The Art of the Blog - WordPress.com · 2017-11-26 · weblog, which in turn was coined by Jorn ......
Transcript of The Art of the Blog - WordPress.com · 2017-11-26 · weblog, which in turn was coined by Jorn ......
The Art of the Blog
A start-up guide to blogging and WordPress
Table of Contents What is a blog?
What is WordPress?
How do I make a WordPress account?
How do I make my first blog post?
How do I get more people to read my blog?
What should I and shouldn’t I put in my blog?
The Art of the Blog
What is a Blog? The term blog is coined by Peter Merholz from the term
weblog, which in turn was coined by Jorn Barger in December
17, 1997.
Loosely put, it is a website consisting of discrete entries
called posts (singular: post) often sorted in chronological
order of publishing.
Very often (though not true all the time), a blog is focused
on one topic, whether it be as broad as one’s day to day
experience (as it is in a personal blog) or as narrow as
one’s special interests.
What is a Blog? Although Peter Merholz was the one who coined the term blog
by jokingly breaking the word weblog into we blog in the
sidebar of his blog Peterme.com, the term came into wide
adoption when Evan Williams of Pyra Labs used the term blog
both as a noun (blog, blog post, blogger) and a verb (to
blog, i.e. to post in a blog).
Today, there are a lot of free blogging services available
online. Two popular ones are Pyra Labs’ own Blogger (bought
by Google in 2003) and WordPress by the WordPress Foundation.
Alternatives to Blogging With the expansion and adoption of the Internet as a social
medium, blogging has since been absorbed and assimilated into
the lives of netizens.
The rise of Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram has led to a phenomenon and variant of traditional
blogging called microblogging.
Alternatives to Blogging Microblogging is a variant of blogging that focuses less on
lengthy blogs and more on short but frequent posts. It
promotes the idea of sharing the moment (i.e. what are you
doing right now) as opposed to recalling events after they
have transpired.
This form of blogging has proliferated even more thanks to
the ubiquity of mobile devices.
Is Snapchat a Blog? Another more recent trend is the adoption and use of
Snapchat. Started by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie
Brown while they were college students at Stanford
University, Snapchat takes microblogging to a whole new
level. Unlike traditional blogs, your posts (that are mostly
photos and videos) are impermanent; they will disappear after
a day.
Going back to Blogging Our focus today, however, will be on WordPress, one of the
more traditional and free blogging services.
So, what is WordPress?
WordPress.com
What is WordPress? While WordPress is
known as a blogging
service, it is
actually a free and
open source Content
Management System
(CMS) based on PHP
and MySQL.
It’s blogging service
is a subset of its
CMS service.
(top) the home page of wordpress.org, the CMS service of
WordPress.
What is WordPress? WordPress was started by
Matt Mullenweg and Mike
Little when they branched
away from b2/cafelog, a PHP
and MySQL based blogging
framework written by Michel
Valdrighi.
Christine Selleck Tremoulet,
a friend of Mullenweg,
suggested the name
WordPress.
(top) b2/cafelog (http://cafelog.com/), precursor to
WordPress.
Creating a WordPress Account
Starting up Your Blog Starting a blog in WordPress is easy. Simply make an account,
set-up the aesthetics of your page either with pre-made
templates or look for free templates online and start
posting.
However, setting up a successful blog takes a bit more
planning and forethought. It will help if you have ready
answers to questions like:
What do you want to write about?
Is there a particular blogging style you want to adopt?
Do you plan on publishing regularly or semi-regularly?
What do you want to write about? Before starting a blog, it is a good to first have an idea
what exactly it is you want to put in your blog.
Do want to share your day to day experiences?
Do you want to write about a particular special interest?
Do you want your blog to be a place for you to post
literary works or other forms of art?
Deciding these before hand gives your blog direction, and
gives you material to write about in the future.
How do you want to write your blog? Another factor you would need to consider in writing a blog
is what manner of writing or what image you want your blog to
have?
Do you want to adopt a light-hearted style of writing or do
you want to be straight to the point and journalistic?
Do you want your blog to be heavy on pictures or would you
rather have plentiful but short paragraphs?
Do you want to write your blog in the first person or would
you prefer a more impersonal approach?
Do you want to be topical, provocative or counter-culture?
When do you plan on writing? Finally, you would want to think about how regularly you
would like to publish.
Do you plan on posting regularly or semi-regularly?
If you chose the former, how often? Would you post daily?
Weekly? Bi-monthly?
If you chose the latter, how often? Twice a week? Four
times a month?
This is essential to the longevity of the blog, as having a
regular publishing schedule ensures your blog will have
consistent content and will force you to publish.
When do you plan on writing? Very often, bloggers stop blogging because
they lose motivation.
However, having a
clear publishing
schedule, vision and
purpose can help you
maintain your
enthusiasm for
blogging. (top) www.dannychoo.com, a popular, semi-regularly
updated blog focused on Japanese culture.
Consider Microblogging instead... Note that considering these factors is not required to start
a blog. These are just important considerations if you plan
on maintaining your blog properly.
A proper blog takes quite a bit of effort to maintain,
especially if you are after viewership (more on this later).
If, however, you find that you do not have the stamina to
maintain a proper blog, do not fret. Perhaps a microblog
would be more appropriate for you.
Starting up Your Blog If, however, you think you can maintain a
proper blog, then it’s
time to set-up your blog
account.
Go to www.wordpress.com
then click on the Start
a Blog option.
(top) the home page of wordpress.com, the blogging
service of WordPress.
Starting up Your Blog You will be taken to the Learn More page.
Click the Get Started
Button to start the
Registration Process for
your account.
Starting up Your Blog Select which category you want your blog to belong
to.
Starting up Your Blog Next, select a theme for your blog. This theme
will be how your blog
will generally look like.
You can change this theme
later, or customize it
further.
Clicking on a theme will
take you to the next
step.
Starting up Your Blog You will now be asked to pick a domain name. Your
domain will serve as the
URL for your blog, so it's
important that you take
your time in this step.
Before finalizing your
domain name, reread it to
ensure that the domain name
cannot be misread or
misinterpreted.
Starting up Your Blog Notice that all save for one domain name is not
free.
WordPress offers paid
domain plans that do not
have the WordPress domain
associated with it,
making the blog more
personalized.
Starting up Your Blog Next, select your publishing plan.
Usually a Free Plan is
good enough if you are
just starting out as it
encompasses most of the
basic features you need
to start your blog.
Starting up Your Blog The final step is setting up the credentials of
your blog.
Make sure your password
is strong enough as you
do not want others to
gain access and modify or
tamper with your blog!
Starting up Your Blog WordPress will now create your blog...
You are now ready to start! Once that is done, you can now make your first
blog post!
Make sure to confirm
your email as you will
not be able to post in
your blog if you did
not.
My First Blog Post
Making your first post in WordPress WordPress actually makes
your first post for you.
If you want, you can make
a new post, but it is
recommended that you edit
the post WordPress made
for you.
Click on the Edit link at
the byline of the post to
edit it.
Making your first post in WordPress This will take you to the
WordPress post editor. Most
blog sites offer a similar
WYSIWYG editor.
You may use the tools found
in the Formatting Bar to
format your post as if you
are using a word processor.
You can also switch to an
HTML editor for more control.
Making your first post in WordPress Click on the Title to
edit it. You can do the
same for the body of the
blog post.
Once you are done, you
may click the Update
button .
Making your first post in WordPress You can also add Tags and
Categories for your blog post, or
control how it will be shared.
A tag is a way to group your
posts. Each post can have multiple
tags, and each tag can be used for
multiple posts.
Use the navbar to the right of the
Editor to control these options.
Making your first post in WordPress You may also click on the
Preview button
to view your blog post
before it is posted into
your blog.
Doing so will show you a
preview of what your blog
post will look like.
Making your first post in WordPress Once posted, click on the
link to your blog at the
upper left corner of the
editor. The link should
look like this
but with a different blog
name.
Make sure you have
confirmed your email first
or else the post will not
appear in your blog.
Making a new post in WordPress To make another post,
simply click on the
Create New Post button
on the upper right corner
of your blog.
This will take you to the
same Editor Page, albeit
blank this time because
you have not written
anything yet.
Making a new post in WordPress As with before, once you
are done, click on the
Publish Button .
You may also Preview your
blog post before posting
it to your blog, add
categories and tags and
modify other options.
Blogging Blogging Blogging... As you can see, WordPress offers you a whole host of
features, from customizing the aesthetics of your blog to
formatting your blog posts. It even offers some analytics
tools for you to know how many people have viewed your post!
Feel free to explore the features and tools WordPress offers
you, and blog away!
So I want to improve my
viewership...
What do you mean by Viewership? Viewership refers to the audience of your blog. Generally,
this falls under two categories:
Visitors - people who pass by your blog
Followers - people who actively look forward to your posts
In general, you'd want a good balance between the two. Having
more visitors means that you are reaching out to more unique
people and having more followers means that there are a lot
of people who regularly read your blog.
How to Improve the Viewership of your Blog Here are a couple of tips to improve the viewership of your
blog:
Have an identity. This makes sure your audience knows what
to expect from your blog.
Have a regular posting schedule as much as possible.
Similar to the first point, this gives your audience
something to look forward to. It also demonstrates
consistency.
How to Improve the Viewership of your Blog Join blogging communities. No matter how unique you think
your blog is, there are online communities that share the
same interests or talk about the same topic. Joining
their community helps you get your content across a wider
interested audience.
Be involved. Collaborate with others, boost each other's
blogs and offer a variety of content that suits your
audience/blogging community. This builds goodwill, which
others will inevitably give back.
How to Improve the Viewership of your Blog Finally, be patient.
Even if you follow all these tips, it will not guarantee a
thousand followers overnight. This should not discourage you
however.
Blogging is akin to the process of cultivation, it takes time
and resources but eventually, it will pay off.
The Do’s and Don'ts of Blogging
Blogging Do’s and Don’ts Apart from everything that we have already discussed, here
are some more tips on blogging. Note that this is not an
exhaustive list, and you are encouraged to come up with more!
Don't post personal information in your blog that you don't
want others to know.
Do not intentionally slander another person or blogger.
Mind your content. Do not post inappropriate media in your
blog.
Do not post profanity or other scandalizing content.
Blogging Do’s and Don’ts Do not post copyrighted content in your blog. Be careful
with the music, video or image content you post in your
blog.
Do proofread your posts.
Do take the time and effort to personalize your blog. Make
sure it fits your content.
Do include other forms of media in your blog, not just
text.