BlueCapra

Using Technology To Solve Problems and Create Solutions

How To Start A Blog – Step 2 – URL and Hosting

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Start A Blog - Step 2 - URL and HostingWelcome back to How To Start A Blog.  This is step 2, URL and Hosting.  If you missed step 1, you can find it here; How To Start A Blog – Step 1 – Theme.  To recap, here are the steps you need to have completed before you move on:

  • Think about your subject
  • Decide on your overall theme
  • Compile a list of 25+ specific blog topics you want to write about
  • Start writing a few posts in a text editor or word processor

Ready to start a blog?  Good.  Let’s get started

Selecting a URL

Selecting a URL and hosting is a big decision.  Let’s start with the URL.  A web address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is one of the most important parts of your blog.  It should convey the main focus of your site, not be too long or difficult to spell, and be memorable.  Most importantly, it must be available.

One bit of advice I try to follow is from Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg: You need to be able to tell someone what your domain is, in a loud room, without having to spend 5 minutes trying to explain it.  Take for example his site Digg.  Simply a word with an extra letter.  Easy.  Now, consider SCVNGR which is a really cool app and site but difficult to explain quickly.

This advice came from an episode of the Random Show (not sure which one) where he and Tim Ferriss talks about … well… random stuff.  Great series with a lot of info.

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How to start a blog – Step 1 – Theme

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Start a blog - buttonThere are thousands and thousands of people that will start a blog today.  Each one will have high hopes for the success of their creation.  They will be dedicated, at least in the beginning.  But in the end, most will let their blogs die, unable to consistently feed their new creation the diet of content needed for survival.  How could this have been avoided?

If you are reading this, chances are that you are at least vaguely interested in how to start a blog.  What steps do you take?  Where do you go for answers?  What is this blog thing everyone keeps talking about?

First off, what is a blog? According to Wikipedia, a blog is a personal journal published on the internet consisting of discrete entries or posts displayed in reverse chronological order.  Does that make much sense to you?  If not, a good working definition for me is this: A blog is a website that gets updated often.  In the past, websites were very static; once built they rarely changed.  Now, you and I want to interact on the web, not just read the same information that was published years ago.  The benefit of a blog is the ever changing content.  That’s what keeps visitors coming back.  So, how do you start one? [Read more…]

Do you want to write a better blog?

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I am always trying to improve.  Generally, the more you learn and practice a skill, the better you get.  That only helps you to a point.  To get beyond that initial flood of improvement, you must practice in certain ways.  World class tennis players don’t just play a lot of tennis, they work on their skills individually and in a focused manner.  They may start out by hitting a bunch of forehand shots, then backhand, then serving.  Rarely do professional athletes just go out and play their sport and hope to improve.  They have coaches, they study, and they practice very specific skills.  How does that apply to our lives?

Most of us are not professional athletes but the way they practice and improve can be applied to the skills in our lives.  Do you have something in your life you’d like to do better?  I sure do.  I can’t focus on all of them at the same time, so at this time, I have decided to improve my writing and specifically, my blog.  I now have what I want to improve, so how do I actually improve?

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“Great” Expectations

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There are some authors that just resonate with you.  One such author for me is Dan Miller.  I have recently read some past blog entries of his and came across this one, Do you “expect” greatness?.  I feel very connected to that quote as I am raising my children.  We should always expect the best or more from our children and others.  Often times, we fall short.  How would the lives of others or your children be different if you not only expected greatness from them, but helped with their journey to greatness, while not judging.

Along those same lines is a concept from a book I recently read, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander; Give everyone an “A”.  The idea behind giving everyone an “A” is that you should treat everyone as if they are doing their best, all the time, and that they have already succeeded.  You are not judging them.  You “expect” greatness from them.  It frees people from the pressures they may feel to make you happy and lets them be great in any way, not just how you think.  If there is a problem, you don’t assume that person is the problem (remember, they are doing their best), rather there could be some issue beyond their control or even that you are causing.

Everyone deserves to have greatness expected of them, whether it is the server at your local restaurant, you significant other, angry customer, or anyone.  Are you giving everyone an “A”?  I challenge you, next time you are waiting for you food that is taking a little longer than you think it should or in a slow check-out line, to not be angry or upset in any way at the situation. You should “Give everyone an A” by expecting that they are doing the best they can and offering a kind word and a smile.  Now that is “expecting” greatness from yourself.