Tips for starting a blog?

Hi Guys,

I know many of you have blogs out there. This is something i should of started a while back even if its just for my own reference. Has anyone got any good recommendations for starting a blog? Things like, templates, hosting, organisation and so forth is all appreciated.

I do realise this is something you can easily Google but i always find word of mouth a good rule to go by so though i would ask you guys who have a wealth of experience in this.

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Turgon

nel wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I know many of you have blogs out there. This is something i should of started a while back even if its just for my own reference. Has anyone got any good recommendations for starting a blog? Things like, templates, hosting, organisation and so forth is all appreciated.

I do realise this is something you can easily Google but i always find word of mouth a good rule to go by so though i would ask you guys who have a wealth of experience in this.

Just put a lively thread up on TE like me. No need for fancy stuff. 150000+ views cant be wrong.

nel

Turgon wrote: »

Just put a lively thread up on TE like me. No need for fancy stuff. 150000+ views cant be wrong.

Turg, you have Words of a wise man

I actually thought about that but i think if im recording my journey for multiple certs then a blog maybe more suited to store it all centrally rather than a post in each forum. Although i do believe that if i was chasing something like the IE then a forum post would be better as the active participation from people is great too.

Is this something you have done for each cert or just the IE?

Everyone

Depends on how much control you want over it, and how crazy you want to get with it.

I setup a LAMP server and use Drupal for mine, hosted at my home office. I have a semi-redundant dual 12Mbps down/2Mbps up Business Class internet connection for it though.

A "blog" with mostly text and a few images doesn't need much storage. Plenty of free WordPress/Drupal/Joomla/pick your favorite CMS hosting options out there. If you don't mind someone else putting ads on your site and making a little money off of it, take advantage of one.

If you want more control but don't want to host it yourself, the cost will vary depending on the options you want.

Webmaster

We can offer full-blow member cert/tech blogs very soon as well. System is already up but I'm moving our current Blogs section (mostly JD's blog) from Wordpress to our new system first, this week. Blog posts will then show up in the search results and What's New etc, members get a "blog post count" in addition to forum post count. In other words it's completely integrated with the rest of TE and posting entries is as simple as posting in a forum. An added advantage is that the blogger can plug /"spam" his own blog in our forums (besides the signature).

We could use one or two test cases, and need to set up some guidelines as to when to forum and when to blog (length will be a factor there, i.e. Blog "posts" have a longer minimum length than comments). The main difference with Turgon's blog-thread is basically that his thread has his blog posts and all comments in one "thread". That one and similar CCIE blog threads will appear on the Blog section as well though, as in links to it (and I like to keep those together in the CCIE forums).

Edits: sample entry (still needs some layout/formatting updates):
Microsoft Developer Certifications Overview - TechExams.net IT Certification Blogs
(url is temp to avoid conflict with our current blogs but url will be www.techexams.net/blogs/membername )

NightShade03

nel wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I know many of you have blogs out there. This is something i should of started a while back even if its just for my own reference. Has anyone got any good recommendations for starting a blog? Things like, templates, hosting, organisation and so forth is all appreciated.

I do realise this is something you can easily Google but i always find word of mouth a good rule to go by so though i would ask you guys who have a wealth of experience in this.

I've used blogspot for years and it was a decent platform. The cost is free, the management is easy, the options for formatting are however limited. After 3 years of blogging I have around 20,000 unique visitors a year. Recently I launched my own company and I have been working to integrate all my blog posts into my new company site and migrate everything over.

Company Site:
Hosted with HostGator (best provider out there in my opinion...I've also used GoDaddy and domain.com)
Wordpress for the blog portion (using custom theme which took me a week to write)
Cost $12 bucks a month + $3 / year for domain name

Either way you want to cut it the cost and maintenance of running a blog is fairly low...just remember to keep up with it because once people get hooked they will want to always come back for new content. Webmasters blog offering sounds great too!

QHalo

I like where this is going. Subbed.

DevilWAH

Will this mean that if you have a Blog on the site you will be able to removed people comments and carry out that kind of admin work to keep it how you want.

But it does remind me I need o updfate my blog more..

The real question when creating a blog is

how much do you know
how much do you want to have to learn??

For a simple stright forward blog, then what is being offered here is a Great!

for a bit more control a hosted solution with pre install Wordpress will get you up and runnig in no time..

Or you can go the whole hog, but a bare metle server, install you chosen OS, webserver, and Blog server and build it from scratch. Take more time to get running but your learn a whole lot along the way!

nel

Webmaster wrote: »

We can offer full-blow member cert/tech blogs very soon as well. System is already up but I'm moving our current Blogs section (mostly JD's blog) from Wordpress to our new system first, this week. Blog posts will then show up in the search results and What's New etc, members get a "blog post count" in addition to forum post count. In other words it's completely integrated with the rest of TE and posting entries is as simple as posting in a forum. An added advantage is that the blogger can plug /"spam" his own blog in our forums (besides the signature).

We could use one or two test cases, and need to set up some guidelines as to when to forum and when to blog (length will be a factor there, i.e. Blog "posts" have a longer minimum length than comments). The main difference with Turgon's blog-thread is basically that his thread has his blog posts and all comments in one "thread". That one and similar CCIE blog threads will appear on the Blog section as well though, as in links to it (and I like to keep those together in the CCIE forums).

Edits: sample entry (still needs some layout/formatting updates):
Microsoft Developer Certifications Overview - TechExams.net IT Certification Blogs
(url is temp to avoid conflict with our current blogs but url will be www.techexams.net/blogs/membername )

that sounds like a great idea Johan! could you keep us posted and maybe make an announcement when that happens?

nel

DevilWAH wrote: »

Will this mean that if you have a Blog on the site you will be able to removed people comments and carry out that kind of admin work to keep it how you want.

But it does remind me I need o updfate my blog more..

The real question when creating a blog is

how much do you know
how much do you want to have to learn??

For a simple stright forward blog, then what is being offered here is a Great!

for a bit more control a hosted solution with pre install Wordpress will get you up and runnig in no time..

Or you can go the whole hog, but a bare metle server, install you chosen OS, webserver, and Blog server and build it from scratch. Take more time to get running but your learn a whole lot along the way!

Well i guess it boils down to a number of things for me:

1) being able to look back and see how far ive come
2) blogging about playing with new technologies
3) certification progress - notes etc
4) general ideas/thoughts
5) Possible way to make social/work connections

Webmaster

DevilWAH wrote: »

Will this mean that if you have a Blog on the site you will be able to removed people comments and carry out that kind of admin work to keep it how you want.

Absolutely. The same rules will apply as in the forums (basics like no ****, illegal stuff, politics, religion etc) and it will include automatic spam prevention but you'll basically be the admin of your own blog. An advantage of using wordpress would be allowing guests comments, but then you should moderated them manually before displaying publicly. We're going to enable blog permission based on requests (with a motivation to start a blog rather than a thread, to prevent disappointment for readers, bloggers, and us) which means it'll be for active/senior members, especially at first. It's important we establish some clear guidelines on when to blog instead of posting a thread.

It isn't as complete as Wordpress in term of functionality, but it is a fully functional blog system (tags, categories, ping/trackbacks, possibly some customization, custom blocks, RSS feeds), not just a simple add-on. I like WP a lot, but integrating the blogs is essential for me and I think it will be valuable to bloggers as well. Apart from the fact it will be available directly for our 330K visitors per month the integration should result in readers/visitors from the start. Click my username for example and notice the View Blog posts option, or on the forum index at the bottom (Latest Blog Entry). Latest entries will also be shown on the home page. One of my favorite new features since the upgrade is the site-wide search, so that will include blogs too. Another interesting option is that we can promote blog entries (forum posts too) to "articles", which puts them in our CMS.

@Nel: I'll definitely post an announcement. Probably next week.

We'll also add a sort of blog roll to the main blog page to link to external member blogs.

erpadmin

I am really glad this thread exists. I wanted to blog about my progress in graduate school when the time came.

I was contemplating on doing a thread on TE, but I wanted to exercise some level of control. However, I also wanted to retain ties to TE as it was mostly this board that got me to go back to school by way of WGU.

If the wordpress deal is coming out soon, I can wait until it's ready. I could start a thread about my progress and then move those posts to the blog when it becomes primetime.

nel

Webmaster wrote: »

Absolutely. The same rules will apply as in the forums (basics like no ****, illegal stuff, politics, religion etc) and it will include automatic spam prevention but you'll basically be the admin of your own blog. An advantage of using wordpress would be allowing guests comments, but then you should moderated them manually before displaying publicly. We're going to enable blog permission based on requests (with a motivation to start a blog rather than a thread, to prevent disappointment for readers, bloggers, and us) which means it'll be for active/senior members, especially at first. It's important we establish some clear guidelines on when to blog instead of posting a thread.

It isn't as complete as Wordpress in term of functionality, but it is a fully functional blog system (tags, categories, ping/trackbacks, possibly some customization, custom blocks, RSS feeds), not just a simple add-on. I like WP a lot, but integrating the blogs is essential for me and I think it will be valuable to bloggers as well. Apart from the fact it will be available directly for our 330K visitors per month the integration should result in readers/visitors from the start. Click my username for example and notice the View Blog posts option, or on the forum index at the bottom (Latest Blog Entry). Latest entries will also be shown on the home page. One of my favorite new features since the upgrade is the site-wide search, so that will include blogs too. Another interesting option is that we can promote blog entries (forum posts too) to "articles", which puts them in our CMS.

@Nel: I'll definitely post an announcement. Probably next week.

We'll also add a sort of blog roll to the main blog page to link to external member blogs.

Johan, that sounds like a great added functionality. Will be looking forward to checking this out!

QHalo

Johan,

Any thoughts to how you will handle pictures and other types of media and size/amounts allowed? I know you may not have gotten this far but I'm looking to start my own and I'd like to post lots of pictures and other things of the sort. I've looked into getting a youtube channel and just linking that way as well but thought I'd ask.

JDMurray

The most important word to any blog is "marketing." What good is pouring your heart and soul into a piece of literature that no one will ever find via Google, or on Google+? I had thought of writing a "Web journal" for years, but the time and energy required to promote it was always what stopped me. It wasn't until I had a chance to grab some blog space on a "Google Whore"

like TechExams.net that I decided it was worth giving blogging a try. And now that I have a presence on a highly-discoverable venue, I only seem to find reasons not to spend my time researching/writing blog article.

Webmaster

QHalo wrote: »

Johan,

Any thoughts to how you will handle pictures and other types of media and size/amounts allowed? I know you may not have gotten this far but I'm looking to start my own and I'd like to post lots of pictures and other things of the sort. I've looked into getting a youtube channel and just linking that way as well but thought I'd ask.

Works just like in the forums. So you can upload images to your Album or insert them directly. There's a limit to how many picture/attachments a member can upload, but that will be higher for bloggers (and can be expanded whenever needed so won't be an issue). Proper support for embedded youtube videos is available as well. You can paste directly from Word to retain (most) formatting (also just like in forums, powered by CKEditor) or write in the editor and save it as draft. Storage, bandwidth, etc won't be an issue. If you haven't notice yet the performance of TE increased a lot of the past week (new caching system and CSS sprites - do a hard refresh in your browser, e.g. shift+refresh in FF) but if necessary we can expand.

We'll also have proper support for the Blogs in our Mobile Style ("maybe" not right away but definitely planned).

And JD makes a good point. Blog entries will be added automatically to our sitemap which is submitted to Google daily, which combined with our friendly url format and other seo features, plus the fact that Google's crawlers stumble a lot on TE, pretty much ensures a top position in the search rankings. That's also an advantage for the rest of TE of course. By "promoting" (getting linked to) your own blog you promote TE, which in turn brings visitors to other Blogs.

JDMurray wrote:

And now that I have a presence on a highly-discoverable venue, I only seem to find reasons not to spend my time researching/writing blog article.

I think you are doing an awesome job with that limited amount of time available!

stlsmoore

Hmm wonder if there's away to integrate this with my current blog site, I'm using Blogspot. It's been pretty good to me so far.

QHalo

I like everything in this thread. Good stuff and you're going to help some people who really want to start blogging out and get their names out there. Truly an amazing thing you're doing here for the communities.

Webmaster

stlsmoore wrote: »

Hmm wonder if there's away to integrate this with my current blog site, I'm using Blogspot. It's been pretty good to me so far.

Although I want a section with links to external blogs (active blogs from active members) there won't be any real integration with external blogs. If at some point - running way ahead now - there's a demand for being able to import blogspot and wp blogs I'm pretty sure I can accommodate. But for an established blog at blogspot however, I don't think redirects can be setup so I wouldn't recommend that especially if you have a visitors base / decent indexing in search engines already.

N2IT

nel wrote: »

that sounds like a great idea Johan! could you keep us posted and maybe make an announcement when that happens?

+1 agree!

veritas_libertas

JDMurray wrote: »

The most important word to any blog is "marketing." What good is pouring your heart and soul into a piece of literature that no one will ever find via Google, or on Google+? I had thought of writing a "Web journal" for years, but the time and energy required to promote it was always what stopped me. It wasn't until I had a chance to grab some blog space on a "Google Whore" like TechExams.net that I decided it was worth giving blogging a try. And now that I have a presence on a highly-discoverable venue, I only seem to find reasons not to spend my time researching/writing blog article.

This is why I never began a blog. The thought of putting time into it and never getting anything out was just too discouraging.

Everyone

JDMurray wrote: »

The most important word to any blog is "marketing." What good is pouring your heart and soul into a piece of literature that no one will ever find via Google, or on Google+? I had thought of writing a "Web journal" for years, but the time and energy required to promote it was always what stopped me. It wasn't until I had a chance to grab some blog space on a "Google Whore" like TechExams.net that I decided it was worth giving blogging a try. And now that I have a presence on a highly-discoverable venue, I only seem to find reasons not to spend my time researching/writing blog article.

If you write a good article, other people will do the marketing for you.

I got lucky, the 2nd article I wrote for my blog was a huge hit. I get about 100 unique hits a day off just this one article. It's the 4th result returned on Google for a few search terms. The 3 results before it actually link to it. Occasionally I see referrals coming from people linking to it on forums I've never even heard of, let alone visited. It has spread across several social networking platforms too.

I need to find time to write more articles too.

SteveO86

Just write about articles that interest you, if it's interesting to you it will interesting for someone, and when you get an idea that you think is a good blog post save it as a draft and come back later.

As far as the look and feel, keep it clean organized and go with a format that you like. Remember to think like reader, what attracts you to blogs good articles and the ease of reading that particular site.

Everyone

Here's another tip... I'm sure Johan has this covered for the blog features he's adding here, but if you decide to run your own...

Make sure you test any anti-spam features you put in place. I just realized yesterday that an anti-spam feature I turned on a couple months ago had been preventing legitimate users from using the registration or contact forms on my site.

UnixGuy

Post links to your blog posts on relevant linked in groups

I recommend free wordpress, or a paid domain...

JDMurray

Everyone wrote: »

Make sure you test any anti-spam features you put in place.

Here at TE we manually approve each blog comment. Word Press does an excellent job of identifying spam comments, and those it's not sure about are queued for manual approval. I've yet to see a genuine comment that was tagged as spam by WP.

Everyone

JDMurray wrote: »

Here at TE we manually approve each blog comment. Word Press does an excellent job of identifying spam comments, and those it's not sure about are queued for manual approval. I've yet to see a genuine comment that was tagged as spam by WP.

Do you allow people to comment without being registered/logged in though? I originally had it setup that way, but since I am the only admin of my site, I may not always have time to go in and approve comments. Actually I was more worried about having to spend time sifting through spam comments that would be in the approval queue if I left it that way. I changed it so that commenting requires you to have an account and be logged in. I figured that plus some anti-spam measures on the registration page would be enough to keep spam out.

The problem was, the "captcha-free form protection" module wasn't working correctly. If you tried to use the contact form, or register, you'd get an error saying something about cookies must be enabled. I made sure cookies were enabled, and tried 3 different browsers, and still got the error. I turned the module off, and the error went away.

SteveO86

I setup my blog (on WordPress) so all comments need to be approved, I've had a decent amount of un-approved comments I've had to delete.

Just the nature of territory nowadays.

Webmaster

Everyone wrote: »

Do you allow people to comment without being registered/logged in though?

In WP yes, in new blogs no, yet it may still put it in the moderation queue depending on registration date/post count and contents (e.g. posts with urls). In our WP blogs, when someone comments for the first time it's always put in the moderated queue, once approved, any comments from the same email address are automatically accepted. Combined with Akismet that works pretty good.

SteveO86 wrote:

Just the nature of territory nowadays.

Indeed.

ColbyG

veritas_libertas wrote: »

This is why I never began a blog. The thought of putting time into it and never getting anything out was just too discouraging.

The act of learning/writing is what you get out of it. Other people seeing it is just a byproduct. My opinion, of course.

Also, the more you write and the longer your blog is alive, the more traffic you get. I get ~9k hits/month now, with ~7k of those from Google. This is while rarely posting anything anymore (I'm a lazy jerk) too.

Everyone

Webmaster wrote: »

Combined with Akismet that works pretty good.

I looked at Akismet... I just don't want to use any 3rd party service that I may eventually have to end up paying for. A big part of my career has involved configuring anti-spam solutions to work as hands-off as possible with as few false positives as possible. It's something I've become very good at. That work as all involved e-mail systems, but I figure it shouldn't be too hard to translate into success on a website.

I was just a little too proactive in my approach. I threw something at a problem that really didn't even exist yet, and made the rookie mistake of forgetting to test it immediately after turning it on.