Beginning Tips for Your Blog

Using wordpress.com makes setting up a blog easy.

(1)  Any time you work on your computer and/or your blog always have notebooks or paper and pen handy so that you write down usernames, passwords, etc. I use the smaller legal pads and have several of them available at each computer. I reason I use several at the same time is that I use one legal pad for one main idea or for one blog at a time. I’ll write more about this later.

(2)  Go to WordPress.com. Click on sign up now. CAUTION: The username you choose now can’t be changed so choose something easy for you to remember. ALSO: Write your username and password down in your notebook. You may choose to have more than one WordPress,com account. BUT: You can only use your email address for one account. So going carefully down will save you from more work later.

(3) After you finish this sign-up, you can add as many blogs as you like to this one account. BUT: They will all be on this same account.

(4)  Before you move on with WordPress, you may choose to sign-up for a free Yahoo account. This may be a good idea if you want to keep your blog experience separate from your main email. To set up Yahoo, sign in to yahoo.com. Complete the Yahoo registration. Click on New here? Sign up at the top of the Yahoo site. Choose another username(your Yahoo ID) which also will be permanent. BE SURE: to write it down. A general rule of thumb–usernames can’t be changed. After you have completed the registration, sign in to Yahoo. CAUTION: For Yahoo, you type in your complete Yahoo ID so include @yahoo.com.

(4)  I have created a dummy site for myself so that I can follow the choosing a new blog right with you. In order to do that I signed up for a new free email account to use with my new wordpress.com account. I named my new WordPress.com account with this username: mycoralcay. So the url for this blog is mycoralcay.wordpress.com. This is the address I would give to others so that they can read my blog. Because the wordpress.com blogs are free, you will always have wordpress in the url.

(5)  EXTRA information: WordPress.com sites are all free. How wordpress makes money is to place ads directly on your site. You cannot choose the ads. We will talk about Google Ads in another post. BUT you can’t put any ads of your choosing on WordPress.com blogs.

(6)  After you have set up your blog, fill in the about page about yourself. The dashboard is the page that will be your starting page. Click on posts to begin writing in your blog. There is a starting post there entitled “Hello world”.  Under hello world, for each post, you can choose to edit it–quick edit it–delete it–or view it. I delete mine and add an opening welcome as a new post.

(7)  Finally, you may choose to put your posts into categories. Click on categories, under add category type in the category name and then click on add category.

How to Write a Post 1:

The person I am writing for in CoralCayBlogs is the beginning or new blogger. I want to inspire and encourage those persons who mistakenly think that they can’t “write”. In this series of posts, I want to show you how easy it is for anyone with a computer or access to a computer to blog. The main asset you own is the long life you’ve lived (if you are over 30). You are a collection of experiences, relationships, hobbies, interests, abilities, opinions, ideas, and interests. From all those parts of you, list 20 things you would like to explore or define. Writing blogs means doing research on the Internet about those subjects you would like to know better.

(1)  Write down 20 or 50 subjects you would like to explore. Keep this list in a notebook you will start about your blogs. I have tried many but the tools that work the best for me are lose-leaf notebooks that you can insert a title to on the spine of the notebook. The reason for me that fixed notebooks don’t work is that if I want to rearrange pages, I can’t in a fixed notebook.

(2)  The other main tool that works for me are clipboards. I have 6 and may get more. On the clipboards, I keep to do lists or future plans. The reason I use several is to vary my work depending on my interests that day. I recycle the used paper from my printer but only use the extra pages that are printed out. I can’t read my writing on the back of a fully printed page. I learned the clipboard system from the Navy when I worked at Guantanamo Bay.

(3)  The other tools I use are great pens for my to do lists. I have never found typing to do lists to be effective for me. The main pen I use and buy by the dozen at Office Depot is Jimnie Gel Rollerball by Zebra. I also use is a great red ink pen. I have ones by Sharpie (get the ones that don’t bleed on to the next page), Pilot Bravo (my favorite), and Flair pens (which I’ve used for years—you used to have to go an art supply store for them). The red pen is to underline or check off my to do lists. What a sense of power is involved with using a red pen.

(4)  I am going to write about writing one post for your blog. I am using the subject of grief support as we may be able to help someone dealing with grief. For this post, I will dedicating it to James for Anya. Because I like to keep my posts about 500 words, I am going to write a separate post showing the steps for writing the post.

How to Write a Post 2:

Although I am going to show how to write a post even if you can’t “write” by using delicious, many other resources exist for research.

(1) On delicious.com, type in grief support on the search bar.

(2) From my bookmarks on delicious, I will be using the following links: centering corporation, Kara grief support, griefnet.org, the Bright Side, beyond indigo, and goodgriefresources. These links I have saved from prior searches. Delicious also brought up 194 other links.

(3)  The post:

Grief is a necessary part of love. From the grief, we receive compassion, humility, gratitude and depth. Avoiding entirely the grieving process only means that the next grieving will be harder. Certainly, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s model of grieving can be a tool. She identified five stages of grief in her work with dying patients. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

The Centering Corporation site includes sibling grief, teen grief, adult grief resources, children and grief, infant loss, death of a child and other resources and specials for sympathy cards and other resources.

Kara grief support site has videos and caregiver support and resources. Also included are good suggestions for helping someone suffering from loss. Their mission is to offer peer support and education to individuals, families and organizations coping with death and dying.

Griefnet.org “where grace happens” has groups which operate email support groups 24-hours/day available 365 days a year. Members participate when they wish and not at a set time. When one member sends an email message, everyone in the group receives a copy. New groups are formed when there is a need for them and can be set up for $5.00 per month.

The Bright Side provides educational materials, articles by top experts, personal stories, and other resources to help cope with depression, grief, suicide, or whatever mental or emotional difficulty you or your loved one may be experiencing. The subjects here are: suicide watch, felling down, coping with loss, a happier me, safe stress, aging well, the learning tree, creative minds, getting help, news and events, make a difference, thank you and search.

Beyond indigo has channels for children and grief, grief support, death and the spirit, funerals and customs, healing from all losses, sudden and violent death and caregiving and illness. This site has five supports of find a buddy now, light a candle, share your story, talk on our boards (forums) and post a heart of hope. It features a peace corner, experts, and quizzes. The store has remember pins, pet brochures, grieving gifts, pet loss gifts and healing help. It also has stories about grief and loss. Several memorials are included.

The good grief resources site has a scientific survey to help understand the relationship between the use of humor and laughter while healing from the grief following the death of a loved one. Nancy Weil is conducting the survey. The site also includes a loss and meaning study being conducted by the Counseling Psychology program at The University of Memphis. It includes several resources such as camps for kids, conferences, counselors, hospice, speakers, support groups and training.  (End of the post.)

As you can see, I used much of the original content from the sites. I have very carefully given credit to the original sites. But by giving an overview of the site, I have allowed the reader the choice of reading the site or moving on to the next one. Blogs increase the traffic or readership by including links to other sites.

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