It seems so simple. Blogging looks like fun, so you try it. The title is like an email subject line. OK, you get it, and the post content is like writing an email message. There are buttons for formatting. Just like your email program. But then something bad happens. Your picture looks stupid in your post (or you can’t upload pictures at all). When you copy and paste from Word it looks ridiculous. You’re not sure what all the buttons and features do. One third of your post is a hyperlink to an admin page of your WordPress software (don’t tell me you have never done this). You misspelled a tag and you don’t know how to edit it. You can’t get YouTube videos to embed (and what the hell does "embed" mean, anyway?). And just when you think it can’t get worse…
You change something in the Settings area and your WHOLE BLOG DISAPPEARS.
So… do you really have to learn technical stuff in order to blog? Well, let me put it to you this way: it really, really helps. If you don’t know this stuff, you need to know someone who does, or you need to be willing to learn.
The good news is: you can learn this stuff if you want to. It’s no more mysterious than anything else you don’t know. If you were an inexperienced cook, how to make a souffle that doesn’t fall would be a big mystery.
There’s a difference between knowing your way around WordPress and knowing the truly technical stuff like HTML/CSS, MySQL, or how to manage an FTP program.
Even an inexperienced cook can whip up some pretty tasty fare with a good recipe and some basic training. Recipe books and training must be purchased, but the cost is much less than if you hired a personal chef to cook all your meals for you.
You fall somewhere between these two points. Either you have more time (and desire) than money, and you want to do it yourself, or you have more money than time (or desire) and you’d rather pay somebody else to do it for you. When you’re running a business, this makes more sense and is more feasible, because you need to spend most of your time tending to your business.
So the question is… which type are you?
So stay tuned! You don’t want to miss a thing so subscribe now and tell your friends.
15 Comments
I’ll add to this one.
One common decision we often see is that people want the big, fancy blog with all the functions and features. That’s great.
Then they receive it and realize that the blog is complex and they need to figure out how to use it. They become overwhelmed and stop blogging.
This is one main reason why you need to learn how a blog works or have someone you trust to help teach you about your blog.
There’s more to blogging than writing. It’s good that you mentioned it.
That why i still not using WP, still learning about it especially on various plugin that should I use.
Ah, even if you do know what you’re doing … you can still screw up.
As I did yesterday, when I “disappeared” my blog for a short while with a single click. (Was I the inspiration for this article?)
Fortunately, my bacon was saved because I obeyed the #1 rule of a good techie:
Back up your files BEFORE you edit them. Every time.
@James - Yup. It’s more than you think it’s going to be. And most folks will have no idea how to add plugins. Upgrading the blog is easier, now, but what will they do if something goes wrong?
@Belajar - There’s a lot of info online about plugins, so happy learning!
@Dave - Nope, I had this post in draft already! Lesson learned, eh?
You are so right! I think that the client should educate as much as he/she wants. Otherwise, they will be “married” to the programmer or run the risk of being scammed the programmer. In this case, education is not only power but freedom.
Elaine B.
I have more time and desire. I created my business blog in March. At that time, I had no clue what I was doing. I was used to working with HTML, and PHP seemed so simple yet complicated. I accidentally deleted the whole blog twice.
I’ve certainly learned my lesson, but I’ve also taken the time to research WP and its plug-ins. Also, free templates and themes have so many drawbacks.
It’s worth learning the basics. Who knows when something will go horribly wrong?
I’m really happy that blogging(with WordPress) helps me learn many stuff.
about 1.5 year ago. I can’t imagine myself to create/convert layout to WordPress theme (I only know 2-3 php functions at that time). but now I can (sort of, still learning)
one more techical thing I learned is how to use svn
When I hosted my blog. I learned how to register domain and general knowledge about domain, how to use paypal, etc.
I have no money, almost no time, but full of desire to learn lol
I am in the third category. I know stuff and want people to pay me for it. I just got my first check last night. Woohoo!
I am a hybrid of the two. I really don’t have much time but I have the desire and really do want to understand it. The lack of money spurs that one as well. When I started I understood HTML but not CSS. The idea of editing a blog theme was foreign to me. Fortunately, my son looked at me like I was an idiot and I got the point that I could edit away.
Right now I am at the scary, to me anyway, point of being in dire straits of having to upgrade my wordpress to the latest edition and being convinced I will lose everything when I do.
I have been reading about upgrading but the thought of wiping out a years worth of posts is holding me back.
@Elaine - You raise an important point: not getting scammed. Knowing enough to prevent that is priceless.
@Pamela - Yup, often the free stuff isn’t going to portray your business in a professional light or even give you the functionality you want. Thanks for mentioning that.
@Se7en - Desire and practice will get you incredibly marketable skills, so keep learning!
@Rhett - Congrats! Way to go! Don’t spend it all in one place!
@Ashley - Back up your files and your database first! Upgrade WordPress before you upgrade any plugins. Use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin.
If you’re lucky, you can learn as you go, and hopefully not have any major disasters until you’re able to handle them! When I started, I was able to do the simpler stuff, like change the header, but now I get more heavily into modifying my theme and am working on a plugin.
Well that was easy enough. Thank you for the pep talk! I did the upgrade manually to 2.5.1, 2.6 can wait a few months, and everything seems to be working fine.
LOL. Martine, Martine…I am definitely on a need to know basis…:))) If I don’t need to know it right now, pullease don’t make my head explode…..Seriously, I attack tech in increments. And you nailed it. It is a combination of desire, time and money. Utility actually. If I need the tool, I am on it. And I love the possibilities, get the theories, but honestly my eyes glaze over. And it can rob me of valuable studio time. So it is way cool when someone throws me a ninja star or two. I learn as I go along. But I also know that this is an area where delegation might be the way to go.
How much technical stuff should I learn? This was the question I had been asking ever since I started blogging. I got my answer.
Learn, learn & learn. make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. I found that it is not that tough.
Thank you for sharing.
I think starting a blog is very easy now and you dont need to know any html or css etc..
its getting it well known thats the hard part
content is 90% but you still need more than that