Thursday, January 20, 2005
How to get started...
6 How to get started AD--suggest these be kept short on technical details w. lots of references to web sources.
If you have the itch to start writing, or if you already write on a regular basis, a blog is the easiest route to publication and an audience of millions. The motto of blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) is "Push-button publishing for the people." Although blogger.com is probably the most well known blogging engine, there are hundreds more. Here is a quick list of sites that will have you presenting your creations to the blogosphere in no time:
http://www.blogdrive.com
http://www.freeblogcity.com
http://www.15dn.com - Specialists in Business Blog skins
http://www.modblog.com
http://www.solisblog.com
"But I have no idea how to publish a website, and I don't know any HTML (hyper text markup language)!" Not to fear future blogger, you don't need any knowledge of either. One of the reasons online blogging has become so widespread is the relative ease with which an non-technical, or even computer illiterate person can start.
Visit any of the sites listed above and you will see a link with the words "Start blogging" or "Create your Blog now!". What lies behind that link is a step by step instruction guide to creating, hosting and posting to your blog. Usually the first step is to fill out a form with the information about you and your blog. What is it called? Who are you and what will you write about? You type in a few short sentences and move on to the next step. Where is your blog going to be? Not everyone has space on a webserver to publish their own blog, and even some people that do get web space from their Internet Service Provider have no idea how to use it. Once again, fear not, the blogosphere is user friendly. You simply choose a name for your blog, and your chosen blog host will create the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for you. For example, if you started your blog on blogger.com and wanted the name "myrockinblog", you could type that in to the publishing form. Provided no one else has already chosen that name, your Blog's address would http://myrockinblog.blogspot.com - and viola, you are online. The last step in setting up your blog is to decide how you want it to look. Here is where most people start to shudder and say things like "I can't make web pages, this is going to look terrible." Have no fear, there are people (like me for example) that design templates for aspiring blog artists such as yourself. A template can be as simple or as complicated as you wish, but its job is simply to provide the layout and colors for every page of your blog. Once you set it up, you are done and don't have to worry about it again until you decide to change the look of your blogsite. That's it, you are now ready to start entering your thoughts, dreams, rants, links or whatever you wish to your blog.
If you have the itch to start writing, or if you already write on a regular basis, a blog is the easiest route to publication and an audience of millions. The motto of blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) is "Push-button publishing for the people." Although blogger.com is probably the most well known blogging engine, there are hundreds more. Here is a quick list of sites that will have you presenting your creations to the blogosphere in no time:
http://www.blogdrive.com
http://www.freeblogcity.com
http://www.15dn.com - Specialists in Business Blog skins
http://www.modblog.com
http://www.solisblog.com
"But I have no idea how to publish a website, and I don't know any HTML (hyper text markup language)!" Not to fear future blogger, you don't need any knowledge of either. One of the reasons online blogging has become so widespread is the relative ease with which an non-technical, or even computer illiterate person can start.
Visit any of the sites listed above and you will see a link with the words "Start blogging" or "Create your Blog now!". What lies behind that link is a step by step instruction guide to creating, hosting and posting to your blog. Usually the first step is to fill out a form with the information about you and your blog. What is it called? Who are you and what will you write about? You type in a few short sentences and move on to the next step. Where is your blog going to be? Not everyone has space on a webserver to publish their own blog, and even some people that do get web space from their Internet Service Provider have no idea how to use it. Once again, fear not, the blogosphere is user friendly. You simply choose a name for your blog, and your chosen blog host will create the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for you. For example, if you started your blog on blogger.com and wanted the name "myrockinblog", you could type that in to the publishing form. Provided no one else has already chosen that name, your Blog's address would http://myrockinblog.blogspot.com - and viola, you are online. The last step in setting up your blog is to decide how you want it to look. Here is where most people start to shudder and say things like "I can't make web pages, this is going to look terrible." Have no fear, there are people (like me for example) that design templates for aspiring blog artists such as yourself. A template can be as simple or as complicated as you wish, but its job is simply to provide the layout and colors for every page of your blog. Once you set it up, you are done and don't have to worry about it again until you decide to change the look of your blogsite. That's it, you are now ready to start entering your thoughts, dreams, rants, links or whatever you wish to your blog.
