the blogs themselves, because it's better for the blogger's stats, I think I've read that somewhere. And I prefer reading directly on the blog itself, too, feels more.. nice to them somehow haha, the way it was intended to 🙂 I had no idea the formatting was all off on the reader, that sucks 😦
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Thank you!!! 😭💓
Same! Ahh I really don’t like the reader, but I never heard that it affects blog stats. Even more reason to read it on the actual blog! Formatting is all off in the reader. It’s so annoying 🤦🏻♀️
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I can’t recall where I found the info right now, I’ll have to seek it down, but yeah and it messes up both with the text formatting and image quality, too. and… well it’s always more aesthetically pleasing to see the blogger’s post on the blogger’s blog, for me 😀
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Thank you so much for this, it’s super useful!! ❤ However, I'm the worst with html (I've tried before to change the font size and for some reason, it didn't work ))): ) BUT I've already connected my Twitter to my blog 😛
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I’m so glad you found these tips helpful Marta 🌟💚
Ahh, maybe try again? The format I use generated good results for people who tried it 🤔
Yay, I would love to follow your twitter!! I’m staying away fro twitter for a few days tho:))
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I’ll need to give it a try ^^
It’s totally understandable, twitter can often get overwhelming! when you go back and wanna check it out, mine is @thebookmermaid 😀
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I will as soon as I’m comfortable enough with opening the Twitter app again! Seriously, I should fix my relationship with that app because I got uncharacteristically anxious about opening it sometimes
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I’m really sorry to hear about that! ): Sending hugs ❤
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Caitlin, this is such an INCREDIBLE post!!! It will surely help many of us, even if we have been blogging for a while, I confess that a few months ago I learned how to use Pingbacks and I’ve been with the blog for almost 3 years 😅, so I think you can always learn something new, right? 😍
I appreciate SO much your dedication with your blog, I LOVE IT ❤️
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Thank you so much Sofii 💓💓💓
It’s better late than never, honestly 👏🏼👏🏼 we can always learn something new!!
You are so dedicated to your blog too ahhhh. How are you so consistent with posts and comments!? Teach me!!
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Honey!, I wish I knew how lol. I always try to support and comment simply because I love interacting, but sometimes there are SO many blogs and it’s impossible 😅
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This was definitely a much-anticipated post!! Omg, it’s embarrassing how long it took Malka and I to learn some of this HTML stuff. Believe it or not, we only found out about adding the read more button like a month ago?? It also took us ages to figure out how to categorize our posts 😂😂 There are so many little things that are so useful for blogging and formatting, but without posts like yours, most people would be left in the dark! Great post!! 💕💕
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Ahh, I’m so glad that it was 😭💚 haha… I also don’t know how to do that.. oof. HTML and & me don’t click 😂 it took me ages to figure out that tags could also be used to categorize posts ahhhh!
AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH 💖💖💖💖
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Such a fabulous post, Caitlin!!! These are so many things that I WISH I knew when I first began blogging! I had to trudge through so many months of inefficiency, before I learned all these tips and tricks. Haha! Changing text size, scheduling, and connecting Twitter are lifesavers! ❤
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Thank you so much kelly 💗💗 haha, SAME. Newbie blogger caitlin was a MESS. right!? I love doing those things so much!!
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This is such a useful post especially because when I started I was clueless on a lot of these and no one talked about them that much so I hope lots of people get to read this post as they will learn so much!! HTML code is something I want to get better at myself as I only know a few bits but changing font size is something I have always been curious about so thank you so much for sharing that– it is so helpful!!
It took me a while to find out that scheduled posts go up according to the set time zone and I have always been too lazy to change it but it is really easy so I should do it now you have pointed it out!!
It also took me ages to discover different themes on wordpress and I was wondering how everyone got different designs as well then I discovered the themes and my mind was blown so I got to play around with the different settings which was fun!!
This is such a great post and so helpful!! Thank you for writing this!! ❤
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Thank you for this super sweet comment, Sophie!!
I’m so glad that the HTML helped quite a good number of people, honestly!! I’m so shocked that it did!
YAY, I’M SO GLAD THAT I WASN’T THE ONLY ONE. haha, right?? when I discovered what they were for, my mind was BLOWN and I started playing around with different themes. I didn’t know how to choose because there were SO. MANY. though :((( the one I did go with the first time around was SO UGLY. I’m so glad that I changed it!
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This post was so helpful, thank you for sharing! I had no clue what the heck pingbacks did lol, but now I do! Also, I’m absolutely screaming about seeing what themes people use. I had no clue you could do that! I was always just super envious of everyone’s pretty blogs, wondering why I couldn’t get mine to look like that. I’m thinking about changing my theme up again, so I’m going to have to go back to all my favorite posts and see what they use. Thank you so much for this. 💛
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It was my pleasure! I’m so so happy that I was able to help in the pingbacks and get theme aspect, because I thought that the former was already known by everyone and the latter was useless to people :”)
I stalk people’s themes too and sometimes use them for my blog HAHA. best of luck with your new theme if you decide to go through with it ❤
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CAITLIN THIS POST IS SO HELPFUL THANK YOU FOR BLESSING US WITH THIS
html is the cause of my pain and suffering, idk why my brain can’t process it but my brain can’t process it. scheduling posts was the greatest thing i found out. i used to be so great at writing posts and scheduling them throughout the month (i wonder where that energy went??? 🤔🤔)
i didn’t know about the twitter follower count thing hmmmmm 😉
anyways, thanks so much for writing this and putting together all the screenshots, im sure it must have taken so long and your hardwork is appreciated 💖
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THANK YOU SO MUCH MAY. THANK YOU FOR BLESSING ME WITH THIS WONDERFUL COMMENT.
my brain can’t process it too haha. the only thing I’ve gotten straight is how to make fonts different sizes. at my school, we actually have Robotics and Computer class, and I just trudge through those because I have NO idea what’s happening.
right?? Scheduling is a lifesaver, especially as an international blogger. but.. I’ve never been ever to schedule ahead for more than a week and a half. dang, I would THRIVE if I were able to schedule posts for a whole month.
haha, you should really try the twitter thing, May!!
it was my pleasure! (seriously.. I had so much fun taking screenshots for this, weirdly.) I enjoyed making this post so much!!
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Great post! I used to be so much more savvy with HTML when I had my personal blog (what feels like a lifetime ago) but I really need to brush up on my skills lol thanks for sharing these useful tips 😊
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thank you!! i wish you all the luck with trying to relearn HTML! i’m sure you can do it in no time!
i’m so glad that you found them helpful 💖
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This is really a helpful post for the newbies. Let me know if you ever need any help with HTML. That’s actually a part of my job 🙂
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thank you!! ohh, really? because I might actually have things to ask you about because there are so many things I want to do with my blog 😂 i’m also planning to get an IT job in the future :00
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i want to post HTML code (as a tutorial), not to format any of my words on the post.
For example, i want to write this
This is how to make a character bold in HTML;
bold
how can i do that since it makes the word bold, but not show the actual code which i want to show to my audience? Thank you
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abc
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This is super helpful! I did not know the html tricks, so I will definitely be looking into those – thanks for sharing!
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thank you!!! lmao, actually, an easier way to change text size and also make it show up on the Reader is & plus & , but i only found out about that after writing this post!
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Oh that’s so helpful, thank you!! I’ll definitely use that.
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I knew about most of this, but I had no idea about the HTML, and I’ve been wondering how other bloggers change the font sizes! Thank you so much, this is a really helpful post!
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Ah, Aria, I’m so glad that I was able to help, even a little bit! ❤
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That bit about HTML and images?? Thank you so much for sharing that with us 😍
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so glad i could help!!
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