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Blogging about Blogging

Blogging about Blogging

Blogging about Blogging

I've never really been one for keeping a personal blog. I don't like the thought that literally anyone could be reading what would essentially be a run down of how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking about and so on. If I wanted someone to know – I could just tell them. Sure – I've made a few blog posts on this very website, about speeds on IPStream Max, the way our IVR works, and so on, but I've never really been inclined to keep my own one until now. A friend of mine decided that I was constantly complaining about being bored at home and having nothing to do so he practically forced me into signing up for a domain name and to write about things that interested me. So, within a day, I had my own domain name and a basic Wordpress install, which we then customised the theme and off I went. It's actually really easy to do. You just need to download the latest version of Wordpress from their site and save it locally on your computer. Then you can just upload the files to the root directory (eg http://www.mywebsite.co.uk/) and then you just need to set up a database and follow the instructions you're given. Wordpress have their own guide on how to do this here. Since then, I've learnt about and written about various things, such as what's wrong with my eyesight, sleeping patterns, reasons why we yawn and so on, not to mention some very basic reviews on a few games I've played. It's essentially given me a reason to read up on some things that I find interesting, which I probably wouldn't have done so otherwise. Now I'm starting to get the idea of adding various plugins to Wordpress, such as one called Twitter Tools (which I thought was excellent) which will automatically post any blog entries I make to my twitter feed – something Chris has recently adapted for the Comms "Commic" blog. There's almost always going to be someone that's written a plugin that can do anything you want it to. It really doesn't matter what you're wittering on about. As long as you find it interesting, it's quite likely that your interest and enthusiasm will infect others and before long you'll have your own following. All you need is a domain name, some hosting and a decent Internet connection. Did I mention we sell all of those things? Have fun Smiley James

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3 Comments
Be3G
Grafter
To be honest, for the average user it's easier and cheaper to simply use wordpress.com - that way there's no need to worry about either installing Wordpress or keeping it up to date. For a small fee they can map a domain to the blog, and you also get a lot of free space (3GB with no bandwidth limit IIRC). However, downloading the Wordpress software and installing it to one's own webspace does provide one advantage, which is customisability: you get to install your own choice of plugins and themes, plus you can modify the CSS and anything else. P.S. I don't know if it's deliberate but this blog post isn't showing up on the Community homepage anywhere.
James1
Not applicable
Yep - absolutely. I actually had quite a bit of fun messing around with plugins to find out what they actually did. Modifying the CSS was a different kind of "fun" - something I'd not tried before! It wasn't on the frontpage previously because of the category I'd posted it under. James
petejackson
Grafter
Yep, it's posted under the category of 'Web development' and can be found under the Blogs tab.