Starting Over

So why do you feel you need to start over? Yes, I found a few errors but from my vantage point everything is manageable.

OK, I’m confused… I read your other post where you said you paid for 3 years of WordPress. Do you mean that you paid wordpress.com? Or do you mean that you paid for 3 years of hosting at BlueHost? You do not need a wordpress.com account to run a self-hosted WordPress site. All you need is a hosting account. BlueHost is a great place to have a WordPress site.

A self-hosted WordPress website can only be access by typing in the URL. That is how the Internet works. Don’t be frustrated. We’ve all been there. Please take a breath and ask your questions. Keep in mind that this forum is for general WordPress issues. Specific questions like how to do things with Elementor have to be asked at the Elementor forum – https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/elementor/

Stay calm and enjoy your journey ?? We’re here to help!

P.S. We cannot do the work for you but we can give you guidance on how you can do things. I think you have accomplished more than you give yourself credit for!

Answer: because I thought I have messed it up so badly it’s beyond repair.

1st off: I can’t even get into my website. Message I get is I don’t have any WordPress sites.

2nd: when I was getting in, I couldn’t use Elementor.

OK, so I guess I paid Bluehost for 3 years. You’re not confused, I am.

I ordered a WordPress for Dummies book today.

So, let’s start with how to access my site. WordPress says I don’t have one.

How are you trying to access your site? The way to login is to use this URL –
https://discoveramericathebeautiful.com/wp-admin/

Enter your website username and password. Then it will redirect you to your admin dashboard.

I created a shortcut that was: https://wordpress.com/stats/day/discoveramericathebeautiful.com

No, that’s not right. Self-hosted WordPress sites are totally separate from WordPress.com sites. Just forget about wordpress.com and work with the login URL I provided. That is the only way to access your website.

I recently discovered there is a difference between a post and a page. When I log into my account using the URL you told me to use, which by the way worked perfectly, I get to a Dashboard heading: Elementor Overview. It has a button that says create new page. Is that really what it says – a new page, not a post – and isn’t a post what I want to create for my blog?

Deciding whether to use a page or post depends on the purpose. For ongoing entries like a travel journal I would choose a post. For static informational entries I would choose a page. Does that help?

In the Settings tab under Reading, the first item is: Your Home Page Displays .. that should be your latest posts, correct?

How do I set the About Us, Disclaimer, and Privacy Policy to be just (I think the right word is) static pages – not part of the blog posts?

Can I change a page I have already set up to a post, or is it better to re-write it?

Your homepage can be either. I typically use a static page but it’s a matter of choice. I always have the posts display as a menu option. The decision comes down to what you want to display on your homepage.

Your About Us, Disclaimer and Privacy Policy are already pages. Pages and posts do not intermingle.

No, you can’t repurpose a page or post to the other. You will have to rewrite it.

So if I choose option 2 – a static page, then “Head Out On The Highway” can be my home page and “What’s New” can be my blog/posts page.

If I do that, when people come to my site they will see “Head Out On The Highway” and my most recent posts will appear in the right column. Correct?

My followers will get an email of my latest post correct? And if the email is only a brief part of the post and they have to click read more or the rest of the story, does that link them to the homepage “Head Out On The Highway” or does it link they to the whole post?

Regarding the setup, your site visitors will initially see Head Out on the Highway. Your most recent posts will only display if you set the theme to display them there. It’s not a WordPress default. It depends on how you setup your theme. Right now you have a welcome message and blog archives. To have most recent posts you need to add a recent posts widget to the right column.

Regarding the email, the link will take them to the post.

can I have a separate template for posts and another one for pages?