Notes on a Talk: Blogging 101
Last Saturday, I attended Mozilla Philippine Community’s [Blogging 101] seminar. I’ve been blogging off and on for more than a decade but I’m always on the lookout to learn more things.
Blogging 101 is the first in a series of Social Media Seminars.
It was really interesting how passionate and dedicated they all were about blogging, I have to admit that I’ve never really been connected to any local community when it comes to blogging.
My blogging were always about my interests and most of the time, the community I found was foreign rather than local.
Even there I was more a lurker than an active participant.
Gian Viterbo (GianViterbo.com and Gadget Pilipinas) talked about 10 Things You Should do After installing WordPress
Twitter: @gianviterbo
Gian kicks off the talk with 10 practical advice after installing self-hosted wordpress site.
Key takeaway:
Even if I’m currently using Ghost as my blogging platform I still use WordPress for work and his suggestions really helped because there were some things I was very lax about.
- Change username from ‘admin’. This is important because anyone can hack your blog just from knowing the username.
- Institute a second security code from your CPanel, just in case the hackers are able to breach your wp-admin, the second password base will help make it difficult to mess up your blog.
Install the following plugins:
- Contact Form 7
- Facebook (official plugin)
- Page Views Count
- Special Text Boxes
- TablePress
- Viper’s Video Quicktags
And for Firefox browser users here are some handy add-ons:
- ColorZilla
- MeasureIt
- Firebug
- Ghostery
- SEOQuake SEO Extension
ColorZilla is an advanced eyedropper, this is fantastic if you ever wanted to know what color a picture you found online is just use this add on.
Ghostery is for the privacy conscious, track the trackers, and block them.
Azrael Coladilla
Twitter: @popazrael
Azrael talked about Blogger.com now this was a blast from the past!
Blogger.com was one of the blogging services I used back when I transitionted from hand coding my blog. It was really interesting to see the blogs Azrael was able to set up using Blogger.com.
Jonel Uy of SeatsforTwo.com
Twitter: @joneluy
Discussed having Social Media as a Career.
Key takeaway:
Now this was an interesting thing particularly because some aspects of my job relies on Social Media tools.
There are a lot of challenges being a Social Media Consultant in the Philippines at the moment, and mostly because not all businesses are current or aware of the impact Social Media has on their business.
Everybody is going online and for better or worse print is declining. The advent of mobile devices is making sure that going digital is the future.
Aileen “Yen” Dreyfus of Tummy Traveler
Twitter: @yendreyfus | [@tummytraveler]((http://twitter.com/tummytraveler)
Yen of Tummy Traveler gave tips on being social and blogging better.
Key takeaway:
The main thing I took from Yen’s talk was that in starting your own blog you have to know your audience before you start, and target your writing to reflect that, but you also have to be authentic.
People can sense if you’re being disengious, you also have to be willing to share not just your experiences but share your resources with other people.
But most of all you have to be consistent, and remember that success doesn’t happen overnight, and that: You have to love what you do, you have to be the blogger you want to read.
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What do you think of my takeaways? Is there something more you’d like to know about blogging?