Advise for after I've built a blog?

[BLewisMaltz]

Hi all, I've just started a blog using WordPress, but hosting it myself and with my own domain name at www.theadjunct.net. People have said using a Mac isn't as easy as a PC for blogging, but that's just doesn't equal true because a) I've found it to be relatively troublefree despite my lack of experience, and b) I don't see how anything would be different if I was on a PC since everything is done via the web (more typical anti-Apple nonsense, I suppose, and like all with no basis in reality).

I have a few questions for folks about the development end, mainly, have people found some solid guides and advice about setup and maintenance that they feel are especially useful? I'm up and running, and enjoying it very much, but I really do lack the encyclopedic knowledge of web/blog/programmer info that many people picked up long ago.

The problem is that all I am finding are either "newbie's guides" or "experts troubleshooting" and nothing in between. If anyone can either point towards a reliable "You're up and running, now here's some basic things you may not already know" guide, or just post their own advice and knowledge, then that would be great!

Thanks, in advance, for all your help. Suggestions about design and development are cool too!

--www.theadjunct.net

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Right, Mac vs. PC is not an issue for web based technogies, i.e. WordPress could care less if it's run on Linux, Mac, PC so long as you run PHP and a SQL database. And distribution of feeds through RSS uses standardized XML file format which is intended specifically to bridge the gap between platforms.

As to a help tutorials, let me show you the power of Google! I typed in "after setting up word press what's next" and "blog design guidelines" got some great hits:

"16 things to do after starting a blog" -- read it, it discusses category setup, SEO (search engine optimization), adding an About page, robots.txt, Akismet, comment forms, etc. I read it and agree with everything on that list. They also are common questions asked here and I'll add to the list - check out the powerful theme and plugin support for WordPress to really customize your blog page after it's initial setup. Here are style tips on blog design and layout including header/footer, content area, navigation, etc.

Once you go through those generic links you will have specific questions as to how to implement something, then use Google or Wordpress developer docs to research technique, specific to your platform. Then if you get stuck coding, we're here to help on specific matters.

Please let me know if this was helpful.

-Jim

 

[BLewisMaltz]

"16 things to do after starting a blog" -- read it, it discusses category setup, SEO (search engine optimization), adding an About page, robots.txt, Akismet, comment forms, etc. I read it and agree with everything on that list. They also are common questions asked here and I'll add to the list - check out the powerful theme and plugin support for WordPress to really customize your blog page after it's initial setup. Here are style tips on blog design and layout including header/footer, content area, navigation, etc.

Once you go through those generic links you will have specific questions as to how to implement something, then use Google or Wordpress developer docs to research technique, specific to your platform. Then if you get stuck coding, we're here to help on specific matters.

Please let me know if this was helpful.

-Jim

Jim, this was incredibly helpful. Thanks for sharing! I do want to be able to do more advanced coding, but right now I just need to get my sea-legs...or web-legs as it were. I'm find WordPress to be very easy for the basics, but it seems a little rigid for true customization.

I expect that this will take time, and a lot of experimentation.

Thanks again! --www.theadjunct.net

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

It's easy to hack someone else's software to customize it for your needs. However, you then become married to whatever version it was you hacked at the time. This is because you may not be able to upgrade to new versions where security issues might have addressed, new fixes and basic features. The benefit of my inclusion of links to WP themes, plugins and developer docs is that taking the time to learn the WP "system" (framework) will allow you to create customizations that don't interfere with their version control and updates.

So the rigid standards are important, is my point. It isn't fun sometimes to work within the framework written by someone else - it is limiting, lots of documentation to scour, etc. But learning this way is helpful for the future when you noted you want to get into more advanced coding techniques. Not to say model everthing on the WP system or way, but it's a nice start and will introduce you to PHP and basic database management.

Great success to you in your endeavor, thanks for writing.

-jim