Blog resource links

Here are a couple of starting points:

Blog hosting

Three possibilities:

1. Sign up with a hosted service such as WordPress.com, Typepad or Vox (fastest cos it takes all of 5 mins).
2. Sign up with a webspace provider that already includes blog software in their package.
3. Sign up with a webspace provider that offers PHP 4.x or later and MySQL and install WordPress on your own.

WordPress.org documentation:

Installing WordPress on your own server

The install documentation covers most setups. Installing a local copy using XAMPP or MAMP is useful especially during the design phase.

Other useful WordPress.org docs:

Importing content from other blogs.

Posting entries by email. As mentioned during the talk I set up a cronjob on my server, which checked at regular intervals if there was any email to post.

Templates galore:

As mentioned, setting up WordPress is fast, finding the right design theme will take a little bit longer… cos there are so many out there.

I like Scott’s collection of minimal designs.

My advice: get a theme which offers the structure you’re loooking for and then customize the CSS file.

Flickery goodness:

I cross-link to Flickr to add pictures to my blog, but you can also upload files and photos directamente into WordPress. Please note: you’ll need to resize for the web and your layout. I’m lazy: I use Flickr and Quickr Pickr.

You can also set up Flickr to post pics directly to your blog. Within Flickr, go to Your Account > Extending Flickr . Click edit in the section labelled Your Blogs and follow the instructions displayed.

Here’s an advanced user guide for Flickr, describing how you can post pics per email, etc.

On commenting:

All comments at this site land in the moderation queue and I check the queue once a day. I don’t always reply or write back immediately. As you’ll probably notice in the next few weeks, sometimes I don’t have the time. But if I do, I’ll usually reply online at the source – in my blog, if it’s a comment on my site, or if it’s a trackback, i’ll go see their post and add a comment in their blog.

I think the main point you need to get across is that you reserve the right to edit or delete comments. This is especially important if you’re moving into business blogging.

There’s the Lifehacker’s guide to commenting to refer to.

Commenting is a way to increase traffic and expand your network.

And remember to activate Akismet or other comment spam plugins.

RSS feeds:

Every WordPress blog offers a feed for entries and a feed for comments. At Chip this is:

http://www.chiperoni.ch/wordpress/feed/

http://www.chiperoni.ch/wordpress/comments/feed/

Again, there are numerous RSS feed readers. And your choice of reader will depend on your personal reading preferences. I use the newsfeeds reader included within Opera. Thunderbird also includes a feed reader per default. And there are numerous feed readers for FireFox. Please note: some media news feeds (e.g. BBC) send out entires every minute and will easily swamp you.

More high-level infos on the concept of RSS are available in this Wikipedia article.

Further background links:

The Corporate Weblog Manifesto by Scobleizer

Ten Tips For A Better Weblog

How To Blog And Not Lose Your Job