1. BLOG BUILDING WORKSHOP Building Blogs, Galleries, Websites For Nearly Free By Jacques Surveyer,Jacques Surveyer Nearly Free Web Developer

2. Overview of Presentation Find out about you as potential Blog users Quick overview of Web Development Dive in and create a Website/Blog Departures from Nearly Free – What do you get How to manage/edit/develop your website

3. Web Development 20 years old, started at CERN 1990-1991 Vital throughout the World Example - China 1999 – 42M users as of IBM Presentation 2009 – 440M users Web Usage

4. Web Development Coding Web Building Blocks 1)HTML – structure/design of page layout 2)CSS – styling, formatting of text and images 3)DOM – coding rules or Web API 4)JavaScript – most popular programming language 3 Key Characteristics Very simple, easy to do at first Gets very complicated very fast Blogs simplify again Web design and development

5. Website This is the Home page for the Photo Editing tips and tutorial site, thePhotoFinishes.com. This home page is designed to get the user to where they want to be on the site very quickly. Thus there are 12 tabs across the top of the page. Click on a tab and there is a list of articles/tips for that topic. Click on the accordion bar Recent Tips and Reviews and a whole set of Gallery Options show on the next options sheet. Bottomline – websites allow lots of UI tricks and highly customized look for special needs.

6. Web Blog A Web Blog, in contrast has a standard layout. Think HEADER – BODY – FOOTER – 1 OR 2 SIDEBARS. Users have to fit their content into this layout.

7. Website vs Web Blog Websites allow any layout and look Websites can perform much faster Websites integrate databases and eCommerce more easily Web Blogs provide a lot of free services, many of which are hard or costly to program on a website Web Blog building and maintenance is often easier and faster Web Blogs are much more doable by new users on the Web Bottom line – it is easy to use both on one website

8. Blogs Simplify Creating Websites Blogs ease Web development Blog == CMS-Content Management System Blogs handle text, images, video, animations Blogs can easily become gallery, magazine, website Not free blogs do eCommerce, customer service, etc A basic blog can be had for free Blogger, WordPress still given away free

9. Types of Blogs Gallery on Blogger - Pinch GalleryPinch Gallery Tea at Blogger – Hot Toast and JamHot Toast and Jam Magazine on WordPress - FoodPressFoodPress Newspaper on WordPress – AllThings DigitalAllThings Digital

10. Completely vs Nearly Free Blogs 1)Completely Free Blogs within Limits  Free domain name -welcomechurch.wordpress.comwelcomechurch.wordpress.com  Free software cost = no charge for software, no ads  Free web connection costs – but limits on usage  Free storage costs – but limits around 3GB  Blogger and WordPress are 2 most popular BloggerWordPress 2)Nearly Free Blog == annual Web Connection costs  Dozens of very good CMS software systems  Drupal, Joomla, WordPress are 3 best systemsDrupalJoomlaWordPress  See extensive review of Best Nearly Free BlogsBest Nearly Free Blogs

11. Blogger's Key Features Posts with comments, audio, video, and images Menu-ed Pages just like Web pages Extensive control of Blog settings Ability to reformat Design and Layout of both Posts and Pages Provides extensive stats and reports on how blog is used

12. WordPress Features  Posts with comments, pictures, video, audio, animations  Posts labeled with tags and categories  Pages like regular Web pages linked to menus  Themes for different styling of Posts and Pages with many widgets and formatting  Special features like Polls, Stats, etc

13. Common Features of Blogger & WordPress  Posts and Pages work nearly identically the same  Lists of Posts and Pages are available for re-editing, etc  Editing of Posts and Pages use HTML or Visual Editor - there is no limit to the number and size of posts  Both blogs provide media tools for images and videos  Both blogs allow users to change their blogs basic theme or layout easily including adding widgets, sidebars, etc  Both blogs allow users to change many basic blog settings  Both blogs provide Polls, Ratings and Usage Statistics

14. Posts are News Stories Here is a list of posts on a Blogger website

15. Editing Post or Pages is Easy Here is Blogger Editor for a new Page – just like Word

16. Editing Post or Pages is Easy Here is WordPress Visual Editor for a new Post

17. Editing HTML for Post or Pages is Easy Here is WordPress HTML Edit of new Post

18. Bottom Line Creating either a Post or Page is easy to do in both blogs A Post is a review or news story with comments shown in the order of when the story was published. Limited updates to a post; if so it become a new Post. A Page is a constantly changing notice board – a week's schedule of events or the current management team A Form Page requests info from readers and interacts with them – eCommerce pages or Search page. If you have a lot of Form Pages – you likely need a Nearly Free Blog or customized website.

19. Styling/Design of Blog Easy to Change WordPress calls it Appearance and Themes  Users control common Header, Footer, Sidebar styling  Uniquely styled Page is more challenging to do Blogger calls it Design and Templates

20. Styling/Design of Blog In both systems users are not restricted to a specific Blog look – there are enormous styling options But layout is some variation on either Header-Body, Header-Body-Footer, Header-Body-Sidebars, or Header-Body-Sidebars-Footer All Pages and Posts have the same Header, etc If you want distinctive, different look for Pages and/or Posts then you need a Nearly Free Blog Caution - your Blog style/design is your Brand, change it with caution

21. Common Added Blog Services  Extensive settings for blog customization  Numerous group/team blogging features  Support video files – watch the storage cost  Statistics on visits to your blog – daily, monthly etc  Available in multiple languages – French, Chinese, etc  Developers API adds new gadgets and widgets  Ratings or reactions to your posts  Automatic filtering of spam from comments  Fast response time and automatic backup services

22. Blogger's Unique Features  Ability to monetize/earn money with ads vs forced ads with no compensation on WordPress  Greater storage size allowance than WordPress  Better links to Google tools like Gmail, Picasa, etc  Easier layout of gadgets/widgets than WordPress  New mobile phone to blog features

23. WordPress Unique Features  Polls with reports  Easier support for multi-users  More control of design details with fonts, CSS, etc  Better tools for site import or export  Can completely delete site unlike Blogger  Mobile edition for iPad  Learn WordPress for building Nearly Free Super Blog

24. WordPress.com Downsides  Does not support any plugins versus thousands for Wordpress.org free blog software  Does not support Flash  Does not support JavaScript code in posts  Does not support HTML tags like form, input, frame, iframe, textarea, etc  Has limited CSS support and template editing  Has 101 themes/templates versus thousands for Wordpress.org free blog software

25. Summary about Completely Free Blogs  Two very good services to choose from  Largely equal in features since Blogger added Design of User Templates and Pages  Unique features are often quickly matched  I like WordPress.com because its a little more polished and allows users to graduate to full, “nearly free” WordPress more quickly  But visit here to see the full range of nearly free CMSfull range of nearly free CMS

26. Other Completely Free Blog Services  Blog.com – good features but performance problemsBlog.com  Blogabond – Travel blogs with Maps etcBlogabond  LiveJournal – grandaddy of free, less layout featuresLiveJournal  Netcipia – wiki/blog based for team usageNetcipia  Open Diary – unlimited posts+media, extras on feeOpen Diary  Tumblr– great support for many mediaTumblr See hereSee here for a list of other free blog services