How-To
Welcome to the Davao Blogspace!!!
Are you a newbie? Still wet behind the ears when it comes to blogging? Well, try to read through this document and you just might pick something up! 
Blogging 101
A blog is defined by Wikipedia as such:
A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.
In other words, it’s your way of expressing yourself through the written word (or encoded, for that matter).
Blogging (yes, it’s become a verb too) serves many purposes. It runs the entire gamut, from personal publishing to corporate communications. It could be a way for getting a message across. And blogs do accomplish these and much more.
So let’s start!
In order to make this as painless for you as possible, I have chosen to present a Blogging How-To by using two popular services: Blogger and Wordpress. These are free online software that can get your blog up and running in minutes.
Google’s Blogger
If you already have an account with Google (say, a Gmail email address), you can simply go to www.blogger.com and start. Login with your Google account credentials and you’re all set. The following steps are definitely non-technical, so forge on! Blogger is known for its thoroughly user-friendly interface, that’s why it’s so popular (and that’s probably why the Big G bought it out…).
For the more geekily-inclined, however, Blogger does offer complete control over your templates HTML and CSS.
Speaking of which, one downside to Blogger is its lack of more built-in templates. The choices available are decidedly few. On the other hand, if you relish tweaking around, you do have the option of redesigning your template from the ground up. Don’t forget to keep backups of your template, though.
You also have a choice in your blog’s URL. If you’d rather use a domain name, Blogger lets you do that for free. What happens is, yourowndomain.com will have to be configured to point to Blogger. Read the instructions in your Dashboard for more info. After buying your domain name (no idea how or where? try www.ctcd.com), you’ll have to find a host server who will keep your domain alive. The rest should be clear in Blogger’s instructions.
Too much hassle? Then stick with http://yourchosensubdomain.blogspot.com. In case it’s confusing you, “blogspot.com” is the domain that Blogger allows you to use for your blog URL. And “blogger.com” is simply the access site for Blogger.
Wordpress
Wordpress.com is another free blogging service. It is also very user-friendly, but it has more features for the geeky types. The steps involved in creating a blog aare pretty self-explanatory, so no need to fret.
In my own experience, Wordpress is better in terms of its handling of blog feeds (RSS). Also, it offers you a wider choice of templates.
Two things, though. One is not very serious and can be overlooked, but it did give me pause. You have many built-in templates to choose from, but you have limited access to the HTML and none at all to the CSS. The second really discouraged me: no way to add Google AdSense ad units to your sidebar.
And that’s why I opted for the other type of Wordpress. If you have your own host (web server), you can use the free Wordpress blogging software, which is available at www.wodpress.org. This blogware is open-source: you have complete control over your blog’s internal workings. That is, if you know a bit of PHP and other techie stuff.
Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org, both offer tremendous features, and I highly recommend either of them.
Other Services
Aside from these two, there are other blogging services that you might want to check out. Here’s a shortlist:
Blogging Best Practices
Have you got your blog all setup? Now here are some tips on how to maintain and promote your blog, as well as a few pointers on blogging best practices.
Keep it focused
Both Blogger and Wordpress.com offer multiple-site hosting. Meaning, you can create as many blogs as you like. So, my advice is, make your blog theme-specific: publish posts that are of one central topic in one blog. For example, if you’re going to write about food in one blog, don’t mix it in with your posts on, say, fashion. Create a separate fashion blog!
Content-hungry people around the world search for reading material by topic or keyword, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to have a blog whose content coverage is too broad or too general. If you don’t care about confusing your readers about what type of content you’re really offering… well, why blog at all? Let’s face it, if you’re on the Web, you do want to be read. So, from here on end, I shall assume that you, my dear readers, agree with me on this score. If not, it was nice of you to drop by. Ciao!
Watch your language
Technically speaking, most blogging software allow for any human language that has found its way onto the Internet. Tip: for best results, keep your blog’s default encoding to UTF-8.
Aesthetically-speaking, however, well, to each his own. It’s a good idea, though, to stick to one language. But that, of course, depends on your intended audience. For a Filipino readership, for instance, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to mix English, Tagalog and our other colorful languages. (Yes, languages, not dialects!)
Bloggers are writers — there are no if’s or but’s around it. Ergo, you have a responsibility to your readers. That is, make an effort to use language effectively. What makes a great blog is its content. But what makes an enjoyable blog to read is the way it’s written. To start with, be mindful of grammar and spelling and punctuation. 
Spread the word
A plethora of blog-promoting services are at your beck and call. Especially if you hope to earn even just a little from AdSense or TLA (Text Link Ads), you’d do well to get your blog recognized Internet-wide.
Begin by registering your blog(s) in industry-strength services such as Technorati, Feedburner and del.icio.us. The former is probably the blogosphere’s best-known tool for keeping track of your blog’s publicity status. Technorati helps you see, for example, who links to your site. Conversely, you can use it to keep abreast of your favorite blogs (i.e., blogs of other people). Technorati also offers a ranking system: within your account you will notice a number (that’s hopefully decrementing) beside your blog name. When you first sign up, you’ll notice that the number might be in the millions. This number means that there are that many blogs more popular than yours in your content category. See, when you register, Technorati will ask you to tag your blog with content-related keywords. Technorati is all about tags.
Feedburner, on the other hand, lets you view how many people are actually reading you. This service lets you centralize your blog’s subscription. Feefburner’s and Technorati’s implementation or usage might be rather daunting, technically speaking. But do give them a try — it’ll be well worth the extra effort. Now, back to Feedburner. You might notice that your blog generates RSS or Atom (or both) feeds. Feeds are machine-readable editions of your blog posts and comments, “eaten up” by Web readers (e.g., a Web-ready mobile phone). To make a long and geeky story short, feeds are the portable version of your blog. It’s a good idea to let Feedburner take care of this for you. With all the types of feeds (and their attendant versions) coming out, it can get confusing. Using Feedburner, you can offer your feeds with one simple URL.
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service. Lots of Webheads use it to save their favorite sites in one place. Using this service means that you are making it easy for your readers — especially new ones — to save your blog’s address for easy access later on. Just like Technorati’s “Favorite Me” and Feedburner’s “Subscribe” gimmicks, del.icio.us displays an icon on your blog for readers to click on. Doing so will allow them to bookmark your blog. (duhh!)
Being registered in the three services above will give your blog a boost. If you’re concerned with your Google PageRank, well, better register now if you haven’t done so yet. There are other similar services, and there’s no such thing as too much publicity in the blogosphere (well, in a manner of speaking anyway).
Another method of increasing traffic to your blog — or at least helping your PR — is listing in blog directories. I believe this is self-explanatory, so I will just provide you with a list of the directories I’ve used:
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blogtopsites.com
blogarama.com
globeofblogs.com
top100bloggers.com
pinoytopblogs.com
dir.blogflux.com
blogcatalog.com
blog-search.com
bloghub.com
blogtoplist.com
bloggernity.com
topblogging.com
Filipino blog directories:
And, of course, Davao’s first blog directory: the Davao Blogs Directory.
Having your blog listed in directories necessarily means that you’ll have to link back to them. Then you could stick their “chicklets” (or mini badges) onto your blog. For example:
Please paste the following code onto your blog:
Monetize!
Wouldn’t it be awesome to get paid for something you already loved doing? No? Ok, that’s it for you. Thanks for reading this far.
Yes? Well then, just a couple more paragraphs here.
Google AdSense is a hassle-free way of earning some bucks off of your blog. With an AdSense account you can display mostly-text contextual ads on your sidebars. In short, clicks from your blog’s ads earn you $$$. I have no intention, however, of turning this into a tutorial for AdSense, so go ahead and point your browsers to www.google.com/adsense and apply for an account. Oh and by the way, conditions do apply….
Do be careful with your AdSense account. Google employs industry-strength heuristics that can determine fraudulent clicks, which can result in termination and permanent banning. If you’re responsible and if you promote your blog(s) well, you could earn heaps of dough and retire early and buy that house on the strand and…. Ok, back to solid ground.
Last word
One last tip, and this helps in the “publicity” health of your blog. Do try to post with at least a semblance of regularity. For me, 3 or 4 times a month is the absolute minimum. Many bloggers have reported that traffic to their sites do go down when their updates become less predictable. And conversely, traffic increases when their blogs’content is kept updated with fresh posts.
Ok that’s it! Please feel free to post questions at the Blogspace’s Forum on Blog Help. I, as well as my fellow bloggers here, will do our best to answer your queries.
Mabuhay ang Dabawenyo!!
