BLOG BUILDING WORKSHOP

Building Blogs, Galleries, WebsitesFor Nearly Free

By Jacques Surveyer,Nearly Free Web Developer

Overview of Presentation Find out about you as potential Blog users Quick overview of Web Development Dive in and create a Website/Blog Departures from Nearly Free – What do you get How to manage/edit/develop your website

Web Development

20 years old, started at CERN 1990-1991 Vital throughout the World Example - China

1999 – 42M users as of IBM Presentation 2009 – 440M users

Web Usage

Web Development CodingWeb Building Blocks1)HTML – structure/design of page layout

2)CSS – styling, formatting of text and images

3)DOM – coding rules or Web API

4)JavaScript – most popular programming language

3 Key Characteristics Very simple, easy to do at first

Gets very complicated very fast

Blogs simplify again Web design and development

Website

This is the Home page for the Photo Editing tips and tutorial site, thePhotoFinishes.com. This home page is designed to get the user to where they want to be on the site very quickly. Thus there are 12 tabs across the top of the page. Click on a tab and there is a list of articles/tips for that topic. Click on the accordion bar Recent Tips and Reviews and a whole set of Gallery Options show on the next options sheet. Bottomline – websites allow lots of UI tricks and highly customized look for special needs.

Web Blog

A Web Blog, in contrast has a standard layout.

Think HEADER – BODY – FOOTER – 1 OR 2 SIDEBARS.

Users have to fit their content into this layout.

Website vs Web Blog

Websites allow any layout and look

Websites can perform much faster

Websites integrate databases and eCommerce more easily

Web Blogs provide a lot of free services, many of which are hard or costly to program on a website

Web Blog building and maintenance is often easier and faster

Web Blogs are much more doable by new users on the Web

Bottom line – it is easy to use both on one website

Blogs Simplify Creating Websites

Blogs ease Web development Blog == CMS-Content Management System

Blogs handle text, images, video, animations Blogs can easily become gallery, magazine, website Not free blogs do eCommerce, customer service, etc

A basic blog can be had for free Blogger, WordPress still given away free

Types of Blogs

Gallery on Blogger - Pinch Gallery Tea at Blogger – Hot Toast and Jam Magazine on WordPress - FoodPress Newspaper on WordPress – AllThings Digital

Completely vs Nearly Free Blogs1)Completely Free Blogs within Limits

Free domain name -welcomechurch.wordpress.com Free software cost = no charge for software, no ads Free web connection costs – but limits on usage Free storage costs – but limits around 3GB Blogger and WordPress are 2 most popular

2)Nearly Free Blog == annual Web Connection costs Dozens of very good CMS software systems Drupal, Joomla, WordPress are 3 best systems See extensive review of Best Nearly Free Blogs

Blogger's Key Features Posts with comments, audio, video, and images

Menu-ed Pages just like Web pages

Extensive control of Blog settings

Ability to reformat Design and Layout of both Posts and Pages

Provides extensive stats and reports on how blog is used

WordPress Features Posts with comments, pictures, video, audio, animations

Posts labeled with tags and categories

Pages like regular Web pages linked to menus

Themes for different styling of Posts and Pages with many widgets and formatting

Special features like Polls, Stats, etc

Common Features of Blogger & WordPress

Posts and Pages work nearly identically the same Lists of Posts and Pages are available for re-editing, etc Editing of Posts and Pages use HTML or Visual Editor

- there is no limit to the number and size of posts Both blogs provide media tools for images and videos Both blogs allow users to change their blogs basic theme or

layout easily including adding widgets, sidebars, etc Both blogs allow users to change many basic blog settings Both blogs provide Polls, Ratings and Usage Statistics

Posts are News StoriesHere is a list of posts on a Blogger website

Editing Post or Pages is EasyHere is Blogger Editor for a new Page – just like Word

Editing Post or Pages is Easy

Here is WordPress Visual Editor for a new Post

Editing HTML for Post or Pages is Easy

Here is WordPress HTML Edit of new Post

Bottom Line

Creating either a Post or Page is easy to do in both blogs

A Post is a review or news story with comments shown in the order of when the story was published. Limited updates to a post; if so it become a new Post.

A Page is a constantly changing notice board – a week's schedule of events or the current management team

A Form Page requests info from readers and interacts with them – eCommerce pages or Search page. If you have a lot of Form Pages – you likely need a Nearly Free Blog or customized website.

Styling/Design of Blog Easy to Change

WordPress calls it Appearance and Themes Users control common Header, Footer, Sidebar styling Uniquely styled Page is more challenging to do

Blogger calls it Design and Templates

Styling/Design of Blog In both systems users are not restricted to a specific

Blog look – there are enormous styling options

But layout is some variation on either Header-Body, Header-Body-Footer, Header-Body-Sidebars, or Header-Body-Sidebars-Footer

All Pages and Posts have the same Header, etc

If you want distinctive, different look for Pages and/or Posts then you need a Nearly Free Blog

Caution - your Blog style/design is your Brand, change it with caution

Common Added Blog Services

Extensive settings for blog customization Numerous group/team blogging features Support video files – watch the storage cost Statistics on visits to your blog – daily, monthly etc Available in multiple languages – French, Chinese, etc Developers API adds new gadgets and widgets Ratings or reactions to your posts Automatic filtering of spam from comments Fast response time and automatic backup services

Blogger's Unique Features

Ability to monetize/earn money with ads vs forced ads with no compensation on WordPress

Greater storage size allowance than WordPress Better links to Google tools like Gmail, Picasa, etc Easier layout of gadgets/widgets than WordPress New mobile phone to blog features

WordPress Unique Features

Polls with reports Easier support for multi-users More control of design details with fonts, CSS, etc Better tools for site import or export Can completely delete site unlike Blogger Mobile edition for iPad Learn WordPress for building Nearly Free Super

Blog

WordPress.com Downsides Does not support any plugins versus thousands for

Wordpress.org free blog software Does not support Flash Does not support JavaScript code in posts Does not support HTML tags like form, input,

frame, iframe, textarea, etc Has limited CSS support and template editing Has 101 themes/templates versus thousands for

Wordpress.org free blog software

Summary about Completely Free Blogs

Two very good services to choose from Largely equal in features since Blogger added

Design of User Templates and Pages Unique features are often quickly matched I like WordPress.com because its a little more

polished and allows users to graduate to full,“nearly free” WordPress more quickly

But visit here to see the full range of nearly free CMS

Other Completely Free Blog Services

Blog.com – good features but performance problems

Blogabond – Travel blogs with Maps etc LiveJournal – grandaddy of free, less layout features Netcipia – wiki/blog based for team usage Open Diary – unlimited posts+media, extras on fee Tumblr– great support for many media

See here for a list of other free blog services