Our final day of the course

It is amazing how quickly 4 weeks goes.

It is really over to the students today: to identify what they don't know, what they need help with.

Learning so often just comes down to practice: you don't really understand how to achieve something until you try it.

Today I have added a poll in the sidebar.
This is a simple gadget - you just have to think of a question and some possible answers.
You can alter the date that the poll closes.

When you add an image to your post, you can decide where it will go in the post - left, centre or right, and you can also determine its size. Sometimes you will need to make it bigger otherwise it will look lost in the post.
If you make it too large it may overlap into the side bar.

Make sure your posts have plenty of white space.
Relatively short lines will help the reader immensely.
White space also helps the post look more attractive, and that is also the benefit of adding an image.

Lots of white space at the bottom of your post is often the result of hidden "enters".
Check your post and delete the enters by placing your cursor at the bottom of the post, and then backspacing until you have reached the last word.

Our tasks today - Using Gadgets

Among other things today we will look at gadgets.

Gadgets or widgets are small tools that often live in the side bar of your blog.
You probably already have some running (like Archive) that have come with your Layout.
To get to Gadgets, choose Design, Layout, and then you will see something similar to this.

Blogger has a number of useful and reliable gadgets to choose from.
Be aware that too many gadgets can slow the speed with which your blog loads.

You can usually edit a Gadget from the front of your blog, by clicking on the tool that follows it.

Our tasks today - Settings

Today in class we will look at things like time settings, comment moderation, inserting images, inserting links, layout tools etc.

Once you are logged into your blog, you will find Settings in Design.

Work through each of the categories, saving any changes as you go.

New Course starting on Thursday

A new Blogging Basics starts this Thursday at the Campbelltown Library in the IT suite on Thursday June 1 at 10.30-12.30.

It is not too late to book a place. Check here
The course is free and runs for 4 weeks.

The course will cater for both newbies and those who already have a blog.

Those who have not yet set up a blog need to make sure they have a gmail account. We will be using Blogger for our course.

Our session today

The class is progressing nicely so some of today's lesson will just be revision and a chance to solve problems.

In addition I want to cover

• labels
• formatting (text size, dot points, centering etc)
• hyperlinks
• how to create and activate pages.

 And of course you will get a chance to  create another post.

Your blog may have a world wide audience

 

Your blog is stored on a Google server and is now visible world wide. 

So make it as attractive and readable as you can.

Use images and plenty of white space.

New Blogging Basics Class - February 2017

A new Blogging Basics class will begin on Wednesday February 1 at the Campbelltown Library.

The course will run for 4 weeks, Wednesdays, at 10.30-12.30.
As usual, it will cater for both raw beginners and those with an established blog.
It will be free.
The course will follow the tasks already devised and you can focus on whichever aspects you choose.

See details on the Library website.

You can enrol through your U3A Membership or by Registering with the Library.

Fantastic Fiction is a wonderful place about books and authors.

New Blogging class about to start

Our next class starts at 9.30- 11 am Wednesday 16 March 2016
It will run on March 16, 23 and 30 and will cater for both raw beginners and those with an established blog.
The cost will be $10.
Visit our blog roll to see what you might blog about.
The course will follow the tasks already devised and you can focus on whichever aspects you choose.

New blogging class begins Wednesday 3 June

Our next class starts at 10 - 11.30 am Wednesday 3 June 2015.
It will run on June 3, June 20, June 17, June 24 and will cater for both raw beginners and those with an established blog.
The cost will be $10.
Visit our blog roll to see what you might blog about.
The course will follow the tasks already devised and you can focus on whichever aspects you choose.

New blogging class to run in term 2

Maybe you think that blogging sounds like fun.

Perhaps you have already made a start and need help and encouragement or perhaps you want to get started.

Look out for our next class on Wednesdays in June at the Marchant Centre.

New Blogging class to begin Wed March 4

A new Blogging class begins on Wed March 4th at 10 am.

This one will be for only four weeks and I envisage the members working their way through the tasks set up last year.

There are still vacancies if you would like to enrol.

The end of this journey, for now

 Well, in 10 weeks we achieved some quite difficult tasks.

Not everyone will continue blogging, but most have discovered the joy of telling stories, creating online journals, collaborating with others, and some have even decided on creating a new, special purpose blog.

For me I have been really pleased with the fact that we have often jointly collaborated on solving problems and learning new things. Well done!

The pleasure of achieving the unexpected

Adding a Picasa slide show into a blog post

Every now and again you manage to do something that seems difficult. We've been working on doing this for a few weeks now in our blogging class and I'm still only vaguely sure about how I managed it. Thanks to Pauline, one of our classmembers for finding the links to these YouTube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N06kXgVSW2E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jYxXRW-J3c

I used the instructions in the second YouTube video to produce the slide show below.
They utilise some photos that are publicly available online in my Picasa Photo Album.
The clue is that they must be publicly shared. My album is here.

I've also put these links into Usefuls

Herer are step by step instructions
1. Open your blog
2. Decide whether you want to put the slideshow in a Gadget or a new post
If a gadget look for HTML Gadget. If a new post create new post and go to html side of page
3. open a new window and load Picasa Album (and login if you aren't logged in)
4. Choose an album to display. It needs to be shared and public.
5. In the right hand margin look for Link to this album and click on that
6. Click on embed slideshow - this will display code
7. choose size - if a side gadget probably Medium is ok, if a gadget at the bottom of the page or in the post, then you can use large or extra large.
8. Copy the code (Ctrl-A then Ctrl-C) and Paste the code into your blog (Ctrl-V) and save.
Slideshow should work - check preview

Online Communities, Conversations, Blog Tours, Memes, Challenges

When you became a blogger you probably didn't see yourself as becoming part of an online  community but by now you will have realised that you are.

People mainly blog because they want to share and pass on their experiences, and while you may be quite happy to remain a casual blogger, there are online communities and challenges that you can join to make new friends and to share the experiences of others.
They go by the name, among others, of blog tours, memes, and challenges.

Quite often you formally join the challenge/community through an online form (Mr Linky) and the duration of the challenge is the calendar year. (However you can join at any time - or drop out if you wish)
The challenge may be to make a daily blog post, or weekly, or monthly, on a particular theme. The extent of the task is up to you. Participation in a challenge does help to stimulate your blogging.

Here is a search to start you off but you can modify this Google search to suit yourself.
e.g. Blog Challenge Sewing
Blog Challenge Garden
Blog Challenge Travel
Blog Challenge Reading
Capture 365 (Photos)

See how a Mr Linky works

Write about subjects dear to your heart

You'll find your blog easier to write if you choose subjects you know a lot about or that you are familiar with.

Don't try to say too much in each post and give your pages lots of space to make it easier to for your visitors to read them.

The most popular topics for non-commercial blogs seem to be

Book Reviews

Travelling

Events

Gardens

 

and Family

Use your blog to pass on news

Blogging is the beginning of communication.
Use your blog to pass on news and items of interest.
Remember to give your readers a link where they can find out more information.

Are you in Adelaide, read crime fiction and/or interested in gardening?
Here is an event for you. See more here.
Click on the image to read it more clearly.

A joint event for crime fiction and garden lovers

Task Summary

I have been surreptitiously adding tasks and there are now 13.

• Task One: Decide what your blog is about, what you will call it
• Task Two: Get an email address and set up your blog
• Task Three: Settle on a template
• Task Four: Write your first post
• Task Five: Set up Comment Moderation
• Task Six: Check Your settings
• Task Seven: Write your second post. Decide how often you will post.
• Task Eight: Learn to add Gadgets, including an Email subscription so people can follow your blog
• Task Nine: Add a Blog Roll
• Task Ten: Add a Page
• Task Eleven: Add a Slide Show
• Task Twelve: Add a Counter
• Task Thirteen: Add a Poll

How often should you blog?

This is a question new bloggers often ask and the answer really depends on the purpose of your blog.

Sometimes the purpose of your blog will determine the frequency of posts.
For example, if the purpose is to store reviews of the books that you read then the frequency of posts is determined by how often you complete reading a book.

If the purpose is to record changes in your garden, then you are dependent on your observations.

If your purpose is to start up conversations then you might blog daily, every few days or weekly.

If you are serious about your blog, then weekly is probably the minimum.

What do you think? 

Blogging and humour

Just in case you are still unconvinced about blogging, have a giggle at these:

 

How many people blog?

Blogging is really a form of self-publishing and has become far more popular than ever envisaged, although it is regarded by many as being in decline these days.

Blog writing has become less popular in the last year or so as people have swapped over to social networking e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc.  Maintaining a blog seems a little more old fashioned - after all the first blogs appeared in the 1990s. (Explore some interesting social networking stats here)

A recent estimate of blog numbers gives the number of people using Wordpress as 64m websites read by 371m people each month. An estimate gives Blogger blogs as 76m.

Here is an interesting graphic - it basically relates to bloggers in the US and shows what people are using blogs for. Original page is here.