Entries Tagged 'Blogging' ↓

Launching an uncustomized blog.

(Is “uncustomized” even a word?)

I have to say that I’m a firm believer in the fact that NOBODY should have a blog that isn’t at least a teeny tiny bit customized these days.

Sure you can install WordPress, throw up a free theme and start publishing in under an hour. But that’s like farting on your blog and having a bunch of people come to visit and smell catch you redhanded with a stinky blog. Blogging with a bareass blog can be just as embarrassing.

There are so many ways you can add your own unique touch to your new blog that there’s really no excuse. Leaving up the default theme should be a sin. Shame on you if you’re a sinner!

Now, I’ve had the opportunity to play around with the Thesis theme that everyone and their dog has been talking about and was most thoroughly impressed. This is a premium theme, meaning you have to purchase it.

However, it’s a ridonculously great price for the slick features that come with it, and it’s super simple to navigate around the options. Not only that, but Levar freaking Burton uses that theme! Who wouldn’t want a WordPress theme that Geordi La Forge rocks out to?

Using the Thesis theme is one great way to have a blog that allows you to make it unique without spending a boatload of money.

Another option for you is to keep your eye out in the coming days/weeks because I’m going to be posting about a few things you can do on your own to make your blog stand out. These are things that I can do, so there’s no reason why anyone else can’t do it too. There are days when I put the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the cupboard. Seriously. So anyhoo, make sure to sign up for my RSS feed so you don’t miss out on some cool WordPress tutorials.

Have you thought about starting a blog but haven’t got around to setting it up yet because you don’t know how or don’t have the time?

I’ve got domains coming out the wazoo and blogs that need to be set up but I simply don’t have the time.

You might have a killer idea for a blog but you have no idea where to begin.

In these cases where time or knowledge is lacking, your best option is to outsource. Find someone else to do it for you. Luckily I know where you can get it done for cheap.

Turn that blog idea into a reality and have Johnny set up your new blog for you for only $39. You’ll get a brand new, shiny WordPress blog with the essential plugins and a theme you choose. (I charge almost twice this amount for my clients.)

Keep in mind that this is for NEW blogs, not existing blogs that need to be transferred. You’ll also need to purchase a domain name and hosting through GoDaddy. Trust me when I say it’s worth it! Free hosting is never the way to go, especially if you want to profit from your blog.

P.S. – Transferring a blog from Blogger to WordPress is not on Johnny’s menu, but it is on mine. Contact me if you want to get the hell out of Blogger-ville and start your new home with cozy WordPress.

The difference between having a static website and maintaining a blog.

If I had to choose between one or the other, I’d choose a static website over a blog any day.

I know everyone is always rejoicing about how the search engines love blogs more than websites – I even wrote about it almost three years ago – but let’s think about the disadvantages of blogs for a moment, shall we?

• Yes blogs are super easy to install and set up, but static websites are becoming much easier to create as well. In fact, you can create a static website with WordPress.
• In my experience, blogs require regular updating to keep the traffic up. As soon as your posting frequency drops, so does traffic. Static websites don’t seem to feel this effect as much.
• If you want your blog to have a certain look, you’ll have to know more than just basic coding if you want to customize it yourself. Otherwise you’ll have to pay someone else to do it for you. That’s why you see so many blogs that look exactly the same.
• Blogs like to break when updating them. If you have quite a few plugins installed and it’s time to upgrade WordPress, cross your fingers and hope that the whole thing doesn’t implode.

Ultimately, blogs are easy to install and set up, and rather difficult to maintain for a long period of time. You might run out of steam and topics to write about, or maybe you just don’t feel like writing a bunch of blog posts every week. Maybe you’re sick of moderating the crapload of spam comments that blogs attract.

Whatever the case, it’s important to keep these things in mind when starting a new blog. Think long term. Is the topic you choose broad enough that you can continue to write about it for years to come? Is it something that will generate enough traffic to make it worth your time? Is there a way to monetize it so it will cover the costs of running it?

Blogging isn’t for everyone. If you aren’t excited about writing on a regular basis, you may want to consider creating a static website instead.

I tweeted this today:

Quit obsessing about the skills you don’t have and focus on the ones you do have.

I’ve been giving myself a really hard time lately because I can’t do all the things I’d like to. I’m a great piano player – I used to teach it – but I suck butt at playing guitar even though I’d love to play better.

I love to mess around with code on my websites and there are certain aspects of it that I’m pretty good at, but I can’t design a whole website from scratch even though I’d like to.

I love to cook and bake, and making dishes with fresh ingredients is something that makes me really happy, but I couldn’t grow an herb garden if my life depended on it.

So what does this crap have to do with blogging or running a website?

Well, if you’ve been at it for any length of time, you’ll know that it requires an insane amount of work to be even a little bit successful. There are so many aspects to it that it’s impossible for one single person to do all of them well. (Yay for virtual assistants!)

I got to thinking today – which can be a dangerous thing – and wondered why I’m so worried about all the things I can’t do well and decided to focus more on the things that I do very well and will now spend more time doing them even better.

Worrying about the things we can’t do is a colossal waste of time.

If you can’t do something, you have a few options:

• You can hire someone else to do it, or trade services with them.
• Just don’t do it and leave it unfinished. I’m great at that.
• Learn how to do it.

Each solution poses its own problem.

1. Hiring someone can be expensive. Trading services with someone can take up a lot of time.
2. Leaving a task unfinished means loose ends that should be tied up. In a business, this could mean bad things.
3. Learning how to do it yourself can be extremely stressful and time consuming.

I bet you are expecting the perfect workaround at this point. Guess what. I don’t have one. I’m going to cop out and say that you have to choose which solution is the best for you. Ha!

I personally like to do a healthy balance of all three. I’ll get someone else to do the really difficult stuff that I just don’t have the skills/time for. I’ll leave the tasks that aren’t really important or beneficial to my blogs. I’ll figure out how to do the little things that I should probably know how to do anyway which usually saves me time, frustration, and money down the road.

The main thing here is not to have unreasonable expectations. Don’t assume you can do everything by yourself. Don’t feel bad that you can’t do something that others are naturally gifted at.

Instead, pinpoint your strengths and the things you’re great at and use that to your advantage.

If you run multiple WordPress blogs or customize WP blogs for clients, here’s a little tip that I use to help save a lot of time.

Almost any WordPress blogger has a list of their favorite plugins. I certainly do. Once upon a time, I used to download and install them one at a time. Now, I keep them all in a folder on my computer and install them all at once whenever I need them.

Each time I download a new plugin, I unzip it on my desktop and move the PHP file or the plugin folder into my WordPress folder in My Documents. You can keep them wherever the heck you want, just make sure they’re all in one folder and easy to access.

Now when you install a new WordPress blog, just open up your FTP program, navigate to your plugins folder on your server, click and drag all your plugins into your plugins folder and BLAM-O! Sit back and relax while they transfer. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Once they’re all uploaded to your server, head to your plugins page in your WordPress dashboard and activate them all using the “Bulk Actions” feature. WordPress 2.7 versions and up also come with the handy “Automatically Upgrade” option which is a huge time saver as well.

If you have a finickity theme and your blog implodes after adding all your plugins, you’ll have to deactivate them and then activate them one at a time to figure out which plugin is messing with your stuff. Hopefully this doesn’t happen as this can be a serious pain in the ass. Most of the time though, this works perfectly.

Happy WordPressing!