Blogging is the ‘IT’ word

As I sat at the hair salon, I was given Company magazine to read and needless to say the whole issue was dedicated to blogging – people who have made money from blogging to people who have used blogging as a therapeutic outlet.  It appears that blogging is the ‘in’ thing.

Anyone can virtually blog about anything. For those of you who don’t know what a blog is – it is a kind of website that is usually maintained by an individual. A blog has commentary, ideas, thoughts and opinions about any topic arranged in chronological order.

A very good blog will;-

• Inform its reader – Bloggers usually have a lot of thoughts about a particular topic or even a few topics. A good blogger will know how to transfer their thoughts and opinions into written word and make a good read for the reader.

• Not be complicated and it will have easy navigation. There are some sites that are quite fancy but you can’t make head or tail of it. I recently went on a blog and tried to find a little bit of info about the author (I like to know a little about the authors credentials) and I couldn’t find the about page. I had to squint my eyes to find the link, which was drowned out by a massive header.

• Be easy to read. Some blogs are drowned out by the overall colour of the website. People tend to like simplicity by having a type/font and colour that is easy on the eyes. People also like lists. It breaks the text up and makes it easier for the reader to scan.

• Have good spelling and grammar. Nothing puts a reader off more than wrong spelling. I must admit, I’m a notoriously bad speller (if there is such a word) but nowadays we have tools such as spell check to make our lives easier. Use these tools!! Also proof read your blog several times before you publish it. It’s amazing how many mistakes you can find when you read it over and over again.

Tools a blogger needs

Ideas for blogging can sometimes come up at the most inconvenient moments. Usually when we are not sitting in front of a computer. Hence, it may be useful to carry a tool to log down ideas. I use my blackberry to make notes and can even write a draft of my blog using the email function. That way I can email myself and voila a draft copy will end up on my Mac at home. Other than that you might want to use a voice recorder to give yourself voice notes or plain and simple, have a notebook and pen.

How to share your wordpress blog

I’ve been blogging now for one week and trying to find a link to share my blogs has taken me nearly all afternoon.  So you don’t get stressed out in doing the same I thought I would make it easier for you.

I’m no tech geek so when I say its as easy as 1-2-3, believe me- it really is

To share your blogs on facebook, twitter, email etc. Visit

http://www.addtoany.com/buttons/for/wordpress_com

Breaking into the art of blogging

So, while the world becomes techno/social media mad in order to keep up, I thought, let me write a blog. I’ve heard a lot about blogging and if used correctly, one can earn a living from blogging alone.  As for myself, the aim of blogging in this instance is to share views.  Views about life, love, relationships, kids, womanhood, politics, religion…anything worth having a view about.    I love the tag line of Buzz Marketing –  ‘Because everyone is entitled to my opinion’ and would have loved to steal it but hey I’m not that kind of gal.  As a result, here is my first attempt at writing my blog.

How did I start this new adventure?  First of all, I typed into my search engine  ‘best service for blogs’ to find out which host would be best suited for me.  WordPress came up tops so here I am using their facilities.  I entitled my blog ‘Coffee Break’.  Why? You might ask.  I just thought that it would be cool to have a nice hot drink to hand and read about what’s what or what’s not and to have a place to express one’s views about life in general.

For a person who knows nothing about blogging (forgive me if my jargon isn’t correct), I find WordPress quite an easy application to use.  You can choose a variety of appearances or themes for your blog and preview it to suit your needs.  My blog looks kind of plain at the moment but the most important thing for me is to get my opinion out there.  I’m sure the rest will follow in time (I hope).

I also wasn’t happy with the title of my blog (it had my name on it to begin with) and honestly I was having a tough time finding ways to change it.  Once again I googled ‘how to change title blog on WordPress’ and voila, it gave me the answer.  Click on settings on left hand of the WordPress page which will bring up general settings and you can change your title on there.

Whilst I am writing this, I have another window open where I can utitlise a search engine and give you information that you might need without having to change between tabs (anything to make life simple) i.e. how to direct traffic to your blog.  There’s no point in writing a blog if no one reads it…I signed up to http://delicious.com/ having been referred to it from http://www.webreference.com/authoring/blog_tips/ You need to have a yahoo account to join delicious.com but I’ll have to tell you at a later date if I am getting the right amount of traffic.

All in all it’s taken me three hours to put something this simple on line.  This is amongst getting the dinner ready and feeding the kids.  Not bad I would say for a multi-tasking mum.