I have been receiving emails and in the form of comments, that I write on Blogging, provide some tips.
I do not presume to be a good blogger, but I shall put down some points I have learnt over the past four years, things I have learnt by making mistakes.
Points I make here may be used as a starter and there are good bloggers and more technical savvy people are around, one can seek their help.
Let me reiterate I am a totally ignorant person of Computer and the Internet, let alone the terms like ‘Hosting’ etc.
Hosting.
I am writing on WordPress platform, that too in WordPress .com .
There are others like Bloggers of Google.
I do have blogs there.
WordPress,to me, may not look as flashy and rich as Bloggers,I find that very easy to write and the technical problems like texts disappearing, blogs not being visible ,images do not show,Links not displaying properly are very few and far in between.
And in such cases WordPress attends to them immediately with practically no lead time..
If they have a problem, they let me know and once they are set right, they inform me again.
In some cases, they inform me in advance.
Though Bloggers is very appealing and has a wide variety of formatting, to me it seems, that you have to do it by yourself, and that is too dicey for me.
But WordPress does every thing for me, I just concentrate on writing.
And too many options and I am lost as to what to choose in terms of Themes and Design.
Choosing.com,org,.net.
I am told there are some technical reasons for the difference but I am assured by WordPress is that your readership will not be affected by choosing any of them.
Going professional might help in terms of making the site design more appealing and will help one monetize better.
That is your choice.
So long as the platform on which you write does not give you headaches in terms of not displaying your posts, your search results appear on the Internet, your problems are attended to immediately that Hosting should do.
Be it WordPress or Blogger.
I have not detailed about the other Hosts as it would beyond the scope of this post.
Themes.
This , again , is a question of personal choice.
If one wants Glitzy you have it..
But the more Links, Widgets, complicated Designs, the loading time becomes slower and that affects your Readership.
Keep the Widgets to the essentials to keep the reader engaged, from his stand point, not your own.
Apart from Meta description, Log in details,Follow,provide Widgets for Categories,Tags, Archives,Recent Posts,Top Posts and anything more is optional.
If your post is Photography oriented check with the Hosts for tips.
Too many Links in a Page or even in Home page affects the Loading time of your site.
The purpose of a Blog is to be read, primarily.
Make sure it is simple and readable, with reasonably standard fonts and size”do not use fancy stylish fonts, they may appeal to you, not necessarily the reader.
Avoid high lighting(actually this point should come under ‘Content‘) or keep it to the minimum and Caps is strict”.No No”
I started off with DePo Masthead Theme of WordPress(three columns, I like it very much).
Then as my son told me repeatedly that my Blog looked like a scribbling pad, I switched to WordPress Sunspot Theme.
It looked very good to me.
In a week I started receiving suggestions that I change the design to some thing simple and more readable as the color combination was affecting readability.
Now I am using the Theme ‘Able’
I received feedback it is good.
Browsers.
I have used almost all of them,Google Chrome,Mozilla,Safari et al.
Google Chrome and Mozilla are very good.
Mozilla has very rich features in terms of easy sharing tools and convenience in writing .
But where Google Chrome scores over is that Google Chrome feels light to touch while Mozilla is heavy.(This is the best I can describe this point, I do not what it is.
So I am with Google Chrome for writing and with Mozilla for sharing.
More posts on Blogging follow.
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