Etips is a publication of:
Your Guide to Professional Web
Site Design and Development
Hello,
Welcome to this week's edition of Etips.
If you've browsed the Internet lately, you've probably heard about Blogs.
But, what exactly is a Blog? A Blog is simply a web log that enables you
to easily publish a variety of content to the Internet.
You can publish whatever you'd like, such as your personal thoughts, graphics,
documents (Text, Word, PowerPoint, and PDF), and multimedia.
In today's edition of Etips, Stuart Reid will provide you with an overview
of Blogs and even show you how you can publish your own.
I hope you'll enjoy the publication.
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 How to Publish a "Blog"...
and Why You Should!
By
Stuart Reid
Copyright © 2004
First, a quick definition for those
who do not know what a Blog is. Quite simply, it's a Web Log. In other words,
a regularly updated page of your thoughts, ideas, links - whatever.
It's very easy to publish a Blog these days and today I'm going to show you
how in a few easy steps. Don't worry - all the sites, services and tools
involved are fr'ee.
Before we go ahead I should first explain why a Blog is so useful. A Blog
provides a number of benefits to you and your site and all for very little
effort.
1. A Blog will add valuable content to your site. This in turn increases
repeat visitors and increases the frequency the Google Page Bot (and therefore
how often your site listings are updated) will visit.
2. A Blog can be updated very quickly (especially using the technique I show
you below). It's much faster to update than editing your Web Page or sending
out an e-mail.
3. Blogs can be delivered as RSS Feeds and this means a user can download
software to have your Blog delivered direct to their desktop as and when
it's updated. You DO NOT have to pay for sites such as Quikonnex or the new
Cory Rudl software. RSS Feeds are NOT new and you shouldn't have to pay for
what is essentially a fr'ee technology!
Do you now believe you should publish a Blog? If you do, just read on, and
see how easy it is!
First join Blogger.Com
- this is a popular Blog service (there are others) that makes the whole
process as simple as possible. You just register your details and a title
for your Blog.
Why choose Blogger? First, the Google Toolbar has a "Blog This" button that
makes updating your Blog childs play. Click the button, and you can publish
direct into your Blog immediately - including a link to the web-site you're
currently on!
Second, Blogger will add you to it's directory and to a notification service
AND they will let you publish to their site, though you can set FTP settings
to publish to a page at your own domain. For now we'll publish to Bloggers
host service "BlogSpot" since they are fast and the only thing they add is
one banner at the top. You may also get featured as one of Bloggers daily
blogs and gain massive traffic.
Blogger also has a range of templates and you can even edit these directly
to personalize your Blog, right down to adding ads or links to your own site
(Tip: include a navigation bar). Blogger will also archive your Blog and
insert links to your archived months.
Blogger will create a Blog for you in a few steps. At the
Blogger.Com main page
click on "Start Now" at the top. Enter your Username, Password and Name and
away you go.
Once you have your account validated, log in and create a new Blog. This
is just as simple as creating a user account. Enter a Title and Description,
and leave it as a "Public" Blog. Then select host at BlogSpot. Create a subdomain
for your BlogSpot then select a template. You can create your own templates
but that requires extensive HTML knowledge.
That's it! You have an account and a Blog setup. There are other settings
to explore. You can set "Ping Weblogs" to YES in the Settings/Publishing
option to notify Weblogs whenever you publish. You can also set "Show Title
Field" and "Email" options to provide Titles to your Blog Entries and email
a copy of your entries to you. Everything else is OK as it is.
With your Blog at BlogSpot and your Google Toolbar
http://toolbar.google.com
installed, set the Blogger function in the Toolbar Options and then click
the `B` button in the toolbar. There you have it - one instant Blog entry.
How To Use Your RSS Feed
If you left the Blog settings as standard, your RSS feed is at your BlogSpot
Address as atom.xml - the number of entries depends on your settings in Blogger,
but it's usually a weeks worth. Although the Atom feed doesn't hold *every*
entry, the end user's client software stores all entries as they come in.
Your website Blog has complete on-line archives.
Instruct your readers to download an RSS Reader and to use that address to
receive your Blog updates. Below I've included a quick tutorial that you
can cut-out and send to your own Blog readers, just change the Blog
Address.
---->snip<-------------------->snip<---------------
How To Get Updates From This Blog... To Your Desktop!
First you need to download a "Feed Reader." This Blog uses an Atom Feed.
Atom Readers can be downloaded from the following webpage:
http://www.atomenabled.org/everyone/atomenabled/index.php?c=5
The above link contains a "big list" of resources, so you may want to use
the program below if you want to get started with a quick and easy client
right away:
Tristana Reader
http://www.charlwood.com/tristana
The Tristana Reader is a small and quick reader. This "big list" contains
this reader and others, including those for Mac OS and web-based services.
There's also certain readers that integrate into your browser. Use the link
to the "big list" to find one you like. Don't worry, they're nearly all
fr'ee!
In Tristana, you simply click the large "+" sign and enter the address of
the Blog Atom feed. The feed to this Blog is:
http://netpreneurnow.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Once the feed is added, just double click it to get a list of headlines and
click each headline to get the entry. You can add as many blogs as you want
and Tristana will happily keep them all for you.
---->snip<-------------------->snip<---------------
Blogger itself has a lot of help if you need it, so it's time for me to sign
off.
Happy Blogging!
About the Author:
| Stuart Reid
publishes Netpreneur News and it's Blog. Visit the main site to join the
Email Ezine or to view the Blog at:
http://www.netpreneurnow.com |
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