Building a Life Lesson

For convenience and ease, create the life lesson form (the questions and contact information questions) before you create the life lesson page.

TITLE

Keep your title to 5 words or less. Read how to write great titles.

BODY

Here is where you add the text of the lesson.

We also suggest creating index pages for series. In this case, you would list each lesson covered – see an example. You would follow this same system if the lesson is linked to a video – see an example.

You can link text using the chain-like button. Highlight the text to be linked, click the chain button, add your url. NOTE: All links that lead a reader off the site should open in a new window.

Images

1. To find and download an image, log into Thinkstock to find an appropriate image. Once the image has been approved, download it. NOTE: Images with persons should face towards the body of the text (inward). Images should maintain racial, age, and gender diversity.
2. Open the image in Photoshop. Crop the image to a width of 519 px by a height of 290 px.
3. Go to WordPress. Under Media, click Add New. Select the edited file from your computer and drag it into the designated area. The photo will upload with a link at the bottom of the media page that will end with .jpg.
4. In the page you are building, select icon beside “Upload/Insert.”
   
   Your image should appear under the “Media Library” tab. If the lesson is linked to a video, add a hyperlink to the image.
5. Your cropped image should appear within the body of the text.
6. If it is a series, use the same image for all of the lessons.

CATEGORIES

This is where you select the areas of the site where you want your article to show up.  For lessons, choose ‘Studies’.

POST TAGS

Add key words from your lesson. Tags serve as a next step for the audience as well as tying related articles to your article. Note: The author MUST be included as a tag – this is for legal purposes. We also suggest tagging any scripture and always add ‘life lessons’ as a tag.

ATTRIBUTES

This section is where you create your url/permalink for the lesson. Save lessons under ‘studies’.

After the lesson is saved, the url can be further edited with “Permalink”, which appears under the title. The title will automatically be saved as the end of the url but it often needs to be edited or shortened so the url is shorter or makes more sense.

FORMBUILDER

Choose the life lesson form you have created from the list. See instructions for how to build a life lesson form. For convenience and ease, try to title the form and the life lesson page as similar as possible.

CUSTOM FIELDS

Hide faith adventures for life lesson. Choose “faith-adventure-transition” under name, put “0″ under value, click update.

STATISTIC TYPE

All life lessons are categorized as ‘Mentoring’.

POST AUTHOR

Select author of article from list. When viewing the page, the author name will appear at the top of the article and will link to the author’s bio page. See instructions on how to build an author’s bio page.

SAVING/PUBLISHING

Save lesson and select preview to see what the article will look like. This is an excellent time to view your article and make last minute changes. Publish your work when you are satisfied with it.