Archive for August 18th, 2009

By – Sherry Stocking Kline

Everything I read on-line said that creating a blog was easy.

Get a domain name. Pick a ‘spot’ to host it. Start writing.

Or in my case, start writing AND uploading the articles I’ve written for the Wichita Eagle’s special “Active Life” magazine over the years.

After all, I’m sorta, kinda, maybe a little bit computer literate.  Right?

Well, I thought that I was, but maybe not. Or at least the jury is still out on that.

So I started checking into blog software, hosting provisions, free blog hosting sites, wordpress.com, typepad.com, blogspot.com ,etc.. I read articles and glanced at some books. I checked other blogs to see what they were using. I asked for advice from some Twitter friends, too, and ended up choosing to use my own domain and my own hosting company. And I picked WordPress.

With a lot of excitement I installed it on my website. And then I saw all these neat blogs with the cool graphics, and I thought, well, I need one of those, so I found a nice young mom on Twitter to tweak me up a nice graphic and background (dcrdesign.com) and I assured her that I could upload it to WordPress myself.

After all, I still remember a little HTML. I can still kinda, sorta use Dreamweaver.  Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.  It seems that HTML isn’t the answer to putting those cool graphics up and making your blog functional. What you need to know is a neat little programming language called PHP. Or know someone that does. Never mind what PHP stands for (that means I don’t know either), but it’s what makes the site work, and makes it searchable.

So, for a small fee, I found another nice young work-at-home mom named Cathy (desperatelyseekingwp.com) to help me upload and tweak the different parts of the blog.  Cathy made some cool suggestions, so we’re probably gonna tweak it again when she’s got some free time. She even invited me to one of her live on-line tutorial sessions where I learned a lot in an hour, and ‘met’ some other neat gals.

Cathy gave me some ‘homework’ to do.  Sometime this week I promise I’m going to read all this info! Honest. But for now, I’m up and running, and I’ll be uploading some of my favorites from my articles.

So why am I giving these two young woman a ‘free’ plug?

Well, when my kids were toddlers there was no internet. No Ebay. No Etsy. There was no easy way to work from home unless you were sewing, babysitting, or making and selling something. Even with Amway and Avon back then, you still had to leave home. So I admire these young women. And I wish them the best. You go, girls!

And just in case you want to do my ‘homework’ for me, here’s Cathy’s links:

Writing and Publishing a Post
Adding Categories and Tags to your Post
Embedding Media into Your Posts
Customizing your Write Settings

I’d sure love to hear from you! Suggestions are welcome. Both good comments and bad!