Having a couple of relevant keywords in your Google Alerts can help with finding topics for your blog

I know there are people who blog on a daily basis and even more frequently and there have been times, usually on a Sunday or a Monday, when I’ve told myself “this week!”. The statistical reality is that over the years I have averaged just over 3 blog posts a week on this site.

I console myself that:

a. this is not my only blog, so if I take account of my blog posts elsewhere I probably do post on average closer to five days a week, and

b. a lot of my posts are a lot longer than those of some of the daily or several times a day bloggers

I’m not saying my longer posts are necessarily better, brevity being the soul of wit and all that.  But I have to admit I do perk up whenever I read or hear another social media/blogging consultant say that about three times a week is a good number for a business blog, even if they also advocate more frequent postings.

And even with an average of three posts a week here, rather than five or more, I do get stuck sometimes about what to post on.

Today, for instance.

Here I am, end of the working week – although that’s often a flexible concept for those of us who work from home – and so far I’ve done only one post here this week.

Then I thought, I know, Google Alerts.

For any reader who doesn’t know about Google Alerts, it’s an excellent, free service that basically keeps watch on the Web and alerts you when a word or phrase you are interested in is used somewhere.

I have a few words in my Alerts relating to home based business. Today, one of those had an alert for a very interesting, in fact impressive UK based site, Enterprise Nation, which focuses on home based business and whose founder and editor is one Emma Jones.

Sometimes I get quite disheartened, looking for blogs which are about home based business but are not just plugging office furniture or some get-rich-quick-in-your-night-attire capers.

So finding Enterprise Nation, whose tagline is “a free resource to help you start and grow your business at home”, made my day.

And yes, I got an idea for a blog post. But then I got chatting here about Google Alerts and finding Enterprise Nation, and now I see that the post is quite long enough, so the blog post idea can keep for another day. Soon!

Actually, there’s another idea, which is not original but which I could use – break up some of my longer posts into shorter ones, thus in one stroke

a. lifting my batting average

b. pleasing those who like shorter posts.

If you have ever found yourself coming up a bit short in the “things to blog about” department, why not try Google Alerts? And if it works for you – or if it doesn’t – do please share your results here.

A quick guide to the gravatar

If you’ve noticed, when you leave a comment on a blog post, that other commenters have images of themselves alongside their comments but your comment has only a grey “mystery man” blob or a symbol like the one in the margin here, where the others have pictures of themselves, this post is for you.

Note: this post includes quite specific details about how to get a usable picture – may be -101 obvious to some, but we all have to start somewhere and I remember when it was all a mystery to me!

What is a Gravatar?

“Gravatar”? Strange word: and unless the dictionary on the shelf in your office or at home is very new, you almost certainly won’t find it there – maybe not even in an online dictionary. Apparently the word is made up from Globally Recognized Avatar, using “avatar” not in the Hindu sense of an incarnation of a higher being, but in the – literally more mundane – computer usage of a graphical representation of a user.

So Why would you want a gravatar?

Personal interests aside, it’s simply about branding.

I realize some people don’t want to have their personal photos online or use their personal photos as part of their branding. My own view is that your branding will be more effective when potential customers or colleagues can see a picture of you.  Just as I believe that your comment on a blog post or forum thread will be more effectively communicated if people can see a picture of you. Matthew Stibbe has an excellent post on using a good photo to build your personal brand.

Of course, your gravatar does not have to be of you. It could be, for example, a company logo. There is a whole side conversation that could be had here about corporate and personal branding, but for the moment and admittedly at the risk of over-simplifying the underlying issues, think about what you are wanting to communicate: if you want or need people to see you as someone they can – in the marketing phrase du jour – know, like and trust, ask yourself whether that trifecta is more likely to get up with a (good, professional) picture of you or one of the company badge?

How do you go about getting a gravatar?

Easy peasy.  Three steps.

1. You go to the Gravatar site and click on the Get Your Gravatar Today button. They then send you an email so you can confirm your application and have access to your new account.

2. You find or create a picture 80 x 80. If you are worried about how to edit a picture to get that size, Irfanview is a free, downloadable program with great editing tools. You will need a picture which is square. To get that you may have to crop a picture you have: Irfanview is great for cropping.

If you need to get instructions for cropping, search on <Crop> in the Irfanview Help screen.

You select the part of the picture you want and make it square. You do that by adjusting the frame until the width and height coordinates match (or nearly match within a pixel or so) as you will see in the blue section at the top of the Irfanview window: in the illustration here I have adjusted to 259×259, because I want to see how it looks before I reduce it to 80×80).

After you have cropped the picture, save it as something like imagename259.jpg (to avoid confusing it with the original or the avatar picture you are about to make).

Once you have saved the cropped version and if you are happy with that, it’s time to make the smaller, 80×80 version. With the cropped (square) image open, click on Image -> Resize/Resample and you will see a box as displayed here.

Uncheck the box that says <Preserve aspect ratio>, then type 80 in the width box and 80 in the height box (see screenshot below). Then save as something like imagename80×80.jpg so you will know that’s the one.

3. You go into your Gravatar account and upload your lovely new 80×80 picture.

You’re done. And as Mike Bergin explains in his helpful post, Get Your Gravator On, which I drew on for this post:

Not only will all your new comments be beauteous but your graphic will populate every comment you’ve ever made on a gravatar-enabled blog as long as they’re linked to the signifying e-mail address.

For the motivation to research and write this post thanks to the post on the subject at Blogging for Boomers.

I look forward to seeing more pictures of smiling (or serious) faces on the comments here.

If you have any challenges with setting up your gravatar, please leave a comment here and I will do what I can to help you sort it out – or another reader may well get in first and help.

For WordPress bloggers who would rather not have their site plastered with just the standard Gravatar logo, the default where a commenter has not activated their own gravatar, there is a very interesting option with WP-Identicon. Haven’t explored it or tried it – just noticed as I’m wrapping up this post.

• Great Places to Find Information About SEO
  If you’ve been less than successful in searching for good, up to date, quality information and suggestions on search engine optimization (SEO) you will surely love this list of key sites, put together by Jeremy Morgan. Matt Cutts, SEOMoz etc – there are others but using this list will cut down on frog-kissing time.
  (tags: SEO search SearchEngineOptimisation)

• Recommending Typepad for Business Blogs
  Following post on Des Walsh’s Thinking Home Business about setting up a WordPress blog, this post on Des Walsh dot Com points to Typepad’s excellent credentials for business blogging – different platforms for different needs
  (tags: BusinessBlogging BusinessBlogs bloggingsoftware Typepad)

Two years on, Sarah Lewis’s videos on installing a WordPress.org site are still spot on

Lately, at workshops and in various conversations, I’ve been promising people some information on setting up a WordPress blog from WordPress.org (as distinct from the fully hosted service WordPress.com).

In doing so, I’ve been conscious of the fact that I’d like a dollar for every time I’ve heard or read some blogger say that setting up a WordPress blog is “easy”.

Yes, it is easy – when you know how. If you don’t – and if you don’t read “tech” – you can be in for a frustrating time.

I remember very clearly that, when I started blogging and was trying to get information on how to install blogs and get them operational, it used to drive me nuts that experienced bloggers would tell me how “easy” various blogging platforms were. Generally they weren’t easy for me. Then when I got onto WordPress, people on forums would say installing WordPress was easy with something called Fantastico. The  only catch was your web hosting provider had to have Fantastico installed (I’m going back several years here – Fantastico is virtually standard issue these days, as far as I can ascertain, but it wasn’t then).

Eventually I found a web hosting service which provided the Fantastico service and then things started to look up. For me.

But what to do when I wanted to help someone else get started?

One option was to do unto others as had been done unto me, tell them “it’s easy” and wander off.

Another, which I have done and still do quite happily, was to recommend that people check out Typepad, so they are saved the learning curve challenges of a WordPress solution.

A third option was to find a way to explain.

Sarah Lewis to the rescue

In 2007, my friend and colleague Sarah Lewis, who is a total WordPress expert, produced three videos on setting up a WordPress blog, which are a gem of communication. Even someone who has no technical expertise can discover and apply, from these videos, the key steps. Truly, after following and implementing the clearly illustrated steps in these videos, anyone should be all set to start blogging.

As a couple of years has elapsed since the videos were first posted, some of the details of the sites displayed might have changed, but it looks to me as if the videos have stood the test of time extremely well.

The videos

If you follow these videos and strike any problems, please leave a comment here and I will do what I can to help you sort out the problem.

Video 1: Getting yourself set with a web host for your blog

Installation 101: How to choose and sign up for a web host for your WordPress blog

This video provides a detailed, practical explanation of what is involved in identifying a suitable web hosting service. As well as providing  lots of very helpful advice on what to look for in a hosting service, Sarah recommends a particular service: it looks very good, but I haven’t used it.

I have two hosts to recommend from my own experience, HostGator and PressHarbor, both of which I have used and one, HostGator, I am still using.

HostGator know WordPress, they are available (and very helpful) 24/7 via LiveChat, they will fix small problems patiently and without charging and are very reasonably priced. The “Baby” account is a bit more than you need just starting out but is great value. You can view and compare the various hosting plans and features here. They have an affiliate plan so if you like the service and recommend it to others you could in due course cover your cost – the links in this post are to my affiliate account, but quite frankly I would use the service even if there was no affiliate program.

With HostGator you need to either be able to “get under the hood” and do some work yourself from time to time or have someone you get to do that.

Some don’t want to do that and want a more hands-free option, which brings me to my second recommendation, PressHarbor. Until only very recently, I had used PressHarbor and its precursor, BlogHarbor, for several years. PressHarbor is a full hosting service, so as with HostGator and other hosting services you can have a fully-fledged website and also a blog for the same price. For people who have used PressHarbor and BlogHarbor before that, the service is legendary: you will not be allowed to have a problem go unfixed! The various options are listed – if you are just starting out with a blog and in most instances for some time to come the basic Bronze option should be more than adequate. I am always happy to recommend PressHarbor, especially for business people who have no interest in doing their own “fixing” and for literally only a few dollars more a month are happy to have someone look after all the techie stuff. They don’t have an affiliate program.

Video 2: Installing WordPress

Installation 102: How to install WordPress using CPanel and Fantastico

CPanel is the software engine (or “control panel automation”) that runs the “back office” of your site, where you can do various configuring things, such as using Fantastico to set up your site. HostGator uses CPanel – and Fantastico: instead of CPanel, PressHarbor uses Plesk, which has a rather different interface than CPanel, but there is a Support forum and a support ticket system to help sort out any problems.

Video 3: Configuring your blog

Installation 103: Basic WordPress configuration

This is a very clear explanation of how to basically configure your WordPress site so you can be up and blogging as soon as you like.

Sure, there are lots of things you can do to make the blog look more like what you want and operate in a way more attuned to your purposes, but if you apply the lessons in the videos you will be able by this stage to start blogging.

PS: What to do when you get tired of the look and feel of your standard, out of the box, WordPress blog

Sooner or later you may get bored with the basic look and layout of your WordPress site. There are many different “themes” available for WordPress (what some people would call “templates” or “styles”, WordPress calls “themes”): many are free, some you have to pay for (”premium”). The most expensive premium theme I have, the Thesis theme I use here, cost $164, which allows me to use the theme on multiple blogs, forever, with upgrades at no extra cost: for half that price you get to use it on one blog only at a time (that’s an affiliate link to the Thesis theme, but I recommend it mainly because it does not give me the headaches that a number of free themes – not the ones that come with the basic installation, I hasten to add – have given me in the past).

But you don’t need to change the theme to start blogging.

One more thing, if you are starting out, you can’t break anything irreparably – if something doesn’t work, re-installation can be arranged easily.

Suggestions and questions

If you have any clues to share or questions about the various processes, please let me know via the comment space below. I’ll do my best to get answers for any problems.