Create Your First Blog Post

In this tutorial, we’ll create your first blog post using the Git-based content system. By the end, you’ll understand how to write posts in MDX format and publish them to your website.

What We’ll Build

We’re going to create a simple “Welcome to Our Blog” post that includes:

A title and description
Publication date and author
A featured image
Some basic content with formatting
Tags for categorization

Step 1: Clone Your Repository

First, let’s get a local copy of your content repository to work with.

Open your terminal

Clone your repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-org/blog-content.git
cd blog-content

Verify the repository structure:
Terminal window
```
ls -la
```
You should see a posts/ directory. If not, create it:
Terminal window
```
mkdir -p posts assets/images
```

Step 2: Create Your Post File

Create a new file in the posts/ directory:
Terminal window
```
touch posts/welcome-to-our-blog.mdx
```
Open the file in your text editor

Add the frontmatter at the top of the file:

---
title: "Welcome to Our Blog"
description: "Introducing our new blog where we'll share market updates and home buying tips"
date: 2024-01-15
author: "Your Name"
image: "/assets/images/welcome-hero.jpg"
tags: ["announcement", "welcome"]
---

Step 3: Write Your Content

Now let’s add some content below the frontmatter:

---
title: "Welcome to Our Blog"
description: "Introducing our new blog where we'll share market updates and home buying tips"
date: 2024-01-15
author: "Your Name"
image: "/assets/images/welcome-hero.jpg"
tags: ["announcement", "welcome"]
---

Welcome to our new blog! We're excited to start sharing valuable insights about the local real estate market, home buying tips, and community highlights.

## What You Can Expect

We'll be posting regularly about:

- **Market Updates** — Monthly trends and analysis
- **Home Buying Tips** — Advice for first-time buyers and seasoned investors
- **Community Spotlight** — Highlighting local neighborhoods and amenities
- **Selling Strategies** — Tips for getting the best price for your home

## Stay Connected

Make sure to check back regularly for new posts. You can also follow us on social media for quick updates and market news.

We're here to help you navigate the real estate market with confidence. If you have questions or topics you'd like us to cover, reach out anytime!

Step 4: Add a Featured Image

Find or create an image for your post (recommended size: 1200x630px)
Save it in the assets/images/ directory:
Terminal window
```
cp ~/Downloads/welcome-hero.jpg assets/images/
```
The image path in your frontmatter (/assets/images/welcome-hero.jpg) now points to this file

Step 5: Commit and Push

Check what files you’ve changed:
Terminal window
```
git status
```

Add your new post and image:

git add posts/welcome-to-our-blog.mdx
git add assets/images/welcome-hero.jpg

Commit with a descriptive message:
Terminal window
```
git commit -m "Add welcome blog post"
```
Push to your repository:
Terminal window
```
git push origin main
```

Step 6: Sync and Publish

Log into your admin dashboard
Navigate to Brokerage Settings → Content tab
Click Sync Now to pull your new post
Wait for the sync to complete (you’ll see a success message)
Visit your website’s blog page to see your new post

What We Learned

You now know how to:

Create an MDX file with proper frontmatter
Write content using Markdown formatting
Add featured images to your posts
Commit and push changes to Git
Sync content to your website

Next Steps

Try these on your own:

Create a second post about a local market update
Experiment with different Markdown formatting (links, images in content, lists)
Add multiple tags to a post for better categorization
Try setting draft: true in frontmatter to hide a post while you work on it