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There are several blogging platforms out there — the most frequently used and popular is Blogger, owned by Google. I blogged on Blogger for 4-1\/2 years until they changed the Graphic User Interface (GUI) — the web-based platform from which a blog author manages his blog and writes his posts. In April, 2012, the GUI changed to be much more difficult to use and totally non-intuitive.<\/p>\n
I had been thinking about switching my blog to its own domain — what some people erroneously call a website — for a while before that, but it was easy and comfortable to remain with Blogger which was working fine until “they” changed it. I like it so much when “they” make changes that “they” think are better. Not. <\/p>\n
Anyway, those changes to Blogger’s GUI were the tipping point for me to buy the domain bootedmanblog.com, put it on a web host, install WordPress, and start blogging there. I reviewed various blog engines or platforms that would allow me to write and create my blog and decided to use WordPress. How has it been going? What have I learned?
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\nIt was quite a learning curve to switch blogging platforms. There are so many things you stumble upon that you have to do and that “they” don’t tell you about (at least directly.) <\/p>\n
I learned that I had to install several “plugins” which are snippets of code that do various things — like affect how my blog appears to viewers, display my images, and most importantly, capture comments for evaluation and redirection as spam. <\/p>\n
I learned very quickly that blogs hosted on WordPress are quite vulnerable to spammers, most of which are nasty little automated programs that troll the internet 24\/7 and attempt to post comments with links. The links go to nefarious websites that probably would introduce malware, spyware, and kidnap your first-born. Gosh those things are awful. Plugins I use capture all of those attempted comments which at first glance, seem to be flattering and innocuous. All of that — gone, gone, gone — after I click on “bulk action — delete permanently”. <\/p>\n
I moderate all of my comments anyway. That means that whenever a real person posts a comment, I am notified. I read it then decide whether to approve its posting or not. A great thing about WordPress comment moderation is that it also allows me to edit comments. I do not do that often, but being a stickler for the proper use of grammar, spelling, and capitalization, I may make adjustments to correct someone’s errors. (I have a strong pet peeve against using “u” for “you” and “ur” for “your” and other forms of “text-speech.”)<\/p>\n
I learned that it is easy to avoid advertising from appearing on this blog — I refuse to get in bed with advertisers. Their paltry pittance in what they offer for revenue sharing is not worth the aggravation to my readers for exposing them to a constant barrage of ads.<\/p>\n
A pleasant thing I learned is that the hate-mongers and homophobes don’t comment. Good. They can continue to harass gay people elsewhere; not on this blog. <\/p>\n
I have also learned that one has much more control over a WordPress self-hosted blog. As my skills and comfort increased with self-taught coding and technical matters, I have been able to implement them, make adjustments, try new things and if they didn’t work, take them out — quickly, efficiently, and easily.<\/p>\n
Another thing I learned is that I have to change my password often to a random “strong password.” I can tell from logs that many attacks on this blog platform are made by neer-do-wells who, if they gain access, could wreak all sorts of havoc.<\/p>\n
I also learned, much to my delight, that this blog is indexed by the major search engines quickly. I see that various posts that I write appear in the top 10 rankings of some searches on various keywords. I knew that Blogger-hosted blogs did that, since Blogger is owned by Google and Google still is the most frequently used search engine. But I am pleased to see that Google ranks this blog well for some topics about which I write.<\/p>\n
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One last thing I learned is that it is quite risky to post photos of the joy of motorcycle riding in January, lest I get beset with a plague of locusts cast upon me by a biker buddy who lives in the Great White North. (Snow melted yet, S?) LOL!<\/p>\n
Blogging well requires work. You have to keep up with it. Not only with new content posted frequently, but also with the behind-the-scenes maintenance, spam detection and removal, and other administrative work. <\/p>\n
Blogging with WordPress on your own hosted domain isn’t for the faint of heart, but it is not that difficult to do. There are a lot of helpful videos, instructions, guides, and a user forum to help. Or, you can do what I do — when I encounter a problem or have a question about how to do something on this blog, I enter “WordPress xxx yyy” where “xxx yyy” is the issue about which I want to know more information. When I do that, I get a helpful result.<\/p>\n
Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n
Life is short: keep on bloggin’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are several blogging platforms out there — the most frequently used and popular is Blogger, owned by Google. I blogged on Blogger for 4-1\/2 years until they changed the Graphic User Interface (GUI) — the web-based platform from which … Continue reading