Create Your Own Blog 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro

Tris Hussey started blogging on a whim and then found himself as Canada’s first professional blogger. Tris has worked for several blogging and media startups and has taught new media at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Tris teaches blogging, WordPress, and podcasting through the University of British Columbia. In addition, Tris finds time to speak, guest lecture, and contribute to the social media community in and around Vancouver. When not doing all this, Tris manages the marketing and social media for Simply.ca.

About the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

It’s All About Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Wait, You’re a Professional Blogger?. . . . 3

How to Use This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A Brief History of Blogging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Blog Heard Round the World:

Blogging Gets Mainstream Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Blogging Comes into Its Own . . . 12

Culture of Sharing, Connecting, and Caring. . . . . . . . . . . 13

Blogs, Society, and the News. . . . . 13

Gaze into the Looking Glass and the Future of Blogging . . . . 15

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Starting Your First Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Choosing a Topic for Your Blog. . 18

Picking a Name for Your Blog . . . 19

Choosing a Domain Name. . . . . . 23

Choosing a Blog Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Signing Up for a Blog on WordPress.com . . . .. . . . . 30

Setting Up a Self-Hosted Blog. . . . 32

Touring Your Blog’s Dashboard. . . . . . . . 38

Content Block: Posts, Media, Links, Pages, and Comments . . 38

Administration Block: Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, and Settings. . . . . 40

Tweaking Your Blog Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Tweaking and Tuning a WordPress.com Blog. . . . .. . . 42

Setting Good Permalinks . . . . . . . . 47

Antispam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

SEO Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Blogrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Comments and Trackbacks. . . . . . 51

Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

About Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Themes and Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Tracking Your Blog’s Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Turning an Idea for a Blog into Blog Posts. . . .. . . 56

Capture Inspiration Whenever and Wherever It Strikes . . .  . 57

Finding Your “Voice” . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

To Anonymously Blog or Not: The Line Between Public and Private. .  . . . . 62

Write Until You’ve Said Your Piece. . . . . . . . . . . 64

If You Post It, They Will Come: Posting Frequency Answered . . . 65

Your First Post. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Drinking from the Information Fire Hose: Using the Internet to Power Your Posts . .  . 70

Other Bloggers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

”Real” World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Reader Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Writing with Search Engines in Mind ....73

Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Writing for Search Engines . . . . . . 75

Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Encouraging Comments and Discussion. . . .  . . . . . 78

Commenting on Other Blogs . . . . 80

Spam, Trolls, and Other Vermin: The Comments You Don’t Want . . .80

Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Trolls and Other Vermin. . . . . . . . . 82

Finding Other Blogs in Your Niche . . . . 83

Linking to Other Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Connecting with Other Bloggers. . . . . . . 87

Twitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Facebook, Google+, and Other Social Networks . . . . . . . 89

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Getting Started with WordPress.com. . . 92

Creating Your Account . . . . . . . . . . 93

Key WordPress.com Settings and Configuration . . . . . . . 96

Themes and Customizations . . . 100

Focus on the Content—What to Put in a Personal Blog . . . . . . .  . 107

Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Adding Videos to Your Posts. . . . 118

Growing with WordPress.com . . . . . . . . 120

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Blogging Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Podcasting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Building and Hosting Your Business Blog . . . .. . 138

Choosing a Template for Your Business Blog . . .. 138

Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Isn’t This a Blogging Book? . . . . . . . . . . 144

Blog Engines to Run Websites . . 144

Blogs Are the New Websites . . . . 145

Let Technology Help You . . . . . . . 145

It’s About the Content. . . . . . . . . . 145

Does a Website Have to Have a Blog, Too?. . .. . . 146

Getting Started: Technology . . . . . . . . . . 146

Domain Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Getting Started: Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Required Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Getting Started: Installing WordPress and Other Key Components . . 149

Installing WordPress. . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Installing Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Recommended Plugins . . . . . . . . . 156

Installing Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

What Will the Home Page Be? . . . . . . . 161

Static . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Modular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Choosing and Customizing Your Theme . . . . . . 168

Headers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Widgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Choosing Content for Your Website . . 172

Post or Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Final Touches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Measuring Your Success . . . . . . . . 175

Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Maintaining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

What Makes for Good Content on a Portfolio Blog . . . . . 178

Picking the Right Tool for the Job . . . . 179

WordPress.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

DIY or Self-Hosted Blogs. . . . . . . . 180

How Do I Choose Between WordPress.com and DIY? . .  . 180

Making a Site a Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Picking a Good Theme for a Portfolio Blog . .. . . . 181

Plugins for Portfolio Blogs . . . . . . 183

Pulling It All Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Gathering, Exporting, and Presenting Pictures. .. . . 185

Final Word on Content . . . . . . . . . 189

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Why Tumblr and Not Others?. . . . . . . . 192

Getting Started with Tumblr . . . . . . . . . 192

Creating a Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Tumblr Versus WordPress. . . . . . . 204

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

All About Audio and Video Content....206

Podcast Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Recording Your First Podcast . . . . . . . . . 209

Laying Down the Main Track . . 211

Podcast Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Adding Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Podsafe Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Exporting to MP3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Video Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Recording Your First Video Blog . . . . . . 221

Video Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Exporting, Compression, and Video Formats .. . . . 227

Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Where and How to Host Your Podcast or Video Blog. . . . . 230

Posting Podcasts and Video to Your Blog. . . . .. . . 230

Submitting Your Show to iTunes. . . .  . . . . 232

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Nuts and Bolts of Making Money from Blogs . .  . . 238

Making Money Directly . . . . . . . . 238

Making Money Indirectly . . . . . . 244

Final Word on Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Pulling It Together on Your Blog . . . . . 250

Ad Codes 101. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Optimizing Your Blog’s Template . . . . . . 252

Tracking Your Performance . . . . 253

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

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