Newbie Website Design » Blogging Basics

Wordpress smilies or emoticons (BB#4)

David Radtke - Admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:05:31 +0000

Whether you call them smilies or emoticons one thing is for sure: they are everywhere! Some blogs and forums use one system while different blogs and forums use slightly altered systems. Newbie Website Design is a Wordpress based blog. That being so, you can use the Wordpress smilies (a.k.a. emoticons) when you comment on any of the posts here.

Instead of making you search the Internet to find out how to write Wordpress smilies (emoticons), you can now find them right here:

The blog flow (BB#3)

David Radtke - Admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:08:07 +0000

It’s time to put the flow of a blog into perspective. And the best way to clear up the confusion is with an image: (Don’t try clicking on it ’cause nothing’s gonna happen )

The right-most rectangle is the “home page” (the very first page of a website or blog.) At the top you have the most recent post. Moving down that column takes you back in time until you reach the bottom of the page.

At the bottom of every page will be a link usually titled “Older Entries” or “Previous Entries” (or variations thereof.) Clicking on that link takes you to the previous page containing older entries. Click on those “Previous Entries” long enough and you’ll get to the very first post ever written.

Now that you’ve got the gist of how blog posts flow, why not take a trip back in time through Newbie Website Designs?

How do I use a blog? (BB#2)

David Radtke - Admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:37:32 +0000

In a previous post you learned exactly what a blog is, what a blog post is, and what the crazy activity called “blogging” entails. Next, it’s time to take a look at how to actually get around a blog to use one to its fullest extent.

Most of what you see from blog to blog is pretty much the same. There are only a few minor differences that really shouldn’t trip you up. Without further ado, let’s begin…

Very straight-forward… in a backwards kinda way

If you’ve followed any series articles on other blogs then you probably noticed something odd: part I of any series is listed last and the most recent article is listed first. On a regular website these articles (posts or entries as they are sometimes called) are listed in numerical order: the first article being first and the last article being last.

This “reverse” reading order comes from the fact that blog posts are automatically ordered from the most recent on back through time.

The sidebar: no alcohol, but just as important

All blogs have a sidebar. A sidebar is a long section of a blog or website where extra “stuff” is kept. That stuff can be links to other pages, links to articles, links to recommended websites, and everyone’s favorite: advertising. There can be one, two, or even three sidebars. They can appear on the left side, the right side, or both.

Here’s the important stuff you’ll find in a sidebar. (Please note that each blog might name the contents of their sidebar a little differently.)

What exactly is a blog? (BB#1)

David Radtke - Admin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:24:54 +0000

Sooner or later you’ll hear the word blog and wonder “What exactly is a blog anyway?” Certainly, the next question is bound to pop up in your mind “What is the difference between a blog and a website?”

In this post you’ll learn:

What is a blog?
What is a web log?
What is a blog post?
What is blogging?

First things first: a blog and a web log are the same thing (blog is just short for web log.) When I first saw the word “weblog” I thought it was “we blog” because I had seen the word “blog” so many times that I thought “weblog” was just a catchy fad phrase.

But I digress.

The definition of a blog

The basic definition of a blog (or web log) is an online journal or diary.

Yep. That’s it. (Kinda ruins the suspense doesn’t it?)

The entries or blog posts are listed in chronological order with the most recent blog post positioned at the very top and the last blog post buried deep somewhere waaaaay back in the archives section.

But blogs have become so much more than just personal accounts of what time the writer got up, fed his or her cat, felt on the commute to work, and how lunch didn’t sit well. (If blogs were only that, then they wouldn’t be so popular.)

Blogs cover a whole kaleidoscope of topics from ranging from current news stories, deep insights on life, reviews of products, music, and movies, and most likely any other topic that you can think of (seriously.)

What is a blog post?

A blog post is simply one entry or one “article” that is on a blog. If you look at the side bar (the long strip on the far, right-hand side) you can see the heading called “New Stuff”. This is a listing of the most current blog posts (or entries, or articles, or whatever you wanna call them).

What is blogging?

Blogging is the crazy act of writing blog posts (which is what I do.) If you like to write and would like to share your advice, opinions, and your mother’s secret recipes, then blogging might just be for you.