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Monday, March 3, 2008

Tips for starting your blog

1. Determine a theme.
Most bloggers take one of three approaches. Some write about what happens to interest them at the moment. In this sense, their blog is really a "web journal." Others choose a single theme and stick to it. Frankly, it takes a lot of discipline. Still others, like myself, to focus on a main theme, but sometimes rejected. If you want to develop a suite of loyal readers, I think the last two approaches are good. People who have similar interests will keep returning.


2. Select a service.
I TypePad.com. My daughters Xanga.com use. These are just a few of the dozens of available services. Some of them are free, like Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, Blog-City.com, and MSN Spaces (also Xanga.com). Others charge a fee. An example SquareSpace.com, and BlogIdentity.com Bubbler.com (also TypePad.com). But even fee-based services usually offer of 30 - to 60 days free trial. Why should I use TypePad.com? Because I think it offers the best balance of powers, customization and ease of use. Your mileage may vary.


3. Configure your blog.
Most blogging services, I tried to make it a very simple process. Do not be discouraged because it sounds technical. It usually is not. You do not need to become a geek. However, you must make some decisions about how you want your blog to look. You will have to decide on a "theme", the meaning of colors, number of columns, and the overall appearance of your blog. You can create your image. If so, you will need a digital copy. Regardless, it's something that you can change as you go.


4. Write your first post.
Well, now that you are ready to create your first message. If you have not done a lot of writing, which may prove to be the most difficult part. If you do not have a lot of experience, keep your messages short. Develop momentum. Getting back. Stick to what you know. You probably take for granted the fact that you have a lot of specialized information that others will find useful, even fascinating. If you do not know where to start again, beginning with a "Welcome to My Blog post. Tell your readers why you started your blog, and all that stuff that you intend to write about.


5.
Consider using a client of blogging deferred. It is not a necessity, but it will make blogs much easier. A client offline blogging is like a word processor for blogs. It allows you to write when you are not online, and upload your position when you connect to the Internet. The two most popular are BlogJet and ecto (yes, lowercase "e" is part of the image). BlogJet is my favourite, but it is not available for the Mac. Ecto is available on Windows platforms and Mac. You can try both programs before buying it.


6. Add the bells and whistles.
Most blogs allow you to display the books you read, you will appreciate albums, and various other lists. TypePad is particularly adept in this regard. You can also integrate third-party services as Bloglet. This allows your readers to subscribe to your site and get an email every time you post a new entry. The best way to get an idea of what is available is to read blogs and other people to take note of what you like.


7. Promote your blog.
You want to make sure that you are "Ping" the weblog tracking major projects. Most blogging services handle this automatically, as are customers offline blogging. Do not worry if you do not understand this process. You do not need to understand it to use it. (Here is a simple explanation.) Basically, your service or software sends a notification to identify sites to notify them that you have posted a new entry. If your software does not, you might want to use pingomatic. This is a super-easy service ping fourteen services. All you have to do is enter the address of your blog every time you post a new entry. If you want to manually enter a full list of services ping, here is a list to help you get started.


8. Write regularly.
This is the best advice I can give you for the edification of readers. If people like what you write, they will come back. However, if there is nothing new to read, they will eventually lose interest. So, the more you post something regularly, the more your audience will grow. I suggest you schedule time to write. It will not happen on its own. At one point, he returned to make a commitment and not deviate.


Finally, I advise you to be patient with yourself. Writing is like anything else. The more you do it, the more you get. If you have a little talent, and stick with it, you will eventually return to the pace and the joy of it (written by Thomas Nelson).

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