Computer Tips & Tutorials

UPDATE: Launching A WordPress Blog is a FREE EBook by Tina Clarke and Pat Geary, Microsoft MVP’s – FrontPage. Download it NOW.

blog (blŏg) Short for weblog, an on-line web-zine or diary (usually with facilities for reader comments and discussion threads) made accessible through the World Wide Web. – Answers.com -

My first attempt at creating a genealogy blog was brought about by one of the lessons in the free SEO Training Class offered by Cricket at GNC Web Creations.

You want to plan a blog that caters to the specific target audience on which your site focuses. In my case, that is genealogy.

Blogging at blogger.com

I chose blogger.com for my first attempt at blogging because it was free. The blog was in additional to my Geary, Jewel, Tucker, and Little Family Genealogy site. While that blog no longer exists, samples of some hosted by blogger.com are:

• Genealoge by Hugh Watkins
• Genealogy Resources
• Looking Into the Past by Dee Kaelin Maialetti
• Jackson County Site by Sheri
• Genealogy Insights by Linda Gutierrez

Blogs at Bloggger.com can also be integrated as part of your regular site at FreePages. Some examples are:

• Rooted Thoughts by Elsi

I decided to move my site from FreePages to it’s own domain so that I would have more control over it. Again, this was as a result of taking Cricket’s SEO Training Class. I chose 1and1 Hosting which came with two domain names included and the ability to add subdomains at no additional cost. My first domain www.family-genealogy-online.com was where I moved my FreePages site.

Another part of the optional classes was installing WordPress, a free blogging software. Another adventure! WordPress will not work with Rootsweb FreePages.

Installing and Setting Up WordPress

I first had to check with my hosting company to see if they supported the WordPress installation. They did! Then get up enough courage to start the project. Thanks to Tina Clarke for the encouragement and hand holding offer.

Requirements:

• PHP version 4.1 or greater
• MySQL version 3.23.23 or greater
• The Apache mod_rewrite module

I downloaded the software from the WordPress site, and installed it following the tutorials for Step by Step WordPress Installation, provided by Cricket of GNC Web Creations. I then had to set up a MySQL database on my host via the control panel. That part was simple. I then followed the rest of the four page tutorial. I uploaded the files to the subdomain I had created and started to configure WordPress. Page Not Found popus up – what did I do wrong? Back to reading the forum messages to see what I did wrong. Aah ha, files should have been uploaded in ASCII format. Upload them again and all goes well.

Now I am ready to start writing. I decided to move the blog articles that I had at blogger .com to my new blog.

Additional tutorials by Cricket of GNC Web Creations for WordPress include

• Creating SEO Friendly WordPress URLs
• Configure WordPress Categories
• Setting WordPress Preferences
• Installing WordPress Themes
• Creating SEO Friendly Titles in WordPress
• Disable the Default Nofollow Attribute in WordPress

Another article I just discovered that will be of interest:

Help Wanted: Genealogy WordPress Blogs