Bloggers, some advice wanted, please!I have

[zDave40]

I have wanted to write a blog since a bit after hearing about NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. My son has one that he adds to about once a week or ten days. I figure I can do at least that well, or join NaBloPoMo and in one month, post a new entry every day.

My question is, where can I post it? NaBloPoMo offers blogging space, but there are so many people posting their blogs on the site that it seems cluttered to me.

My son posts his on a site that he shares through his computer business, and it's all about computers. Mine won't be computer-oriented, so I need a different place.

I know Nutmeg, Boudicca, and Katje have blogs because I have visited them. Probably others here on NaNoCoMo also have blogs. Are the sites free, or is there a charge, or some other requirement?

All help will be appreciated, as well as cautions, warnings, and good advice about what to post.

[reincarnated_alphonse]

Hmmm...would LiveJournal count as a blog for you? I tend to post to that most often when I do that sort of thing, though I don't post often enough. It's at http://livejournal.com if you're interested, and it's indeed free. I'm sure there are other free sites as well, I just haven't explored them. Maybe some of the others have some other ideas, hehe, but since I'm the first to post, that's the idea I've got.

Anyway, I wish you luck with your blogging! I wish I could make myself blog every day. Maybe I should try that, hehe, I'm just afraid of what would happen to my ambition in the midst of my move when it happens.

[DameBoudicca]

I use www.blogger.com (that's the blogs that have .blogpot.com in their addresses). It's totally free and user-friendly - especially if you don't want spend a lot of time using html-tags to get things to look like you want it too. You can if you want to, but you don't have too.

It's a good idea to do a lot of updates, especially in the beginning - that will get people to your site. Personally I get a lot of visits through google, and the more posts you have, the more search-words will make your blog turn up in their lists. And the more that comes to your blog, the higher up in the search-results you will come.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a more... personal relationship with your blog I would, just like Al, recommend Livejournal, since it is much more about personal contacts between the writer and the reader.

More questions?

[diansel]

I know very little about blogs, but the company I worked for ended up blocking You-tube and liveJournal and one or two similar sites, because people were using them too much during work hours.

That can be a good point or a bad point. If you want to be let in to more work places, they are bad choices. If you want to be part of a very big and popular site they are good choices.

Maybe there are blogs for more specific topics, that can be found with Google or another search engine. By the way, I searched for search engines and there are so many I don't know how I'll ever try them all. It sure is fun to see what their different capabilities are, though- as if I need something else to look up.

Dianne

[NutmegAngel]

I tried using livejournal, but found it too complicated. Blogger claimed to take about five minutes to set up, and I was impressed to find that it literally did take that long. There are some nice features and gadgets you can add using Blogger, but you don't have to, and it's really easy to use. I haven't had any problems with it and I've been using it just over a year now. I don't know that many people read it, but I do occaisionally get random comments off people, so somebody must look at it...

[phoenix.writing]

I have a livejournal that I rarely use--not because there's anything wrong with the site but because I just never feel like writing there, perhaps because I'm writing so much fiction elsewhere--and there always seems to be a giant community of people there. I've never tried comparing it to other blogging sites; I imagine that you really need to experiment and find your personal preference.

[diansel]

Dave,
I went to TheSimpleDollar for some information on good free antivirus software, and found that he also offers advice on blogging. If you want it all in a download it costs $2.00, but if you want to read a dozen individual columns he has written on blogging, then it is free.

By the way, I now have AdAware, Spybot, ClamWin, and 2 others on my computers, and will probably go with ClamWin, but am still comparing. That's not always easy since they cause each other trouble if they are on at the same time, and sometimes if they are just on the same computer.

Anyway, I like open source software and used four or five from his list even before I read it. The next one I try is going to be the Photoshop replacement.

The site for the blogging ideas is
http://thesimpledollar.com/building-a-better-blog/

Dianne

[zDave40]

Thanks, everybody!

I don't know what I'm going to do. However, my son has investigated further. He says the site host, which he pays for out of his business, has given him scads of space. To all outward appearances, I can have my own blog and no one will ever know I am associated with his business.

When I have a blog up and running, I will let everyone know about it.

Diane, thanks especially for that last post. I went to the first of his special columns. I'll read more when I have more time. It appears that he has lots of good ideas and advice. This might be a good site for every one of our bloggers to investigate.

I have Adaware and Spybot, and have had little trouble with them. My son recently added AVG, which stands for antivirus something. (I've been to its site, and never found its name written out.) He thinks it's the best of all, but we're using all three. When run separately, they give us no trouble. AVG is free. AVG is here http://free.avg.com/