The Art of the Blog

A start-up guide to blogging and WordPress

Table of Contents What is a blog?

What is WordPress?

How do I make a WordPress account?

How do I make my first blog post?

How do I get more people to read my blog?

What should I and shouldn’t I put in my blog?

The Art of the Blog

What is a Blog? The term blog is coined by Peter Merholz from the term

weblog, which in turn was coined by Jorn Barger in December

17, 1997.

Loosely put, it is a website consisting of discrete entries

called posts (singular: post) often sorted in chronological

order of publishing.

Very often (though not true all the time), a blog is focused

on one topic, whether it be as broad as one’s day to day

experience (as it is in a personal blog) or as narrow as

one’s special interests.

What is a Blog? Although Peter Merholz was the one who coined the term blog

by jokingly breaking the word weblog into we blog in the

sidebar of his blog Peterme.com, the term came into wide

adoption when Evan Williams of Pyra Labs used the term blog

both as a noun (blog, blog post, blogger) and a verb (to

blog, i.e. to post in a blog).

Today, there are a lot of free blogging services available

online. Two popular ones are Pyra Labs’ own Blogger (bought

by Google in 2003) and WordPress by the WordPress Foundation.

Alternatives to Blogging With the expansion and adoption of the Internet as a social

medium, blogging has since been absorbed and assimilated into

the lives of netizens.

The rise of Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter and

Instagram has led to a phenomenon and variant of traditional

blogging called microblogging.

Alternatives to Blogging Microblogging is a variant of blogging that focuses less on

lengthy blogs and more on short but frequent posts. It

promotes the idea of sharing the moment (i.e. what are you

doing right now) as opposed to recalling events after they

have transpired.

This form of blogging has proliferated even more thanks to

the ubiquity of mobile devices.

Is Snapchat a Blog? Another more recent trend is the adoption and use of

Snapchat. Started by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie

Brown while they were college students at Stanford

University, Snapchat takes microblogging to a whole new

level. Unlike traditional blogs, your posts (that are mostly

photos and videos) are impermanent; they will disappear after

a day.

Going back to Blogging Our focus today, however, will be on WordPress, one of the

more traditional and free blogging services.

So, what is WordPress?

WordPress.com

What is WordPress? While WordPress is

known as a blogging

service, it is

actually a free and

open source Content

Management System

(CMS) based on PHP

and MySQL.

It’s blogging service

is a subset of its

CMS service.

(top) the home page of wordpress.org, the CMS service of

WordPress.

What is WordPress? WordPress was started by

Matt Mullenweg and Mike

Little when they branched

away from b2/cafelog, a PHP

and MySQL based blogging

framework written by Michel

Valdrighi.

Christine Selleck Tremoulet,

a friend of Mullenweg,

suggested the name

WordPress.

(top) b2/cafelog (http://cafelog.com/), precursor to

WordPress.

Creating a WordPress Account

Starting up Your Blog Starting a blog in WordPress is easy. Simply make an account,

set-up the aesthetics of your page either with pre-made

templates or look for free templates online and start

posting.

However, setting up a successful blog takes a bit more

planning and forethought. It will help if you have ready

answers to questions like:

What do you want to write about?

Is there a particular blogging style you want to adopt?

Do you plan on publishing regularly or semi-regularly?

What do you want to write about? Before starting a blog, it is a good to first have an idea

what exactly it is you want to put in your blog.

Do want to share your day to day experiences?

Do you want to write about a particular special interest?

Do you want your blog to be a place for you to post

literary works or other forms of art?

Deciding these before hand gives your blog direction, and

gives you material to write about in the future.

How do you want to write your blog? Another factor you would need to consider in writing a blog

is what manner of writing or what image you want your blog to

have?

Do you want to adopt a light-hearted style of writing or do

you want to be straight to the point and journalistic?

Do you want your blog to be heavy on pictures or would you

rather have plentiful but short paragraphs?

Do you want to write your blog in the first person or would

you prefer a more impersonal approach?

Do you want to be topical, provocative or counter-culture?

When do you plan on writing? Finally, you would want to think about how regularly you

would like to publish.

Do you plan on posting regularly or semi-regularly?

If you chose the former, how often? Would you post daily?

Weekly? Bi-monthly?

If you chose the latter, how often? Twice a week? Four

times a month?

This is essential to the longevity of the blog, as having a

regular publishing schedule ensures your blog will have

consistent content and will force you to publish.

When do you plan on writing? Very often, bloggers stop blogging because

they lose motivation.

However, having a

clear publishing

schedule, vision and

purpose can help you

maintain your

enthusiasm for

blogging. (top) www.dannychoo.com, a popular, semi-regularly

updated blog focused on Japanese culture.

Consider Microblogging instead... Note that considering these factors is not required to start

a blog. These are just important considerations if you plan

on maintaining your blog properly.

A proper blog takes quite a bit of effort to maintain,

especially if you are after viewership (more on this later).

If, however, you find that you do not have the stamina to

maintain a proper blog, do not fret. Perhaps a microblog

would be more appropriate for you.

Starting up Your Blog If, however, you think you can maintain a

proper blog, then it’s

time to set-up your blog

account.

Go to www.wordpress.com

then click on the Start

a Blog option.

(top) the home page of wordpress.com, the blogging

service of WordPress.

Starting up Your Blog You will be taken to the Learn More page.

Click the Get Started

Button to start the

Registration Process for

your account.

Starting up Your Blog Select which category you want your blog to belong

to.

Starting up Your Blog Next, select a theme for your blog. This theme

will be how your blog

will generally look like.

You can change this theme

later, or customize it

further.

Clicking on a theme will

take you to the next

step.

Starting up Your Blog You will now be asked to pick a domain name. Your

domain will serve as the

URL for your blog, so it's

important that you take

your time in this step.

Before finalizing your

domain name, reread it to

ensure that the domain name

cannot be misread or

misinterpreted.

Starting up Your Blog Notice that all save for one domain name is not

free.

WordPress offers paid

domain plans that do not

have the WordPress domain

associated with it,

making the blog more

personalized.

Starting up Your Blog Next, select your publishing plan.

Usually a Free Plan is

good enough if you are

just starting out as it

encompasses most of the

basic features you need

to start your blog.

Starting up Your Blog The final step is setting up the credentials of

your blog.

Make sure your password

is strong enough as you

do not want others to

gain access and modify or

tamper with your blog!

Starting up Your Blog WordPress will now create your blog...

You are now ready to start! Once that is done, you can now make your first

blog post!

Make sure to confirm

your email as you will

not be able to post in

your blog if you did

not.

My First Blog Post

Making your first post in WordPress WordPress actually makes

your first post for you.

If you want, you can make

a new post, but it is

recommended that you edit

the post WordPress made

for you.

Click on the Edit link at

the byline of the post to

edit it.

Making your first post in WordPress This will take you to the

WordPress post editor. Most

blog sites offer a similar

WYSIWYG editor.

You may use the tools found

in the Formatting Bar to

format your post as if you

are using a word processor.

You can also switch to an

HTML editor for more control.

Making your first post in WordPress Click on the Title to

edit it. You can do the

same for the body of the

blog post.

Once you are done, you

may click the Update

button .

Making your first post in WordPress You can also add Tags and

Categories for your blog post, or

control how it will be shared.

A tag is a way to group your

posts. Each post can have multiple

tags, and each tag can be used for

multiple posts.

Use the navbar to the right of the

Editor to control these options.

Making your first post in WordPress You may also click on the

Preview button

to view your blog post

before it is posted into

your blog.

Doing so will show you a

preview of what your blog

post will look like.

Making your first post in WordPress Once posted, click on the

link to your blog at the

upper left corner of the

editor. The link should

look like this

but with a different blog

name.

Make sure you have

confirmed your email first

or else the post will not

appear in your blog.

Making a new post in WordPress To make another post,

simply click on the

Create New Post button

on the upper right corner

of your blog.

This will take you to the

same Editor Page, albeit

blank this time because

you have not written

anything yet.

Making a new post in WordPress As with before, once you

are done, click on the

Publish Button .

You may also Preview your

blog post before posting

it to your blog, add

categories and tags and

modify other options.

Blogging Blogging Blogging... As you can see, WordPress offers you a whole host of

features, from customizing the aesthetics of your blog to

formatting your blog posts. It even offers some analytics

tools for you to know how many people have viewed your post!

Feel free to explore the features and tools WordPress offers

you, and blog away!

So I want to improve my

viewership...

What do you mean by Viewership? Viewership refers to the audience of your blog. Generally,

this falls under two categories:

Visitors - people who pass by your blog

Followers - people who actively look forward to your posts

In general, you'd want a good balance between the two. Having

more visitors means that you are reaching out to more unique

people and having more followers means that there are a lot

of people who regularly read your blog.

How to Improve the Viewership of your Blog Here are a couple of tips to improve the viewership of your

blog:

Have an identity. This makes sure your audience knows what

to expect from your blog.

Have a regular posting schedule as much as possible.

Similar to the first point, this gives your audience

something to look forward to. It also demonstrates

consistency.

How to Improve the Viewership of your Blog Join blogging communities. No matter how unique you think

your blog is, there are online communities that share the

same interests or talk about the same topic. Joining

their community helps you get your content across a wider

interested audience.

Be involved. Collaborate with others, boost each other's

blogs and offer a variety of content that suits your

audience/blogging community. This builds goodwill, which

others will inevitably give back.

How to Improve the Viewership of your Blog Finally, be patient.

Even if you follow all these tips, it will not guarantee a

thousand followers overnight. This should not discourage you

however.

Blogging is akin to the process of cultivation, it takes time

and resources but eventually, it will pay off.

The Do’s and Don'ts of Blogging

Blogging Do’s and Don’ts Apart from everything that we have already discussed, here

are some more tips on blogging. Note that this is not an

exhaustive list, and you are encouraged to come up with more!

Don't post personal information in your blog that you don't

want others to know.

Do not intentionally slander another person or blogger.

Mind your content. Do not post inappropriate media in your

blog.

Do not post profanity or other scandalizing content.

Blogging Do’s and Don’ts Do not post copyrighted content in your blog. Be careful

with the music, video or image content you post in your

blog.

Do proofread your posts.

Do take the time and effort to personalize your blog. Make

sure it fits your content.

Do include other forms of media in your blog, not just

text.