Blogging Made easy – Part 1:
About Blogging / Websites / Top websites / Buying Websites:
Thanks for the numerous responses to our earlier post “Blogging Platforms”.
Hope all of you received my replies to your queries.
For any further queries, you are free to contact us at: socialmedia@techdivine.com
Now to answer your other queries I am putting across few resources & links which I am sure will help you get a deeper insight into the same:
1. “What can I write on a blog”
One can write anything depending on his / her focus & expectation from the blog. Depending on whether you want to offer your writing to a niche market or your blog as a journal / story / personal sightings & stories or reviews for some practical tips / advice on products / services etc based on your experience, your blog needs to slowly evolve for that target audience.
You can also write biographies of people, few personal success stories with examples etc
If you are creatively inclined as in terms of traditional or graphic / photography / digital art, you might make a gallery & showcase your works too to the world across.
Writing an imaginative story, discussing case studies can also be a great way to work on a blog.
Other than these, one has the option for writing their travel adventures, their passion for music, art, cars, books, education, career, parenting and so much more.
2. “How much is a blog useful for a business”
Life is not always about selling. It’s most important aspect is to connect with people at varied levels. At the end of the day, one needs to sell too to survive. Here again, a blog is a great medium. So the answer is Very much yes.
It keeps the customers / readers updated and their responses over a period of time generates brand loyal customers.
3. “Functions, widgets & Plugins”, what are they used for in a blog / website?
They are tools.
Some refer to them merely as decorations, while I would prefer the term organized & systematic tools for planning and getting your message across to readers / customers / target audience easily.
Eg.1. These tools, lets say a widget that allows one to scan through only a particular category topic which is of interest to him / her, would be definitely popularly used and useful as one does not then need to scan across pages which might run into scores of posts otherwise. Thus, here a “Category” widget (tool) would be great.
Eg. 2. Plugins: Ratings plugins are very common and popular allowing new users to know by a single look whether the post has got positively notable ratings / review. Though it might not always be correct, but a rating allows the user (reader) to take control.
It also shows the reader of the trust & confidence a writer has, so as to share this power of reviewing his/her write up with the world across to judge it.
Widget
Plugin - Ratings
4. What are Statistics / awstats / Hit counters
Some more examples of the same:
- Google Analytics
- Sitemeter
- Awstats
- My Blog Log
http://www.google.com/analytics
http://awstats.sourceforge.net
They tell the reader of the number of Hits / readership views on the page / website. They can be many a times triggered or hyped but with sites such as WordPress etc, the advantage remains for the reader to know the actual readership hits as such sites do not count the admin / main authors Machine IP hits. So what you see is what really is.
Great examples are “awstats” & Google analytics. It not only gives the viewers & visitors a brief peek into the site hits, but gives the creator of the blog / site many important details to plan ahead for.
For eg. “awstats plugin / tool lets the designer of the site know not only the page hits, but also, the number of people from which country / which page has main hits / keywords / search terms used to land here/ external links / time spent of page / site / most viewed content on site and many such other important info including user id, Unique users on the site etc.
“Share” Buttons at the end of the Blog:
They let you share an interesting post with others using social networkign sites like Orkut, facebook, MySpace, email, Diggit, Stumbleupon etc
awstats
5. Can you name few good Blog Editors
Qumana / Illuminex / BlogJet / w.bloggar / Ecto are few which are popular.
Few links:
6. What are RSS / Twitter feeds / Blog feeds / Tags: When a Blog / website says, Click here to subscribe: How does it work and what does it tell the reader. Who is it useful for, reader or blogger? What are tags in a blog / photograph? How is it useful and for whom?
New readers / even regulars many a times may not be always there to check or visit your blog.
If a reader likes a blog and you as an author / writer / publisher / content developer want your prospective and regular readers to stay in touch with your site, be updated on new blog posts, new content etc, you can add FEEDS to the site. Best Eg RSS feed / Twitter Feeds.
What it does is, it takes at times few snippets from the new blog post / or the whole post / sometimes only the headline / title of the blog as modified by the user / writer of the blog and keeps the user updated on his machine if a new blog post arrives from that site.
Thus Blog feeds are great, both for the reader and the creator as the feeds contain recently updated content from a website without having to bookmark and keep visiting to check for updates or inform of updates.
RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works
Twitter Feeds:
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.
Tags:
Tags are basically labels to objects. They help to describe a post / photograph / place / person / item/ object / a specific purpose and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching on clicking it. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. Eg. Tags on a blog post tell the users different aspects that have been part of this post (blog / write up / photograph etc)
FEEDS for website or blog
7. How does one post comment. I always find it difficult to comment, It says REGISTER first. What & how is it done?
Comments can be posted in blogs / sites many times without having to register.
But professional blogs usually require its users to register & comment as it also helps them keep away unwanted spams and moderate comments to control the quality of comments & language used.
One can find REGISTRATION link at the website or blog Top / Bottom Side. Saying, click to register.
Many blogs today also have Register buttons as a Widget under the META section, giving the blog a more professional look.
User Registration: For Readers to comment
8. What is a domain name & Why do I need to own it. Can I get it free?
Like the old saying goes, if you want something free, buy the giant size first.
Majorly, you can get a domain name free ONLY if you buy website first. There are always exceptions. Still, having your own Domain name URL (web address – Uniform resource locator) can give a sense of professionalism to a site / blog with of course loads of control over it in terms of add-ons, features plugins etc.
9. What is a hosting service?
A company that is letting / subletting / selling Plots of land (so to speak webspace) on the internet is a Hosting service. Eg. http://bluehost.com
Thus in order for people to find your web site on the Internet, the site has to be on a computer called a web server. The web server runs programs to serve web pages, send and receive email, look up domain names and so on. It has to connect to the Internet, preferably through a fast connection.
10. Is there a free website to create available.
Yes.
Yahoo / Tripod
http://in.geocities.yahoo.com/index.php
11. If yes, why do I need to pay for one?
If you don’t own it, it ain’t yours to control buddy.
Free websites often run their own advertisements on your created content etc. If you want to try website creation & design just to start with, you can try with free websites with Yahoo / Tripod etc. Once you are sure you can build and run the same, go ahead get one and get creative.
12. Cost of a website & a domain name.
Tricky question.
Site costs range depending on what you are looking in for. Business site/ personal site / premium packages / Deluxe and so on. It can range anywhere form say $5 to more than $1000 including web site design / maintenance etc.
Domain names usually cost around $10 with the packages of buying the websites and many offer it free once the whole webspace is purchased.
You can refer Bluehost for more such services & cost: http://bluehost.com
13. Do I need to be a computer programmer to build a website?
No, not necessarily to start with. One can use a content management system (CMS). It is a computer software that handles the presentation of your web site’s content to your users.
Few Good CMS: Joomla, Drupal, Mambo
14. Where can I learn more about designing websites, Creating blogs etc.
CONTACT US.
We have, whole range of services with us. We can help you build one from scratch or give you access to get the ultimate pool of knowledge for the same for a training material / workshop fee.
Email: socialmedia@techdivine.com
INTERESTED In Availing of Our Professional Blogging Services: Visit us here
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love the post, blogging is truly a artform 🙂
Thanks a lot. Have a great day ahead!