Introduction A blog is a way for you to publish your thoughts and ideas on the internet.  Once on the web your thoughts can be read by potentially billions of people.  People will find their way to your blog through search engines, links and recommendations on other websites, reviews and even from social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. Before you start blogging you have to consider the following: How are you going to blog? What are you going to write about? What are your long term intentions with the blog? How are you going to blog? There are two free methods of developing a blog and four alternative premium methods of blogging. The majority of blogs being set up today use one of the free methods. The two free methods of blogging Free blogging sites: such as the WordPress.com and Blogger websites.  Good if you want to try out blogging with a longer term intention of upgrading. Own your own domain and use free blogging software: You do need to organise hosting and then use their free blogging software. This is the option I recommend to most bloggers. (Why you should use a cPanel hosting company) The four premium methods of blogging Using a premium blogging package: such as Moveable Type.  Usually the blog owner has to buy the domain and pay for hosting. Using an integrated support service: such as Sitesell, which manages the technical side of blogging and provides a lot of support and training for someone wanting to run an Continue Reading

Introduction All bloggers should use the free utility Windows Live Writer.  It’s an excellent tool for writing blogs offline.  It’s built in word counter and spelling checker make it a very useful.  I actually prefer to use it then writing directly to my WordPress sites direct. Using Live Writer So I’m sitting in the lounge.  I’ve just had a nice meal.  The telly’s on and my wife’s offered of make a cup of tea. There’s some programme on where some American serial killer is killing.  But we all know that the CSI  NCIS, the Law and Order team are going to solve the case somewhere between the last set of ads and the end of the programme. So out comes the notebook. Switch it on and click on Live Writer. I can then quickly belt out an easy post on a subject that doesn’t require a lot of research. I’ve got wifi, but I don’t need to use it.  I just write, save to disk.  I can then upload later when I’m connected.   The interface The interface is like a simplified Microsoft Word.  There’s a whole host of controls on the top of the screen and a nice area below where you can enter your text.  You can also add images and video. However, be warned the package quickly gets complicated when you try and do anything clever with images. From a simpler to use set of controls than WordPress you can add hyperlinks, change the styling, add bold, italics and underline, change text colour, alter text alignment and switch on or off Continue Reading

Introduction The WordPress Jetpack is a set of very useful utilities to enhance any WordPress installation. These include: WordPress.com Stats, a very useful statistics package built into your WordPress Dashboard ShareDaddy, which adds a share button to the bottom of posts, which allows visitors to print the post or send the post details to a number of social media sites After the Deadline, which dramatically improves the WordPress spell checker and adds a grammar checker Shortcode embeds, which sets up and configures video and media sources, such as YouTube, when you just add the video's single line short code. To configure Jetpack Click on the Jetpack button   found at the top of  the left hand menu, just under the Dashboard section. Click on the     Jetpack link The main Jetpack configuration screen is displayed You can then configure the various sections: The WordPress Stats You can control which roles can have access to the statistics and you can select to display a bar chart showing the number of visitors. ShareDaddy allows you to select which services you want to use including email, print and a selection of social media. You can also change the look of the Share button and whether the share options are displayed on the current window or when clicked will it be displayed in a new window. You can also add new social media options. After the Deadline configuration takes you to the user profile where the plugin adds quite a few grammar actions, Continue Reading

Introduction There are whole armies of freelancers who are willing to do all, or some of the work, required to set up, design, develop, promote and manage your blog.  There are also lots of writers willing to write content for you. As this is an international market  you can find people willing to work from $5 per hour upwards.  However, be a little bit cautious as the very low rates are likely to be at a low standard. Finding freelancers The internet is a great place for finding freelancers. You can just type a search command in Google, such as blog writer or WordPress theme developer and you will quickly find hundreds or thousands of people willing to work for you. However, I advise using one of the freelancing sites, such as Elance or Guru, where you can post a job, businesses and individuals can bid for the job.  You agree a price, select the one you want to use and away they go and in most cases you will find the work completed in a short time.   The advantage of this system is that the site acts as an escrow.  That is before the job starts you deposit some money with the site.  This is only released when you sign off the job.  If the freelancer doesn't deliver you get your money back.  This protects both you and the freelancer.  Many high quality professional freelancers use this system as it saves them hassling their clients for money. For graphics, such as a logo for your site, I recommend the really excellent 99designs website.  They have a Continue Reading

Introduction A question that is often asked on blogging advice sites - when should a person leave a full time job and start a full time career as a blogger. This is a difficult question as there is a different answer for different people. I used to help support a small business support unit and in addition I've helped numerous small businesses over the years. Are you ready to be a full time blogger? This consideration is more important then whether or not you are making enough money from your blog.  Are you able to work alone? at home by yourself? Do you have the right support network and enough human contact. I've bought my daughter a notebook computer and a carry case so that she could get away from home and work in a local coffee bar, art centre and library on her projects. I force myself to work in the mornings and get some posts out of the way and then take a long break outside the house for a couple of hours.  Lucky I can go for a walk in the nearby park, Bushy Park, to clear my head and we have a thriving town centre, so I can go for a tea or a drink and a talk. Make sure you’ve got this support structure in place before you make the leap to being a full timer.  Make sure you have online support as well. Your freelance business The standard advice for anyone starting a freelance career is to have more than one source of income, particularly in the economic climate. I know quite a few people who are losing contracts at the moment and some of them are Continue Reading

Introduction This Blog Basics website has now been merged with the website Beginning to Blog. I have now transferred over all the posts from that site onto this one. I will now focus on developing this website over the next few weeks. My first priority being to develop the range of basic tutorials for blogging beginners. Other Developments Because of the merger I have decided to add a number of features these will include: Editorial I will be writing a regular editorial articles focusing on new developments in the blogging world as well as posts on to try and boost bloggers self confidence and motivation. Website Reviews This is something I keep intending to do which is to do a review once a week of a significant website in the blogging, online, marketing and self development world. At present there is a single review of of the website - Daily Blog Tips. Blogging Tools I also intend to add a post on a useful tool or technology that is on benefit to bloggers, computer and internet users. I have three reviews already which include a great productivity tool, focus booster, and a useful tool for writing blogs without being online, Live Writer. Development Notes I am quite interested in seeing how other websites develop. I therefore intend to write a notes showing how the website develops and what changes I have made. This will include giving statistics. This may be of interest, or just of interest to myself. Over to you I'd be interesting in any Continue Reading