Author Topic: Starting a blog  (Read 1208 times)

richardh1905

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Starting a blog
« on: 07:54:43, 18/01/19 »
I'm thinking about starting a walking blog. Any advice on how to go about it? Is Blogspot the best route?

PS - I am pretty familiar with web design, HTML and JavaScript.

PPS - I don't want to spend any money!
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

fernman

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #1 on: 10:44:41, 18/01/19 »
Consider Wordpress.
.com is the free one, .org is paid.
Easy peasy to add stuff, edit, etc. I have three sites, two of which come up close to the top of searches, the third one doesn't usually show.
Downside is you get ads but they're relatively unobtrusive and down at the bottom of the pages where you're less likely to scroll down to (a bit like here, cough cough).
« Last Edit: 10:49:25, 18/01/19 by fernman »

fit old bird

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #2 on: 10:54:46, 18/01/19 »
Easy peasy. Blogger.com is the main one that most people choose, Wordpress is another one. I tried Wordpress but found it a bit too complicated. Blogger will guide you through the set up procedure. I knew nothing when I first started, at least you have some experience.


You can upload photo's from your computer. Starting a blog is free with Blogger. There is a limit on how many photo's you can upload, I reached that limit after about three years. Now I pay google £4 a year for unlimited, that's all.


Give it a go, play with it, lots of features that you can re arrange, add your own header or choose one of theirs. Change the colours, alter the layout, sidebar on the left or the right, or both sides. Change font colours, tons of options.


When I post I put my photo's on first down the centre, then add the text in between them.


You don't need to publish it until you are ready, it can sit there for a while until you are happy with it. Maybe write one post to see how it looks. After you publish it you can go back to it at any time and change things.


You start from the dashboard, that's your nerve centre, alter things, move things around from there. If you allow comments you may want to moderate them first before you publish. I have to do that because I get tons of spam, and some trolls. It will take a while for people to find you, so the spammers won't appear until you are well established. I was getting 200 per day to delete. I now have word verification on so the spammers aren't getting through so that's a relief.


Give it a go, let me know if you have any questions, and let us know how you get on.


ilona


PS Just noticed that fernman has mentioned ads. You don't get any with Blogger, unless you choose to monetise it, and I don't.

richardh1905

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #3 on: 12:47:20, 18/01/19 »
Thank you very much for your replies, fernman, ilona - much appreciated.
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

vghikers

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #4 on: 12:48:19, 18/01/19 »
I could write a thesis here and bore the pants off anyone non-techy, but I'll show restraint!.

For a multitude of technical and ethical reasons I would emphatically advise against Blogger. On the grounds of sovereignty alone: your blog is not yours, it's overseen by Google and subject to their shifting terms and conditions that nobody reads and your content is on their servers. They have the final say in any matters arising and there is sweet FA you can do about it.
They can force technical changes affecting all Blogger blogs and you just have to accept them, like them or not, and if they break anything you've done on the blog - tough. Google can also shut down any of their services at a whim - they have form. Almost everything is automated and, in the event of a misinterpretation by their software, your blog could even be shut down or deleted without recourse.
Search for "Blogger vs Wordpress" and read the opinions of others in the industry - almost all say the same thing.
Also they have one of those stupid f'in ReCaptchas that all your readers must use before posting comments, which means that I, for one, and a great many others, will never post a comment on it.

WordPress on the other hand is open source code and your blog is yours. Wordpress.com will give you a blog for free with storage that is limited but almost certainly enough for your purposes (our site has over 4000 photos and is less than that).

As I mentioned in another thread about photo hosting sites, the best of all is to obtain your own domain for a very small outlay. You can use the open source Wordpress core on your own web space and everything is under your ownership and control.

richardh1905

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #5 on: 13:48:06, 18/01/19 »
Thanks vghikers - food for thought.
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

fit old bird

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #6 on: 13:59:34, 18/01/19 »
Fair comment. Horses for courses. I am not clever enough to understand anything complicated where computers and web hosting is concerned. Also I don't have time to learn anything new now. My blog is simple, like me, it's 10 years old, gets 6000 page views a day and has followers all over the world.


Richard, with your knowledge you might want to look into the nuts and bolts of it, I am happy with what comes up on the screen.


ilona

Petrolhead

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #7 on: 14:19:58, 18/01/19 »
Hi Richard,

I'm in full agreement with VGHikers, WordPress all the way. It's free, easy to use and reliable in my experience. Plus there are a plethora of free themes you can download if you don't fancy designing your own. Plus there are even more plugins (a lot of which are free) that will carry out any procedure you can imagine.

I've been using it for years in quite a few different scenarios and it's always performed superbly. Just make sure the domain you buy has everything in place to run it and you'll have no worries.

Good luck.

Mes.

richardh1905

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #8 on: 15:06:23, 18/01/19 »
Thanks Ilona, Mes.

I might try both out in a small way, and see which I prefer!
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

vizzavona

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #9 on: 10:05:06, 19/01/19 »

Hello Richardh,
Hope you try the blogger version....maybe then you could let me know how to use it more efficiently. I have tried using it a bit for some images  but it does come our a little clunky when I have attempted using it.

richardh1905

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Re: Starting a blog
« Reply #10 on: 11:50:45, 19/01/19 »
I'll let you know how I get on, vizzavona
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

 

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