Before WordPress 3.0, navigation menus typically only included links to pages on your site. If you were lucky, you might get a theme that included a second navigation menu for categories. Custom menus with a mixture of links to pages, categories, and external sites didn’t exist unless you hand-coded the menu or purchased a premium theme.

With the advent of WP 3.0, the ability to create custom menus became a part of the standard WordPress platform. More and more themes, including our Calypso Colors, Modern Neutrals, and Velvet Blackberry pre-mades, are created with the capability to make use of the new custom menu functionality.

Here are directions for getting started with the custom menus feature of WP. For more thorough directions, visit  http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/.

1. If you have not used custom menus before, you’ll need to set up at least one menu. To do this, log in to your blog’s admin area and click on Appearance in the left side bar. Then click on Menus in the section that appears underneath Appearance.
2. The next step is creating the menu. On the right will be a section that for you to name your menu. Enter your menu name (I recommend using a name that tells what the menu is for – Navigation Bar, for example) and click on Create Menu.
3. You can now begin adding links to your menu. There are three kinds of links available by default – Pages, Categories, and custom URL (use for links that don’t fall into the other two choices). Select the kind of link you’d like to add.
   1. For a Custom URL link, fill in the URL and the Label, which is what will show up on the tab. Click Add to Menu.
   2. For a page, check the box for the page/s you want to add and click add to menu.
   3. For a category, check the box for the category/ies you want to add and click add to menu.
4. Added links always appear at the bottom of the right side list of links. You can rearrange the order just like you do with widgets – drag and drop. To create drop down links, slide it underneath the parent link and then slide it to the right so that it is indented. This makes it a child of the link above that is not indented.
5. The link text can be edited by clicking to expand the link and then changing the Navigation Label. Please note that once you collapse the link, the new label will not show until you save your menu.
6. Once you’ve added, renamed, and arranged all of your links, click the Save Menu button. If you don’t, your changes won’t be saved when you navigate away.
7. After you’ve saved the menu, look at the top of the left column and find the section that says Theme Locations. For each location shown (some themes are capable of using more than one custom menu), click the drop down and select the menu you want to use in that location. (Example – click the Primary Navigation drop down and select Navigation Bar.)

Congratulations! Your custom menu now appears on your blog. If you ever want to make changes to your menu, simply follow steps 3 – 6.

Please let us know if you have questions about using the Menus function.

Setting up and operating a WordPress website is so simple, it may seem as though maintenance is unnecessary. That might be true if you want nothing more than a way to keep a personal journal online. However, if you are holding a conversation with the world, there are things that need to be done to keep it flowing smoothly.

1. Update the Software

The developers at WordPress are working constantly to improve the platform and make it more secure. You won’t find updates needing to be done very often, but they should be attended to promptly.

Although you may be happy with the version you are using, you don’t want to miss out on any cool new features and failing to update the software could cause glitches and leave your site vulnerable at inconvenient times. Every time you log onto the Admin panel, check to see if there is an update.

Like all other features in WordPress, updating is very user friendly—usually it’s literally just one click away. The same location handles updates for WordPress itself and any installed plugins, themes or widgets. If you have updates that need doing, they will be listed on the Navigation Menu under Updates. Just click the link to go to the updates page. If there is more than one update waiting, only click one at a time and wait for it to finish before going on.

2. Fix Broken Links

Broken links are a sure sign of a poorly maintained website (and, in severe cases, an inept website owner). If the link doesn’t function, it may be because of updates made to the original site. [Ed. Note: Here at Berries and Cream Blog Design, we use the Broken Link Checker plug-in, which can be installed from your WordPress admin area.]

Fixing this from the links page is easy once you have got the new URL. First, check for broken links using a broken link checker. Then, once you have found the broken links, login to your WordPress control panel and go to the Links menu. Click Edit on the offensive links, then replace the old address and with the new one. Repeat for each link. Run a broken link check once more to see if you missed anything. Clean up any links that you have no plans to restore.

3. Monitor Comments

Most people have some kind of moderation feature set for comments on their blog posts. Allowing comment access without controls is a dangerous practice.

Spam filters are not perfect. Email filters sometimes catch personal emails by accident and comment filters can do the same. Checking regularly will make it easier to find any real comments and approve them. Once you are sure the folder only contains junk, empty it. Your hosting company will only allow you so much storage space and you don’t want it to fill up with trash.

4. Control the Media Library

How often to clean out old photos or other media files will vary widely from blog to blog. If you have a lot of photos or videos, they can fill your storage quickly. Deleting old ones can make your blog load faster, but you don’t want to remove them while people are still actively commenting on the post to which they are attached. Making the decision to delete can be difficult, but it is good practice to audit the Media Library every three to six months.

5. Database Maintenance

The average blog user does not need to log into the MySQL cPanel after setting up their WordPress site. While WordPress needs the MySQL database to function properly, it handles most of the updating itself. Your hosting company should supply support if there is a database error. However, those who are database-trained and are on cPanel hosting can update and maintain the database entries themselves.

Some companies provide regular database backup services. If not, and you don’t feel too comfortable about maintaining the database yourself, you should install a backup plug-in or consider hosting companies that offer daily backups.

The busy life of the average person can make it a challenge just to update blog content regularly. It is becoming more common to hire someone else to perform maintenance tasks. There are many companies operating WordPress maintenance services for a fee. They will do your backups and upgrades on a regular basis, leaving you only needing to worry about writing your posts.

This article was written by Christopher Shepard, an online entrepreneur, WordPress developer, and senior writer for Web Host Gear.