Author Topic: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?  (Read 3346 times)

gunwharfman

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #30 on: 21:47:19, 30/07/20 »
I'm sorry Fernman but I have to admit that I have no idea what you are writing about. My computer knowledge is limited and you have just gone beyond my comfort zone. I will read it again and see how far I get with it.

Your sentence 'What you need to do is submit your site's details to the major search engines, you'll find how to do this if you do a search, and it helps if your site has a number of hyperlinks to other sites in it' really stumps me. Sorry about that but I will try to work it out.

richardh1905

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #31 on: 22:14:44, 30/07/20 »
I wouldn't worry about stuff like that GWM - I certainly don't.
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Warbler

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #32 on: 23:13:44, 30/07/20 »
Once you've cracked how to do anything complex to you as a novice, on WordPress or anything else for that matter, make notes on a document of the steps you made, so that you can refer to them the next time you do it.
I only used to add a new page on my site twice a year, which was long enough for me to forget how to do it.

Thanks fernman. I'll put your methods to the test very soon.

richardh1905

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #33 on: 10:14:16, 31/07/20 »
Thanks fernman. I'll put your methods to the test very soon.


Just for information - I use the 'Independent Publisher 2' Theme on Wordpress. Nice clean and simple layout. And free, of course. :)
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fernman

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #34 on: 14:39:13, 31/07/20 »
Your sentence 'What you need to do is submit your site's details to the major search engines, you'll find how to do this if you do a search, and it helps if your site has a number of hyperlinks to other sites in it' really stumps me.

You create your site and you publish it - each time you make a new page or edit one you will see a big blue 'Publish' button on the right of the Wordpress.com compose screen.

So you've made your site and then you go to Google or whatever you use and you search for 'Submit your website to Google'. Deal direct with Google, don't be tempted to use some carppy site that volunteers to do it for you. You will be presented with an onscreen form in which you enter the url of your site, Gunwharfman.wordpress.com or whatever, and that's about it, Google will add it to their search engine.

Then you do the same again with Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and any others you can think of.

Hyperlinks, commonly called links, are the underscored blue bits of text that open a specific website when you click on them, they are all over the web, and you will see them in posts on this forum and as members' signatures. Now I confess to not knowing fully how this works, but if your site contains a number of such links it sort of brings your site more to the fore, it's something to do with interconnecting with other sites. (I'm hoping someone with more knowledge of this than me will be able to explain it properly.)
 

harry_keogh

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #35 on: 11:35:51, 11/08/20 »
I use wordpress and did a lot of alterations to make it look more magazine than blog. It has a static home page split into categories, interactive (and downloadable) route maps, photos, route stats, seperate pages for summits, trigs, National Character Areas, etc. You can do anything you like with it - all depends on the time you want to put into it. I didn't do it overnight though, it was quite simple to begin with and I've overhauled it a few times since then, building up the features bit by bit.

forgotmyoldpassword

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #36 on: 11:44:52, 11/08/20 »
It's easy to include a lot of clutter on self made sites like that.  I'm running a side project designing a site overhaul and our designer keeps coming back to the basics - keep it simple, visually clear of clutter and readable on mobile as well as a laptop or PC.


End of the day for trip report purposes people want two things, legible fonts and good pictures.  Some of the best sites (in terms of content) for wild camping and the outdoors have severely dated late 90s/early 00s style web interfaces, but the content doesn't suffer from that whatsoever.


You may want to consider Medium as a tool for publishing minimal content like that, it's a beautiful little app and interface.  I mirrored my wordpress site across to medium (before I got bored of it and deleted it), but Medium as a whole is great for 'write and publish' content with minimal need to faff around with side elements and features.  Also some great writers on there in all sorts of fields who publish interesting stuff.

richardh1905

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #37 on: 13:55:08, 11/08/20 »
It's easy to include a lot of clutter on self made sites like that.  I'm running a side project designing a site overhaul and our designer keeps coming back to the basics - keep it simple, visually clear of clutter and readable on mobile as well as a laptop or PC.

End of the day for trip report purposes people want two things, legible fonts and good pictures.  Some of the best sites (in terms of content) for wild camping and the outdoors have severely dated late 90s/early 00s style web interfaces, but the content doesn't suffer from that whatsoever.


I'm certainly making a conscious effort to keep things simple, and have resisted the temptation to add side menus, cross references, clickable maps, tables of summits etc. For me it is about the walks and the pictures, something that I hope I will enjoy in years to come, as well as visitors to my site (hopefully).
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fernman

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #38 on: 18:03:56, 11/08/20 »
For me it is about the walks and the pictures, something that I hope I will enjoy in years to come, as well as visitors to my site (hopefully).

My sentiments entirrely, and you will get visitors (you can add a Contact Me on WP if you want one, look it up).
Some are only spammy people from the Far East who 'like' your site and add a link to their 100% unrelated one, usually to do with food and cooking in my case. But others are genuine and half of mine are from north America and Europe.
Most of the genuine ones are asking for information, and sometimes you can have a good exchange of messages with them, but some are just like new members who post queries on this site, you reply and never hear from them again.

harry_keogh

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #39 on: 20:26:00, 11/08/20 »
I don't know - I find that there are two different types of visitors to my site (three if you include the thousands of bots!). There are people looking for routes, and there are people looking for stories. The people looking for routes are interested in a gps file, a few photos, and a quick overview. They don't care for reading your carefully crafted account of the walk. Then there are the people who are looking for stories and information. They don't care much about the stats but take the time to properly read your full account of the walk. Of course, there are also people that do both! I've had enough feedback now to know that the site is visited by both types, and so I've tried to accommodate both to some extent. The map is right at the foot of my posts so it doesn't really intrude until you've read all the post anyway. The stats and a brief route summary I stick at the top, laid out as neatly as possible so it doesn't detract too much. Easy to scroll past if it's the story you want. Navigation is important to me and so I've tried to make stuff as easy to find as possible and that does include internal links. For example, clicking on a summit in the summit listing at the top will take you to a dedicated dynamically generated page for that summit, and will also list all the other walks I've done that includes that summit. Clicking on the area (eg Dark peak) will show you all the walks I have done in that area. I've tried to keep the site as speedy and clean as possible though despite the extra features. I strip all cookies, have removed google analytics, use caching to good effect, don't advertise, have resisted gear reviews as much as possible and kept it about the routes  (most people are doing gear reviews nowadays for the freebies). I've also managed to refrain from writing junk clickbait articles (top 10 places to go outdoors on Mothers Day etc). It was actually the Walkingenglishman website that inspired me with my website and with a lot of my earlier walks too. It used to always be my goto resource in the beginning.


Ultimately though, I don't think there's an absolute right or wrong way to do it so long as it loads at a decent speed and is easy to read. As you'll be the one putting your valuable free time into it - create a site that pleases you. If you like stories, write stories. if you like stats, add stats. If you're non techy, keep it simple. The site has to suit you more than anyone else (unless you're aiming to turn into a pro blogger and make money).

gunwharfman

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #40 on: 12:50:57, 12/08/20 »
My account is still on a PDF, just cannot find the time to think beyond it at the moment. I've also for now given up on the online book presentation idea, all the companies I've tried seem to be the same, and all seem to be rather blurry when trying to read them. My daughter in law suggests its possibly because I'm using a TV as my monitor, it might look better on a proper monitor? Its all about time and concentrating, not really into either much these days.

richardh1905

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #41 on: 18:00:33, 12/08/20 »
Ultimately though, I don't think there's an absolute right or wrong way to do it so long as it loads at a decent speed and is easy to read. As you'll be the one putting your valuable free time into it - create a site that pleases you. If you like stories, write stories. if you like stats, add stats. If you're non techy, keep it simple. The site has to suit you more than anyone else (unless you're aiming to turn into a pro blogger and make money).


 O0
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richardh1905

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #42 on: 09:02:28, 24/08/20 »
...
So I've been using a website copier called WinHTTrack to keep a complete copy of my website, which of course includes my blog. The copy is on my PC (and a backup drive) and I can browse it just as if it were online. I run WinHTTrack every so often to update the copy (although not often enough!). One advantage of this method is that I can easily put copies of my blog onto optical discs, such as DVDs. Another is that no formatting is required - the copy is an offline website that's identical to the original.


I like the sound of WinHTTrack, Dave. Any issues with it? Or is it trouble free?
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WhitstableDave

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #43 on: 09:11:41, 24/08/20 »

I like the sound of WinHTTrack, Dave. Any issues with it? Or is it trouble free?

Hi Richard. The interface is rather dated and it all looks quite confusing - there's something of a steep learning curve and some trial and error will probably be needed! However, once it's set up, the program will update the copy of your website with little more than the click of a button. It takes several hours to copy my website / forum, but it is roughly the size of this forum, so there are a lot of files. Good luck!
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richardh1905

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Re: How do you 'publish' the hikes that you've done?
« Reply #44 on: 09:38:27, 24/08/20 »
Thanks - I'll give it a go.  :)
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