because a lot of you have requested it, I’m going to attempt to dole out some technical blogging / coding advice. I’ll admit I’ve been extremely hesitant to compose this since I am extremely much an amateur myself. Asking me for web style guidance feels a bit like asking your waiter to instruct you exactly how to cook. I can tell you the fundamental components of what we’re serving, however things may get hairy if I’m asked to put together a menu. It’s truly all just trial as well as error as well as a good amount of googling around for answers. Note: yes, the complying with visual is a coding joke, thus the brackets.
Now that I’ve let my insecurities do a great deal of the talking, I will state that I’ve mustered up sufficient technical prowess to style as well as operate this blog (of program Sherry has input when it concerns the look/function of things) with practically no outside support (the only exception being our host’s client service line as well as the occasional assist from a buddy or two when we can’t figure out why the heck we’re crashing). So I should be doing something best not completely wrong. however if you’re reading this as somebody much more amateur than me, please take my guidance with a grain of salt. as well as if you’re much more of an expert, please try not to laugh. as well as feel totally free to offer up other useful recommendations for anybody searching for technical/coding tips.
With that said, let’s dive in.
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MY BACKGROUND: This blog wasn’t my very first dance with coding. computer science was a needed program at my high school, so at age 15 I was taught C++ as well as a smidge of HTML (try W3Schools.com if your high institution wasn’t as geeky as mine). I don’t keep in mind a lick of C++, however it did provide me the fundamental comprehending of exactly how code works (and, much more importantly, exactly how it doesn’t work when something as bit as one end bracket is missing). I utilized my very little HTML skills to throw together some laid-back sites in high institution (like this hilariously-embarrassing as well as hilariously-still-available Geocities site for my high institution band French Horn section) however was never formally taught much more complex languages like CSS, Javascript as well as who understands what else. So if it’s not already apparent that I’ve got some geek in my DNA, this picture ought to make it abundantly clear. Why indeed my Dilbert sweatshirt does state “Technology: No location For Wimps.”
THE CODE-FREE WAY: The charm of blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, as well as Tumblr is that you don’t have to understand any type of code to utilize ’em. many of them make it simple sufficient that if you can compose an email as well as submit a photo, you can blog. as well as that’s precisely exactly how we started. We spent our very first five months on a totally free WordPress.com account (screenshot below) where the degree of our “blog design” was sizing a header photo. So if you absolutely worry coding as well as designing, this may be the method to opt for you.
BE discover A great HOST: We transferred to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog in February of 2008 in purchase to have much more style flexibility. That implied having a discover our own host, implying that our site no longer lived for totally free on WordPress’ servers however instead on a server that we discovered as well as paid for ourselves. We went to the WordPress-recommended BlueHost (that’s an affiliate link) who charged less than $30 a year at the time. Our site lived on a shared server with about 99 other little blogs (meaning that other sites lived there with us, which is why it was so affordable) for about a year. up until we grew as well huge (i.e. routinely crashed the entire server… taking all 99 other sites down with us… oops). So BlueHost provided us the boot as well as we did a fair amount of research study as well as landed at LiquidWeb (that’s an affiliate link), where we have our own devoted server as well as some fantastic client support. It’s a far cry from that $30 a year cost that we started with (try adding two zeros), however it’s all part of the offer when you’re as fortunate as we are to grow like we have.
OH YEAH, holding pictures TOO: When we changed to LiquidWeb, we took some guidance from others as well as likewise chose to hold our pictures somewhere else – which reduces the tons on one single server as well as can defray a few of the cost. We briefly tried Flickr as well as Photobucket (since they were totally free or nearly-free, as well as we’re cheap) however after a number of complaints about those sites being blocked at specific workplaces (not that any type of of you checked out blogs at work, right?) we chose to transfer to a paid host: Amazon S3 (which we saw some other larger sites utilizing successfully). Over time our number of pictures grew together withour traffic… as well as so did our expense for picture holding (this seems crazy to type, however we pay tens of countless dollars a year just to hold our images). however again, holding costs are just part of the whole full-time-blogging thing, as well as we’re always grateful to “see” you guys… so we desired as numerous people as possible to be able to gain access to our pictures. You know, because they’re type of the very best part.
ESTABLISH A THEME: A style is what dictates the look of your blog (colors, layout, fonts, etc). WordPress has great deals of built-in themes, or you can go discover your own (they’re not always free, though). as well as if you’re truly ambitious, you can make your own. however I’m not that ambitious, so we just discovered a style that we liked as well as tried our hand at personalizing it. Ours is a totally free style that’s called “WP Premium” as well as we discovered of it with Nicole at Making It Lovely. Our two sites are examples of exactly how one style can be personalized to produce two completely different as well as distinct looks (we both still utilize the exact same design template with different customizations). So discover a style that has the fundamental functions that you’d like in your blog – something with a specific number of columns, a particular type of navigation, a conventional look that you like, or even a magazine-style style (like Layla & Kevin’s blog) as well as begin there (that method there’s no coding from scratch involved).
STYLING: If your style is like ours, it depends on Cascading style Sheets (aka CSS). It’s a data (or files) that dictate exactly how your site looks when it loads. So rather than me having to manually code our blog titles to be a specific size as well as color each time, the style understands to recommendation my style sheet each time as well as comply with those guidelines. Our style has two style sheets, one that guides the size as well as placement of aspects on the page (i.e. make the sidebar this numerous pixels broad as well as this far to the best of the primary material box) as well as one that dictates pictures as well as color (i.e. all embedded links are blue). I didn’t understand CSS before blogging so my method to personalizing the style of our blog was essentially “change some code, see what happens.” A great deal of times it would have wonky results (“woah, the menu bar all of a sudden disappeared”), however slowly I figured out the cause as well as impact of my coding tweaks. as well as slowly however certainly I worked towards a customized look. There are some fantastic CSS lessons at W3Schools.com if you want to discover some coding specifics.
AN picture IS worth A THOUSAND CODES: certainly not whatever on a site is number as well as code. actual graphics (like a headers or sidebar icons) are a huge part of the style too. providing guidance on Photoshop is a whole ‘nother topic, so I leave it at this: get yourself some great picture editing software, particularly one that makes it simple to change colors as well as sizes (in pixels, specifically) as well as save in a range of styles (like web-reduced JPG as well as transparency capable GIFs or PNGs). certainly we’re fans of Photoshop (we own Adobe innovative Suite), however we hear that sites like Picnik are great alternatives. beyond that, just be sure you’ve got a method to submit your images. Your hold may have built-in FTP software application or you can Google for a version to download.
TRIAL, ERROR, as well as GOOGLE: The “change some code, see what happens” is quite much my finest guidance for coding as an amateur. in some cases the simplest method to comprehend what a bit of code does is to change it, as well as observe the consequence. just be sure to save the original code somewhere so you’re able to undo it easily. When I get truly stuck, I turn to Google. just Googling the secret code (and I imply actually copying the code into the browse box) can turn up some enlightening results – message boards, support forums as well as even in some cases literal definitions of the code in question). WordPress itself has some fantastic forums as well as even a Codex that breaks down what all of their code as well as functions mean, including some suggestions on altering them.
PLUG IT IN, plug IT IN: You can likewise amp up the function / personalization of your site with Plug-Ins, which are totally free add-ons to a WordPress blog that you can typically download from best within the WordPress dashboard. They can add awesome widgets to your sidebar, boost the performance of your posts, as well as even assist your site run quicker (like our much relied upon W3 very Cache plug-in which keeps us from crashing all day, every day). however plug-ins can likewise bog down your site as well (like when yesterday’s polling plug-in overwhelmed our site to the point of ahh-we’re-craaashing four aggravating times in a row). So it’s always more suitable to hard-code these kinds of functions where possible (if we understood that plug-in would stop working ahead of time we would have tried to hard-code something else). If hard-coding is as well difficult (har-har), just discover to online with less of them (the ones that truly matter) to prevent gray-hair-inducing emergencies like unexplained packing errors as well as full-on site crashes.
GET HELP: At some point you’ll get stuck. everybody does, no matter exactly how fantastic they are. So it’s always great to have some locations to turn. These are my favorites:
Google (as I already mentioned)
Support Forums (specifically WordPress’ – though reactions aren’t always quick)
Technical support (I depend on LiquidWeb for assist with my server because we pay them a quite cent as well as they’re understood for their hands-on client support)
Twitter (there are great deals of wise people available if you’re prepared to make a public cry for help)
Other blog writers (if you see something you like on somebody else’s site, try asking exactly how they did it – in some cases it’s as simple as sharing the code, however other times it’s not truly something that can be quickly passed along)
Paid support (sites like WP assist center can provide you some paid help, or – in my situation – I’ve hired some regional experts/friends when I’m truly stuck on why our site is inexplicably crashing).
So, there you have it. ideally that was useful for those of you who were interested. I’m sure there are great deals of particular concerns floating around that I didn’t cover (my response would most likely be “try altering some code as well as see what happens, or google it!” because that’s typically my go-to method). however again, if you’re an professional – feel totally free to evaluate in with guidance for anybody interested! Wait, however one concern first: who had a very wonderful Dilbert sweatshirt like mine? Come on, I understand somebody did. as well as I hope you likewise took the chance to rock it with stonewashed denim as well as a bowl haircut a la Ninth grade John.
Update – a few of the most regular requests that we get are for information about professionally blogging (how we made our site, exactly how we grew our following, exactly how we make money, etc) so we shared all of the details about exactly how we started a blog, grew our traffic, as well as turned it into a full time job.
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