As mentioned previously, there have been about 133 million blogs created. What makes yours special? Don’t be a boring blogger! Jazz up your blog with an eye-catching design, snappy widgets and great posts.
What makes a great blog?
A great blog has:
- Great organization – everything is easy to find, simple to access
- Great design – not overly frilly or fancy but displaying your blog’s personality
- Great writing – specifically, great blogging; writing for blogs is not the same as sending email or composing an essay
- Great add-ons – widgets chosen for their appropriateness to the blog’s character and purpose, that don’t detract from the blog’s credibility or ease of navigation
Important note on the difference between a page and a post
A post is usually:
- Like a news item or a journal entry
- Very short
- Time-dependent – it has relevance now
A page is usually:
- More factual or explanatory information
- Not time-dependent – the information has some permanence,
- Information that you want readers to be able to get at it any time, easily from your home page
Many people are using blogging software to create their own websites. The pages are used for the site content (information, images, etc.) and the posts are used to keep visitors up-to-date with the latest news, events or reflections. It’s free and easy way to develop a website with no coding skills.
How to fancy-up your blog
Many blog publishers offer third-party applications which will allow you to add media and other content to your blog. Some examples of this are:
-
feeds 
link rolls- Embedded
- Embedded video/
clips
No matter what you decide to add, you need to consider:
Appropriateness – is the material pertinent to your blog, or do you just think that the video of otters holding hands is super cute?
– are you posting copyrighted materials? If so, you need to consider the risk vs. the reward. And then don’t, or get permission. Unless you KNOW it’s not protected property, don’t publish it.
Keeping the links updated – if pulls the video, then what?
Ensure that the balance of bells & whistles and your actual content is right for your blog!
- Go to your blog: visit Word Press and log in or type in the URL of your blog.
Don’t have one yet? Here’s a lesson to help you set one up. - Make sure you’re on the dashboard. If you’re not, click on “My Dashboard”.
- Click on the “Appearance” tab (left menu, scroll down a bit).
- Look at the templates.
- Which best suits your blog? Tip : the template “Cutline” allows you to upload your own image in the “options” menu when you’re on the Design/Themes page. (The image must be 770 x 140 pixels.)
- Choose a template and apply it to your blog.
- Click on “Widgets”.
- Think about the purpose for you blog as you read each of the available widgets.
- Which widgets would you like to add to your blog? The top ones to consider are:
- Pages – provides a menu for your readers to easily access pages you set up. These are different from posts (which are displayed chronologically). Think of these like web pages. Is this an ePortfolio? You’ll want to have a menu and you’ll need this widget.
- Archives – provides a menu for your readers to easily access your past posts.
- Links – your “blogroll” is a list of URLs you think your readers would be interested in. Is this a hobby blog or a study group? A blogroll helps you point others to great resources you’ve already discovered. Another option here is to include your deli.cio.us links, which is a separate widget.
- Search – lets people look for specific keywords on your blog.
- Tag cloud – if you intend to use tags, this is an important addition to your side bar. Tags can help organize your blog for readers.
- Add a few widgets to your blog. At the very least, add Pages and/or Archives.
- Click “Extras”. If this is a private blog, make sure you click “Hide related links on this blog…”
- If you have an image you want to upload, click “Custom Image Header” and go for it.
- Click “Manage”. This is the nerve centre of your blog.
- To view your blog’s pages, click “Pages”.
- To add links to your blog roll, click “Links”.
- To add categories (like tags, but bigger groupings), click “Categories”.
- To upload media files (video, audio, etc.), click “Media Library”. (Note: you have 3 GB of free space!)
- Click “Posts”. The only post is the default that comes with each new blog in Word Press. Click the title.
- TIME TO POST! What do you want to write about? (Note: for some good advice on writing for blogs, check out this blog post .)
- Change the title to reflect your subject.
- Put your thoughts to paper.
- When you’re done:
- click the “Private” box and then
- click “Save”.
- Once you’ve had some time to reflect, you can go back and review your first post. After you make any changes, if you want to make it public, just uncheck the “Private” box and resave.
- For future posts, you can always SAVE before you PUBLISH. This is a good idea, as you may write something that doesn’t read the way you thought. There’s also the dreaded drunk blogging, always a BAD choice.
- Did you find writing your first blog posting difficult? Post your thoughts below.
http://performancing.com/27-tips-for-building-a-kick-ass-blog
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/blogosphere/what-makes-great-blog/
http://writetodone.com/2008/01/10/what-makes-great-blogwriting/