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Beginner’s Blog-One Week Down

Posted Thursday, May 8, 2008 by momscashblog | 15 Comments so far

 It’s hard to believe I’ve only had this blog for a week…it sure feels like a month has gone by! Since this is a Learning Blog, I am going to reveal some mistakes and problems I have encountered, just to give you an idea of how it’s been going for me…I am hoping it will be helpful for those of you who are THINKING of starting a blog, but feel intimidated by the whole process, just as I did before I started.

 The mistakes I have made, mostly pertain to the posts, so you all got to see them! Lucky me! Like the first post that was all in bold ( I did that on purpose by the way! Not, and I obviously didn’t proof it very well.)When I woke up the next day I opened my laptop to look at my site and said “who wrote that?” (and I swear I wasn’t drinking!) When I saw the “read more” line at the end, I clutched my heart and said….”Oh no! There’s more?”( I still couldn’t believe it was ME!) but I took a deep breath and bravely read on. It was pretty painful to see all of those glaring misspellings, typos, redundant words, bad grammar, and rambling on and on. I remember one of my sisters telling me on the phone to write my post in a document draft, print it out and read it, make corrections and read it again and repeat. She worked in publishing for 21 years, but I didn’t listen to her cuz I know how to write and proofing is easy! Right? Why I can do that with my eyes shut..( and it sure does look like my eyes were shut.)

 Ok,this time I took my sister’s advice and made a Word Document and proofed it several times ( but don’t expect all of my post to be perfect..they won’t be!) I DID NOT type directly into WordPress as I did with the first post. But when I cut and pasted it into WordPress I must have knocked out a command so it came out very small (I’m told that was because you have to type directly into WordPress or it will come out with a 8pt). So I went in to edit, then it came out big and green…”the Big Green Monster”…each time I edited and fixed one thing…I made a new problem, so I didn’t dare touch it anymore. At the next meeting with Krysti, she said she was impressed that I could make it green since “green” was not programmed into the format! Upon investigation she found it was green because it was a LINK! So that whole green article was one big link! And I got some compliments who would have thought?

 All in all it has been pretty easy ! When I look back at my progress, I realize most of my mistakes were with proofing or the lack there of. I was soooo worried about the technical stuff that I took for granted the other parts. Remember folks, when I say I am not a techie it’s an understatement! I have never been in any other programs before WordPress. My experience on personal computers is about 5years of surfing on the web, buying on the web, and using my Outlook Express Email system so just the thought of using a program called WordPress was intimidating to say the least. In only 1 week, I feel pretty comfortable with WordPress…(but how this post comes out we will soon see.)

 WordPress is a publishing platform that is used on MCB. My predecessor says she would never use anything else and others I’ve talked to who use it , seem to share that opinion. And from my experience, I find it easier to navigate and understand  as time goes by. Just don’t hit any buttons that you don’t know about at first ( a word to the wise or not so wise). If you use MCB’s Free Blog Tutorial, WordPress is part of the Tutorial package to set you up with a new blog. The tutorial is VERY well set up and easy to understand… and as you can tell, I get intimidated by ANYTHING technical. One of my sisters will be starting her own blog soon using MCB’s Tutorial, so we’ll see what she has to say about it.

 For those of you who have established blogs, I hope you will be around to rescue me and others who are learning, or just curious about the process when we need help with technical stuff ( and I WILL need it believe me….(LOL) It takes a village, and I am lucky to have” inherited” such experienced readers along with Moms Cash Blog. You’re all a great bunch of people, and it’s good to know I have a back-up team of seasoned bloggers who will lend me, and other beginners, a hand when we need it. So I encourage any beginners to feel free to ask questions in the comment area and I know someone will help you!

 One week down!!!! Many more to go!!!!


Comments
Emma May 8th, 2008 (7:18 am)
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Hello JJ, congratulations on becoming a blogger. I just began reading or watching rather. When this blog was sold so this is my first comment. There is a free tool for bloggers called Windows Live Writer. Just Google it. But it makes blog entries really easy. You format and add video and graphics and links and spell check just like your using a word processor. Then you just click publish and it posts it to your blog. It will integrate with most blog platforms such as WordPress and the first time you use it, it will copy the fonts, and colors, etc. of your blog automatically.

Take your time learning WordPress. But when you want to make posting really easy you might want to check out windows live writer. If you have any questions you can email me and I’ll try to answer them for you. Good Luck, Emma

PS WordPress has a spell check option. But I use the spellcheck button on the Google tool bar as well.

Ricardo May 8th, 2008 (8:30 am)
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Adam, why post something like that?? everybody needs to start somewhere, in this case jj just has a little bit of a head start, i came across this blog just this morning and i say good on you jj!!! The internet’s a crazy and wild place and im sure your going to be a blogging whiz in the upcoming mouths, and i am looking forward to reading about your progress!

Ricardo from New Zealand

Jen May 8th, 2008 (1:42 pm)
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Adam, what a poor loser. Keep on blogging JJ, you seem to be doing just fine here!

BudgetCents May 8th, 2008 (2:05 pm)
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JJ,

WordPress has a spell checker built in. So you don’t really have to put it into word first. As for grammer errors, well we are all guilty of those, aren’t we? :)

anthony dinh - DiariesOfABlogger May 8th, 2008 (3:56 pm)
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actually, adam is a smart man, he said something that stirred your emotions and got a reaction from u. he might even gain some pageviews from this simple remark…this is a “how to comment” 101 trick, haha.

JJ, i’ve noticed in your first sentence and in some of the other posts, you have anchors on words like “blog” which link back to some older MCB posts, but there’s really no logical correlation/relationship between the achor text and the linked post. any reason for this?

Mark May 8th, 2008 (4:09 pm)
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It’s amazing how much you can learn when you throw yourself into the deep end. You have handled it really well. Congrats!

I totally agree with your point about a community of people that shares what they know. We all have different strengths and if we can share them with others, hopefully we can all plug our own knowledge gaps. Ultimately, helping us all to make more money!

Tori May 8th, 2008 (5:56 pm)
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Actually, I agree with Jen. Bullies don’t make friends. If Adam is in business he won’t get many customers from talk like that. I wouldn’t touch his site with a 10 foot pole! It leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Don’t listen to him JJ. I am just learning all of this too and I want help from a real person who doesn’t look down on me. One step at a time nad we will get there. I am sticking with YOU!

GradeMoney.com May 8th, 2008 (6:03 pm)
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Hey JJ! You’re improving a lot. Congrats.

Anyway, just some suggestions here. Maybe you should try to incorporate images or videos. It makes the post “more beautiful”. =)

Good luck

Geo May 8th, 2008 (6:44 pm)
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JJ!! Congratulations! You’ve been doing a great job. Don’t worry if you make some mistakes, everyone starts somewhere. I’ve been learning about blogging for 2 weeks and I feel the same way you do! I’m always on here checking out what you have written to learn from you! Im so grateful for finding this blog! Thank you. I am your fan!

calmighty May 8th, 2008 (7:20 pm)
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JJ,

Shorter more focused posts. Good luck!

ProfileSurfer.com May 8th, 2008 (10:34 pm)
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Hi JJ,

Aldous Huxley:
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

take care,
JC

Moms Cash Blog May 9th, 2008 (1:08 am)
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Thank you all for the positive feedback and GREAT tips! I will definitely use them!!!! You’re a helpful group, and your expertise will be valuable for newbies. Some may doubt this concept, but I know there is a need for friendly,easy to understand computer “talk” to get others started. Thanks again…JJ

Shanna May 11th, 2008 (3:34 am)
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hmm, looks like Adam’s comments are gone.

Jennifer May 22nd, 2008 (6:48 pm)
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It looks like a lot of comments are gone. Kristi never moderated comments!

Moms Cash Blog May 24th, 2008 (1:46 am)
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Jennifer…. as a matter of fact, it was Krysti who deleted the comment.. not me! (Since you have your own site, you must know that the host has every right to delete any comments from his/her own site that he/she feels are offensive or inappropriate.)

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