Learning to Blog

Readers, thank you for being patient with me as I am adjusting to being a blogger. I promise more posts will be coming soon with some great topics. I have been learning a lot about writing a blog and I am going to share some of what I have been learning with you today. I will also discussing how you can know that this blog has been updated and I will list some of the upcoming topics.

Creating a blog is easy, you just pick a provider, in my case, Blogger, and sign up. Blogging itself is more challenging. I have found that I need time to write the blog. I also need to spend time managing the blog page. In addition, I need to learn more about blogging in general. Below are some of the other lessons I have faced.

I have also learned that I need an editor or two. No matter how many times I reread post, I will always miss something, because your brain will often fix it for you, and Word will only catch so much. I have lined up one “technical” editor, but I would also like to have a “content” editor or two. Would anyone like to volunteer? I cannot pay anything, but would love to give you credit and buy you a drink or two. It probably would not even be much work, I would like to give you a time estimate, but I can only make a wild guess (about an hour a week). I am looking for someone that is good with grammar. I would also like someone that can review the blog to make sure that it is understandable to my audience. If you can do both, great! If not, I would still like to know if you are interested, because it could be two people instead of one.

Researching what I am writing about has also taken more time than I expected. I thought I would know most of the information off the top of my head. I am finding that some of it needs more research to make sure I am accurate or can provide good examples.

The perfect example of this is the topic I have been wanted to post on for a couple of weeks now, how to follow a blog. I do not know a lot about this topic because I do not follow many blogs and surprisingly there are not too many good articles out there about how to follow or subscribe to a blog. It seems the ways to know a blog has been updated varies from blog site to blog site.

For Quick Tips from IT to Users, you have a couple of choices of ways to be notified of updates. First, I will update my status on Facebook and Twitter to let you know that I have made an update. If we are connected to through either one of those sites, you will get these notices.

Your second option is to join my mailing list. There is a box on the right side of the screen labeled, “Contact Me’. Just fill in your name and email address, and someone in the subject or message ask to subscribe to the mailing list. You will then need to enter the verification code, so that I know that you are not a spammer, and then click send.

You can also use the options on the right side of the screen, labeled, “Subscribe to Quick Tips”, which allow you to subscribe using an RSS feeder. If you are already using an RSS reader, this is probably your best option. If you are not familiar with RSS Feeds, you can wait for my post about RSS feeds and I will explain what an RSS Reader and RSS Feeds are and how to use them.

Any of these options should let you know when I have posted a new blog, so you do not need to check this site everyday for updates, at least until I am able to start updating it more regularly.

I would like to leave you with some of the upcoming topics. Please leave a comment, or email me directly with any topics you would like me to address.

Future Topics:
Text messaging tips for the average person
Spam, Hoaxes, Viruses, and Phishing (snopes.com).
Why you should have multiple email accounts
Why you should use a social networking site
Why you should use PayPal
Why can't I visit certain websites at work?
Why can’t I install software on my work computer?
How to keep your IT department happy
How to backup your files
How to set your browser to open multiple websites at once
How to get your email when you are away from your computer
How to pick a secure password
How do internet addresses work
What do websites know about you
Etiquette for email, internet, blogs, and comments

Thanks again for your patience. Take a few seconds to make sure you are notified when the next post is uploaded. Please let me know if you are interested in assisting me with editing or if you have any comments, questions, or requests for topics.