Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Set Up My Own Blog and Add My First Post

Description:

Go to Wordpress.com or Blogger.com (or another blogging website if you like) and create a blog. Both Wordpress and Blogger offer fairly easy-to-understand instructions to get started.

Hints:

  • A blog is just a personal webpage organized in a special way.
  • You will need to create an account with the blogging site to create your blog. For that, you will need an email address.
  • If you already have a blog, just create a post that says you have completed thing #3

Some Websites to Learn More:

Ask Bob Rankin on Blogs
Siteground Blog Tutorial

FAQ (will be updated as questions come):

Do I have to use my real name on my blog?

No. You can blog anonymously. However, the blog is the main way that I will be able to tell you have completed the 23 things, so you will need to let me see it somewhere along the line.

You said that I will have to use the blog to describe some of the other "things." How much do I have to write?

You can write as much as you like. :) A good minimal approach to this exercise is to answer four questions: 1) What is the technology? 2) What did you think of it? 3) How might this be useful [or not] to you personally? 4) How might the library use this [or not] to serve patrons better? If you want a minimum word count, let's say 50 words. But if you think I'm going to count the words on a potential 890 blog posts. . .

5 comments:

BreakoutBoxHPL said...

Well, I got myself a blog. Easier than I thought. All of you who are considering and hesitating, it takes no time at all. In fact, it was so easy, the paranoid 'net user in me is wondering if I've somehow signed up for spam or intrusive cookies. I'll get back to you on that.
If you're also like me and didn't initially have a blog as it seemed like a four-letter "word", it is actually derived from the combo "web" and "log". Makes sense, don't it. So it isn't a curse word. So go ahead, blog the blog out of your blog, it's blogging easy.

Ryan Deschamps said...

Hey bip! I plan on offering a brief post on avoiding spam on your blog sometime next week. Given this comment, I may try and get that post out over the weekend.

Personally, I find Wordpress better for handling spam, though it is marginally harder to use (more features than blogger = more to learn before you use it). It also has a better stats package (sort of).

Sara in Halifax said...

Hi Ryan

Would it be possible to set up a list of staff blog URLs? It would be completely voluntary to have your blog included, of course. Some may want to keep their blog private. Several staff here at SG have shared their blog URLs with me, but perhaps others would also be willing to share theirs with colleages in other branches.

I did find a couple by searching Google Blog search, but I am sure there are more out there!

Ryan Deschamps said...

Great idea, Sara. I added yours at the bottom of the blog page. :)

Ryan. . .

Unknown said...

Aha - I found them. Can you add my blog feed at the bottom of the page too?
http://alcanuck.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Alcanuck