How to set-up a blog
Jun 23, 2019 20:33:38 #
I am considering setting up a blog for tai chi classes I teach at the local community college and am somewhat overwhelmed by my searches. From those who have blog I would like to know how you started and which sites you found the most friendly. Also, what are the advantages over a free verses one that charges (other than many ads) and what are reasonable charges.
Thanks,
Bill
Thanks,
Bill
Jun 23, 2019 20:46:26 #
Darn, I thought from the title you were going to explain how.
Guess I'll watch.
Guess I'll watch.
Jun 23, 2019 20:54:31 #
Jun 23, 2019 21:30:38 #
wjones8637 wrote:
Guess I should have used a couple of ??? in the title.
Or "How do I....".
Jun 23, 2019 23:52:20 #
wjones8637 wrote:
I am considering setting up a blog for tai chi classes I teach at the local community college and am somewhat overwhelmed by my searches. From those who have blog I would like to know how you started and which sites you found the most friendly. Also, what are the advantages over a free verses one that charges (other than many ads) and what are reasonable charges.
Thanks,
Bill
Thanks,
Bill
I once set up a blog on Google Blogspot. It was relatively easy and there was no cost. There are tutorials for it also.
Jun 24, 2019 06:45:21 #
I use the free wordpress.com, have had it years and it suits me. mikehardisty.wordpress.com
Jun 24, 2019 08:31:34 #
Jun 24, 2019 12:04:57 #
Easiest way is to go to www.wordpress.com and follow the simple instructions there. They have a free option…but like many things you get what you pay for…although in your case the free version is probably good enough from a technical standpoint. The only reason you might want to upgrade to a paid plan…and they start at like $3 per month or so…is that the free version is ad supported and Wordpress.com will put ads on your page. Since you don't have any input into what the ads are, and might not want to support ads anyway…upgrading might be worth it.
You'll also need a way to edit the blog…you can do it entirely online by logging into your account but that's kind of the hard way. Easier ways include filing posts by email…you can set up a specialized email address at Wordpress.com for your blog submissions. Then you basically write an email…can include images if needed, subject line is post title and there are a couple other minor formatting things you can do as well. Send the mail to your email post address and it will get posted. There are also some free tools like Blogger and others that can write posts offline. I personally use MarsEdit on my Mac to write my posts…it's not free but works better for me.
For a little more money you can use something like squarespace.com…but their plans are more expensive and don't sound like what you need.
You can also roll your own Wordpress installation at many hosts…but some of them require technical insight into how to configure Wordpress software and most aren't free.
Blogspot.com will also give you a free one…I know people that use that one, it's essentially Wordpress software scenes (Wordpress the open source software as opposed to wordpress.com the company) behind the scenes. There are other services similar to Blogspot.com as well…although none specifically come to mind.
I host my travel blog at Wordpress.com…if you set up a free blog and call it say Teaching Blog the actual url will be teachingblog.wordpress.com…but if you pay the $15 per year or whatever the domain costs (depends on .com, .net, .org, .us or whatever suffix you choose) then Wordpress.com will map your domain to the whatever.wordpress.com for you. Wordpress.com will even buy and manage the domain process for you…although I recommend that you control the domain yourself so that you can move elsewhere if it's ever needed. To do that…just go to hover.com (not paid by them, just a very happy user)…and for goodness sake don't use dotster.com or godaddy.com or yahoo.com's domain service. Anyways…hover.com, buy your domain, and then tell Wordpress.com what it is and they'll point yourdomain.com to the right thing…you may have to also coordinate with hover.com's great tech support to get the right DNS entries setup…but it's pretty easy.
You'll also need a way to edit the blog…you can do it entirely online by logging into your account but that's kind of the hard way. Easier ways include filing posts by email…you can set up a specialized email address at Wordpress.com for your blog submissions. Then you basically write an email…can include images if needed, subject line is post title and there are a couple other minor formatting things you can do as well. Send the mail to your email post address and it will get posted. There are also some free tools like Blogger and others that can write posts offline. I personally use MarsEdit on my Mac to write my posts…it's not free but works better for me.
For a little more money you can use something like squarespace.com…but their plans are more expensive and don't sound like what you need.
You can also roll your own Wordpress installation at many hosts…but some of them require technical insight into how to configure Wordpress software and most aren't free.
Blogspot.com will also give you a free one…I know people that use that one, it's essentially Wordpress software scenes (Wordpress the open source software as opposed to wordpress.com the company) behind the scenes. There are other services similar to Blogspot.com as well…although none specifically come to mind.
I host my travel blog at Wordpress.com…if you set up a free blog and call it say Teaching Blog the actual url will be teachingblog.wordpress.com…but if you pay the $15 per year or whatever the domain costs (depends on .com, .net, .org, .us or whatever suffix you choose) then Wordpress.com will map your domain to the whatever.wordpress.com for you. Wordpress.com will even buy and manage the domain process for you…although I recommend that you control the domain yourself so that you can move elsewhere if it's ever needed. To do that…just go to hover.com (not paid by them, just a very happy user)…and for goodness sake don't use dotster.com or godaddy.com or yahoo.com's domain service. Anyways…hover.com, buy your domain, and then tell Wordpress.com what it is and they'll point yourdomain.com to the right thing…you may have to also coordinate with hover.com's great tech support to get the right DNS entries setup…but it's pretty easy.
Jun 25, 2019 21:37:50 #
neillaubenthal wrote:
Easiest way is to go to www.wordpress.com and foll... (show quote)
Thank you for a very thorough reply. I'm still at the thinking stage. I am also considering something with Dropbox since I would kind of like to limit access to my students.
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