Ninja Pajamas, and other good things.

Blog the Blogging Bloggers!

Mr. P has asked that I explaing blogging to those who would like to blog as I have done. Now, I'm a total neophyte, so this is purely from my perspective *only*

1. Get a free blog. Don't pay for one, don't host one, don't put script on your own site. There's no need to. Unless you somehow get a bajillion readers, don't bother. I didn't, even though I have existing domains. Click on the graphic above the j and the j in ninjapajamas in orange above, or, if you are feeling more energetic or want to burn an extra fraction of a calorie, scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on the graphic in the lower left. Blogger and Blogspot are the same thing. I chose blogger because quite a few are cutesy-neat-pretty and so on but require server-side installation. Blogger is big and well known, and I think it's mighty easy to use. If you have more questions about how to use blogger, post a comment. I also like that blogger is simple and straightforward, and not all cutesy with the mood indicators and whatnot. Who cares about my mood? Who cares what my mood was last week? Even I, in my magnificent narcissism, do not.

2. Post stuff. Tell your friends. Make them sit in front of a computer and monitor them as they read. Ask them incessantly if they have read your blog. (but do not do this to me) When you register, there's some kind of thing that you can check off that will broadcast your updates to a page that lists all blogs. Do that. Why not?

3. Upgrading. You can upgrade your blog by changing the template, choosing other templates, and doing manual template edits if your html skills are pretty good. I had to change the template to make my horizontal rule look like I wanted it to, and you just need to do a basic search to find the tags you want. There are also a lot of other templates for free out there that you can use.

3a. Adding a counter is a good way to deflate your ego. Scroll down to the bottom of this page and you can click on my counter and sign up for your own. It is added by modifying the template to include the appropriate coding, which is generated by the counter service. There are many out there, but as per usual I clicked on a counter somewhere and just used that one because it was right there. That counter is good enough for me, but if you want something extra special, search. There are no shortages of counter styles out there.

3b. Adding comments capabilities. I use Blogback. I also tried Etenation but it was hard to put it into my template and I didn't feel like dicking with it. At one point I had all my posts on the page decreasing in text size until it was smaller than that of a TOS. Because of this, I highly recommend "backing up" your template by copying and pasting it into notepad just in case you screw it up. Blogback is super easy. You just copy and paste your existing template into a little box, and then it generates new code that you copy and paste back into your template screen. Very easy. Several utilities ask for your username and passcode, and then attempt to log in and change your template that way. Not sure if I like that as much, plus, it doesn't seem to work.

3c. Adding other crap. There is a lot of other crap that you can add. Here's an entire list, in fact. Most of this is just lame, so, fuggeddaboudit.

3d. If you want to be cool like me, and post things so that links appear in new windows, you need to add a peice of code like this: ....endofurl.com"[space]target="_blank"[closing bracket] where the things [within] are replaced with, well, what I said.

Pretty much everything else is smooth and automatic, such as archiving and so on. Try it out, send me a link, and enjoy!

BTW - Steffan mentioned to me that beta g-mail accounts are being given to some bloggers. I haven't confirmed this.