Confessions of a newbie blogger

Recently I transitioned my blog IFRSCanada: The devil is in the details from its home on Blogspot (also known as “Blogger”) to its own website domain. The process of transfer has been painful but I believe its worthwhile.

There are pros and cons of moving a blog to its own website and I will deal with that in a future post. I will tell you what I found persuasive. For now I can say that starting with a free service such as Blogger was very good. When you first start you really do not know that you will be able to keep up the writing so Blogger is good to get your feet wet as it were. I started blogging on the site in May 2008. It’s less than a year ago but it seems like an eternity when I think of all the things I have learned the hard way. Well it was last month (February 2009) that I finally made the change after much soul searching and planning.

I was asked what I used to construct the site “The IFRS Exorcist” in one of the first posts on that site. I have also been asked about the site “Many Hatty Returns” on which I use a similar approach. The IFRS site is modeled somewhat on the hat site. I thought that it would be a good idea to discuss the ingredients of my sites in a separate post on this blog rather than off topic on either of the two other blogs.

I was convinced by my blogging guru Yaro Starak to set up the blog on a Word Press platform. It was several weeks before I took the leap. I had downloaded his free PDF report . It is free but it contains a whole lot about blogging. You can get your own copy of this free report here

Yes this is an affiliate link. I am a very satisfied member of Yaro Starak’s Blog Master Mind Program The program seems expensive but the weekly lessons are exceptional as are the Members only Forums, Resource material and frequent members only conference calls when you can ask Yaro any question about blogging - directly - it’s awesome! I’ll review Yaro’s program in a future post. It’s well worth considering. You have to work at it and you will get a lot out of it. There is no quick fix and you will not absorb the information intravenously.He delivers way beyond expectations. I would not say that just to get affiliate commissions.  He deserves success. He is a young Australian who has applied himself - well done. A final thought if you think hiring a professional is too expensive try hiring an amateur - this is a saying attributed to Red Adair the famous oil rig capping guy. Yaro is truly a blogging professional!

The next thing is the choice of Web Host. I close Blue Host for my blogs. (Yes I am an affiliate there too). There are mixed reviews of Blue Host on the Internet. As a relatively non technical person (I’m learning) it’s the support that counts for me. I have found the Blue Host support second to none. They are always cheerful when I call and they are very patient with me. They solved my problems and some of them very speedily. A word of caution no matter how good or bad your host is you still run the risk of hacking your site and you must back up your database at least. Blue Host is very cost effective for a beginner with limited traffic since you can have multiple hosted URLs under the same account at no extra cost - really. Here is the link:

Here is the “good stuff”". How did I get my site to look good? I spent quite a lot of time looking at Word Press themes. Many of these themes a free and some are paid themes. In the end I settled on the “Thesis”  theme. I am using this on all my blog sites including this one (I bought the developer option that allows me to do this).

To tell you the truth there is more power in Thesis than I can utilize right now. Certainly I do not currently have the HTML and CSS skills that I need to customize the code (heck until recently I did not even know what the acronyms meant). I am learning some basic coding but it is just Kindergarten level at present. Why buy a Ferrari when a Honda Civic will do as well (nothing wrong with a Civic - I drive one from 1997!)? Why then make the investment at this early stage? First of all, unless you are a major IT geek you do not use more than a small percentage of the features on the software you are using now. For instance you probably use some version or other of Microsoft Office. It’s cost justified but how many of the features do you really use - and you may never use them. I know I only use a small portion of the features but I would be lost without the programs in the Suite.

Here are the reasons I chose the Thesis theme:

• I did not want my site to look like thousands of others
• I can grow into it. I can use skilled developers if I need something fancy right now. Why get one theme and upgrade later - if the cost is justified now?
• It is SEO optimized - the best feature and worth the investment alone.
• It has multiple formats for different columns
• It has many design options - a world I have yet to explore
• It is easy to add Google Analytics code without messing with the theme code - it can be done by anyone using the easy interface.
• It is really easy to add the Feedburner feed code.
• I like the rotating box in the top right hand corner. There are images that come with the theme. You can delete these and add your own images. I do this and it really focuses the site. There is also a possibility of adding a video here or customizing (I’m not there yet).
• The support is great. Chris Pearson, the developer himself provides the support through a user forum. I need help. New training materials have been added recently but I have not had the time to check them out.

This is a quick review of Thesis. I will do a comprehensive review later when I get more experience. Right now I like it since it has save me some technical support time at start up. It has also given me a clean appearance. Here is the link for more information (yes it is another affiliate link);

Thesis Demo Site — See the Thesis Theme in action!

The IFRS Exorcist is not completely out of the box. As a user of Word Press you can customize your site using plug ins. Perhaps I can deal with this topic in a later post. There are a lot of plug ins and they are mostly free to download. The effect of some of these can be seen and others work in the background. For instance I added a Contact Box plug in, a greeting box plug in to encourage feed sign up and as Sociable plug in so that one can share the posts with others. See the icons at the end of the posts. You will also need to use plug ins as I do to filter spam,back up you blog, submit site maps to Google. Plug ins are optional but some are more optional than others.

It is easy to add widgets with my Thesis theme. I use Widgets for a sign up box (using code from Feedburner), a search box, links, affiliate advertising, and many other options. This feature is also used on sites such as Blogger so I was already familiar with how that works.

As I already mentioned the Thesis theme box in the top corner is versatile. I added my logo to the box on the IFRS site and kept a few stock images from the theme. On Many Hatty Returns I uploaded my own images to make the site fun.

I hope that this information has been helpful and not too technical. Please feel free to ask specific questions and I will try to answer. My blogging knowledge has developed exponentially over the last nine months. (Like having a baby?) It’s easy to forget what it was like for me at the beginning.

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