Here is a bit of information about getting started with blogging. To put it another way, this is an introduction to using the free site, BlogSpot, to communicate with people.
The name BlogSpot and Blogger are both used for this service. BlogSpot is the name of the site, and Blogger is the name of the interface. However, that is a fuzzy line. I will just call it all Blogger. An overview of Blogger is available in the
Blogger Getting Started guide at
Blogger's Help site.
The
main blog sites as of mid-2010 are
Blogger,
Tumblr, and
WordPress. Blogger is most popular, and the one I would recommend.
Picture Size limits
Blogger has a limit of 1 gigabyte on the total number of pictures on the site. This is a lot, but not enough that you would want to waste space by putting large high resolution pictures up. That size space is also shared with the Picasa service, so usage of that service would reduce space available for Blogger. In any case, high resolution pictures would take up too much screen space on the page. I might worry slightly about running into the size limit over years and years of posting. 1 Gig could be about 2,000 pictures, which would be little over seven and a half years for five pictures a week. However, I hope the size limit will go up in the future as storage space gets cheaper and cheaper. If the time comes that you do run into the limit, two options are to
export older blog posts to another site, or to
pay for extra storage at Picasa / Google.
Posting
Publishing, also known as posting, is a matter of either going to the host site and typing in the message, or e-mailing a special e-mail address.
I personally feel the most convenient / comfortable ways are to either type up my post in a text editor first and then copy and paste, or to write an email and send it to the posting address. Configuring so the e-mail can be proofread on the blog site before posting would be good until you are comfortable that messages are transferred in an acceptable way.
Using the e-mail method also gives the option to dual purpose e-mails that are already being written anyway. For instance, an e-mail being sent to many of your contacts may be good as is to post. Or it may be good with minor edits, such as deleting the "Hello all," line. Rather than doubling the work, you can blind-copy (Bcc:) the blog, and then edit on the site if needed.
Categorization
If you want multiple categories of blogs, creating multiple blogs is straightforward. You can add cross referencing links to the blogs so you only need to share one blog address to allow access to all.
Using labels to create easy access to a subset of a single blog is also straightforward. You have the option to add labels to each post. At the bottom of each post the label will appear, and users can click on labels to see only posts with that label. On the side of the blog a list of links is also available, allowing people to select those posts. For related content, I would recommend using labels instead of separate blogs. That one people can see in one continuous timeline and page all the updates.
Attachments
Blogger does not seem to allow embedding attachments other than pictures and videos. So to attach items such as PDFs, you need to link to another server. With many online storage services with sharing ability, this is only an inconvenience, not a road-block.
Since Blogger is Google based, if you are not already using any on-line file storage or back-up systems I recommend using Google documents as the file storage / sharing service. It has 1 GB storage available in a free account. If that limit is ever run into, the same solutions above for pictures also apply to files. In addition, another option would be to sign up for a second
file storage account elsewhere, and start filling up that one. If you ever decide on a service, other than Google's, ask around to others you know for a referral link, as that gets both you and them extra storage space over just signing up individually.
The procedure to write a blog entry with an attachment has multiple steps using Google docs. First, make the attachment available online via a URL link. Then reference that link in the blog post.
To make the attachment available:
- Upload the file to docs.google.com by selecting the upload button next to the create button in the upper right.
- Select the file.
- Select the "Share" button (or More, then Share..., then Share...) in the upper right.
- Select "Change" next to the Private list item.
- Change from Private to "Anyone with link" (if want not found by search engines) or "Public on the web" (if want widely spread).
- Save and copy the long URL link.
To use the link in the post: create a URL link in the body of the post / e-mail. Inserting links is different in every e-mail program, but generally it matches closely to the method in Blogger itself.
- Pick a text name for the attachment and type it as part of your message. For instance: "Here is my most recent letter.", with the link being "most recent letter".
- Then highlight the part of the text that you want to be the link, and select the "Link" button (often shown as an icon of a chain).
- Then you can enter the Web address / URL that you saved from Google Docs above.
- Once done, press OK, and you have text that is also a link to the stored file.
Advertising
Advertising on freely hosted blog sites varies by host site.
Blogger allows ads. If you use Blogger's (Google's ) optional AdSense program, you are limited a little in what other ads you can use, but not in any way you are likely to run into.
Blogger incorporated Amazon Associates for a while, promoting using specific product referral links so that when people buy those items on Amazon, the blog author gets a commission. However, in
in October, 2011, the built-in option for Amazon was removed from Blogger.
WordPress does allow affiliate links, such as links to Amazon.com, as long as it is kept to a minimum. In other words, the goal of the site is not advertising that content. However, I have no way of knowing how reliable WordPress's automated systems are in making distinctions.
Closing
Many non-technical people now use blogs as a main way to communicate. It is both an effective way to send messages to many you know, possibly interact with people you never know about, and to have a public record for yourself and others. It is much easier and reliable than the old self-hosted or server hosted web site methods.
I hope this is information is useful. If you know of other blogging overviews or introductions that you would recommend, feel free to mention them in the comments.
