How to write a blog #1

Well, having looked at how to read a blog, I suppose the obvious thing to do is now put something up about how to write one.

The answer I’d give anyone is to use WordPress. Its simple, lovely and oh so easy to use.

You don’t need to know anything about how to make webpages. You don’t need to know anything about how the internet works. All you need is something to say. If you have the confidence, bravado and chutzpah to think that anyone else is interested in reading what you have to say then so much the better, however that will come with time if you don’t have it yet.

Go to wordpress.com and sign up for a blog if you want to try it out. You sign up in the top right corner and can be up and running within minutes. Write your first post about why you’ve started a blog and you are away. All you need to do is think of a title, chose a layout (from the many available), make up a login name and password and you are fit to go.

There are other ways of doing it, of course. If you want complete control you can host your own wordpress site on your own server (which is what I do) or go with another provider like blogger or blogspot or typepad or something.

One of the advantages of WordPress is that it plays well with others and provides nicely formatted rss feeds without you having to think about what that all means. (See yesterday’s entry below for details of what we use rss feeds for). Its user interface for writing your blog entries is lush and lovely too. What’s not to like?

I think it probably makes sense to try to decide what you are going to write about but I guess that often comes about through writing.

Remember, a blog is not just about you either. Its a community. Its a conversation. Its the world.

If you want that conversation to grow, you need to tend your blog like a garden, cultivating the chatter and pouring in as much goodwill, opinion, wit, wisdom and delight in other people as you can muster.

Oh, and don’t forget to ask people questions. That’s the starter for most conversations, isn’t it?

I’d be interested to hear from regular commenters who don’t have a blog why they’ve not got one of their own on the go already. And from the usual suspects as to whether they’ve got any tips for new bloggers thinking of taking that first step.

Seekers

Doug asked in comments to a previous post how you find out what search terms people use to find your blog. The answer is that there are several ways of doing it. I host my own installation of wordpress, so I can use the blog stats plugin for wordpress. An alternative is google analytics.

If you have your blog hosted by someone else, you are dependent on them providing the functionality to let you see what people are seeking when they arrive.