BLOGGING COURSE 

       Where to Begin

Now you'll actually begin the process of creating a blog! No, we are not

signing up for TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, or any other blog platform just yet.

There is a lot to consider before registering or setting up an account:

What is the name of your blog?

What are you interests?

What do you want to blog about?

Will you be the only one writing on your blog or are you part of group who

will be posting content?

What have you seen in other blogs that you like?

Do you know what you want your blog to look like?

What colors do you like?

After determining what you want to write about and what your blog should

look like, you're going to need exciting, well-written content— free of

grammatical errors—that gives your followers information they want to read,

such as a funny story, a challenge or contest, details of a current promotion,

professional advice, personal experience, or the benefits of using your services.

With that in mind, in this chapter, we also supply some writing tips!

By the end of this chapter, you'll be armed with ideas and enthusiasm, and on your way to be a blogger!

Name Your Blog

Now you get to experience what parents go through in trying to find the perfect

name! Or maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones who think of a great name on

the first try. Either way, whether it takes you a minute or a month, you need to

come up with a name for your blog. Although you can change your blog name

later, it can be a big deal on some platforms (you may lose all your images, for

example, and have to reinsert them, which is very time-consuming and not fun).

So, take the time now to think about a name, before getting started.

The name of your blog should be related to its purpose, whether it's a personal

journal, a fundraiser, a school project, or a professional blog about a service or

product you provide. For example, if you'll be blogging about yourself, you may

want to use your name. If you're using your blog for business, perhaps the blog

name should be your company name or slogan, or it might describe the type of

service you provide. Here are some examples:

My blog development business is called " anujpr"(https://anujpr.blogspot.com) which uses part of my name in the title, and indicates

what my blog and business is about (see Figure 1–1).

ANUJPR WEBSITE BLOG POST

What to Blog About

Anujpr about a name for your blog may have helped discover new ideas

 to write about.  Or maybe you still haven't come up with the perfect name.  This

 section may help you figure out what to write about as well as what to name

 your blog.  The following ideas and creative writing tips should help you get

 started.

 Write about what you know.  For example, I have a strong computer

 background and currently set up blogs for people daily, generally using

 Blogger or Typepad.  So it was second nature for me to write my first book

 on Google Blogger.  I simply wrote what I knew.

 Recount an event or experience.  In remembering a specific event or

 experience, you may wish to write the entire story, but it can be even more

 compelling to simply share what you gained from that experience, what you

 learned.

 Share your memories of someone.  Maybe you want to dedicate a blog .

Detail your personal research. If there's a subject that fascinates you and

you want to learn more about it, start investigating it and then share that

information on your blog.

Start an argument. If you feel strongly about something going on in the

world, from healthcare reform to the slow food movement to the

overbreeding of dogs, let others know what you think, and why. Do be sure,

however, to do your research to support your point of view.

Tell your story. Use your blog as a diary to share your life—daily, weekly,

or whatever suits your fancy. Many people use Facebook for this type of

scenario, but it's just as easy to use a blog. And a blog allows you to write

more content.

While thinking about what to write, know that not all blogs are meant to last

forever. You may develop your blog for a particular purpose, say to promote an

annual event or fundraiser, and then afterward no longer need it. Some are

designed for business and will remain active as long as the company lasts and as

long as you wish to continue. You may choose to blog as a diary, a journal of

your life or someone else's, and keep it going as long as you have the interest in

sharing. You can use your blog for any purpose and for any length of time. In

any case, you should post often to keep people coming back—and to increase

visibility and appear higher in search engine results. You don't have to post every

day, though, and there are no specific rules to follow. This book is all about

blogging practices and concepts, and the tools you can use to enhance your

blogging experience and reach your blogging goals. The rest is totally up to you!

My goal is to get you blogging and enjoying it!

Some people actually have more than one blog, such as one for family and

another for a fundraiser they're running for a child's school. Or they may later

start a business and create yet another blog for that. There's no limit and the

topics to discuss are endless. I want to help you get started and unleash your

creativity.

Writing Good Content

Let's review some good writing practices. One of the reasons you create a blog is

to have lots of people follow its content. Posts make up the majority of your

blog, so there are some basic tasks you should perform regularly.

Check Spelling and Grammar

Many bloggers use Microsoft Word to write up their posts, and then copy and

paste the information into the post editor. If this is how you like to compose your

posts, don't forget to use Word's great spelling and grammar feature. However, if you compose your post from

within your blog, use the post editor's spell check option in Blogger, Typepad,

and WordPress, which you'll also find on the post editor toolbar. It only takes a

few minutes to perform and it is well worth that time to post a flawless article

that reads well. However, we all know the spell checker itself is not flawless (as

I often write “form” instead of “from” and the spell checker finds nothing wrong

with that). So, even after running a spelling and grammar check, you should

definitely reread your work before publishing.

Stay Focused

Keep each post focused on one particular topic, date, or event. You may lose

readers if your posts are too busy or contain too much information, or try to

cover too many topics at once. Besides appearing disorganized, it's too time-

consuming to read all the content, so you may lose readers—and business if your

sales pitch is at the very bottom of a lengthy post. You want to keep your readers'

attention!

Use Keywords

It's also a good idea to include keywords in your posts, in both the content and

the title if possible. This helps potential customers find you on the Internet when

they search for those keywords. For example, a landscaping company's blog

posts may include the keywords or phrases landscaping, landscape, lawnservice,

waterfalls, masonry, and the like, as well as, of course, the business name and the

town or county it's in. The ultimate goal in using keywords is to have a search

engine (like Google) rank your site on the first page or two of search results.

Although it's important to use keywords, it is equally important not to overuse

them. If you do, your site will be flagged as spam and will not show up at all on

result pages. Years ago, I downloaded free software from Apex, Dynamic

Submission (http://apexpacific.com/submission.html), and at the time it stated that

keywords should only be between 2 and 3 percent of your content. Therefore,

out of 100 words of content, you should use a keyword no more than three times.

This software is still available. However, today, 3-6 percent as a keyword ratio is

average.

English and Writing

So me few tips to share with us regarding writing blog posts. Note that the rules that apply to writing

blog posts are different and much less strict than those that apply to writing

academic or formal papers, resumes, or business correspondence. In general,

your tone is informal, relaxed, and conversational, and you speak to your blog

readers as to a friend. This is not intended to be an English 101 class, but to

review a few practices to help you write better posts:

Use a conversational tone. As previously stated, your writing should be

relaxed and informal. You don't have to worry about an editor reviewing

your work or that your sentences are structured perfectly. This book is

written in a conversational tone as I speak to you about blogging in a

friendly manner (not as your professor or English teacher).

Keep track of your tenses (past/present/future). If you're writing about the

past, keep it in the past, and the same goes for the present and future.

Nothing makes writing more difficult to follow than a jumble of tenses.

Me or I. If you are writing or speaking about yourself, use “I” as in “Billy,

Mary, and I are going to the mall.” Use “me” when you're receiving an

action, such as “Charlie gave me the game ball.” or “My mother is angry

with me for staying out late.”

Numbers. You can use either digits or words to write a number (10 or ten,

for example) in the body of a sentence, so which you use is up to you.

However, the first word or letter of a sentence should be capitalized so you

shouldn't use a number there unless you write it out (Ten).

Using commas. Unfortunately, some writers use commas to combine too

many thoughts into one sentence. It's better to use shorter, simpler sentences

than to create run-on sentences.

Its and it's. In general, “it's” is a substitute for “it is,” as in “It's cold

outside.” “Its,” on the other hand, is a form of ownership—“An elephant

uses its trunk to pick up food.”

Apostrophes. In following the rules of ownership, in most cases you would

use an apostrophe “s” such as “Heather's jacket is red with black trim.”

However, if the noun is plural, use just an apostrophe, as in “The princesses'

crowns sparkled with diamonds.”

Quotations and ending punctuation. In general, keep the period, question

mark, exclamation point or other punctuation inside the quotation marks.

While blogging, chances are you won't use many direct quotes that require

quotation marks, but if you are specifically quoting someone else's work,

you should certainly credit them in some way (remember the saying “give

credit where credit is due”).

Proofreading. In addition to using a spelling and grammar checker, be sure

to proof read your work. If you inadvertently use the wrong word, but it's a

real word, chances are good that neither the spell checker nor the grammar

checker will pick it up. So don't forget to reread your work before posting.

It's even better to have someone else read your work!

Blog Design

What do you want your blog to look like? Have you seen other blogs that you

absolutely love? Or totally dislike? In the next chapter we'll cover Blog Layout

and Design, and later in we'll focus on Advanced Blog Design. So

take some time now to start thinking about what you want your blog to look like.

What colors do you like?

Have you seen sites you like? What do you like about them?

Color

Font

Layout

Organization

Do you want a blog that looks and acts like a traditional web site?

Do you like tabs across the top?

All of this is important to note. You want your blog, whether for personal or

business use, to reflect you, your personality, and your likes. For example, on my

blog, I use shades of blue, as blue is easy on the eyes and is used by many

corporate sites. However, I keep it fun with the waves down the sides. At some

point I may switch the samples you see in the banner area, but other than that,

I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

BLOG DESIGN

In this exercise, I want you to explore the Web, looking for sites you like and

dislike, noting the attributes you find compelling or that put you off.

1. Do you know what you want your blog to look like? If so, then open up

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Publisher, Word, or any program you like to start creating a sketch. Or, use a pencil and paper instead!

2. If you really don't have any idea, go to www.anujpr.com and start looking

through the lists of blogs on all different topics. You'll find tons of

interesting blogs, and that will give you exposure to lots of different designs

and layouts.

Blog Layout and Design

You've decided what to blog about and you've come up with a name that reflects

your goals. Now it's time to consider how you want your blog to look, what you

want to accomplish, what sort of mood you want to evoke. Hopefully, the

exercises in Chapter 1 gave you some good ideas and you've turned your vision

into a basic sketch.

To help you realize the vision you have for your blog, in this chapter we'll

discuss the building blocks of design. We'll start with color—what colors are

primarily used for a variety of businesses, when to use certain eye-catching

colors like red or yellow, and what kind of feeling the different colors evoke. We

will also cover the dos and don'ts of fonts and the use and misuse of images, as

well as the size of different elements (the banner, sidebar images, images in

posts, and so forth).

No matter how pretty your blog looks, if visitors can't find what they need or

find the navigation clumsy and confusing, they won't come back. So, in this

chapter we'll also consider the overall layout and organization of your blog and

its elements—where to place items in your blog and how to assist visitors in

finding posts and topics of interest.

Finally, we'll examine how different screen resolutions or web browsers can

affect how others view your blog, and we'll see how you can use free blog

templates to enhance your blog's appearance.

               https://anujpr.blogspot.com website best template upload template main. 

Using Color

When you're starting out, it's a good idea to take advantage of other people's knowledge of what works. Although you may love the color red, for example,

it's hard on the eyes and not recommended as the major color in your blog's

design. Blue and green, on the other hand, are most easy on the eyes, and

therefore among the most popular colors used online.

Color is a personal choice, of course, and there's nothing written in stone

about what colors you can or can't use. There are no official rules, just

recommendations and, of course, exceptions. For example, sites directed at

children often use red—it's eye-catching, exciting, and cheerful.

Layout Design Tips

Now let's consider the placement of images on your blog. Of course you want to

create a blog that is nice to look at and that portrays your business, event, or

theme. Images can help you do that. However, you do not want your blog's

design to distract your visitors from its content and purpose, and images can do

that as well.

Here's a list of popular ways images are used to enhance a blog's appearance.

( https://anujpr.blogspot.com/) shows many of them. In most cases you

would not install all of these elements, as your blog would look busy and

cluttered and, even worse, take forever to load!

Banner: this is the blog header or image that appears at the top of your

blog.

Background: this is an image that can be placed behind the text on your

blog instead of just using a color.

Postsig nature: this is a special signature at the end of a post; some people

like to use these to make a post personal, unique, and attractive.

Post Header: this is an image that can be used before the text in the Post

Title area or sit beneath the Post Title.

Post Footer: this is an image you can place between posts to act as a

separator.

Category/Sidebar Separators: these images reside in your sidebar and can

be used if you want a specific font and graphic instead of the default font

and color set in your blog's design settings.

Blog Footer: this is an image that sits at the bottom of your blog. It matches

the design of rest of the blog and may have a closing in a font that matches

the banner's font, something like “Thanks for visiting!” or “Have a great

day! Thanks for stopping by!”

Buttons: these are images that visitors can click on, such as for Online

Ordering, Email Me, Classes & Events, etc.

You can use a combination of these graphics to build a custom blog look, but

remember—if you use too many images, it takes away from your blog's content

and message. Again, graphics are meant to enhance your blog, not bury its

content. Keep it simple. More is not necessarily better. In thinking simple, a

popular trend right now is using a lot of “white” in the design, creating a very

clean and neat look.