Just in case it seems strange, the last post was one we had to make to link a blog to Empire Avenue. I’m learning all about this new network that ties all of them together in one.

If you have a blog, You can join Empire Avenue and then link your blog there. Once you put in your Blog information, they request that you make a post with that funny code…..hence, the last weird post.

I guess I’m accepted and all hooked up. Hey everyone If I can do it, so can you. I’m sure no tech geek, but you learn as you go.

Blogging has been interesting to say the least.   On thing I learned is if you are writing a Blog, you have to be willing to keep it up.  They say you should have at least one post or more per week.

I have learned that you can write a couple of articles ahead of time, if you’re away to have them auto post.    If you’re using a Word Press Blog when you write your article, instead of pushing to button to post, press the calendar and select the date you want it to go out.    That’s great for people like me that love to travel.

Blogging is just like anything else, you get started, and make it a habit.   If you keep on doing it, over time it will be come a habit.

Blogs are fun to learn about.   I used to use blogger.  However, recently found out there are many more features when you use Word Press.  It has all sorts of cool tools built in.

Just this week I was speaking with my friend Ben and mentioned I saw many people that had blogs with signatures.    He said that was an EASY thing to do.   In my mind, I thought, “yea right” and then told him what I thought.

He laughed and said he could show me in a few minutes.  So we quickly called up a webinar screen, logged into my admin.   There right on the left is a menu called plug INS.   If you don’t see one that says “signatures”, then click on “add plug in” and choose one that says signature.

This takes you to a free site where you can choose from many signatures or even create your own.    You can then use it with your blogs.  I think they look cool and are much easier to do than you’d ever imagine.  Try it you’ll like it.  You can’t break it.

I’ve been learning a lot about “real” blogs.  This one is being done with word press.   I’ve learned that if you want to created a blog, you need to keep it up and be consistent.    I’ve also been told it’s best to use Word Press rather that Google Blogger. While Google Blogs are free,  they don’t get as much attention, or rankings.  At least that is what I’ve been told by those in the know.

Since I started this blog last month, I’ve found it’s not as hard or mysterious as I thought.   I acutally hired someone to set up this site, but never started using it because I was not quite sure how or what some of the things here meant.   As they say a confused mind does nothing, so for the first month or so, I didn’t start to blog.

I was talking to my good friend Ben.  He got onto a Go To Meeting webinar with me and showed me what all the things inside meant.    There are some categories down the side here that I’m not 100% sure of yet, but I think I have the typing and posting down pat.   I also learned that I don’t have to look at the screen with all the funny HTML codes.   All I had to do was click on the other tab that said visual and it looked just like a word processor.

I also learned ot insert photos.  That was not hard at all, in fact it was just the same as uploading pictures from any place.

One thing I did notice, is I was getting a huge amount of comments on my blog.   They went to a little folder where I was to look and say if they were legitimate comments.   Some of them looked real, but Ben pointed out that about 90% or more were spam.  I was really surprised by that, but he explained to me that people do that  thinking they will get more traffic to whatever they are peddling.

I guess I don’t understand why people spam like that.   I would never purchase anything from someone that sent me junk mail.   I think if everyone did the same thing, the junk would slow down or go away, as it would not be profitable.

If you’re new to blogging, and using this same system,  to add posts you simply pick the category that says “add posts”.  Real original.    You can do as I did if you want and have different categories, that you are writing about or just do a blog on just one thing.   SInce my mind is always thinking of new and different things, I chose to do multiple categories.

Word Press is kind of neat.    If you want to start a blog, I encourage you to give it a try, and see how you like it.   It’s no where near as hard as I had imagined.      Give it a try.

I’ve decided to work on setting up a real blog. I started one of those google ones back in 2004.     I heard from people that to have a real blog you need to host one on your own site, so I finally decided to make myself learn how to do this.

I actually hired someone to set all this up, but then didn’t know where to start or how to use it when it was done. I’m fortunate, I have a great friend named Ben that is an expert at this stuff.   He showed me around this site last night and it wasn’t quite as terrifying as I thought.  If you want to learn more about blogging,  you have to start somewhere so here I am.

I’m going to work on keeping up this blog and sharing things I’ve learned, and hope it helps you start one too.  We can be new blogging buddies.   Check back often and let me know how I’m doing as I dive in.