Blog Help

[Mel Hirsch]

ok, Blogs have been mentioned and re-mentioned... so I am looking for blog help.
I have set up a basic blog at blogger long ago and also one at wordpress, again long ago. My questions are....
1) Is it better to do a wordpress blog and have it hosted in your hosting account with your website domain name/blog?
I have found a step by step to upload it to my hosting account, but wonder why I would do it that way instead of just having wordpress or blogger host it, other than it can have my same domain name....


2) how in the heck do you customize it, widget it...not sure what those are yet... and make links to other sites, do favorites section, in fact how do you make nay sections and what about uploading photos, videos etc...? It's all greek at this point and even though I have done a mini test blog, there were so many things that I couldn't figure out at the time that I just dropped it. I would like to get it up and running again.

3) If I have multiple domains hosted in host gator lets say, can I do a blog for each one? Somewhere in hostgator it said you only have one c panel.... not sure if that matters when setting up blogs or not...

4) If I do set up a wordpress blog in my hosting account, how do I get a free template to there and could I bring one from anywhere or would it have to be from wordpress or?

This is one of the resources I have found with lots of good info...just soooo much info that I don't know where to start....
Thanks to all for any help here...
Mel
http://blog-template-layout.com/business-blog/wordpress/

[Emily Z]

I just started using wordpress, too, and have had some of the same questions.

Right now mine is on wordpress, and is linked to my domain. I couldn't figure out how to make my host (Lunarpages) host it, and decided that it didn't matter. So I would like the answer to the "why do it that way", too!

I have found a lot of the ways to change the appearance, but haven't worked out the kinks. Mine still looks boring, I guess, but I am adding to it anyway. I'm hoping that the info will be interesting enough that it won't matter for now! :)

I have done with my blog what I've had to do with the rest of it...take one thing at a time. For now, I am blogging. I am working on the appearance of the website and getting that going, and I will take on the blog appearance later. I am going with Pat's "Just do it", and trusting the Universe to help me as I go. :)

Wish I could be more help. Thanks for the link, though--that's great. Glad you started this. I am in the same boat!

Emily

[Emily Z]

Oh, my blog is at http://discoveryourlifeonline.com/blog/, if you want to see.

[Mel Hirsch]

Hey New York... Em... thanks for the reminder to just do it! Your webpage looks great by the way. I just went in and looked at it and your blog and they both are great. I even read your blog stuff.... must be good...it stopped me for a minute and I did partake! One step at a time...one step at a time...one step at a time..... I'll keep repeating this for a bit.....

[Emily Z]

Thank you so much! I'm a little self-conscious about it still--that whole "but what if it sucks" thing! :) I feel a lot better knowing we all have that, though...

[Joan Maresh-Hansen]

Mel and Em, love the dialogue as BLOGs are totally new to me too and I am learning with each word spoken.

I just did research from a book called Web 2.0 Blog very informative reading and it gave some interesting ways to enrich your Blog environment. Including; allowing comments from visitors or not, allowing the ability to search through photos and multimedia archives ( which I want in my virtual art room) with services like flickr, youtube, picasa,etc. ..the book focuses on interactivity and building a sense of community..like Ning ( thanks Pat)

Social bookmarking sights like spurl.net and del-iciou.us allow you to share bookmarks ( and links to your blog) with other like minded folks who are looking for what you have.
The thing that I am beginning to understand about a Blog and it's value is that if the Blog is somewhere else, it can/should drive traffic to your site...if Blog is already part of your site it can increase your rankings in the SEO (Search engine Optimization) criteria as some BLOG posts have links embedded as people's signatures sometimes have their web sites, this is one criteria for better rankings in the search engines...the more links the higher the ranking-I think?

Another advantage is changing content also improves your status with the BIG BOYS, search engines love new content, the advantage being that in a BLOG, the content that is fresh is sometimes and oftentimes added by visitors, which is helpful to you, since you do not have to do all the work. Note that Pat and Joe both have Blogs on their sites, I would guess for some of the same reasons stated.Hopefully someone more experienced can confirm my understanding or lack of BLOG information.... Does this make any sense?
I am sorry to say that I cannot assist anyone yet in any of the technical aspects of enhancing the look of your BLOGS...I aim to learn all that..my problem has been that my POST in eblogger has had no comments at all for a month, so I am looking at how to put that content into a BLOG directory so others can be driven to the post so they can comment. This term I believe is called Ping when new content is placed on the web, then others are notified, like the Ning site..Ping on the Ning...chuckle...
other things mentioned in BLOGS ( Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, Expressengine.com, Typepad.com) were that the most recent entries are usually at the top with previous entries below in chronological order, blogging software can create an archive automatically, and you can allow comments, ratings and social bookmarking...
That is all I can remember now, thanks for the prompt and let's just do it and watch miracles happens..love you, thanks, Joan

[Emily Z]

Very interesting. Good things to keep in mind, and his points all make sense to me (yippee!). Glad he talked about headlines--that's one of the things I overanalyze! :)

[Joanne McCallum]

Hi! this is Joanne of Arkansas and I was attracted to your content on Blogging. This video is very good and is worth watching! They should have stood a little closer to the camera but still good info!

[Joan Maresh-Hansen]

Who is talking? thanks, not understanding all of what they are saying....will listen again...

[Kate Loving Shenk]

hello all--in-joying all the stuff about blogging including the YouTube video--thank you for including this!!

I call my self a blog-a-holic!!

Just wrote an article on my blog about it--check it out and get a
l...

I just do the next inspired
action and hope it all comes together!!! LOLOL!!

Kate Loving Shenk
Nursing Career Transformation

[Joan Maresh-Hansen]

Thanks Kate, cute dog face, I appreciate your Blog-a-holic article and can't wait to read it, goin' there now,
Blessings, Joan

[Kate Loving Shenk]

hi joan--tell me what you think!!!

love, kate

[Emily Z]

I was listening to the Hypnotic Blogging CD that Joe sent to the Hypnotic gold people yesterday. The guy dong the interview blogs at www.didyousmellthat.com. He said you should have your blog in your own domain for the search engines, since they love the content. Makes sense! So that answer the hosting account part!

Now to figure out how to do it...