Here is the January 2007 edition of my photography shooting stats. I shot a lot of cricket for the first time this month, which makes up the high number of shots I didn’t keep and therefore deleted.
Images Taken: 1,312
Images Kept: 465
HD Space Used: 3.78GB
Average Shots Kept Daily: 15
Shots With 18-55 Lens: 223
Shots With 75-300 Lens: 242
Shots With Other Cams: 0
The latest trend on the internet is Twitter. Twitter is a new web application used for staying in touch and keeping up with friends - no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Invite your friends to Twitter, send updates to your account, and decide how connected you want you to be.
Personally, this service has helped me filterout the common IM messages I receive on iChat, which ask me “What’s up”? Using Twitter and Twitterrific I can publish what I am up to on the web and keep clear of pointless iChat conversations.
Twitterrific is an application which sits in the comfort of your menu-bar, and makes posting and viewing “Tweets” easy and simple.
Many have started using Twitterrific instead of the normal web interface of Twitter, to post and view entries on the site. Once you have your buddy list setup, you will receive notifications by a chirping sound and a pop-up window when a friend changes their status.
Alternatively you can change Twitterrific to display Tweets from the public list. The update time interval can be changed within the preference window.
You can view entries by clicking on someone’s name, and update your status by clicking in the text box and pressing enter to submit a status once you’ve written it. It even shows how many characters you have left to use, updated instantly while you are writing - a handy feature for those explaining in detail what they are doing..
One of the best features of Twitterrific is not a real feature, but it’s incredibly slick and glossy user interface. It’s a pleasure to use thanks to the great developers of The IconFactory.
Sign up for a Twitter account and download Twitterrific to let people all around the globe know what are you up to.
How do you like the Twitter service? A productivity killer, cool, or both?
I’m an avid user of Yojimbo to manage my digital clutter and keep my desktop clean, but I like the idea of making the most of my full screen resolution. This is where John Hicks Yojimbo widescreen view hack comes into play.
The Yojimbo widescreen view hack will turn your copy of Yojimbo into an application with three viewing panes, making the most of widescreen displays. It will allow you to display more item listings downwards on the page, allowing you to scan and read documents quicker.
How do you get your hands on this? It’s simple, download this file and follow the instructions on John’s blog post. It’s a simple process which will only take you a few minutes.
Check out the widescreen hack from John Hicks here.
Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper for all the Mac users out there. The image is taken using my Canon 350D DSLR. Photography really interests me and this gives me a nice way to showcase some work, while giving readers something for nothing.
The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out. No watermark has been applied to the image either, so play nice, I’m trust worthy that no one will steal my work.
Today’s desktop caption is: Sloping Hill
Feel free to leave any comments about this wallpaper below, it’d be nice to get a comment or two from people who decide to use it, have a great weekend, and enjoy!
Download it here.
Reading blogs is a fun and time consuming hobby, which with a few tips, can become even more enjoyable whilst taking half the time.
1. RSS Groups By Importance
Love reading TUAW posts? Find some of the Engadget posts a waste of time? Create a few groups in your RSS reader - Very Important, Important, Less Important, Least Important. Then spend some time sorting your feeds into these groups. Then when you only have 5 minutes of time to check up on blogs, go straight into the “Very Important” group to find the content you are most interested in reading.
2. Cut Down To The Essential Blogs
You are always going to learn more, enjoy more, and have much more free time if you are reading 20 blogs rather than 100. Go through your blogs and choose which ones are producing the most original, fun content that you really enjoy, and delete all the other blogs that you find semi-interesting and are mostly “re-distributing” the news.
3. Take The Content In
Spend time to read and absorb every word of your most important feeds. Try and spend more time reading the content rather than browsing and sorting through it. Spend some time with the blogs you really enjoy or those that you find real value in. You will find you learn more by taking your time to read posts carefully.
How much time do you spend reading blogs daily, and how many blog RSS feeds do you track?
It’s been a while since we last did this, so I decided to take a few moments to post and request all the lurkers to show their faces so I can get to know you all.
I know many of you just read (yes, thats you), but never participate in discussion under the articles in the comment area. Here’s your chance to show your face and meet up with some fellow readers.
I have met some great people through the comment area of the blog, so now it’s your turn to tell me about yourself. What’s your name, how long have you been reading, and what computer setup are you running? For all the regular readers feel free to leave a comment so you dont feel left out *winks*.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you all this time around.
Screenshots can help explain a process so much easier than words, screenshots can help capture readers and reel them in to read more, and they can make articles look stylish and pretty. But screenshots are at times a hassle to capture, it’s a time consuming task many of you dont want to have anything to do with. That stops now, as InstantShot! has taken the scene and made the task of taking screenshots as simple one one, two, three.
InstantShot 2.1 is a small freeware utility which sits in your menu-bar. It gives you endless screen-capturing options to freeze any application, screen, or window in time.
When you click on the icon in the menubar, you are presented with a drop down contextual menu list giving you options to shoot screen, shoot inside a rect, shoot with timer, and start multiple shots. With all of these options InstantShot is perfect to take any type of screenshot at anytime you need to call it up.
In addition to these different capturing modes, you have the option to choose save destination, the quality of the captured images, and the ability to have the cursor removed from screenshots.
One exciting feature InstantShot offers is the ability to take multiple screenshots for as long as you want at a pre-defined interval. This opens up many creative uses for your screenshots, such as creating animated movies from them.
InstantShot 2.1 is a free download from Digital Waters.
Like this post? Subscribe to the RSS feed for up to the minute blog article updates.
Update: InstantShot! 2.2 has been released overnight. It allows you to pick a background window to cover the wallpaper or the whole desktop when taking screenshots, so you can have nice clean shots without any desktop clutter showing.
Related Resources
Nowadays many web hosting companies are offering their services. Out of these companies the selection of best web hosting is a difficult task. It is because many internet phone providers have also started offering web hosting services by taking dedicated server. These small companies also offer the resale of expired domains. Someone looking for web hosting services must first check the features of host like web graphic design and free domain name offer. Additionally affiliate marketing services must also be checked before making final selection.
This week my goal is to find my blogging voice, you can help me do this by telling me what you like reading about.
After a quick brainstorming session I’ve decided to keep my main focus on Apple, Productivity, Blogging, and Photography. In that order.
What topics do you enjoy reading, what topics do you dislike reading, and what topics do you want to see covered more?
Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper for all the readers out there. The image is taken using my Canon 350D DSLR. Photography really interests me and this gives me a nice way to showcase some work, while giving readers something for nothing.
The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out. No watermark has been applied to the image either, so play nice, I’m trust worthy that no one will steal my work.
Today’s desktop caption is: New Zealand Fern
Feel free to leave any comments about this wallpaper below, it’d be nice to get a comment or two from people who decide to use it, have a great weekend, and enjoy!
Download it here.
Presently, I am using KGTD + OmniOutliner Professional (I’ll soon use OmniFocus) to keep track of my to-do list. But there is one other thing I do each and every day, to make sure I’m on track to knock things off the un-nerving to-do list.
In the morning, before I do anything else (including waking the Mac), I grab my notepad and pen, and write down all the things I’d like to achieve on that day. Sometimes I write different kinds of tasks in different colours, but all you need to do is get down the things you want to do in the day onto paper.
Okay, you’re all thinking, why do I need to write it on paper when it’s already on my digital list? The answer is simple, because it feels good to cross off tasks when you complete them, seeing the task on paper makes it more likely you will get it done. In the evening, I don’t go to sleep until everything on the list is complete.
Having your list on paper makes it easier to see what you need to do, and once the day is over you can throw it into the trash knowing the day was a success.
Keeping focused in the 21st century is not an easy thing. For one, we have the internet which is full of distractions. Think about all the time you spend pointlessly and aimlessly browsing the web, chatting to friends, sending emails, and browsing your RSS reader daily. I for one know the time begins to add up, and thats time you will never get back.
Recently I have started disconnecting from my Airport connection when I am trying to knuckle down and focus on writing or image editing. It’s no surprise my productivity levels have increased ten fold due to the eliminated distractions in my workspace.
I can no longer click on NewsFire and see if there are any new posts on DevLounge or Warpspire. I cant click on iChat and see what my friends are up too, and I dont have my new email sounds buzzing every minute. I can just knuckle down, and focus on what is in front of me.
When you need to get things done, disconnect from your network connection - the work you will complete is worth the pain of not having RSS updates for a few hours.
Dan Messing of Stunt Software has released version 2 of the application Snapshot (previously PhotoBooth). Snapshot brings the power of a photo lab to you computer. Printing your digital images has never been easier, it gives you full control over the print size and how you want to crop and frame your picture. You can even add borders and speech bubbles to your images.
Version 2 has many improvements over the previous release, including a complete redesign of the user interface, a choice of different layout styles, and printing of contact sheets (commonly known at the lab’s as index sheets).
Snapshot is very useful if you have a high-quality printer which allows you to print onto photo paper. It will save you time and money by allowing you to make prints of your favorite images without having to step out of your office. Convenient? Check.
The images your print are much cooler than ones ordered from a lab, as you can add stylish borders to your image, and add text and speech bubbles for added appeal and effect.
Another awesome feature of Snapshot is how it automatically fits as many pictures on a page as possible to save expensive photo paper. This will allow you to print even more of your favorite snapshots, and the money it saves you in paper will pay for the applications price before you even know it.
Snapshot 2 is an 8.8MB download from Stunt Software, and retails for $29.95. There is a free trial available if you want to take it for a spin before you buy.
Do you have a large collection of movies, TV shows, YouTube clips, and various Apple commercials on your Mac like me? If you do, you will know the awful feeling when you venture to your movie folder and you have files scattered all around the place - even if they are in a tidy folder setup, it can still be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for.
Introducing yFlicks, iPhoto for video content. yFlicks is a movie player based on the QuickTime Framework. It does much more than play videos though, you can use yFlicks to index all of the movies on your HDD, and easily browse them via thumbnails and folders. You can even rate your videos to help single out your favorites.
You can easily download YouTube/Google videos and export them to other movie formats, giving your the potential to put videos on portable devices such as the iPod, and the PSP. This will keep iPod owners happy, allowing them to get content from YouTube to their portable players quickly and easily.
This is by far the best video management application I have seen to date, the UI is beautiful, the concept is gold, and it can only get better from here.
yFlicks is available from ManyTricks Software for $20 USD, there is a free trial which allows you to launch the application 10 times without having to pay for it.
What features would you like to see in your ideal “iPhoto for Video” application?
Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper for all the Mac and PC users out there. The image is taken using my Canon 350D DSLR. Photography really interests me and this gives me a nice way to showcase some work, while giving readers something for nothing.
The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out. No watermark has been applied to the image either, so play nice, I’m trust worthy that no one will steal my work.
Today’s desktop caption is: Foreground Fence
Feel free to leave any comments about this wallpaper below, it’d be nice to get a comment or two from people who decide to use it, have a great weekend, and enjoy!
Download it here.
The list of Web 2.0 sites is so extensive, there are now hundreds of sites labeled with the “Web 2.0″ tag out there now, and that number is growing by the day.
Go2Web20 is an awesome little Web 2.0 directory. They have listings of all the different sites and services currently out there, and allow you to browse them by looking at their unique logos. Click on a logo and you will be presented with site information in the sidebar - interested to visit the site? Simply click on the logo again and you will be taken to the chosen site.
You can sort through the logos by the date they were added to the directory, date they were launched, or by tags such as “Address Book” or “Social Bookmarking”. If you know exactly what kind of service/site you are after, you can start a custom search to minimize the results.
If your favorite site is not listed, you can submit is for approval to the directory. They even have a RSS feed for all the Web 2.0 junkies wanting up to the minute updates.
Check it out here, but a quick warning - be prepared to give up hours upon hours of your time getting involved in the Web 2.0 community!
What Web 2.0 sites are you currently a participating member of?
Most of the regular readers should know by now I’m an avid user and follower of the application Cha-Ching. Having written about every single release to date, today will be no exception, as Midnight Software have released version 0.5 of their finance tracking application Cha-Ching.
0.5 brings along a slew of bug fixes and interface enhancements but also some great new functionality. You will now have the ability to import your transactions into the app through QIF files - a welcomed upgrade. A new online tab lets you browse to your bank, PayPal or any other URL direct within the application, to streamline your finance tracking workflow.
Two other major features have also made it in version 0.5, iPod syncing and Bonjour support - multiple users on a network you can now share and view each other’s data from right inside the app.
They are also offering a new “Family Pack” for $29.95 (Special Beta Pre-Release Price). This will give you three license codes for the price of two, great value if you and a few friends want to start tracking your expenses the right way.
If you have waited until now to buy Cha-Ching, you can still get it at the Beta prices until it reaches version 1.0.
The Macworld Keynote concluded almost 12 hours ago, and I’ve had time to parse the information and new products to give my views on todays announcements.
I wont bore you with the specs and feature sets of either the Apple TV, Airport Extreme, or the iPhone, if you want specs just click the links to go to their dedicated pages on Apple.
Apple TV
The Apple TV is a wonderful product which I really like. It’s not something I would personally purchase as yet, we dont have a HDTV in the family, and secondly, I watch all my media either on my Mac, or on the 100″ projector TV.
Overall I’m very impressed with this release and cant wait to hear the reactions of the early adaptors.
Airport Extreme
One product I will be buying is the new Airport Extreme. It was a quiet release, nothing was said about it during the Keynote, to my surprise when I was browsing the Apple TV page on Apple.com I came across a link to this updated model.
It features the new wireless standard 802.11g - 5 times faster than previous wireless ranges. It will be replacing my current Belkin wireless base station in around 3 months time.
iPhone
The iPhone, as soon as it is released in New Zealand the iPhone will become MyPhone. I cannot wait to get my hands on this. Apple really has me sold on the design alone, the touch screen is amazing. I love how it automatically detects which way you are holding it and rotates your content accordingly.
This phone will change the communication industry, just as the iPod changed the music industry in 2001.
What are your thoughts on the outcome of Macworld, and what will you be purchasing?
The Apple Macworld 07 keynote address is just under 10 hours away and many Mac sites will be covering the keynote updates live. Here’s a large list of all the sites covering the keynote address for you to pick from.
Personally I will be following from MacRumors, Macteens, and Engadget.
Feel like chatting with other Apple fans? Visit the forums.
Where will you be heading to get your Apple Macworld update fix?
Related Resources
Internet is an amazing gateway to part-time income. But certain factors of reducing expenses and increasing income have to be kept in mind. Most people make the mistake of going for dedicated hosting services for small sites where as there is no need. Youshould reduce your expenditure by opting for a shared hosting service. Then one should focus on getting a server from the sample country as which they reside in. For instance someone in India should not go for Canadian hosting, instead something a bit more closer to home. Also search engine optimization should not be undervalued; it is a critical factor for increasing traffic as is blog marketing. So if you are planning on running a ppc affiliate program, these small factors can make the difference.
Flickr in inhabited with thousands of superb photographers, Jon “JD” Dysangco is one of them. I recently had some time to sit down an interview him about all aspects of photography.
Check out his Flickr photostream here.
Are you in favor of RAW or JPEG?
I used to shoot in JPEG up until about 2 months ago after learning about the flexibilities of RAW. I now shoot exclusively in it (I need to get a bigger external HD!). RAW format can be a real shot saver, allowing you to adjust WB, exposure, etc (in a sense, it can make you a better photographer).
I use DPP to PP and convert to JPEG, lately I have been using Photoshop CS3 Beta to experiment with and tweak my shots.
What does your photography kit look like?
My current kit is made up from the following:
30D + Battery Grip
24-105 f/4L IS
70-200 f/2.8L IS
70-200 f/4L (this is being sold soon)
50 f/1.8 mk II aka “Nifty Fifty”
Speedlite 430EX
Sto-Fen Omni Bounce EW
Sandisk Extreme III 1GB CF
Sandisk Extreme II 1GB CF
Rocket Blower
Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home bag
Why did you choose Canon over Nikon?
When I decided to get a DSLR, it was a toss up between the Canon 350D and the Nikon D50 - I decided to go for the 350D. At the time this was down to the better reviews I read. Today, I am glad I chose Canon because of the quality of their hardware.
What forms of photography do you find most enjoyable?
As you can seen from my Flickr photostream, my photographic style is very eclectic. If I like the look of a certain subject, I shoot it. However over the past few weeks I have really started to enjoy portraiture (both taking and editing). I would love to try out studio portrait photography. Another favorite of mine is street/candid shots because of the stories they can tell.
You have many HDR images on Flickr, run us through the process of creating these.
HDR can be quite tricky. At one end of the spectrum an HDR image can look true to the eye, at the other, it can look like a painting or CGI. People either love or hate both ends. I try to fall in the middle in this spectrum.
In terms of producing them, if I want a shot to be HDR at the time of shooting I will take 3 exposures. You can create one using a single RAW, but I have noticed that you do get the best affect from 3 exposures. If I want create one from a subject that is moving, i’ll shoot a single RAW.
I use Photomatix Pro to create the HDR, then Noise Ninja to reduce the grain, if any.
What about making money from your hobby, have you ever sold any images?
I would love to sell my images! Who wouldn’t? :) I have not made any real steps to do so just yet, soon I may do.
Does Wedding photography interest you?
As I said, I enjoy shooting people, so wedding photography would be a nice progression for me. In fact I have 2 lined up this year, one in the summer for a friend’s brother and one at the end of the year for my cousin in Australia. I am really looking forward to these, but at the same time rather nervous and anxious.
Wedding photography is difficult, you need to know your kit inside out, as well as lighting. Its not just that however, depending on your style, its about people management.
At the end of the day, a wedding photographer is expected to capture once in a lifetime (for most at least!) moments, for the bride and groom to keep and treasure for the rest of their lives…so the thought of that is very daunting to an inexperienced photographer.
What resources do you use to further increase your knowledge of photography?
I have read a highly acclaimed book by photographers called Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson, this will teach one the fundamentals of photography, I highly recommend it.
I am also a member of Photography-On-The-Net (Canon Digital Photography Forums), this place is great and is a huge source of info for both novice and pro. The members there are very friendly too. (Glenn: I’m a member there too).
And the internet of course…Google is my friend!
Why do you like photography? What aspects keep you coming back for more?
There are lots of reasons why I like photography, from taking the shots, to owning the gear, to post production, to showing off the results.
Since taking this up I look at so many ordinary things around me in a different way. It has really opened up my mind in a creative way.
I also enjoy it as I have been to many places that I never did before, purely to shoot and enjoy the sights.
Macworld is only 3 days away now and the rumor mill is running like mad. Like every other Mac addict I have my own expectations for this years Macworld, and already have a couple of purchases planned. These are all wishes, not a list of what I think will be released.
iLife 07 is one product that I will be purchasing. I’m hoping for an update to iPhoto, to make it a little better for advanced editing of images (this will help me when I have the MacBook in the field). I’d also like iWeb to become a little more mainstream and make it easier to create professional looking sites, the current themes are a little lacking.
iWork 07 is a software suite I’ve just started to use in the past 6 months as Microsoft has been so slow to release a Universal version of Office. Pages has become my one and only text editing application, I love it to bits. Apple really knows how to take an application with an extensive tool-kit and make it super simple to use. I hope Apple will include the speculated spread-sheeting application in iWork 07.
iPhone. The rumors have been going around for years about a speculated “iPhone”. As much as I want this product, I want Apple to release it just so I can hear the end of all the rumors. If Apple came out with a phon at Macworld I wouldn’t care if it had an in-built iTunes. All I want out of a phone is something which syncs effortlessly with Address Book, iChat, Mail, and iCal.
Updated Cinema Displays. I am really hoping Apple will update the line of Cinema Displays at Macworld as part of my 07 shopping list is a Mac Pro and two 20″ Apple Cinema Displays. I would like to see a built-in iSight in the displays (much like the iMac), and new models in 17, 20, 24, and 30″ sizes.
What are you hoping for his Steve-ness to unveil at the Macworld 2007 keynote?
Many feel that tracking your stats is the best way to see how you are progressing with your blogging. Whilst I semi-agree with this, I believe a blogs success is shown in how readers are getting involved in the comments, and your RSS subscriber count.
Stats are very important though. I love to see where visitors are coming from, where they are clicking, and what posts are the most popular. Mint is a product that helps you keep tab on your blogs stats. In my opinion, Mint is the premier stat tracking product on the market,not even Googles’ Analytics beats Mint.
Mint is the most beautiful and easy to use stat tracking product on the web. After you install it you add a little line of code onto your header document, and it will start tracking visits to your blog. Shaun, Mint’s developer has used a combination of images, CSS, JavaScript and AJAX to make it really shine.
One of the smartest things Shaun did when building Mint was allowing developers to tap into Mint’s API to create plugins, called Peppers. Peppers can easily be installed into Mint to provide even more statistical tracking, check out the full list of Pepper’s for more info.
The graphical interface and the usability of Mint is very hard to explain, so in short, if you want to track stats for your blog, head over to the Mint site and drop $30 to get your copy. You will not regret it.
I hope you enjoyed the “Blogging 101″ series. By now you should have your plan worked out, installed WordPress, picked a theme, installed essential plug-ins, and installed Mint to track your stats. You are ready to start writing.
“Blogging 202″ will include tips on how to write great content for your blog and attract readers. It’s currently in the works, so look out for it in the upcoming months.
Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper for all the Mac users out there. The image is taken using my Canon 350D DSLR. Photography really interests me and this gives me a nice way to showcase some work, while giving readers something for nothing.
The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out. No watermark has been applied to the image either, so play nice, I’m trust worthy that no one will steal my work.
Today’s desktop caption is: Daisies
Feel free to leave any comments about this wallpaper below, it’d be nice to get a comment or two from people who decide to use it, have a great weekend, and enjoy!
Download it here.
Once you have decided on which theme you are going to use for your blog, you can start customizing it and making it your own by installing plugins. Here are a few I recommend you check out.
Akismet
This is the first and primary plugin you should install once WordPress is setup. Akismet is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again.
So far it has saved me from checking and deleting over 2,000 spam comments, and the count is growing by the hour. Install Akismet to zero out comment spam.
Get it here.
Feedburner Plugin
If you have replaced your blogs RSS feed with a personalized FeedBurner feed (which I recommend you do), you will not want to sort through all the back-end code to manually change the link over.
The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally your main comments feed as well.
Get it here.
Subscribe to Comments
Provide your readers with a way to keep up to date with the latest comments on a post with this plugin. It will display a small check-box next to the comment field when a user is posting a comment, allowing them to receive new comment updates directly to their inboxes.
Get it here.
Top Commenters
Encourage more discussion from your readers, by displaying their names (linked to their website if desired) and number of comments they have made recently to your sidebar.
Get it here.
SRG Clean Archives
I am using this plugin to run my Archives page. SRG Clean Archives is a rather simple WordPress plugin that will allow you to display your archives in a much “cleaner” format than any other plugin available.
Get it here.
Next up and last in the series before we move onto Blogging 202, is picking a stat tracker to track the stats of your blog.
What plugins have you installed on your blog?
Although content should be your number one priority, a nicely designed blog is import to keep readers clicking and exploring through your archives. A good design, especially if you constructed it from scratch should generate a lot of buzz and conversation.
If you dont have any design or coding experience, no problem. There are thousands of free themes available for WordPress. Check out this directory for hundreds of free themes, or alternatively here’s a few independent sites offering themes.
5ThirtyOne
5ThirtyOne is the online home of designer Derek Punsalan. He has three themes released for public consumption, 5ThirtyOne V2, October Special, and Foliage. There are some of the best quality themes I have found to date, and at this current time I’m using V2 (with some customization) for my blog.
ThemePorter
ThemePorter is one of the most extensive WordPress theme sites I have come across. They have dozens of themes up for download sutiable for any type of blog.
Good luck with finding a theme for your blog, remember, content is key, but a good design will help improve the “stickiness” of your blog and make it more enjoyable for readers to navigate.
Next up in the series, picking out plug-ins which are essential to install before you launch your blog.
You have decided on your topic, your target audience, and the frequency you will post, but what platform should you use to blog and reach the world with your words? Wordpress, Movable Type, Symphony or Textpattern? There are so many options, but which is the right one?
Personally I use WordPress, and wouldn’t go with any other. Here are a few reasons why you should use WordPress when starting your blog.
Plugins
If you want to do something interesting such as display your blog stats, display recent comments, put up a contact form, or anything else that springs to mind, the WordPress community it littered with thousands of handy plugins that can do simple tasks, up to downright amazing things to enhance your blog.
Theme Library
As the most used blogging system in the world you would expect WordPress to have the most themes available, and your right. There are thousands of free open source themes up for download all over the internet. WordPress is also very easy to develop for - it doesn’t take much more than basic HTML and CSS knowledge to customize a theme to your liking.
User Community
The user community using, and based around WordPress is amazing. If you need help with your install, a simple Google search should give you an answer, if not, there are dozens of online forums full of helpful people to fix your issue.
The user community is constantly helping others, developing new themes and plug-ins, and providing the WordPress developers with many feature requests to improve it’s build - which in the long run works out better for you as WordPress wil be more stable, and more packed with features than any other piece of blogging software.
Things to get after the install
After you install WordPress, I recommend you do a few things. The first thing is enable permalinks so your URL’s look tidier. Instead of ending with something such as “archives/741″ - you will get “2007/01/01/example-post/”.
The second thing you should do it beautify your WordPress back-end, the admin area by installing WP Tiger Administration v3.0 made by Steve Smith of Ordered List.
After you have done all of this, you can move on and get stuck into the next stage which we will cover in the next installment - picking a theme and plug-ins.
You have decided you want to start your own blog, but dont know where to begin. In this series I am going to teach you how to get a blog started, from the planning stages, right through to picking a good stat tracking application and announcing your blog to the world. Let’s get started!
The first thing you need to do after deciding you want to start a blog, is ask yourself these questions:
When answering the first question, take into consideration how much you know about certain topics, and what topics you are interested in and love. Generally the best thing/s to write about are things you really enjoy.
Your answer to the first question can highly effect your answer to the second. For an example if you are writing about emo music, your target will be teenagers and the early twenties. If you are blogging about photography, your audience widens. Personally I try and keep to four main topics, Apple, Photography, Productivity, and Blogging. Most of these go hand and hand into each other which helps me interlink posts and keep a general theme.
How often you are going to blog is a big question. You cant expect people to keep loyal to reading your blog if you blog for seven days in a row, then leave it a week before your next post, then 3 days before your next. Routine is a key. Pick a date and stick to it, weather it’s once a day, week, or month.
After you have answered all of these, then you can move on and get stuck into the next stage which we will cover in the next installment - picking your blogging platform.
New Year Resolutions, I have never bothered with them in the past - but today I’m changing that. Instead of resolutions, here’s a group of 5 goals I would like to fulfill in 2007.
Learn, and have fun in the process
I want to start learning because I enjoy it, and have fun in the process. No matter if it’s school work, real life work or photography, I want to have fun while filling my brain with knowledge and preparing myself for the future.
Snap more frames
Taking a quick look at my Aperture library, I’ve taken just under 3,500 images this year. The last 2 months have averaged 1,000 images each. My goal for 2007 is too get out more with my DSLR and take 15,000 images over the course of the year.
Buy a new workstation
2006 has been pretty big for me, I’ve taken up photography as a hobby and now it is one of my major passions. My current Mac, the iMac is rather sluggish when editing images in Aperture. It’s screen is too small, doesn’t hold enough RAM, and I’m quickly outgrowing the hard-drive. My goal is to have a new pro workstation before the year ends.
Be more productive
I feel as a whole I am very productive, but I feel I still waste a lot of time browsing the web when it could be used for many other things, such as writing.
Live for the minute
I am going to stop looking ahead at the things I could have in the future, and enjoy what I have today. I am going to start living for the day, living for the hour, and living for the minute. I want to enjoy every second of this year, and make the most of my time.
What are your New Year Resolutions?
