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	<title>Build A Blog</title>
	
	<link>http://builda-blog.com</link>
	<description>My personal journey with Blogs and Building them.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:06:35 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Categories, Pages and Links – Are you using them properly?</title>
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		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2010/03/11/categories-pages-and-links-are-you-using-them-properly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:35:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[categories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[del.icio.us]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flickr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Links]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photoblogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=412</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;ve been following my series on Wordpress.com then you&#8217;ll know that we&#8217;ve looked at how to start a blog with Wordpress.com. And learned how to customise it by changing to your chosen theme, we&#8217;ve also looked at what a widget is and how to add them to your blog to add functionality. Now it&#8217;s [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/03/11/categories-pages-and-links-are-you-using-them-properly/">Categories, Pages and Links &#8211; Are you using them properly?</a></p>



Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?'>What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</a> <small>So What&#8217;s a Widget Then&#8230; Widgets are the best and...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
</ol>

Related posts brought to you by <a href='http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/'>Yet Another Related Posts Plugin</a>.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;ve been following my series on Wordpress.com then you&#8217;ll know that we&#8217;ve looked at how to start a blog with Wordpress.com. And learned how to customise it by changing to your chosen theme, we&#8217;ve also looked at what a widget is and how to add them to your blog to add functionality. Now it&#8217;s time to look at the navigation for your blog, you want your readers to be able to move around your blog easily because of it&#8217;s simple and useful navigation. You want your readers to stay on your blog and come back regularly because it&#8217;s easy to use and gives them value.</p>
<h3>Categories, Pages and Links&#8230;</h3>
<p>These are the basis to your blogs navigation, and if used properly they will enhance your blog and make it an easy place to navigate. If you take a look at the top of this blog you&#8217;ll see them in action, above the name of the blog you&#8217;ll see my pages and underneath the blog name or header you&#8217;ll see my categories. Lets look at them more closely:</p>
<h3>Categories</h3>
<p>Obviously a blog is like an online diary and you can scroll down the page, to read previous entries, but it can only show so many posts on that one page. Once they move off the front page they will fall into the blogs archives, and archives are not the easiest or nicest place to search through. But if you use categories well on your blog then your readers have a very easy time finding the information that they are looking for. Take this blog for instance, maybe a reader doesn&#8217;t want to know about Wordpress.com which I have been talking about a lot recently, but they may want to learn about my <a title="Case study blog" href="http://builda-blog.com/category/case-study/" target="_self">case study blog</a> or about <a title="Marketing" href="http://builda-blog.com/category/marketing/" target="_self">marketing</a> for blogs. It&#8217;s easy for them to find that information because all they have to do is click on the relevant link in my navigation bar, and it will take them to all the articles that have been assigned that category.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s very easy to assign or create categories. Just select or create a category when writing your blog post using the category tab on the right side of the text box where you write your post.</p>
<p>Beware though when writing articles make sure you assign a category in the first place and then make sure it&#8217;s relevant, there&#8217;s no point in having a messy category system. Of course some articles will overlap and need to be in 2 or more categories but just make these decisions carefully. Try and think like a reader would visiting your blog, put yourself in their shoes.</p>
<h3>Pages</h3>
<p>This is where I think Wordpress stands apart from other blogging platform providers like Blogger. Pages was also the reason I moved my blog to Wordpress in the first place. Wordpress gives you the ability to create pages for your blog, you can see them in action in my navigation bar at the very top of this blog. At the moment I have an about, archives and an articles page for popular articles and article series to be easily found. This expands the potential of your blog enormously and gives you the ability to add a lot of information, and therefore expanding your blog making it into a real site and not just an online journal. Use pages to add an about page, contact page, popular articles page, recommendations page, photo galleries, reviews, podcasts, etc&#8230; it&#8217;s limited only by you! Just remember to keep them updated and fresh!</p>
<h3>Links</h3>
<p>Links or your &#8216;blogroll&#8217; is a place where you can add a link to anywhere you like. Link to your other sites like your flickr page, twitter, del.icio.us, digg, or facebook page, friends and family, photoblogs, favourite sites or sites or products that you want to promote. Make categories within your links section and then you can add more than one links widget to your sidebar, one for each category? It gives you really good control over how you want to display your links.</p>
<p>If you look down the sidebar you&#8217;ll see that I have &#8217;sites I like&#8217; as my link widget and I&#8217;ve made it a combination of my other sites, my social media, family and sites or products that&#8230;well that I like!</p>
<p>This is the part of blogging and Wordpress that I really love! Features like these give you tremendous flexibility to customise your blog and be as creative as you want to be. I personally would never be able to do any of this with a traditional website, never mind do it so quickly.</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>If you liked this article then please <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_self">subscribe to my RSS Feed</a> and never miss another one!</p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/03/11/categories-pages-and-links-are-you-using-them-properly/">Categories, Pages and Links &#8211; Are you using them properly?</a></p>


<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?'>What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</a> <small>So What&#8217;s a Widget Then&#8230; Widgets are the best and...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
</ol></p>
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		<item>
		<title>What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/EtSNRDqwhwc/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:33:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[build a blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[build a blog with wordpress]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[test blog]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=389</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So What&#8217;s a Widget Then&#8230;
Widgets are the best and easiest way to add features and functionality to your blog without having to know any code or PHP to do it. Here&#8217;s a list of the widgets that are available for the test blog &#8211; Build a Blog with Wordpress:
Akismet &#8211; helps block spam from your [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/">What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</a></p>



Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/03/11/categories-pages-and-links-are-you-using-them-properly/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Categories, Pages and Links &#8211; Are you using them properly?'>Categories, Pages and Links &#8211; Are you using them properly?</a> <small>If you&#8217;ve been following my series on Wordpress.com then you&#8217;ll...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
</ol>

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3>So What&#8217;s a Widget Then&#8230;</h3>
<p>Widgets are the best and easiest way to add features and functionality to your blog without having to know any code or PHP to do it. Here&#8217;s a list of the widgets that are available for the test blog &#8211; <a title="Build a Blog with Wordpress" href="http://buildablogwith.wordpress.com" target="_blank">Build a Blog with Wordpress</a>:</p>
<p><strong>Akismet</strong> &#8211; helps block spam from your blog and provides stats on it<br />
<strong>Archives </strong>- monthly archives of your blog posts<br />
<strong>Authors</strong> &#8211; if your blog has more than one author<br />
<strong>Blog stats</strong> &#8211; show your stats<br />
<strong>Blog subscriptions</strong> &#8211; add an email sign up form to subscribe to your blog<br />
<strong>Box.net</strong> &#8211; file sharing<br />
<strong>Calendar </strong>- calendar of your blog posts<br />
<strong>Category</strong> &#8211; your blogs categories, list or drop down menu<br />
<strong>Category Cloud </strong>- category cloud<br />
<strong>del.icio.us</strong> &#8211; add your favourite bookmarks<br />
<strong>Gravatar</strong> &#8211; add a Gravatar image<br />
<strong>Image </strong>- add an image to your sidebar<br />
<strong>Links </strong>- add your Blogroll (list of your favourite links) to the sidebar<br />
<strong>Meebo</strong> &#8211; Meebo<br />
<strong>Meta </strong>- admin login access<br />
<strong>Pages</strong> &#8211; your blogs pages<br />
<strong>Recent Posts</strong> &#8211; add your blogs most recent posts<br />
<strong>RSS </strong>- add entries from any RSS Feed<br />
<strong>RSS Links </strong>- links to your blogs RSS Feed<br />
<strong>Search </strong>- a search form for your blog<br />
<strong>SocialVibe </strong>- Get sponsored, support a charity<br />
<strong>Text </strong>- add any text or HTML to the sidebar<br />
<strong>Top Clicks </strong>- your blogs Top Clicks<br />
<strong>Top Posts </strong>- your blogs Top Posts<br />
<strong>Top Rated</strong> &#8211; a list of your blogs top rated posts, pages or comments<br />
<strong>Twitter </strong>- display your tweets from Twitter<br />
<strong>VodPod videos </strong>- add Vodpod videos</p>
<h3>How Do I Add One to my Blog?</h3>
<p>Go to Appearance &#8211;&gt; Widgets and take a look around, it should look similar to the image below. Which is the widget page for the test blog Build a Blog with Wordpress. As you can see on the left is the list of available widgets and on the right is the places on the blog which are able to have widgets added to them. For this blogs theme they include sidebar, footer left, footer middle, footer right and header. Then it&#8217;s a simple case of drag and drop the widgets that you want to use to the corresponding menu on the right. They will then appear in the drop down menu and you will be able to arrange them in any order you like.</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/WIDGET-PAGE.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-392" title="WIDGET--PAGE" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/WIDGET-PAGE.gif" alt="" width="494" height="255" /></a></p>
<p>Below are some screen shots to show you where the widgets will appear on the test blog when I add them to the corresponding areas on the widget page in the blogs admin:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/TOP-WIDGETS.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-393" title="TOP-WIDGETS" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/TOP-WIDGETS.gif" alt="" width="495" height="316" /></a></p>
<p>The red area at the top next to the blog title is the header area for widgets and the red area on the right is the sidebar area for widgets.</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/WIDGETS-BOTTOM.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-394" title="WIDGETS-BOTTOM" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/WIDGETS-BOTTOM.gif" alt="" width="495" height="283" /></a></p>
<p>This screen shot is of the footer of the blog and is at the very bottom of the site, the red area is the footer area for widgets and it offers 3 widgetised areas, left, middle and right.</p>
<p>These positions will differ though depending on the theme that you are using and how it has been coded. That can be a big factor when choosing a theme and an even bigger one is to make sure the theme is widget ready in the first place or you won&#8217;t be able to add anything.</p>
<h3>Adding Widgets</h3>
<p>Now lets add some widgets to Build a Blog with Wordpress and see what it looks like:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sidebar-widgets.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-399" title="sidebar widgets" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sidebar-widgets.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="504" /></a></p>
<p>As you can see from this screen shot I&#8217;ve added just a few widgets to the sidebar and footer areas of the theme: an email blog subscription form, recent blog entries, my links, my Twitter feed, my Flickr feed, archives, categories and a tag cloud. They can also be easily removed from the menus by either drag and dropping again, or when setting the options for each widget it gives you the choice to delete the widget from the menu. Take a look at the<a title="Build a Blog with Wordpress" href="http://buildablogwith.wordpress.com" target="_blank"> test blog</a> to see what they look like, and you&#8217;ll see how easy it is to add some great features and functionality to your blog.</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>If you enjoyed this post you may want to <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_self">subscribe to my RSS Feed</a> and never miss another one!</p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/">What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</a></p>


<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/03/11/categories-pages-and-links-are-you-using-them-properly/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Categories, Pages and Links &#8211; Are you using them properly?'>Categories, Pages and Links &#8211; Are you using them properly?</a> <small>If you&#8217;ve been following my series on Wordpress.com then you&#8217;ll...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
</ol></p>
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		<item>
		<title>How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/lUjclFYimCI/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:59:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog themes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[changing a theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[connections theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[depo square theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grid theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[motion theme]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[wordpress themes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=369</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to change your blog&#8217;s theme with Wordpress.com. Everyone wants to give their blog that personal touch and make it their own, and changing your theme from the default Kubrick theme to another one is the first step.
1. Go down to the Appearance tab on the left [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/">How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a></p>



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<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
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</ol>

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to change your blog&#8217;s theme with Wordpress.com. Everyone wants to give their blog that personal touch and make it their own, and changing your theme from the default Kubrick theme to another one is the first step.</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Go down to the Appearance tab on the left hand side of the dashboard and go to Appearance &#8212; Themes. It should take you to the Manage Themes page:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/manage-themes.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-370" title="manage-themes" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/manage-themes.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="261" /></a></p>
<p>At the top it shows the theme that you are currently using and then underneath you can browse the themes available for your blog on Wordpress.com. You can either randomly browse, A-Z or by popular. At the moment there are 81 themes available but that figure grows all the time. You&#8217;ll see under the name of the theme there is a link for activate or preview, it&#8217;s pretty self explanitory click preview and a screen will appear with a preview of what your blog would look like using that theme. If you like it you can activate it, or you can close and keep looking.</p>
<p>For example here is what Build a Blog with Wordpress would look like using the Connections theme:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/preview.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-386" title="preview" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/preview.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="305" /></a></p>
<p>I changed the theme already from the Kubrick theme to the Pool theme and now I want to find one that fits the blog a little better. The only must have for me is that the theme is widget ready so it can be easily added to. Remember all themes are not equal, check it out before you decide. And in my opinion no theme is perfect, lets face it, it never is there&#8217;s always something that could work better or differently &#8211; or maybe thats just me?</p>
<p>Here are my 3 favourite themes:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/grid-theme.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-381" title="grid-theme" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/grid-theme.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="288" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/motion-theme.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-382" title="motion-theme" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/motion-theme.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="285" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/square-theme.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-383" title="square-theme" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/square-theme.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="319" /></a></p>
<p>It takes two minutes to actually change the theme &#8211; and two days to decide which one to use!!!</p>
<p>If you want to see a Photoblogging theme in action then you could take a look at my new photoblog which I created on Wordpress.com &#8211; <a title="Mandy Jones Photography Photoblog" href="http://mandyjonesphotography.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Mandy Jones Photography</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p><a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_self"><strong>Subscribe to my RSS Feed</strong></a> and never miss another post</p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/">How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a></p>


<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/14/a-thrilling-wordpress-theme/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;'>A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;</a> <small>So we&#8217;re in 2010 a start of a new year...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
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		<title>Anatomy of a Blog – Jargon Buster</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/rB4nMXUXow0/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:05:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog anatomy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[build a blog with wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kubrick theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pool theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=355</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point of view, who wants to get up to speed as soon as possible and miss out the annoying search for information.
So lets get back to basics and break a blog down into it&#8217;s component parts. Below is a screenshot of our test blog using the [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/">Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a></p>



Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?'>What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</a> <small>So What&#8217;s a Widget Then&#8230; Widgets are the best and...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com'>How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a> <small>In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
</ol>

Related posts brought to you by <a href='http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/'>Yet Another Related Posts Plugin</a>.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point of view, who wants to get up to speed as soon as possible and miss out the annoying search for information.</p>
<p>So lets get back to basics and break a blog down into it&#8217;s component parts. Below is a screenshot of our test blog using the Kubrick theme which comes as default with every new Wordpress blog, <a title="Build a Blog with Wordpress" href="http://buildablogwith.wordpress.com" target="_blank">Build a Blog with Wordpress</a>:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/anatomy-blog.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-357" title="anatomy blog" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/anatomy-blog.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="413" /></a></p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> This is the blogs header area, it contains the blogs title and tagline and can also display images. The header is the first element of your blog that a reader will see, and with this theme it includes the blogs title and tagline.</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> This is the content area for the blog where your posts will appear. With the most recent post at the top and the rest in date order underneath. Blog posts can be just text but they can also contain images, video&#8217;s or podcasts.</p>
<p><strong>3. </strong>This is the blogs sidebar where you can add widgets to add functionality to your blog. For instance with this theme as a default you get a link to the blogs pages, archives and categories. The blogroll is a list of your favourite links and the meta widget is a quick link to log into your blog. Or you could add widgets for Twitter, Flickr, Facebook or advertising the list goes on.</p>
<p><strong>4. </strong>Is the blogs footer with a link to RSS subscriptions for posts and comments to the blog, and a link to Wordpress.com. But this can differ depending on the theme. You can also edit it to include copyright information.</p>
<p>Now take a look at the test blog with a different theme installed in this case the Pool theme, notice the slight difference in layout between the themes:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/anatomy-blog-pool.jpg"></a><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/anatomy-blog-pool1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-359" title="anatomy blog pool" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/anatomy-blog-pool1.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="363" /></a></p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Header area, this time it just contains the blog&#8217;s title.</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> This is the blogs navigation bar containing tabs for the blogs pages, these can be added to as you build your blog. The navigation bar normally appears below the header but in some themes it can be above.</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> The content area including blog post and title, tags, category, date the post was published and a &#8216;leave a comment&#8217; link. Commenting is a very important part of blogging letting you interact with your readers easily and vice versa.</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> The sidebar, depending on your blogs theme it could have 1, 2 or even 3 sidebars.</p>
<p><strong>5.</strong> The footer, this footer has a link to the Theme developer&#8217;s site.</p>
<p>There are around 80 different themes to choose from with Wordpress.com, these themes can be customised and changed to make your blog look exactly how you want it to, which makes Wordpress extremely flexible to use. But the raw elements of a blog will always stay the same.</p>
<p>Next time we&#8217;ll look at how to select and change a theme with Wordpress.com</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>Never miss another post by <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_self">Subscribing to my RSS Feed!</a></p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/">Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a></p>


<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/23/what-is-a-widget-and-how-do-i-use-one/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?'>What is a Widget and How Do I Use One?</a> <small>So What&#8217;s a Widget Then&#8230; Widgets are the best and...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com'>How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a> <small>In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
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		<title>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:29:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beginner blogger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[build a blog with wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[create a blog with Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[start a blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=326</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In my last post I talked about how easy it can be to forget the frustration and impatience that you can feel as an absolute beginner blogger, trying to figure out how on earth you do with this blogging thing! So this series of posts is for all the absolute beginner bloggers out there that [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/">How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a></p>



Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/09/anatomy-of-a-blog-jargon-buster/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster'>Anatomy of a Blog &#8211; Jargon Buster</a> <small>I am looking at this from an absolute beginners point...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com'>How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a> <small>In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/18/do-you-need-help-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?'>Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?</a> <small>Definition of a Blog: A blog (a contraction of the...</small></li>
</ol>

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In my <a title="Do you need help with Wordpress.com" href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/18/do-you-need-help-with-wordpress-com/" target="_blank">last post</a> I talked about how easy it can be to forget the frustration and impatience that you can feel as an absolute beginner blogger, trying to figure out how on earth you do with this blogging thing! So this series of posts is for all the absolute beginner bloggers out there that want to <strong>create a blog using Wordpress.com</strong>, but would like some help and support doing so.</p>
<p>Right, so here we go, I&#8217;ll take you through step by step how to create the blog in the first place, by creating a test blog with Wordpress so you can follow and see exactly what we are doing at each stage. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments at the bottom of the post.</p>
<p><strong>Step 1.</strong> Go to <a title="Wordpress.com" href="http://wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Wordpress.com</a>, on the right it says, &#8216;Express yourself. Start a Blog.&#8217; click on the &#8217;sign up now&#8217; button.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Step 2.</strong> It will take you to a form to create a Wordpress.com account. The Username and Password will be used to login to your blogs admin or backend where you&#8217;ll post and edit articles to your blog. It can be anything you want just make a note of it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wp-account-INFO.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-333 aligncenter" title="wp-account-INFO" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wp-account-INFO.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="431" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Step 3.</strong> On the next page you&#8217;ll choose the blogs domain name or URL (they all end in .wordpress.com) by default they put the username in that you&#8217;ve just picked, delete it and replace with whatever you want (you can&#8217;t change this). Here you&#8217;ll also choose the blog&#8217;s title which appears at the top of the blog (this you can change). When you sign up they will check if the blog domain name that you have chosen is unique before proceding, if not you&#8217;ll need to tweek until you find one thats not taken. At the bottom you can start filling your profile in now or wait til later. Last thing to do is activate your account by going to the email that they&#8217;ve just sent you and click the link.</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/blog-name.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-338" title="blog-name" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/blog-name.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="301" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Step 4.</strong> Voila, it&#8217;s done the blog is live! After activating the account you can login with the Username and Password that you just created. At the top of the Wordpress dashboard click on the blogs name and it will take you to your newly created blog, take a look around the blog (not much to see yet) and the dashboard, (all the major links are down the left hand side of the dashboard) this is where all the behind the scenes magic happens. At the moment it&#8217;s using the default theme that comes with every installation, the Kubrick theme (but we can soon change that).</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/blog.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-342" title="blog" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/blog.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="395" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dashboard-WP.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-339" title="dashboard-WP" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dashboard-WP.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="280" /></a></p>
<p>Right, now we can start to make some changes. I&#8217;m going to change my blog title and blogs tagline (the line underneath the blog title &#8211; just another wordpress.com weblog) to start with, go back to the Wordpress dashboard and down the left hand side at the bottom go to Settings &#8211; General. Here I can change the blog title and blog tagline and then update.</p>
<p><strong>Step 5.</strong> Next I want to get rid of the welcome post and the welcome comment that automatically appears whenever you start a blog. To do this you go to the dashboard again and in the middle you&#8217;ll see &#8216;right now&#8217; with the number of posts, pages, comments etc.. underneath. Click on &#8216;1 post&#8217; and wordpress will take you to the edit post screen, then hover over the title. Wordpress will give you the option to edit, quick edit, trash or view, just click on trash and it&#8217;s gone. Now you can write your own welcome post instead.</p>
<p>Now for the comment. Because you&#8217;ve deleted the post that the comment was attached to it deletes the comment as well. But while we&#8217;re on the subject here&#8217;s how to delete a comment: Underneath &#8216;right now&#8217; you&#8217;ll see recent comments, again just hover over the comment and you&#8217;ll see 5 options: unapprove, reply, edit, spam or trash. You&#8217;ve got it, click trash!</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/right-now.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-345" title="right-now" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/right-now.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="404" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Step 6.</strong> Last job to do is go and finish updating your profile. In the top right hand corner of the dashboard you&#8217;ll see Howdy [name] that link will take you to the profile page. Personally I scroll down to &#8216;Name&#8217; and change my nickname and how my name displays publicly to something other than my username, so it&#8217;s harder for someone to hack into the blog. Fill in the rest to your own taste and then update profile at the bottom. Done.</p>
<p>Ok that&#8217;s it, for now anyway. It&#8217;s a very easy process and an easy blogging platform to use &#8211; especially when you know how. Here&#8217;s what the blog looks like now with the changes:</p>
<p><a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/new-blog.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-350" title="new-blog" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/new-blog.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="380" /></a></p>
<p>That didn&#8217;t take long. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>If you enjoyed this article then please consider <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_blank">subscribing to my RSS Feed</a> and never miss another one!</p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/">How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a></p>


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<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/18/do-you-need-help-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?'>Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?</a> <small>Definition of a Blog: A blog (a contraction of the...</small></li>
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		<item>
		<title>Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?</title>
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		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/18/do-you-need-help-with-wordpress-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:36:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress.org]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=311</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Definition of a Blog:
A blog (a contraction of the term &#8220;web log&#8220;) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. &#8220;Blog&#8221; can also be used as a verb, meaning to [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/18/do-you-need-help-with-wordpress-com/">Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?</a></p>



Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/14/a-thrilling-wordpress-theme/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;'>A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;</a> <small>So we&#8217;re in 2010 a start of a new year...</small></li>
</ol>

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3>Definition of a Blog:<a href="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wordpress-logo-stacked-rgb.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-316" title="wplogo-stacked-cmyk" src="http://builda-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wordpress-logo-stacked-rgb.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="125" /></a></h3>
<blockquote><p>A <strong>blog</strong> (a contraction of the term &#8220;<strong>web log</strong>&#8220;) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. &#8220;Blog&#8221; can also be used as a verb, meaning <em>to maintain or add content to a blog</em>.</p>
<p>Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. (Wiki)</p></blockquote>
<p>Blogs are used for everything from an extension of a business and promoting it to a personal diary online that can only be seen by friends, so they&#8217;re extremely flexible. But what if you&#8217;ve never used one before, or want to start one and have no idea where to start or how to do it?</p>
<h3>Choosing the Right Blog for You &#8211; What do you Want?</h3>
<p>Well that reminds me of a conversation I had with my sister a couple of weeks ago. She&#8217;s an artist and has had a &#8216;proper website&#8217; for a while, but like most people she has no experience in web design or maintenance, therefore no idea how to change or update it when needed so she has to rely on a friend who knows some web design, which is very limiting. That&#8217;s where blogs step in becuase anybody can create a website/blog and have full control over adding and changing the content very easily without having to know any web design. Realizing this she asked me for help with starting a blog, her only requirement being that it had to be <em>free!</em></p>
<p>Obviously to have a blog on the internet it needs to be hosted so it can be seen. I&#8217;ve been blogging for a couple of years now and I feel Wordpress is the best blogging platform (software) out there and that&#8217;s what I use, and that will be the examples I use. Now there are 2 ways you can host a blog either you:</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Use a service that hosts the blog on your behalf  (<a title="Wordpress.com" href="http://wordpress.com/" target="_self">Wordpress.com</a>) or<br />
<strong>pros:</strong> it&#8217;s free<br />
<strong>cons:</strong> limited features<br />
<strong>2. </strong>You pick the blogging software that you wish to use and arrange your own hosting through a hosting company. (<a title="Wordpress.org" href="http://wordpress.org/" target="_self">Wordpress.org</a>)<br />
<strong>pros: </strong>ultimate flexibility and features<br />
<strong>cons:</strong> you have to pay for hosting</p>
<h3>Wordpress For Absolute beginners</h3>
<p>My advice for her was to start a blog at Wordpress.com which is a good place to start, and get used to how blogs work. It&#8217;s also the free version of Wordpress.org which I use on my blogs and I think is the best platform for blogging. So that sorts out her requirement &#8211; Free. Also if you want to upgrade to Wordpress.org in the future it&#8217;s easy to import all of your Wordpress.com blog over to the new Wordpress.org blog, so no worries there.</p>
<p>But while I talked her through setting the blog up I realised how much I take for granted when it comes to blogging knowledge, she knows nothing about blogging (I&#8217;m sure she won&#8217;t mind me saying that). So one question then leads to 20 more and one answer is a lot longer and indepth because it raises other issues. So with that in mind I&#8217;m starting an ongoing series of posts for <strong>absolute beginners using Wordpress.com</strong>, and I will be starting my own test blog to show step by step what to do.</p>
<p>So if you are interested in following this series then <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-Blog" target="_self">subscribe to my posts by RSS or email</a> and you won&#8217;t miss any of them (I&#8217;ll get my sister to do that as well!).</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget to <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-Blog" target="_self">Subscribe to my RSS Feed!</a> If you&#8217;re not sure what that is take a look here &#8211; <a title="What is RSS?" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU" target="_self">What is RSS?</a></p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/18/do-you-need-help-with-wordpress-com/">Do You Need Help With Wordpress.Com?</a></p>


<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/07/how-to-create-a-blog-using-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com'>How to Create a Blog Using Wordpress.Com</a> <small>In my last post I talked about how easy it...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/14/a-thrilling-wordpress-theme/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;'>A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;</a> <small>So we&#8217;re in 2010 a start of a new year...</small></li>
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		<title>A Thrilling Wordpress Theme…</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/ROLLFbJM3KU/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/14/a-thrilling-wordpress-theme/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:35:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cody Mckibbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Wordpress Themes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thrilling Theme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Worpdress Themes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=206</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So we&#8217;re in 2010 a start of a new year and I&#8217;m raring to go! It&#8217;s funny how a new year makes me feel like that!
Anyway, I thought it was time for a change and a facelift for Build a Blog. It&#8217;s not just a cosmetic change that I&#8217;m looking for, I wanted some specific [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/14/a-thrilling-wordpress-theme/">A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;</a></p>



Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com'>How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a> <small>In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to...</small></li>
</ol>

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So we&#8217;re in 2010 a start of a new year and I&#8217;m raring to go! It&#8217;s funny how a new year makes me feel like that!</p>
<p>Anyway, I thought it was time for a change and a facelift for Build a Blog. It&#8217;s not just a cosmetic change that I&#8217;m looking for, I wanted some specific features for the blog. Like better integration of social media as well as the usual RSS feed, out of the box SEO optimisation and built in ad management. Mostly I wanted to find a theme that would work straight out of the box and was full of features, now that&#8217;s a nice little wish list on it&#8217;s own but I wanted all this in a <em>free theme</em>, if I was going to buy a theme then I already knew what I&#8217;d use (more of that to come). I suppose in one way this was quite a lazy approach but I didn&#8217;t want to have to fiddle about in the backend of the blog alot because I wanted to concentrate on content creation instead.</p>
<p>I know how hard it can be to find a quality free Wordpress theme so I&#8217;m sharing what I&#8217;ve found with you. Luckily I came across the <a title="Thrilling Theme" href="http://www.thrillingheroics.com/thrillingtheme" target="_blank">Thrilling Theme</a> for Wordpress by Cody McKibbon and knew straight away it was what I was looking for, it&#8217;s very neat and clean which makes it easy to use and has all of the main features (and more) that I was looking for. Here are some of my favourites:</p>
<ul>
<li>4 Color Schemes – Shades of Grey, Thrilling Orange, Black &amp; White, Icy Blue</li>
<li>Search Engine Optimized</li>
<li>Add your own snapshot image to the header</li>
<li>Easy integration with Twitter and Flickr</li>
<li>Tabbed features/popular posts &amp; more in the sidebar</li>
<li>Integration with FeedBurner email subscriptions</li>
<li>125×125 and 300×250 ad management</li>
<li>3 widget-ready sidebar areas</li>
<li>Gravatar support in comments</li>
<li>Compressed CSS &amp; minified JavaScript for faster load time</li>
<li>Custom page templates for archives, sitemap &amp; photo galleries</li>
<li>Easy customization with the integrated theme options page</li>
</ul>
<p>Some of these features help cut down on the amount of plugins that I would use because they are already hard coded into the theme, which is great because that&#8217;s less to go wrong and have to maintain. The best part is that it&#8217;s free to use which surprised me because of the quality of the theme, you can donate though. Although there&#8217;s no proper support for the theme with it being free (it&#8217;s pretty straight forward) there is some help available in frequently asked questions that have been answered and bug reporting.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m really happy with the results and it was very easy to set up &#8211; So please take a look around and see what the theme can do? Let me know what you think in the comments&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>Never miss another post by <a title="RSS Subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_self">Subscribing to my RSS Feed!</a></p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2010/01/14/a-thrilling-wordpress-theme/">A Thrilling Wordpress Theme&#8230;</a></p>


<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://builda-blog.com/2010/02/14/how-to-change-your-theme-with-wordpress-com/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com'>How to Change Your Theme with Wordpress.com</a> <small>In this post I&#8217;m going to show you how to...</small></li>
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		<title>What Build a Blog can do for you…</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/sP3JifHNj5U/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2009/05/12/what-build-a-blog-can-do-for-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 20:27:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Info]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beginner blogger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=173</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve had an interesting year so far this year, as you will see from my unexpected photography project that I talk about on my digital photography blog.
My first blog
When I started this blog I had no experience with blogging whatsoever, yeah I&#8217;d read a few blogs but without really knowing what they were or how [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2009/05/12/what-build-a-blog-can-do-for-you/">What Build a Blog can do for you&#8230;</a></p>



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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve had an interesting year so far this year, as you will see from my <a title="unexpected photography project" href="http://thephotographerblog.com/418/an-unexpected-photography-project/" target="_self">unexpected photography project</a> that I talk about on my digital photography blog.</p>
<h4>My first blog</h4>
<p>When I started this blog I had no experience with blogging whatsoever, yeah I&#8217;d read a few blogs but without really knowing what they were or how they were created. So you could say I jumped in the deep end or kind of just wandered into the world of blogging by mistake! I started my first blog with <a title="Blogger" href="https://www.blogger.com/start" target="_self">Blogger</a> and looked around for some information on blogs and how they worked. What did you do with them?</p>
<p>And what I remember about that time is the vast amount of information that was around about blogs, and how much that information varied in it&#8217;s usefulness. There was everything from how to build your blog to how to make huge amounts of money with your blog. All written by established bloggers who had spent a long time learning about blogs and building them, basically successful bloggers who had put the time and effort in to produce a successful blog.</p>
<p>And I take my hat off to them, they were and are an inspiration to me and my ongoing journey with blogging. But sometimes it can be hard for a beginner blogger to relate to a professional blogger, they can seem miles apart. I have learned a lot since I was first introduced to blogs, but to be honest I wouldn&#8217;t say it&#8217;s been an easy ride. Learning about blogs from scratch has been hard and challenging, especially because I had no other background with anything on the Internet or Internet marketing.</p>
<p>At times it&#8217;s been very slow going and very frustrating due to my lack of knowledge. And it was the things that I knew were simple (for everyone else) that took twice as long for me because I was learning them as I went. I famously remember wanting to launch my computer out of the nearest window because after 3 days I still couldn&#8217;t figure out how to upload a theme to Wordpress!</p>
<h4>What this blog can do for you!</h4>
<p>And that&#8217;s stayed with me, most often it&#8217;s the simplest things that can cause the most problems! Why? Because they can be the first steps that we learn as bloggers and they can seem so simple (now) that they are often overlooked when bloggers are writing information. So the beginner blogger can be left to struggle (unintentionally of course!) and spend time trawling the Internet for answers.</p>
<p>This is where Build a Blog comes in, Build a Blog is about my personal journey with blogs and blogging. And a place for beginner bloggers to find simple and clear information about setting up blogs, and making them into a solid foundation for their content. Covering the simple steps that are essential for beginner bloggers to learn, but can easily be overlooked by experienced bloggers who have just forgotten what those first steps are like.</p>
<p>Once I&#8217;ve covered all the basic elements to setting up a blog I will pull all the information together and produce a pdf report so all the information will be together and easy to read. I look forward to writing more about blogs and blogging and learning more tips to improve the blogging experience for me and my readers.</p>
<p>Post in the comments if there are any problems that you are encountering?</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Don&#8217;t forget to <a title="RSS subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-blog" target="_self">subscribe to my RSS feed</a> so you don&#8217;t miss anything!</span></p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2009/05/12/what-build-a-blog-can-do-for-you/">What Build a Blog can do for you&#8230;</a></p>


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		<item>
		<title>Happy New Year!</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/h6_a7RPGjm4/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2009/01/05/happy-new-year/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:11:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Info]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[growth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/?p=167</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;d just like to wish everybody a happy New Year, and that your Christmas (if you celebrate it) was equally enjoyable.
At this time of year I can&#8217;t help but look back over 2008 a little, and that helps me to then look forward to 2009 and all that I hope it will bring&#8230;
What happened in [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2009/01/05/happy-new-year/">Happy New Year!</a></p>



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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;d just like to wish everybody a happy New Year, and that your Christmas (if you celebrate it) was equally enjoyable.</p>
<p>At this time of year I can&#8217;t help but look back over 2008 a little, and that helps me to then look forward to 2009 and all that I hope it will bring&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>What happened in 2008</strong></p>
<p>If I look outwards to the world and the major events that happened this year. Then it was truly a landmark year, especially if you look at the major events that effected the world, like the election of the first African American President for America and the global financial problems for instance. Definitely a year to remember.</p>
<p>And then from a personal point of view the dominating factors were the deaths of 3 close family members and friends, that have obviously effected me. And also finding out that I will need a fairly major operation has really made me look at myself this year and what I want to achieve. A year to remember&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Looking forward to 2009</strong></p>
<p>In the next couple of days I will be going into hospital for my operation so that is on my mind a lot at the moment. But I also want to learn from this experience, about myself, what is important and what changes I may want to make because of what I have learned.</p>
<p>So from a personal point of view there is a lot going on, which is actually quite exciting. Any changes that I want to make will have an effect on my blogging and my photography, which both need a little more attention at the moment after last year. Taking a little time and putting myself first, instead of running around after everybody else and trying to fit everything in, will be good for me (forced or otherwise).</p>
<p>My aim for 2009 is growth, both personally and in my online activities.</p>
<p><strong>Mandy</strong></p>
<p>If this article interested you, then you may like to <a title="RSS subscribe" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThePhotographerblog" target="_self">subscribe to my RSS Feed</a> to hear more!</p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2009/01/05/happy-new-year/">Happy New Year!</a></p>


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		<title>Yaro’s blog coaching program is OPEN</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Builda-blog/~3/mN1XFxiWhQY/</link>
		<comments>http://builda-blog.com/2008/07/29/yaros-blog-coaching-program-is-open/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:17:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mandy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Info]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog mastermind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yaro starak]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://builda-blog.com/2008/07/29/yaros-blog-coaching-program-is-open/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ I expect you have seen some of the videos that Yaro Starak has released during the last week, they are full of information. The videos and interview with a million dollar blogger he published to help us all become better bloggers really impressed a lot of people &#8211; including me. He&#8217;s also released 2 [...]<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2008/07/29/yaros-blog-coaching-program-is-open/">Yaro&#8217;s blog coaching program is OPEN</a></p>



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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> I expect you have seen some of the videos that Yaro Starak has released during the last week, they are full of information. The videos and interview with a million dollar blogger he published to help us all become better bloggers really impressed a lot of people &#8211; including me. He&#8217;s also released 2 videos showing how he makes money with his blog. You can watch them through this link &#8211; <a href="http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/index.php?af=789717&amp;u=http://www.blogmastermind.com/video/how.php" title="How Yaro's blog makes money" target="_blank">How Yaro&#8217;s Blog Makes Money</a>.</p>
<p>Today is your chance to become the next blogging success story and Yaro is willing to help you get there.</p>
<p>His private coaching program has just opened to take on new students. You can join here -<br />
<a href="http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/index.php?af=789717&amp;u=http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching" title="Blog Mastermind coaching program">Yaro&#8217;s Blog Mastermind Coaching Program </a></p>
<p>The program, called Blog Mastermind, is comprehensive and includes -</p>
<ul>
<li> &#8211; A step-by-step coaching course delivered in weekly lessons in text and audio format</li>
<li> &#8211; Private members-only forum community and access to regular live training calls with Yaro (you can ask him anything you want about your blog)</li>
<li> &#8211; Video case studies of blogs and a ten-part series of audios from Yaro covering the core</li>
<li> aspects about what it takes to earn big dollars from a blog</li>
<li> &#8211; Access to the social traffic club, a special community of members who help each other drive traffic to their blogs from social media sites</li>
<li> &#8211; 5 unique interviews with professional bloggers like Darren Rowse, Brian Clark and Andy Wibbels</li>
<li> &#8211; Plus loads more.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can take a behind the scenes tour and hear Yaro talk about his coaching program if you watch the short video at the start of the sign-up page here -</p>
<p><a href="http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/index.php?af=789717&amp;u=http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching" title="Blog Mastermind coaching program">Click here for more information on the Blog Mastermind Coaching Program </a></p>
<p>This is definitely the only course I know of that teaches you how to make a full time living blogging only part time, and how to build a real business from a blog, taught by someone who has actually done it.</p>
<p>Yaro&#8217;s teaching style is unique, he&#8217;s easy to learn from and has an ability to make complex subjects simple to understand.</p>
<p>He&#8217;s also one of the only bloggers I know of who really understands Internet marketing and how to build a business that doesn&#8217;t suck all your time.</p>
<p>Plus he makes over six-figures a year from his blog, so that&#8217;s enough proof for me!</p>
<p>No matter what level of blogger you are, whether you are brand new and still don&#8217;t even have a blog, or you are an experienced blogger who wants to take their income to the next level and stop working so hard, Blog Mastermind is for you.</p>
<p>Yaro is offering 3 fast-action bonuses for the first 100 new members who join his program today. They include three interviews and videos on important subjects to any blogger -</p>
<ul>
<li> &#8211; How to effectively implement Yaro&#8217;s &#8220;Conversion Blogging&#8221; system on your blog</li>
<li> &#8211; How to use video to market online, just like Yaro did with his recent videos, with advice from video expert Gideon Shalwick</li>
<li>- Advanced tactics to improve your conversion rates to sell more from your blog posts and email newsletters, coming from Will Swayne, the conversion specialist Yaro hires to improve his blogging business</li>
</ul>
<p>You can read more about the bonuses at Yaro&#8217;s blog post here -<br />
<a href="http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/954/fast-action-bonuses/" target="_blank">http://www.entrepreneurs-<wbr></wbr>journey.com/954/fast-action-<wbr></wbr>bonuses/</a></p>
<p>These bonuses are only for the first 100 new members today, so you better hurry if you want these extra goodies. Here is the link to join the coaching program -<br />
<a href="http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/index.php?af=789717&amp;u=http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching" title="Blog Mastermind coaching program">Click here to join the Blog Mastermind coaching program</a></p>
<p>Even if you don&#8217;t join Yaro&#8217;s program today, make sure you study his videos and the Blog<br />
Profits Blueprint report he gives away.</p>
<p>Yaro offers so much great advice that won&#8217;t cost you a cent and I&#8217;m sure if you follow his<br />
instructions you will begin earning rewards from your blog.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll speak to you soon,</p>
<p><strong> Mandy</strong></p>
<p><strong>Did you like this article?</strong> Then <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Builda-Blog" title="rss subscribe">please subscribe to my RSS Feed! </a></p>
<p>If you would like to read more then take a look at my blog<br/><br/><a href="http://builda-blog.com/2008/07/29/yaros-blog-coaching-program-is-open/">Yaro&#8217;s blog coaching program is OPEN</a></p>


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