Start Blogging with WordPress!

Start Blogging with WordPress!

WordPress

After attending the WordCamp US 2016 in Philly, I felt the motivation to write this post.

Blogging with WordPress

WordPress is one of the many options available to bloggers who are looking for free software online which makes it incredibly easy to publish their own blog. This software is easy to use, provides a variety of templates and offer excellent support to bloggers. There are many options available to bloggers and other blogging programs may be better known and offer slightly different features but many bloggers are quite pleased with WordPress. This article will offer some useful information for bloggers who are considering starting a blog with WordPress such as reasons to choose WordPress, tips on starting a blog and information about the support offered by WordPress. Based on this information as well as their own research bloggers can decide whether WordPress is right for them or whether they should seek out a different blog network.

Reasons to Choose WordPress

There are many great reasons to choose WordPress to start a blog. Some of these reasons include a great variety of templates, the ability to categorize and tag posts easily, features such as spell check, previews and autosave, the ability to post text, audio files and video files, a variety of privacy options and the ability to track statistical data related to the blog in addition to other great features. Some of these features may be more important to some bloggers than others so deciding whether or not WordPress is right for you will largely be a matter of personal preference. For example bloggers with little or no programming experience may enjoy the myriad of templates available on WordPress while bloggers who are concerned about privacy issues may be more interested in the privacy options available through WordPress. Carefully investigating these features will help bloggers determine if they should start a blog with WordPress.

Starting a Blog with WordPress

Bloggers who opt to start a blog with WordPress will certainly not be disappointed by the amount of time it takes to start a blog. A blogger can literally start a blog with WordPress within minutes. This is tremendously important to bloggers who are eager to get started and do not want to deal with a long process to start a blog. The only requirements for starting a blog are a valid email address and a username. The blogger enters this information into the signup page and receives a password almost instantly. Next, the blogger simply has to check his email, follow the activation link provided and use the password provided and the process is complete. The blogger can start blogging immediately.

Support Offered by WordPress

For many first time bloggers, the type of support offered is very important. This is because first-time bloggers may have quite a few questions about the process of starting a basic blog and once they establish a basic blog they may have additional questions about using advanced features and customizing the blog. WordPress offers a great deal of support for bloggers of all skill levels. The support offered by Word press includes the ability to contact the support staff as well as the ability to receive support from other members through online forums. Although the support staff is incredibly responsive some bloggers enjoy the ability to communicate with other bloggers in forums. This is because the forums are active 24 hours a day and bloggers can find support from peers at any time.

To Have A Blogging Schedule Or Too Not

To Have A Blogging Schedule Or Too Not

Digital Marketing

In the last 4 hours or so I have been thinking about my site in its entirety and more specifically my blog. Where do I want to take it? What’s the point of writing if nobody reads it? Even as I write this post I am having scatter brain. So I figured I would share my thoughts with the world? Or who ever is reading this, if anyone. Here goes…

Thought 1: Should I have blogging schedule?

The more I think about having a blogging scheduling the more I liked the idea of it. I even had specific days planned out, with what type of media I would present. It would look something like this:

Sunday Sketches: I will rename my sketch series to this, as it just makes more sense – I think?  Here’s why: Many of my sketches are random and necessarily don’t have to do with UI design, in addition the name “Sunday Sketches” reminded me of being a kid and reading the comics in the Sunday paper, every Sunday Morning when my Dad would come with breakfast.)

Movie Mondays: I would write about the latest movie / TV show I watched the previous week.

Tech Tuesdays: Anything technical – hardware, software, code, etc.

Video Game Wednesdays: Console Games, Mobile Games, Computer games.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday – would be left for random posts, future vlog and podcast.

As I do with most of my thinking, I went straight to Google, to see what some “professional bloggers” had to say about having a blogging schedule. And was I glad I did, because here is what I took away from my brief research:

Thought 2: My Blogging Schedule “can be” a disaster

Followers to your blog could get bored with schedule rather quickly and subscribe-ship could drop off- not that I have to worry about that just yet.

I am not getting paid to do this yet* (more about this later – *keyword here is “yet”).

I have got other obligations right now; I am a father, husband and full-time web designer with regular 9-5.

If I did launch a schedule, I didn’t want the responsibility to stick to it, in hopes of not disappointing anyone.

Blogging is fun for me; I didn’t want to turn in something I hate.

I have got too many random thoughts, ideas, feedback, knowledge, etc. that could not adhere to a schedule at this time.

I can go on with the cons to a blogging schedule but I rather not because we still got more to cover.

Thought 3: My Solution to the Blogging Schedule Dilemma 

Make blogging goals – instead I came up with personal blogging goals: Try to post a written blog post at least once a week. Sometime in the near future: in addition to the written blog post, I would release at least one vlog post and one podcast to tie it all together (Still need to get some video equipment to complete this task).

With these goals, I hope to gain enough traction in the blogging community, where I can pick up some sponsors and advertisers to turn my hobby into a real career.

In the meantime, I will use traditional affiliate marketing and other methods to get some ROI for doing “this.” And even its, not a success, I still just enjoy doing “it.” – I’m taking about blogging here.