Monday 15 April 2013

Beginning Blogging

What is a blog?

Technically a blog is a web-log but really it is whatever you want to make it.
Whatever you want it to be
  • an online journal
  • a website
  • an exploration of a hobby/interest
  • research results - e.g. family history
  • a record of events
  • book reviews / author profiles
  • the beginning of a conversation - others will read your post
What can it contain?
  • text
  • photos/images/movie
  • RSS feeds
  • blog roll (favourite blogs)
  • quizzes
  • extra pages
  • information about you - email address - as much or as little information as you want
  • even movies from YouTube (below)
 

Basic elements
  • We will use Blogger to create your blog. We could just as easily use Word Press. Both of these "platforms" are free. Blogger creates blogs in blogspot.com and is owned by Google. 
  • In Blogger the basic blog consists of a main page with gadgets/widgets in a margin.
  • Widgets/gadgets can be an index of posts, a blog roll - Blogger has many to choose from
  • An initial post usually describes the purpose of the blog
  • Posts then appear with the most recent at the top
  • You decide how often you post - you can log into your blog wherever you are
  • You can schedule posts for future dates
Post structure
  • Title - something brief, perhaps eye catching, related to the content
  • Text - this is the main content of the post, not too much, not too dense, plenty of space, font about size 12
  • Image(s) - upload these from your computer or USB or link to an existing image on the internet.
  • Tags - keywords that connect similar posts on your blog
  • an invitation/question for readers to comment
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