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The Technical Side of Blogging

January 23, 2014 By Devlounge

Views about blogging differ depending on who is looking. Many see it as some form of online diary where they are free to write anything, at any time, at any place. While this is essentially true, it is not accurate to say that bloggers are free as well from the technical challenges of maintaining a site. Whether a site is for personal or commercial use, owners will realize soon enough that there is the technical side of blogging to think of.

blogging1Image Source

There are actually many resources for writers easily available online. The subject of blogging is very much tackled by experts and newbies in the field mostly about the hits and misses that could help make professional bloggers out of aspiring writers. A blogger does not only write. He or she is expected to have reasonable basic technical skills and hopefully progress from there through time.

If you are seriously looking into long-term blogging, it would be advantageous to have a working knowledge of the following:

Human Language

Writing to express thoughts or provide information in a blog requires some technical knowledge of the language being used. Technical knowledge in a human language such as English would pertain to grammar, syntax, structure, and the rules observed for its effective use. There is not much problem with this as the study of a language starts very early at childhood. Challenges may present themselves though if the language being used is not the mother language of the author. The remaining thing to do is to study for specific requirements such as in creative or highly technical writing, when it is necessary.

bloggingImage Source

Computer Language

Computer language is an all-together different thing. Most would need to learn and understand this. Fortunately, most blogging platforms have made it possible for the least techie people to create and manage their own blogs. There are ready made templates to choose from. If a blogger is pretty set on what kind of blog to come up with, then everything can be set in a matter of hours.

Web Designing

Knowledge in web designing is a must for bloggers except if there is someone else paid to do it. The use of CSS and HTML as well as the ability to create graphic images are musts for those seeking to be professional bloggers. Other knowledge areas that should be considered include search engine optimization, social media participation and networking, and attracting traffic. There is so much to be learned about blogging especially because of its continually evolving nature. Experience is still the best teacher. It is impossible to blog without getting a trace of techiness in you.

Design Focus: Blogging in 2013

October 18, 2013 By Sophia Lucero

The clean, minimal, and handcrafted feel that has dominated the current generation of web design is probably most apparent in this crop of websites. Time to take some notes on their attention to detail in building an interface that’s familiar to us all.

Designs of the Week

Get solid WordPress themes, plugins, and even design training from iThemes.

Ghost
Ghost
Roon
Roon
Scriptogr.am
Scriptogr.am
Postagon
Postagon
Hi
Hi
Kirby
Kirby
Svbtle
Svbtle
Medium
Medium
Pen.io
Pen.io
Jekyll
Jekyll
Phmr.al
Phmr.al
Postach.io
Postach.io
Simvla
Simvla

Social Media Weekly

Need help in promoting your site? INeedHits has been in the search engine marketing since 1996!

Mobile, User Experience – Communicating Animation Ideas
“If you design mobile apps and you’re looking for ways to animate your interactive prototypes, you may want to figure out which solution is best for you and take the time the learn it.”

CSS – Single-direction margin declarations
“Everything I’ve written here is nigh on impossible to prove and isn’t quantifiable, but speaking anecdotally and from experience on some huge websites, the method I use works perfectly.”

Design – The Extra Mile
“Polishing is this continuous act of refining your user experience down to the smallest detail. It is what might ultimately set your product apart from crowd—it is your special sauce.”

HTML – Using the HTML5 section element
“In the enthusiasm for all the other HTML5 structural elements, there is a growing tendency for the section element to be used whether it’s the right element for the job or not.”

Content Management Systems for a Fast Backend

May 13, 2013 By Devlounge

Web designers are not often concerned with the performance of their website. This is often left up to the developer(s) who need to cater both frontend and backend codes. Considering how popular the open source movement has become I wanted to delve a bit deeper into which solutions may provide the quickest user access. I have toyed around with many various CMS engines and there are plenty of ideas worth considering.

But we need to think about which CMS solutions will be most useful to people accessing your website around the world. Which systems are the most stable and easy to install, customize, then keep running for years. It is a heavy burden to manage websites. The job is not physically strenuous but there are many various aspects and problems to deal with.

WordPress

Anybody who has gotten familiar with PHP knows about WordPress as a blogging platform. Over the recent years it has transformed into a major content management system great for managing pages and other custom post types.

The reason WordPress is such a great choice for new launches is because of the vast library of plugins for managing your site. There are free solutions for caching, comments management, user management, contact forms, and practically anything you could need. This is the main reason so many people rely on WordPress and how the system can stay online for years without much trouble. [Read more…]

Tools for Bloggers

May 16, 2011 By Hyde

Blogging has become a time consuming professional job. Long gone are the days that blogs where kept part time or as a hobby. If you write a lot for one or different weblogs, it is essential to have to the right tools to keep organized and work fast.

Having a standard work-flow is essential and for that you need the right tools for you. Personally I prefer web apps which are accessible from any device. Must I find myself away from home without a laptop, I can still do some writing.

Even small things matter to spare time e.g., when I need to use several photos in a post, I edit them in order I will be putting them in the post. When I upload them in WordPress they’ll be automatically sorted by last modified date. This way I don’t have to look through the whole list for a photo. I just start from top to bottom.

I write in Google Docs, I use no HTML tags, and once in WorPress I just copy paste the links into tags. The Find and Replace option comes in handy when adding HTML tags in bulk. This works for me, while others have their own system.

Tools for Bloggers

I compiled a list of different web app, applications, plug-ins and extensions that might come in handy. Too muchmany tools isn’t good either. Get a couple of tools that does what you need without giving too many distractions.

WordPress Plug-in

Editorial Calendar

Keep track of your posting schedule withing WordPress dashboard.

Web app

Keep On Posting

Be it for personal or professional use, Keep on Posting will email you when you are slipping out from your posting frequency.

Application

Scrivener

Scrivener puts everything you need for structuring, writing and editing long documents at your fingertips.

Available for Apple only, cost $45. Public beta for Windows.

Application

Windows Live Writer 2011

Windows Live Writer makes it easy for anyone to tell stories like a professional blogger. You can create beautiful blog posts, and see what they’ll look like online before you publish them to your blog. Plus, you can publish your posts to any of your favorite blog service providers.

Web app

Diigo

Diigo is two services in one — it is a research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other.

Application

MarsEdit 3

Whether you love HTML or can’t bear the sight of it, MarsEdit’s editor will thrill you. If you prefer the best of both worlds, you can switch easily between the two.
Works with WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace, TypePad, Movable Type and dozens more through standard MetaWeblog and AtomPub interfaces.

Cost $39.95

Web app

TeuxDeux

If you like making to-do lists, you will love TeuxDeux. Use the free browser-based TeuxDeux at work/home and then take your to-dos on the road with the iPhone app($2.99).

Application (Mac)

LittleSnapper

With LittleSnapper it’s easy to start capturing webpages and your desktop. From entire webpages – including the bits that are out of view in a standard browser window and important metadata such as the web address – to specific windows on your Mac.

Cost $29.99

Browser Extension

FireShot

FireShot is an extension for Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Seamonkey and Thunderbird that captures, edits, annotates, organizes, exports, uploads and prints screenshots of your web pages.

Google Docs

Free, simple and powerful. Personally I only use Google Docs to write, keep track of links and keep notes. The sharing capabilities are the best, live editing and collaboration works smoothly. The integrated chat comes in handy when collaborating at the same time with more people.

Three WordPress alternatives for your blog

June 29, 2009 By Lorraine

I wasn’t what you would call an “early adopter” of WordPress. In fact, I sometimes feel like I was one of the last to make the switch from Movable Type, which I loved and recommended to anyone who asked me what a blog was (yes, those were the days). Today, of course, over 90% of the work I do is on WordPress- and I’ve fully embraced this powerful publishing system.

But there are alternatives. And today, I want to show you three of them.

Habari. This, in comparison to WP, is one of the latest blogging systems, and you can tell right off the bat: it feels more modern somehow. Indeed, their FAQ explains just how modern it is:

Habari is being written specifically for modern web hosting environments, and uses modern object-oriented programming techniques. Using these recent but well-established additions to the PHP language allows Habari to make use of PDO, enabling prepared statements for all interactions with the database. This greatly reduces the system’s vulnerability to SQL injection attacks. This is just one of many benefits of modern object-oriented techniques.

LifeType is worth a look especially if you’re tasked to build a blog for a non-techie client to use- its really simple to use, and offers multiple blogs and themes built on Smarty. I haven’t had much experience with LifeType, but its loyal users sing praises about its clean code and lightness.

And finally, Movable Type. Okay, so I’ll always have a soft spot for MT- but you know what? It’s a great system, maybe the only one on this list that can truly go head to head with WordPress in terms of features. It features multiple blogs (something I would love regular WP to have), supports both static and dynamic page generation, and has some of the most beautiful blog themes ever to grace the Internet. Movable Type is powered by Perl and not PHP, so if you’re more comfortable with the former, this is probably a better choice for you.

Do you have any WordPress alternatives to suggest? Let us know.

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