The echo
part should be at the end of your code.
Keep that in mind, any echo or print should be at the end of your piece of code.
<?php
if( $_POST['title_given'] ) {
// Create post object
$my_post = array(
'post_title' => wp_strip_all_tags( $_POST['title_given'] ),
'post_content' => 'Did it work??',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_author' => 1,
'post_type' => 'post'
);
// Insert the post into the database
$return_value = wp_insert_post( $my_post, true );
// This echo never appears for some reason
echo "Title given is: " . $_POST['title_given'] . "<br />";
echo "wp_insert_post() returned: " . var_dump( $return_value ) . "<br />";
}