Tools like WordPress and Blogger and pretty much all online editors now provide us with WYSIWYG tools.
Even if we type directly into the content window, as I’m doing now as I write this post, if we only know how to use the visual editor, we can make what seem irrevocable errors (or edits!) as we format and style the content using the buttons on the toolbar.
For this reason, we’ve wanted to publish an HTML-for-bloggers guide here at ProBlogger for some time. And now we are.
Why bother?
If you’re not as familiar with HTML as you could be, you may hit a few problems in your blogging:
- making small errors that are time-consuming to fix and solve
- having trouble correcting issues that arise in guest submissions
- not being able to check the content of links—which can be disastrous if they’re affiliate links or promotions
- failing to present your content in a consistent or professional way, which undermines your blog’s credibility.
These are just a few of the potential everyday problems you face if you don’t know the basics of HTML. But the fact is that to grow your blog, you will definitely need to know how to encode a link, style text, and more—and that means you need to understand a little HTML.
Get a handle on HTML
This weekend, Matt Setter’s going to introduce us in a straightforward, simple way, to the basics of HTML. Over the next two days, he’ll show us what HTML looks like, and step through the main elements you need to know to set up and format posts to perfection.
This two-post mini-series will help you get a handle on the code behind your posts so that you can trouble-shoot formatting and content issues yourself, quickly, as they arise. It will also, I hope, inspire you to find out a bit more about the language.
At the end of each post (or the series) feel free to add a comment about the main problems you have with encoding posts and content on your blog—I’m sure Matt will be pleased to answer your questions, perhaps in an extra post if needed!
To get started, I’d love to know how you’d rate your understanding of HTML basics. Do you usually use your blog platform’s WYSIWYG editor, or its HTML editor, to edit and format posts? Let us know in the comments—and enjoy this weekend’s project!
