Wordpress.com Blog Dashboard

You will notice that the Wordpress.com menu (circle in red) is added on top of the page (as shown in the diagram below).

Wordpress.com Menu Bar

The Wordpress.com menu bar provides helpful quick links for you to access your account, your administrator panel, and other options. The quick links include:

1. My Account:
   • Global Dashboard: This takes you to the Dashboard of Administrator panel.
   • Stats: This takes you to statistic page of wordpress.com. Statistic page displays blog traffic information such as pageviews, the number of visitors, referrers, and keywords.
   • Blog Surfer: This takes you to the blog surfer page, where you can keep up with your friends, family, and contacts who have blogs here on WordPress.com, especially those with private blogs who you can’t subscribe to via RSS.
   • Tag Surfer: This takes you to the Tag surfer page, where you can find out what people are talking about based on keywords.
   • My Comments: This takes you to My Comment page, where you can view all comments you’ve made across WordPress.com network of blogs.
   • My Blogs: This takes you to My Blogs page, where you can view all of blogs that you are a member of.
   • Edit Profile: This takes you to Your Profile page in your administration panel, where you can change your password and contact information.
   • Support: This takes you to Support section of wordpres.com, where you can get assistance from wordpress.com folks.
   • Wordpress.com: This takes you to the main page of wordpress.com
   • Logout: This lets you log out.
2. My Dashboard: This takes you toe the Dashboard of administration panel.
3. New Post: Start a new post by clicking this option.
4. Blog Info:
   • Random Post: This loads a random post from the blog you are visiting.
   • Subscribe to Blog: This takes you to Blog Surfer page, where you can subscribe to a blog you are visiting.
   • Add to Blog: This adds the blog you are visiting to your blog roll.
   • Report as Spam: Report the blog you are visiting to the wordpress.com administrator as a spam blog.
   • Report as Mature: Report the blog you are visiting to the wordpress.com administrator as a blog containing adult or mature content.

Note: As long as you are logged in to your wordpress.com account, the wordpress.com menu bar will appear at the top of any wordpress.com blog that you surf to.

Guide to Wordpress.com Dashboard

You will go directly to your wordpress.com administration panel dashboard page by clicking the My Dashboard link in the wordpress.com menu bar. The dashboard should look like the diagram below:

Wordpress.com Blog Dashboard

Several modules within the dashboard provide you with the information about your blog as well as actions that you can take to navigate to different areas of the administration panel.

You can change the way these modules display. You can move them around on your dashboard page. To move a module, move your mouse over the title bar, click once, hold your mouse button and drag it to the spot you would like to display it, and then release the mouse button to drop it. You can also expand or collapse a module by clicking on the title bar of the module.

Right Now Module

The right now module displays update information about your blog. It displays:

Right Now Module

• The number of posts: This shows the total number of post you have in your wordpress blog. Clicking the number/post brings you to the Edit Posts page, where you can edit the posts on your blog.
• The number of pages: This is the current number of pages on your blog. Clicking the number/page takes you to Edit Pages page, where you manage the static pages you have created for your blog.
• The number of categories: This shows the current number of categories you have on your blog. Clicking the number/category takes you to Categories Page, where you manage categories of your blog.
• The number of tags: This shows the current number of tags you have on your blog. Clicking the number/tags takes you to Tags page, where you can add, remove, edit or view your current tags.
• The number of comments: This shows the total number of comments that are currently on your blog. Clicking the number/comment takes you to the Edit Comments page, where you can add, remove, edit or view comments on your blog.

The Right Now module will also show the name of the current theme you are using and the number of widgets you have added to your blogs. Clicking the theme name or Change Theme button takes you to the Manage Theme page, which lists your currently active and all available themes for your wordpress blog.

Recent Comments Module

Within recent comments module, you find:

Recent Comments Module

• Last 5 comments published to your blog.
• The name and avatar of the author of each comment.
• A list to the post the comment was left on.
• An excerpt of the comments
• Comment management links: Five links will appear when you hover your mouse over the comment. These links allow you to manage comments from your Dashboard.
  • Unapprove: This link appears only when you have comment moderation turned on.
  • Edit: This link takes you to Edit Comment page, where you can edit the comment.
  • Reply: This link displays a text box where you can leave quick reply to the comment right from your dashboard.
  • Spam: This makes the comment as spam.
  • Delete: This deletes the comment.
• View all buttons: Clicking View All button takes you to the Edit Comments page, where you can moderate, edit, or delete any comments.

Incoming Links Module

This module lists all the post that link to your blog. If your blog is new and you do not have any incoming links, it should look like this:

Incoming Link Module

The Google Blog Search link will take you to the Google Blog Search page. Google Blog Search page is a search engine for blogs only.

Your Stuff

In this section, you will find:

• Today: This contains a list of new or updated post you’ve made during the current day. Clicking the title of the post or Edit lets you edit the post or page.
• A While Ago: You can edit any posts or pages that are listed here by clicking title or Edit (next to the title).

What’s Hot

You can find latest information about wordpress.com in what’s hot section. It will show wordpress.com news, top blogs, top post, fastest-growing blogs, and the latest posts made to blogs on wordpress.com. This section helps you stay in touch with the wordpress community as a whole.

Whats Hot Module

QuickPress

The QuickPress module allows you to write, save and publish a blog post right from your wordpress dashboard.

Quickpress Module

Recent Drafts

If you have not written any drafts, the Recent Drafts module displays the message: There are no drafts at the moment (as shown in the diagram below)

Recent Drafts Module

Once you have saved some posts as drafts, they will be shown in the Recent Drafts Module. Wordpress displays up to five drafts in this module and display the title of the post, the date it was saved, and a short excerpt. Click the title of the draft to edit the draft. Click view all button to go the Manage Posts page where you can view, edit, and delete your blog posts.

Recent Drafts Module

Stats Module

In this section, you can find a graph of your blog stats for the past several days. The graph shows you how many visitor your blog received each day.

Stats Module

It also shows:

• Top posts: This area displays a list of the most popular posts in your blog, determined by the number of visits each post received. It also shows how many times each post is viewed.
• Top searches: This area lists all the top keywords and search phrases people used to find your blog in search engines.
• Most active: This area displays the most active posts in your blog, determined by the number of comments left on each post.

Note:

If you can get rid of the modules that you are not using by doing the following steps:

1. Click the Screen Options button show at the top of the dashboard.
2. Deselect the module you want to hide on your dashboard.

Wordpress Dashboard Screen Options

Related posts:

1. Refining Your Post With These Options
2. Wordpress Plugin to Increase SEO Rankings
3. Organize your Blog by Separating Comments and Trackbacks