How to Blog ?

[GDB]

As new member, I am afraid I can only contribute on the 'other countries' forums at the moment, and they will be laced with wildlife images. We are very keen wildlife photographers.... still learning.
I would like to start a blog, I think, but how to get started?.....domains?.... costs?
All a little alien. Advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[PatrickLondon]

You could start with an off-the-peg format like www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com.

I believe you can use Wordpress software on your own domain if you have one - check and see what your ISP offers as part of your contract (they often provide hosting space for your own choice of website or blog software, or they may have off-the-peg provision of their own, either with their own domain address, or provide and host a domain you choose - and pay for, of course).

 

[PatrickLondon]

Just a thought: the distinctive point about a blog is that it provides a ready-made format for posting diary-style entries, but may not be so flexible in displaying photos as a purpose built website. If you're going to want to showcase your photos and/or display them in a variety of sizes and formats, you might want to look at an off-the-peg website format, or host the photos elsewhere (e.g., a site like Flickr) and then link to it from the blog.

It all depends what you're trying to achieve. Try looking around at as many sites/blogs as possible to see what you think you might aim for.

 

[Pauline]

I was thinking that Flickr might be a good place too. You will have to pay for an account (not expensive) but you could upload all your photos and share them with the world. You can see what Patrick has done on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/patricklondon/.

For a blog, you can run a free blog from wordpress.com. You don't have to bother with a domain name and it should be easy to set up. Maybe see how it goes with Flickr and then see if you want to put the work into the blog.

For a blog with your own domain name, first you purchase the domain name (I use this one in the UK https://www.names.co.uk/), then find a webhost who will install Wordpress for you (I used this one for a friend https://www.tsohost.com/ - you can buy your domain name thru them too). You pay a yearly or monthly fee for the webhosting and a yearly fee for the domain name.

Then you have to teach yourself Wordpress. It is not that difficult if you use the basic layout (called a theme).

Warning - anything like this is a major time-suck.

Another option is to create physical photo books with some text. Blurb is one company, but there are many. You would only be able to share this with friends and family, but it is a nice thing to have.

And my last option is Instagram. Open an account and start loading up your photos, a few each day. I post a photo most days on Instagram. It is social media so you would have to spend some time finding and following people so they will follow you, then tagging your photos. This is my Instagram page - https://www.instagram.com/paulinekenny/ .

 

[Roz]

I used to use Flickr for my photos, but I switched to Google Photos. It's free, and it doesn't stick ads in the midst of your photo albums as Yahoo does with Flickr, at least the free version.

I didn't realize Yahoo was doing that, because I use an ad blocker, but a lot of people don't, and Yahoo's ads were really obnoxious and intrusive.

With Google Photos it's also pretty easy to link photos to your blog if you use Google's Blogger.

 

[GDB]

Phew.... that's a lot of good information to get my head around.
I will have to invest some time in this.
Thanks to you all

 

[Ian Sutton]

My partner runs a wordpress site / blog for a conservation group. I'd say start doing one part of what it offers and slowly branch out, but always try to keep a consistent look and feel . Plenty of support forums out there, which can be a big help. Last time we looked, there were 4 levels of subscription, from free upwards. For many free is enough, but the next level up felt like a nice sweet-spot.

In terms of blog advice, this is from a reader rather than writer, but the maxim of 'little and often' holds true. If I find an interesting blog, I'll read it, but I'll stop returning if it's there's a long gap between blogs. Every day is ideal, but at least once a week is almost a minimum frequency IMO. Anything less frequent has to be more involved or of great interest.

 

[GDB]

Thank you Ian. Good advice.

 

[Bruce Pollock]

I have several WordPress blogs. Two are based upon their free service and one is hosted on an ISP, meaning that I am completely responsible for design, upgrades, security, etc.

My interest is photography as well. I found that the free sites are easy to set up and use after you find your way around. But they don't offer a lot of control, particularly if you are wanting to display photographs. Many of the free themes are so-called 'photo themes' but I didn't really care for the way they looked. So I went to the trouble of setting up the hosted site and learning the intricacies of managing it. Not to mention the ongoing cost of hosting, etc.

I've never had one of the 'higher-level' paid WordPress options, but you can always convert your blog to this format after a while if you find you want more control. My suggestion would be to start small/free and see how it goes.

 

[GDB]

Thank you Bruce. Sound advice. We are off on holiday shortly, so will get going on our return.

 

[Sunflower]

I was also struggling with these questions when I first started my blog. There is a handful of useful information on the Internet but you should know which one is the right source. If you blog as a hobby then you can use some Content Managment System such as Wordpress or Blogger. You don't have to worry about hosting, server, design cause' everything is in the system (plus it's free). If it's a professional, then another option is to self-host your blog. This means you have to create a website, design and find a hosting provider for it.

 

[Colo]

I took the free way also and use the Google product Blogger. I have been using it for about 8 years and over time found some tricks that make it easier. As Bruce said above it is clumsy and limiting in handling photos, but I have come up with a system that works for me by doing all the sizing outside of the blog and then using original size of the photo to insert.

We try to do blogs on all our trips, but many times we fall short on that goal. However after a period of time they start to add up. Last year I created a single blog that acts as a table of contents to all our blogs. So now I just have to remember one address that links to the all of them. As Ian said when you are working on one daily it is easy to follow, but we just do them when on travel so there can be long gaps.

Here is the blog site: Our Adventures

 

[susan]

I started out with Blogger. I made a new blog for each trip (did this for 2 years). I still have them running but I can't get into them because my I can't remember my password! I was then talked into starting a Slow Travel blog. As I started to see things change with Slow Travel, I decided to transfer my blog. Fortunately I did this before we all lost total control of our blogs. I am still not over that (but at least I got all my words/photos transferred before we were locked out).

I started seeing more WordPress blogs and likes some of the themes they offered. I tried transferring my Slow Travel blog to both a WordPress blog and a Blogger blog. In the end, I decided to go with WordPress (and deleted my Blogger blog). I think there is a little more of a learning curve with WordPress when starting out but overall, I am happy with WordPress and since I started my WordPress blog, I believe they have simplified a few things. One of the reasons I went with WordPress was I liked the variety of themes they offer. I agree with Bruce that the themes don't always give you the control you want but I don't have to technical skills to host my own. Right now, I can't even figure out why I can't quote anyone here from their post! Did something change??

I have been thinking about changing my blog theme again but that always messes up some of my older posts, especially the ones I transferred over from my Slow Travel blog. Like Pauline says, setting up a new blog and working on a theme, settings, etc can definitely be a major time-suck!

Flickr was just bought by SmugMug. I believe it is still free though although I think you have to have a yahoo account. From what I understand or at least for now, Flickr and SmugMug will still be separate programs. Yahoo was just bought by Verizon. I am not happy with the new privacy policy and need to get on transferring important emails from my very old yahoo account and then shutting it down so that would be a consideration if you go with flickr.

Colo, I love your idea of creating a single blog as a table of contents to link to all your trips/etc. It's very creative! If I had it to do over again, I might have tried to set mine up that way. Thanks for sharing your blog! Now I need to go spend some more time reading your posts!

GDB, you might want to give both Blogger and WordPress a try. They are both free so you can't go wrong. Do a few test posts that you can always delete. See how your photos look on each site. Then go with the one that works the best for you. I ended up deciding to pay the $30 something dollars a year so that there are no ads on my blog. I waited a while though before I chose that option to make sure I was happy with WordPress.

 

[Colo]

I tried word press but never could get a product out that I liked and just gave up. It just seemed hard to me. I think Word Press is a much more powerful tool, but one I could not figure out how to use. I have found if I use blogger’s simple template I can create whatever I want to as the format.

There is an open source product called Live Writer, which use to be a Google product, that is pretty much a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) and allows you to size pictures and be a little more creative. You get everything set up in the blog and then it downloads the template to Live Writer. The nice thing with Live Writer is that you can do all the editing offline then upload the final product.

I also recently discovered in Blogger is that you can actually save your blog for offline viewing or storage. So, when I finish – I save the blog and keep it on my family archive hard drive. All the links stay in tack.

For some of our older trip reports that I did on other web sites, I have cut and paste brought them into Word or PowerPoint with minor adjustments and save them as PDF in google cloud. Then in Blogger just link that address and the viewer can see it as a pdf. Really do not like it that way but it is a band aid for now.

I have still got a bunch of old trip reports I have to convert and add to Our Adventures.

 

[artnbarb]

...I also recently discovered in Blogger is that you can actually save your blog for offline viewing or storage. So, when I finish – I save the blog and keep it on my family archive hard drive. All the links stay in tack.

Can you tell me more about this process? And I think you meant to type "intact" instead of in tack - autocorrect or voice to text?

 

[Colo]

Typing on a telephone in a boring meeting... intact is correct.

Which browser are you using it varies by browser.
I know how to do it with IE or Edge.

update: Just figured out in Chrome

 

[artnbarb]

FWIW, I use Chrome, and I'd love to know a simple way to save my blog on my hard drive! Thanks!

 

[Colo]

How to Save a blog to use offline using Chrome

I recommend you create a folder before you start save process. I created one called My Blog for this example. Recommend you not use the Blog's name (a folder will be created later with that name).

Open up the blog you want to save in Chrome and Select Chrome Control (the three dots vertically)

Follow the Picture

When you click a Save Page a new window will open

Verify that Webpage Complete is selected
Depending how large the blog it may take some time to download

When the save process is complete you will end up with a new folder that has all the pictures and Code Folder named the blog and a Short Cut HTML file to that will open up the blog offline.

IMPORTANT – The short cut and folder must be in the same location, but you cannot put the short cut file in the Code File Folder. No matter where you put the two items for storage they need to keep this relationship.

When you double click the short cut the blog will open offline using your default browser.
Bingo you are done.

Here again like saving the blog, the first time you try to open it up be patient.
It may take a few minutes to get all the pictures sorted in the right place.
Just give it time it will work. After the first time it does not take as long.
All your links should work.

Good luck – hope this works
Questions?

 

[artnbarb]

do I have to do this for each post? Or is there a way to do it for the entire blog?

 

[Colo]

This should give you the whole blog