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We've had some discussion on blogs of late but I wanted to flesh it out a bit more not just for myself (I'm curious), but for anyone else considering a blog. It's a great way for people to meet and learn you as a creative person and also, very, very easy to update and maintain without the need for a webmaster or any html skills.
For those of you wishing for a website but lacking the know-how or funds to get one, I'd highly recommend a blog. It's kinda becoming the thing to do and be in the artistic world.
Blogger and Typepad are two of the biggest names out there. Blogger is free (I use them) and Typepad is not. However, it appears from my distant perspective and after a very little bit of investigating that Typepad allows greater customization, and frankly I like the neat way the photos upload better in Typepad by a long shot. I'm thinking seriously of making a switch, largely for aesthetic reasons. I just can't get my Blogger page to where I want it, visually, and I don't have the time or inclination to invest in learning extensive code to fix it. I'd prefer a drag-and-drop interface for ALL of features I'm after and Typepad promises that in its literature but I won't know if it's the real thing until I sign up. They do offer a 30 day trial.
Can anyone who uses Typepad please tell me why you picked it, whether you tried Blogger or another blog site first, what level of service you have (Plus, Pro, etc.), and whether it's working for you?
Thanks so much!
After careful consideration I chose Typepad and love it. I had been frequenting several craft and artist blogs of different "brands." After many months of seeing which ones loaded the quickest, which ones had the most style and customization it all pointed to Typepad. I wasn't swayed by the cheapest ones, I wanted the cleanest and most professional one I could get. And the other blogs I admired the most were Typepad blogs.
I am not a web person at all. I have absolutely no knowledge of html or web design. But being a graphic designer I knew I wanted input and ability to change things at the drop of a hat. That is what excluded me from designing a website...I knew nothing and did not have the cash. it was an obvious choice to go blogging.
The first month of Typepad was free. I used their HELP chat a few times and they got right back to me. Their online help guide is awesome for newbies to web lingo. I went with the $8.95 a month and it's a bargain if you ask me. I am still finding out there is so much more I am able to do, I just have to find the time. I can't say enough about Typepad.
Some of the other blogs charge you a little smaller monthly fee but they also get you with an annual fee or set-up fee. You have to read the small print with how much you are going to download per month. This might be very important for a photographer with high res photos. But it's plenty for me, it's more than enough. I have the Plus account.
I get a kick out of my blog. I also bought my domain (GoDaddy.com) that points to my flickr account that will link to my blog. It's all connected.
Shelli
Coming at this from the perspective of someone who uses blogs as a professional tool - Blogger infuriates me. I use a couple of different rss aggregators (eg Bloglines) to pick up stuff for work and time after time, I can't get peoples' Blogger accounts to pick up. If I can't add it to my rss aggregator, it doesn't get read. I tried adding your blog and it wouldn't pick up. 
I don't have a personal blog (yet) but I have been experimenting with some blogs for our staff. I used WordPress . One of the key reasons I like it, is that there is a free, easy to use online version that doesn't require you to have a web host. So it's great for people who want to try out the blogging thing. However, if you have the design skills and time, you can download the full version and customise it yourself.
Dolls N DreamsHey Shelli, first off I love your new avatar! I use Blogger and I love it, I agree very easy to use, I know some basic html but don't even need to using Blogger.....
here is my blog....
http://dollsndreams.blogspot.com/
Flying Fur StudiosI have a question.
Is a blog only for those who don't want to bother with HTML or is there another reason. For me, it would be just as easy to make a webpage and just update it when I want.......but that sounds too easy so I must be missing something for sure.
I have a question.
Is a blog only for those who don't want to bother with HTML or is there another reason.
That is exactly the reason for me. I don't know anything about HTML or web design.
Posts: 1,836For someone who knows nothing about blogs how do you find or search blogs?? You all have links to other cool blog sites....how'd you find them? Is there a blog mainpage you search from or something... or is it just like searching for another random web site?
Thanks!
:hug:
~Chrissi
WisconsinI'm with Heather. What is the difference between setting up a blog or a web site. I have looked into several options already (Frontpage, Tripod, Homestead, Lunarpages), and now blogs. Typepad that Shelli mentioned seems very easy and would be quick to set up. It's getting very confusing, any help in explaining this would be great!!!
Lynn
A blog isn't easy and requires a time commitment to set up but it's waaaaay easier than setting up a web site, even if you use a WYSIWYG editor. Also, many blogs are free WITHOUT advertising, while most free site hosting comes with ads.
I can both create a site and figure out a blog (and have, and do!), but I think it's waaaaay quicker, with fewer steps, to blog.
Philosophically, a blog is much more of a day-to-day journal for most people. Even those who sell from their blogs or who link to sales areas are usually more personal and casual on their blogs than on their sites.
For me, the appeal of a blog is to be more expressive and intimate and journalistic than I would in my "place of business", a.k.a. my website. A blog allows me to keep people updated in a quick and easy fashion -- those who wonder what I'm doing, what I'm working on, what's going on in my life, and want a glimpse at the inner business person that's me. I wouldn't put that content on a website because for me, my site is for my business items, and I wear my "professional" face there. Over the years I've loosened that face up a little but I do take pains to present myself with the utmost professionalism, but that kind of "stiffness" doesn't look very much, in practice, like the entirely truck-driver-mouthed, fairly laid back, kinda earthy/accepting person I actually am.
I guess I, personally, consider a blog more like an online journal with photos and links. It's a living thing and has a certain flow to it and it's really quick to update.
Whereas I, personally, think of websites as more static, harder to keep current, and less intimate and personal.
There are, of course, ten million takes on this. Mine is just one!
As for finding other blogs... mostly, I find them by happening on a blog I really get inspired by, and then I click on THEIR links! I also check people's signatures for links to their blogs (like I have here in my own.)
More later, gotta get my just-neutered cat from the vet!
consider a blog more like...a living thing and has a certain flow...
That's what I like about it. I also like to update people on the other crafts I make and sell. Which actually isn't much now because all I have time for is bears and they are my favorite.
I found blogging by looking at crafting websites and some of them had links to blogs..that's when I found the world of blogging. Then I got hooked-up with other people listing me on their blog and me listing them. You make friends, just like here.
s a blog only for those who don't want to bother with HTML or is there another reason. For me, it would be just as easy to make a webpage and just update it when I want.......but that sounds too easy so I must be missing something for sure.
Heather, you ask a really good question, and forgive me if I go on a bit :redface:
Firstly, in the last few years there's been a bit of a cultural shift in what's happening on the internet. Shelli hit it on the head when she said
I, personally, think of websites as more static, harder to keep current, and less intimate and personal.
Traditionally websites have stood alone. Each website contains set information and the website owner dictates what content appears on the site. In order to find out what's new, you need to visit the site and see if it has been updated. As a user, your 'interaction' with the site is largely limited to viewing or reading content. If it's a commercial site, you can of course purchase from it and if you need to contact the site owner or wish to make a comment, then you need to find the email address and email them.
You might have heard of a phrase called "web2.0". Now there are many arguments and definitions as to what it exactly means and just what is and isn't a web2.0 site but essentially it involves a shift towards websites where 'end-users' can share, manipulate, interact with and even control content. It's not just blogs, there are all sorts of social networking sites like wikipedia, flickr, youtube, librarything that make use of these technologies.
So that's kind of a very brief overview of the techy stuff..what's the advantages over a website.
The thing I love about blogs is the sense of community. We are very lucky to have teddy talk but lots of other areas I'm involved in don't have such facilities. So the blogs that I follow in kidlit for example are the best way I can keep up with what's happening, new reviews of books, links to good websites and to have conversations with people that I will never in a million years get to converse with otherwise.
Blogs are instantaneous. I am lucky in that I have a really basic website that I can update in a few minutes, but a lot of people don't - with a blog you can literally spend 2 minutes making an entry. For example you can post your work in progress. It's much easier for me to comment on someone's blog, than it is to visit their site and then maybe send them an email if I can be bothered.
Blogs are a great way of sharing information that wouldn't neccessarily be put on your website. I do other crafts that aren't related to my bearmaking and wouldn't make it onto my website. With a blog, I can share those without taking attention away from the bears on my site. That great ribbon store you found? Stick it on your blog and talk about your new purchase and your intention for it It involves your collectors and readers much more in your creative process. Discover a new technique? do a quick tutorial on your blog, you'll get heaps more ideas out of the comments field.
To be honest, there are a whole raft of bear artists and other websites that I no longer visit because I have simply forgotten about them, or can't be bothered to search them out...and get frustrated that when I visit them there's no update. A blog is a bit more in your face but it is far less agressive than a bunch of emails from a store or artist. If you subscribe to it via an rss aggregator, all the posts will stay there until you are ready to read them. If people can read your blog posts, then they'll know what you're up to and that you haven't dropped off the face of the earth. It creates a much more personal experience between you and your collector.
Sorry my head is a bit fuzzy and I haven't explained as well as I should, I will try and collect my thoughts more!
That's maybe the best explanation of blogging I've ever seen. Thanks, Melissa. You're my new hero(ine.)
Here's a particularly good example, in my opinion, of a blog that's truly interactive. http://elsieflannigan.blogspot.com/
Scrapbook superstar Elsie Flannigan takes pains to address questions from her readers in frequent Q&A sessions you'll find strewn across her blog, current & archived. She gets many, MANY comments each day on her layouts and product lines, and sense of style and zest for life! I've never written to her but I love that I could if I wanted to, by simply clicking a little button. Her blog happens to be at Blogger. Check it out; you're in for some eye candy and a fun little read
Update: I've spent most of today formatting a new blog at TypePad but it needs some finishing tweaks (a new banner, for one. Anyway, it was a bit of a learning curve but now I've got it down, I think. Very cool features!
Flying Fur StudiosMelissa, thank you!
Ok, so I think I get it. Blogs are more personal, maybe even updated everyday and people can leave comments.
So where is your blog? It's not a web address? I'm confused on that. I can see your point that websites are static and my blog interest has grown but couldn't I just still write my own HTML and call it a blog? Would people know the difference? I could code it so people can leave comments etc. but again I guess my blog would have a web address linked to my website.
Thanks for being patient and explaining this to me, some things just take a while for my brain to grab a hold of.
Posts: 8,574Shelli:
entirely truck-driver-mouthed
:crackup:
All right now: Questions, even more basic:
What is RSS aggregate???
Flikr account???
Shelli is this something Technoklutz could get a grip on?
dilu
Dearest Dilu, 
If I can figure out blogging/journaling.....I KNOW you can figure it out!! 
Warmest bear hugs, :hug:
Aleta
Dilu, telling you a bit more than I know here (Melissa is clearly our best expert thus far)...
I think an RSS aggregator is a "feed" collector. It's a bit of software you download or use (? -- haven't done this myself yet) that collects the "feed" from blogs and sites on the web which provide them. You can think of it as TIVO for computers; it records content you want to read for later, and then you can read that content when you want to, at your convenience, from one easy location where it's been stored for you!
Melissa, please correct me if I'm wrong.
flickr is a great place to host your photos! It's free and easy to use. There are a lot of features to it that I haven't yet explored; it seems to be a place where real artists post photos of their work (much of which is, not surprisingly, photography!), and then they have groups, or there's some way for people to keep up with one another's posts, or something like that. I'm a bit fuzzy on the power of flickr because I just use it to post photos I want hosted when I can't be bothered to upload them via FTP to my own site host.
See:
And in another thread, I posted a link to info about "feeds." That link, which explains things quite well actually (it was a learning experience for me as well as I'm not that familiar with "feeds") is:
Shelli thanks for bringing this up! I'd been using Yahoo 360 for a long time, because I use a lot of Yahoo stuff anyways. Just switched it over to Blogger today!
What is RSS aggregate???
I think an RSS aggregator is a "feed" collector.
You're pretty much bang on the money there Shelli!
As with everything on the web there are a million different names for things.
Firstly, an rss feed and a blog are not the same thing. Blogs are just one of the things that can be turned into feeds. A feed is actually a techy thing and not designed to be read by humans at all. It's the xtml computer language that sits behind the scenes. It's similar to a web page - in that the actual page is written in html and we need a web browser like Firefox or IE to interpret that for us as and turn it into pretty pictures and words. You'll see this if you click on one of the orange rss buttons on a page - you'll get something that looks like this
http://www.moh.govt.nz/rss/mediareleases/rss.xml
You'll see rss aggregators referred to as 'news readers', 'feed readers', 'aggregators ' and so on. Basically they act as a service to interpret rss for us and present it nicely. The idea of a news reader is that you can tailor exactly the information you receive from newspapers, stores, websites, blogs, to be precisely what you want. It's pretty much like the difference between junk mail and mail order catalogs - with a catalogue, you subscribe to the service, and get only what you want. You don't get spam or any of that stuff in your aggregator - only the content that you choose.
Say you follow a particular sport like NASCAR. You can go to several different newspapers/news sites etc and ask for stories on just that topic to be delivered to your aggregator. That way you don't have to visit the NYT, CNN, BBC etc each day to catch up with the latest news- they deliver it all up on a plate specially for you.
Or there are 10 different bear artists with blogs that you like to read. Instead of locating each individual site and seeing if they've posted anything recently, your news reader shows you at a glance whether they've been updated, tells you how many posts there are. So if you don't get a lot of time at the computer, it's a really quick convenient way to see what's new.
There are loads of different aggregators out there and everybody has their favourites. Some are browser based (eg bloglines, googlereader) and some you can dowload onto your computer. Personally, I favour the browser based type. For one, they're not using up hard drive space on my laptop, and secondly, I can check them wherever I am - at work, at home, away on holiday etc
Now there is a whole wealth of information that you can get on rss - it's not just newspaper stories and blogs. I can get the screening times at my local movie theatre delivered to my news reader, books in my area of interest at amazon (I can even track sale prices on books there). Bloglines plays podcasts as well, so I get the rss feed of my favourite radio show delivered to my newsreader - I can listen to it when I want not when it's on the radio! new books at my local library. At work I can get journal table of contents delivered right there, and even email and newsgroups that I belong to online, freeing up my email box....there is more than I can even get my head around
So...how do I use my feed reader?
Well...I have a few key interests and I'd be all day every day on the computer if I visited all the sites. I tested out a whole lot of aggregators at work and bloglines (www.bloglines.com) is my favourite. It's not the prettiest or flashiest but it offers the most functionality for my needs, and if you're like me, and have a whole lot of different areas of interest and not a lot of time on the computer, it's the easiest to customise into folders making it easy to look at a manageable chunk of information each time I'm on the net.
So, I have a few different folders - one for children's literature, which is mostly just professional blogs and few fun things chucked in, one for card making, one for bear artists (rapidly growing too!), one for recipes, and a few other miscellaneous things like movie times, radio programs.
When I open up bloglines, there are two parts to the window. On the left is a list of my folders and feeds and in little brackets it tells me how many new posts each separate site has. If I only have a couple of minutes, I chosse the smallest one and go have a quick read. Once I click on the feed I want to look at, the posts from that blog open in the main larger winder of the reader. Say I haven't looked at Shelli's blog for a couple of weeks, then, I can see that she's posted 6 new items since I last looked. You can determine how they appear in your reader. You can select to just have the headline of the entry (fastest loading) or you can have the entry and all the text. Because it's in the reader, you don't get all the pretty bells and whistles of the blog as it appears on Shelli's site (- though photos and videos do come across) and if it's a super long post then you won't see it all. But, should you wish to link out to Shelli's blog to read it, you just click on the headline and it'll take you there. If there's something that really catches my eye, then I tick a little box called "keep it new" which is in the bottom corner of each post, and every time I open up Shelli's entry in bloglines, it'll stay there until I remove it.
Adding something to my bloglines account is easy as pie. You can either download a bookmarklet to your toolbar or create a "sub with bloglines" button in your favourites/bookmarks. When you come to a page or blog with an rss feed that you want to add, simple go to your favourites, hit the sub with bloglines button and then choose the folder you want it to go in et voila! you are subscribed.
My only warning, once you find one blog, you find another and another and another and so then you're addicted!!
Back to blogs rather than rss feeds, but the thing I love most about blogs is that they connect me with so much that I'd otherwise never discover or spend hours hunting for. I've just in the last couple of days been reading a few card making blogs and I've discovered all these small rubber stamp makers, and little tiny shops who I'd never find in a million years. Only downside is, I'm so intimidated by all these amazing creative bloggers that I'm even more chickened out to make my little private blog public!!
I'm so intimidated by all these amazing creative bloggers that I'm even more chickened out to make my little private blog public!!
Oh but now, dear one... you simply must!
If there were a certificate for useful marketing information that we awarded here at TT I'd surely vote for you to get one. Thanks again and again for your thorough, and very understandable, posts on this subject. I'm reading and rereading to learn about this stuff myself. Something for tomorrow...
Further update: My new TypePad blog, which I'll stick with from here on out, is: http://potbellyarts.typepad.com/the_potbelly_pixie/
Will be updating my signature here to reflect that!
Still working on final customizations but it's mostly done for now.
hey Shelli! It's really cute, I love it! I changed your blog address from blogspot to this typepad.
So where is your blog?
Hahaha Heather, that is the 64 thousand dollar question!! I've been planning one forever, but the ubergeek in me chickens out when I see all those flashy blog out there. I think it's like that new kid in the playground phenomenon. However....as of today you can read it over at
http://honeythorpe.wordpress.com/
It's not pretty yet -- that needs to wait until after my show in June and I'm not sure how often I'll be updating in the next few weeks. There's a pile of unfinished bears lookng besseechingly at me and the deadline for my Ausie show is looming ever closer and I won't even think about bid4bears!
.
hey Shelli! It's really cute, I love it! I changed your blog address from blogspot to this typepad.
Thank you! And you're my first blog listing. Anybody else want me to include your blog in mine??? Please PM or eMail me, or just post here!
Jennifer, I've got a Typepad question for you...
Is there a way to quicklink to the user control panel (in other words, to get to my blog's inner workings so I can make edits or post new stuff) FROM my blog?
Can't figure that one out and am too burnt to research it right now! If you have a quick answer I'd love to hear it!
Jennifer, I've got a Typepad question for you...
Is there a way to quicklink to the user control panel (in other words, to get to my blog's inner workings so I can make edits or post new stuff) FROM my blog?
Can't figure that one out and am too burnt to research it right now! If you have a quick answer I'd love to hear it!
Do you mean without having to log onto Typepad and dig back into your posts for editing? I don't think that is do-able. I am pretty sure you always have to log-in through Typepad. I always hit the Typepad link from my blog and sign-in that way. Does that answer your question?
I got totally fried when i first started my blogging. I had all these ideas and there was a learning curve for me. I obviously had a few late nights with a lot of four-letter words.
I'm with Heather. What is the difference between setting up a blog or a web site. I have looked into several options already (Frontpage, Tripod, Homestead, Lunarpages), and now blogs.
couldn't I just still write my own HTML and call it a blog? Would people know the difference? I could code it so people can leave comments etc.
Heather and Lynn...good questions and I'm not sure that there's any one answer.
Heather, I think the essential difference between blogging and websites is the sense of community - there's an intrinsic look and feel to a blog page that somehow makes it different to a web page. It's partly to do with the sidebar things like blogrolls, links, widgets etc and maybe also because blog pages are often text heavy which you don't want your bear website to be I don't know quite how to put it into words...maybe because we're offering up a little bit more of ourselves and our personalities than on a website? And...yes you could do that coding on a web page, but on a blog, the comments field is on every individual post rather than as a whole thing overarching your site - so the comments are specifically targeted to your days posting. I think I've made my answer clear a mud...sorry! :redface: If anyone has ever watched the Aussie movie The Castle, they'll understand when I say "it's the vibe" 
Lynn...if you want to get a look and feel for how a blog works and how you could make it work for you, you can play around with a free online version on blogging site and keep your blog private until you feel ready to release it into the world!* Try one out at www.wordpress.com It might be a good start to your online life while you get ready for a website. To be honest i haven't looked to see if there's a good instruction file but I know that they've published a book in the Visual Quickstart series (good computer books) on Wordpress so I'm trying to get my hands on a copy!
To make a blog private in wordpress - you go to the options tab once you've logged in, then find the privacy tab which is in the dark blue row of options. Click on that and check the box that says you want your blog to be visible only to users you choose.
