Posts tagged blogger

From time to time people have asked us how they go about starting their own blog. We usually point them in the direction of Blogger or WordPress.com where they can start their own blog free of charge. Both of these sites offer a chance for newbies to produce professional looking blogs of their own very quickly.

The only drawback to using any of these services is you have to use their layouts and themes and you cannot easily make your blog look just the way you want it. In the case of Blogger it is possible if you know some PHP programming and in WordPress.com if you pay a fee for the service, usually a few dollars a month.

This is where The Bears have now stepped in.

We are offering any of our Bear Friends (sorry, offer is open to Official Bear Friends only) the chance to start up and run their very own WordPress blog completely free of charge. The blog will be hosted by us but you can design your own artwork and choose a free layout theme for your blog.

There is no catch whatsoever, everything is free and will remain free for as long as we decide to run it. We are simply doing this so that others might start to enjoy blogging as much as we do. There is no catch!

Your blog can be on any subject you like. It can be about the things you do from day to day, or can be based around a hobby or pastime you enjoy. If you would like an example of what a blog can look like go and look at Granny’s Blog. Granny’s Blog is hosted in the same way as yours will be and will include all the features included on Granny’s and more if you desire.

Here are some examples of just what can be done with a WordPress blog…

http://tellerallaboutit.wordpress.com/

http://settysoutham.wordpress.com/

http://jethead.wordpress.com/

http://thegoodtwin.net/

http://thelifestylehub.biz/

If you fancy becoming a blogger all you need to get started is tell us the following…

1. Name. Your blog will require a name from which to operate. (e.g. Mary’s Blog)
2. Layout Theme. If you search online, there are plenty of free themes available for WordPress. You can search for them using Google (just type in “free WordPress theme”) and once you find the one you like just tell us what it is called and where we can download it. We will do the rest.
3. Artwork. This will be required if your theme involves a header imagine like the one we have used as an example above. If you are not very good with design or photo editing we can help you with this to get you started.

We are quite willing to help you set your blog up and help with the initial installation and artwork. We can also offer help with posting videos and photographs the first time you choose to do so. However, once your blog is up and running you will be the one who decides what to write about and what to include in your blog.

Unfortunately, we do not have the time to spend hours helping everyone write and edit posts and the day to day administering of your blog. Once your blog is up and running it will be your responsibility to maintain it. We can point you in the direction of online manuals and documentation but it is up to you to read it. We will try to help you if we can, but this will be when we have some spare time.

If you would like us to help get readers for your blog, then we can also give you a link from our own blog to try to get other Bear Friends interested. However, if you would rather keep it secret we can block anyone from finding it, including search engines like Google.

Blogging can be fun; we have all found that out over the years we have been running this blog. If you would like to experience it for yourself, just give us a shout and we will help get you started.