David Risley: Overcoming The Technology Hurdle To Blogging
Joe B. Wharton
· 3 months ago
My company does website design. We encourage our customers to blog. We have started offering to set up their blog along with their website for a small additional charge. It doesn't take us long to do it and it saves them a lot of headache, and, we make a little bit of extra change for it. It is easy for us because we have been involved in technology and marketing for almost 30 years. Yes, I guess that makes me old.
Marvin68
· 3 months ago
I'm using a hosting company that does most of the tech stuff behind the scenes -- I pay $300 a year but when I post, I basically just sit down and type -- I will say that I'm learning html a little bit at a time and making changes in my site/blog when possible.
sgorney
· 3 months ago
Dave, your post does a great job of explaining the journey. If you determined to provision hosting, load Wordpress, overcome CHMOD issues, load and modify the template, install the correct plug-ins, then i encourage everyone to try it and educate yourself over time. We provide a service to businesses that know they need a blog, want a blog, but are just to busy to blog. It is called a Third Party Blog. And we do everything including the writing and promotion. So for those who can not overcome the technical issues, or just don't have the time and need to focus on running the business, we provide a great solution.
Patty Reiser
· 3 months ago
This article spoke to me David. I like your advice of taking one aspect of learning the technical stuff and then moving on. This is definitely less frustrating. Thank you.
Wishing you a scent-sational day! Patty
Frank
· 3 months ago
David; Of course you know for me, you hit the nail on the head with this topic. Thank you, I see you still understand the new blogger. I think I'm past the first steps confusion. I have taken two online courses, Become a Blogger, by Yaro Starak, and Blogmastersclub, which is still ongoing.
I have since found Sitepoint.com, a great nuts and bolts training site for HTML, PHP, and CSS I'm still so new at blogging, that I have given up Thesis for Headway. It will be a much better fit for me. My best advice for people like me is:
Follow PCmech Go slow Read more Understand what you are reading
Do what I did not , look it up and of course, (KISS) Keep it simple stupid
Doug Dillard
· 3 months ago
Like you David... I learned on my own. I have been doing this online business stuff for around 9 years now and I think (if I remember correctly) the first site I built was using Netscape. I think they use to have some sort of website creator built into it. From there I moved on to some software program call Hotdog (I think that was it) from some company in Australia. It had all sorts of add-ons you could buy to give your site more functions. It was the great web design software I could find back in the day.
I think I was one of the people in San Diego to have a site running PHP as well. Back in the early 2000 I saw some site that was running PHP3 on their site and it was way cool. I just had to have it for a domain reseller site I wanted to create, so I contacted dozens of programmers all over the US and no one had ever heard of PHP. Finally I had some guys from Russia create the backend for the site, and ever since then I have loved PHP. I know just enough to get myself in trouble now.
Same with designing... I can pop out a site pretty fast nowadays, but I would rather pay someone to do it and just make simple modifications myself.
I don't think everyone needs to know how to design and/or program... but it is good to know enough that you don't have to call a programmer or designer each time you want to make a small change to your site... as it can be expensive and you usually have to wait a while to get it done.
Leslie, The Freebie Guy
· 3 months ago
I used to run an online website design company. It was an interesting time because I taught myself to design basic websites. Everytime I got a project there was an inevitable question: Do you know how to do "this". There was always something I didn't know how to do, but whenever I was asked the question my answer was always - "Yes indeed".
That would begin my quest. I'd head over to google and figured out how to do it, since my clients had already paid, at least to some extent. You'd be surprised as to what all you can find in a google search. You can basically teach yourself to do ANYTHING.
On the other hand, it's a good idea to outsource those tasks even early on. You can get people to do it at a very affordable cost, even for someone strapped for cash, if you know where to look.
jimi jones
· 3 months ago
Good post. I started using computers around 1980 and can recall my first attempt at building a website. I didn't know diddly-squat, but soon found the "view source" feature and copied the code of ther sites and tinkered around with it.
My advice to others: You must realized that no explosion is going to occur if you screw up, just get started. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you can accomplish. Not to over-simplify, but coding is really nothing more than learning how to speak a new language. Yes, it will be difficult at first, but trial and error brings progress.
Deneil Merritt
· 3 months ago
I pretty much learned all the coding I know from google, copying others, and tweaks here and there.
Louis
· 3 months ago
I simply define a clear goal, then spend all my energy and focus searching for information, studying them and implementing them step by step each day.
Of course, Google is my good friend walking with me.
Dave Doolin
· 3 months ago
The key is to keep it simple, reversible and repeatable.
Understand every step if possible, if not, write everything down.
I've written lot in other places about how to teach oneself programming, and the above practices will go a long way for anyone.
Money Matters
· 3 months ago
I've learned enough about the technology side of it to make myself dangerous - no more no less. I can do the basics and even a few advanced things in wordpress/php/etc, but ask for some more advanced things, i'm lost. I know enough to get me by, and the rest I either hire someone to do for me, or I just let it slide. I like to focus on other more important things that will make me money.
noelwiggins
· 3 months ago
This is a great point, and as a developer I realize that I may be talking to quickly over technical jargon. And my clients/prospects are too intimidated to ask questions, I hope I don't come off as a snob, because I am always willing to help someone understand a term they don't understand. I am taking away from this article that I want to be a bit more patient when I describe things.
That's a great post.Thanks for giving the nice information of good blog posting.It's really an amazing post.Thanks again.Keep posting.
Sarge
· 2 months ago
Good points David. I don't think you need to learn everything technical but it's very good to learn the basics in most areas. Even if it's just to get an understanding.
I personally like to know a bit about most technical things to do with blogging. I do have a degree in multimedia which helps enormously but technology changes every day. It's great to learn something new, understand it and then apply it all on your own :)
dedicated server
· 2 months ago
Wow. Your focus is awesome and a great example for others.By writing it down you are creating a sense of accountability and structure to your goals.keep it up.keep blogging
All Comments
Wishing you a scent-sational day!
Patty
Of course you know for me, you hit the nail on the head with this topic. Thank you, I see you still understand the new blogger. I think I'm past the first steps confusion. I have taken two online courses, Become a Blogger, by Yaro Starak, and Blogmastersclub, which is still ongoing.
I have since found Sitepoint.com, a great nuts and bolts training site for HTML, PHP, and CSS
I'm still so new at blogging, that I have given up Thesis for Headway. It will be a much better fit for me.
My best advice for people like me is:
Follow PCmech
Go slow
Read more
Understand what you are reading
Do what I did not , look it up and of course, (KISS) Keep it simple stupid
I think I was one of the people in San Diego to have a site running PHP as well. Back in the early 2000 I saw some site that was running PHP3 on their site and it was way cool. I just had to have it for a domain reseller site I wanted to create, so I contacted dozens of programmers all over the US and no one had ever heard of PHP. Finally I had some guys from Russia create the backend for the site, and ever since then I have loved PHP. I know just enough to get myself in trouble now.
Same with designing... I can pop out a site pretty fast nowadays, but I would rather pay someone to do it and just make simple modifications myself.
I don't think everyone needs to know how to design and/or program... but it is good to know enough that you don't have to call a programmer or designer each time you want to make a small change to your site... as it can be expensive and you usually have to wait a while to get it done.
That would begin my quest. I'd head over to google and figured out how to do it, since my clients had already paid, at least to some extent. You'd be surprised as to what all you can find in a google search. You can basically teach yourself to do ANYTHING.
On the other hand, it's a good idea to outsource those tasks even early on. You can get people to do it at a very affordable cost, even for someone strapped for cash, if you know where to look.
I started using computers around 1980 and can recall my first attempt at building a website. I didn't know diddly-squat, but soon found the "view source" feature and copied the code of ther sites and tinkered around with it.
My advice to others: You must realized that no explosion is going to occur if you screw up, just get started. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you can accomplish. Not to over-simplify, but coding is really nothing more than learning how to speak a new language. Yes, it will be difficult at first, but trial and error brings progress.
Of course, Google is my good friend walking with me.
Understand every step if possible, if not, write everything down.
I've written lot in other places about how to teach oneself programming, and the above practices will go a long way for anyone.
--
Thanks and Regards
Noel for Nopun.com
a professional graphic design studio
I personally like to know a bit about most technical things to do with blogging. I do have a degree in multimedia which helps enormously but technology changes every day. It's great to learn something new, understand it and then apply it all on your own :)