If you want to use the domain name of your choice, you have to use wordpress. org and pay to have your blog hosted. While the cost of hosting these blogs is nominal, setting them up isn’t easy and requires someone who is a programmer. I am not a programmer but I use a great guy who lives in India. He isn’t able to give you a quote until after you have emailed him about your requirements. I will forward your requests to him in the beginning. (changemaker.kathy@gmail.com)

2. To set up your blog, go to wordpress.com. Sign up and remember the username you choose is permanent. You can have man blogs with this username. But one email address can only be used once with each username.

3. I always recommend having a notebook that you keep all your blog details in. Be sure to write down your username and password.

4. After you have your blog set up, you will be on the dashboard. This the place where you will choose everything for your blog. The first thing I do when I am starting a new blog, is to go down on the left-hand column and choose appearance. This is where you will the theme for how your blog will look.

5. To help you and give you ideas for your blog theme, I took some of my wordpress.com blogs and put a different theme on each so that you could get an overview of some of the themes. Click on heading or page Coral Cay Blogs List. (In case you didn’t know when the type online changes color that means you can click there for a direct link to whatever page it is linked to.)

6. After you have chosen a theme, you can begin to write about anything you choose. Click on new post, write it, and then publish it. You now have a blog!

7. For ideas, read How to write a post 1 (even if you can’t write) and How to write a post 2.

8.  The best way to learn about your blog is to practice and you will learn that blogging is very easy.

Photo credit.

Twelve Steps—uses Thirteen

Finding Your Passion–uses Beach

A Coral Cay Blog for Selling–uses Koi

High Energy Fitness–uses Connections

Alcoholism Plus Depression and PTSD–uses Mystique

Answers By Email–uses Spring Loaded

The Free Road: Reparenting Ourselves and Others–uses Misty Look

Our Online Retreat–uses Ocean Mist

Books to Help You Become Stress Free–uses Rusty Grunge

How to Create a Blog Empire–uses Choco

Gratitude is the Only Real Gift We Have for God–uses Connections

Coral Cay Blogs–uses Spring Loaded

Photo credit.

When you first begin to blog, if you were like me, you have never considered yourself to be a writer. But blogs are about writing posts–generally 200-600 words. So instead of a marathon, you will writing as a sprint. As this post at 37 signals suggests we solve big problems by paying attention to small things. Take your interests and list each one on a separate page. Then break down each interest into a series of smaller topics. Then begin writing on one of the smaller components. If you still seems larger than 200-600 words, break it down into smaller topics.

You will find in studying blogs that some writers write really long posts. A few of these writers I follow but generally in my “sound-bite” world, I prefer to read many authors with shorter posts. You can do what you want–it is your blog.

And this is the reason that blogging is recognized as being bigger than Gutenberg’s printing press. Blogging made each of us our own publisher. From blogs to sound blogs–podcasts–we became our own radio station. Then we became our own television station with video blogs–like YouTube.

In a side note here, someone asked a blogger if blogging was a fad. And the blogger said, “Yes, if 60-80 million bloggers decided to quit at the same time.”

About this blog:

When I decided to put an ad in the Coral Cay Newsletter, I hadn’t created this blog yet. So after I dropped off the ad to Patsy, I came home and began this blog. This blog took 20 hours form to construct. The added posts take 20-60 minutes.

You can set up a blog in 15-20 minutes in WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Creating the rest of the blog is where the work comes in.

Remember to divide and conquer–turn your blog into mini-topics to create the whole. “Life is hard by the yard–but a cinch by the inch.”

I will be following up with tips for writing and blogging–that is why I called this post 1.

Photo credit.

By Freewine

This is a reprint from a post I did 7/29/05.

Two excellent articles in Fortune Magazine report my favorite aspects of blogging.The articles are entitled “10 Tech Trends” and “Want Truth in Advertising? Try a Blog.”

The reasons I love blogs are:

(1) I have a world of experts at my fingertips. In the past 10+ years that I have been reading blogs, I have not made any purchases for our home or for personal use, read any books, watched any movies, done any research without consulting my free experts in each field.

(2) I feel powerful again in the knowledge that individual people do have power over the world we live in (for example, the Trent Lott experience.)  I love the way that blog writers know that those reading their site have the ability to talk back. When was the last time you talked back to the TV or the newspaper?

By the way, I live in the Ft. Lauderdale area and newspapers here are feeling the heat. The last time I gave it up, the newspaper called with an offer of $1.50 for the week for 6 months. I did say yes to that. I am worth more to the newspaper as a reader of their ads (which I’m not) than as a reader of their content. I also get the news seconds old on my RSS news sites including NYT, BBC, etc.Why do I pay for the newspaper? I love the human interest already available for me to read.

(3) I never was a huge user of email. It works great for business but is labor-intensive for personal relationships. I prefer people in person. But with my blog I send out my messages to the world of many readers so it is quite a time saver. Also, since the people reading my blog can answer me back for all to read, I get instant feedback if I choose to.

(4) My fourth reason to love blogs is that we live in a “sound-bite world”. Posts to blogs are generally short. Over the years, although I read a lot, I started long ago seeking out the best parts of the book and skipping the rest. Blogs simplify this for me by having titles. RSS feeds are amazing as I can choose to receive a short explanation with each title. Did I mention again that they are free?

By borman818

In an article I used previously, Mark Penn writing in The Wall Street Journal, writes about the profession of blogging, reported that of the 20 million bloggers in the united States, 1.7 profit from blogging and 452,000 are using blogging as their main source of income. Making money blogging is easier than you can imagine if you are interested.

1.  Have a plan. A business plan may also be an effective step to begin with. Gina Trapani has a great plan that she calls a personal business plan model. The reason I like her model is that those of us who work out of our homes do have business lives blended with our personal lives. In her model, Gina came up with a 30/30/30/10 model. She divided her work time life into a pie with 30% spent in learning, 30% for money, 30% for love, and 10% spent on admin needs. I especially really love this because, as one who has been operating for 3 years without a clear-cut plan, I tend to want to spent 90% of my time learning. I have learned that the excessive need to “research” is a procrastination tool to avoid finished and then failing or succeeding. The fear of failure and the fear of success are really the same. They each avoid results. She leaves the room for love to create products that is meaningful.

2.  Do what you love. Keywords and SEO have a place for writers but can’t be the beginning choice of material that is passionate and alive. Many authors have written about “flow“. I have written about it. Skellie, one of my favorite, favorite bloggers, who describes herself as “a blogger, writer, occasional entrepreneur, sometime freelancer and Envato worker-bee”, has written these suggestions for finding your flow. She suggests: (1) you must be challenged, but not too much; (2) you must be doing  creative mental work; and (3) you must see great value in the work.

This post of Skellie’s was entitled, “Find your flow and the money will follow.” The main part of this article was her take on the best way to make a living from blogging. Great article!

3.  Darren Rowse at Problogger has a guest blogger, Shaun Connell from Learn Financial Planning, who writes about blog business models. In this post, Shaun suggests choosing from three types of business plans. the three concepts with the questions he recommends are:

• Content Model. “Who will write your content? How often will your content be published? What’s the purpose of every article? Will you do straight-up blogging, or a little bit of traditional webmastering? Will you be doing “open-ended blogging” without an “end date” for your content to be roughly finished? Will you accept guest posts?”

• Marketing Model. “Almost all traffic is good, but what kind will you focus on? Will you build links? Will you pay for ads? Will you write guest posts? Will you spend a majority of your time doing keyword research? Will you focus on social media?”

• Monetization Model. “Some “gurus” claim the need to focus on content now, and think about monetization later. That’s risky, and for many small niches it’s a little naive. Will you use AdSense? What affiliate programs will you focus on? How will you get visitors from your “regular posts” to your money-making posts? Will you focus your web design on usability?”

On a personal note, I have focused the most on planning as I have six blogs that I have worked on for four years without making a profit. I did make the tough choice to not include comments three years ago. I made that decision as I was able to delay making money as my husband has supported us. Also I wanted the tome and focus to be on getting all that I wanted to publish. So now, I am finding ways to expand my market. Planning is my biggest use of my blogging time now.

By NASA Goddard

Tim Fulford took my post of 1/21/10 and has created amazing mind map of the information there. Thanks to Tim. Mind maps help us to see the organization of information immediately.

Everyone has creativity. To get in touch with new energy in you, try one of the following exercises.

Action board—use a large bulletin board to post 3×5 index cards for the 5 main categories of your life. You may wish to use general categories; such as goals, deadlines, dreams, etc. of be more specific, such as marketing, sales, etc. Using different colored 3×5 cards may help you to see the categories more easily. My suggestion is that you use a Mind Map which you leave displayed where you can easily see  and add to it. See an example of a review Mind Map which I created with  a friend who was going through a difficult time in their life. It enabled a clear path to be seen for the way ahead. Mind Maps give a very clear overview of what is going on and the connections between them. In this Mind Map you can clearly see that the aim was to be happy and creativity was what made the the happiness.

Every Sunday evening or another evening of your choice, review your boards and update them for the upcoming week/month/year depending on your system. This update will go quickly and will give you a clear, concise review of where you are and where you are going. This will lead to greater confidence. Remember if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Regular reviews are vital which is why having this in a visible location is an excellent idea.

Begin keeping a creative basket (a shoe box is another suitable container)—pretend you are 10 years old or ask a young friend and/or family member to help you. Take a large basket with a handle and put all the things in it you might enjoy using to create a new project. You may include sequins, glitter, paste, colored pens, watercolors, sketch pads. You may use these materials to play with often as way to express your creativity.

Love Jar—collect a glass or clear plastic jar. Using bright construction paper, cut into strips. On the strips of paper, write down short suggestions for yourself of ways you can feel greater love in your life. These activities will also add new confidence skills. For example:

• Clean out a cupboard or drawer today. Organize computer files and documents.
• Take a warm bubble bath.
• Explore a new lake or a nature retreat.
• Make a list of 15 of your strengths as a Mind Map and put it in your wallet
• Create a bulletin board of special cards others have sent to you or go to a card store and pick out 5-10 cards that you really love.
• Make a picture wall of your favorite picture.
• Make a recording of your favorite inspirational quotations.
• Trade skills with a friend to explore new ways of doing things.
• Choose a new hobby or improve on an older one.
• Have company for dinner and create an original menu.
• Cook or bake something today for someone else.

Begin keeping a loose-leaf notebook I call my “life-book”. The 5×8 size is convenient. I keep everything I might need to know in the immediate future. I also keep an index-sized Rolodex but the lifebook goes everywhere with me. It is a great companion when you’re remodeling or moving. You may have a companion on your computer. Keeping a collection of images also helps when you are feeling low and lacking in creative inspiration. Spread the images out and view each one for a few seconds then pick up one or two and look carefully for a longer periods of time.

Play is essential everyday for everyone. Plan to play everyday. The time you allot to play will repay you in increased productivity. Be sure to set time limits for play so that you don’t use play to prolong procrastination for some work you need to do. Make time to play and relax everyday!

Inspiration v1 Tim Fulford 2009

Wikipedia T-Shirt by quartermane

A

B

Personal balance

Believing in God

The blues: who and where

Left brain, right brain, whole brain; which is best?

Business plan

C

Web2 tools in the classroom

Best Collaboration Tools by Robin Good

Concept Maps

Creative Thinking–Alan and Emily Burton

D

If I had a desert

Drawing Tips for Mind Mapping e-book

E

E-skills

Energy Mind Map–Patrick Mayfield

Group work and ESL learners

Exercises for Destressing-Buzan

F

Family Tree

Send Large Files of Any Size

Projects in French by Marion Charreau

My friendships and connections

G

H

Happiness

What is happiness

Healthy Habits

I

Idea management

Personal innovation plan

Intelligence

Invisible Art by Marion Charreau

IQ Matrix Gallery Posters

J

K

Nine knowledge areas processes

L

Labyrinth

Life is what you make it!

Life Review

The Luck Factor: Attracting Good Fortune

M

Marketing basics

Creating a master mind map

MasterMind Matrix Chart–for sale from $25.00 to $300.00

Matters of life and death

Mind Map Directory–76 pages of mind maps from Topicscape–the 3D mapping software

Mind Map Inspiration Gallery of many mind maps by Paul Foreman

Mind Mapping Examples

7 Mind Mapping Examples in 1 Map

Mind Map Samples by category

Mind Mapping Wiki–WikiIT

Motivating people

Music playing made simple by Margaret Brandman

N

O

Everything Open and Free

Organization mind maps–Mindmapping versus GTD

P

Project life cycle

Project management–Five minutes to better project management

Project management body of knowledge

Bugs 2009

Q

R

RSS to Web Publishing Tools

Russian children

S

Showing how one blogger blog a post (http://kathyberman.com/2010/01/everyone-has-creativity) of which another blogger chooses to make a mind map (http://destech.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/everyone-has-creativity-if-only-they-would-use-it/#comment-499

Social Media Framework

Social Media Web Sites

Smith family

Spending time wisely

SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis

T

(Book)  Six Thinking Hats-Radiant Thinking meets Lateral Thinking

How to Twitter: A Beginner’s Guide

To do Lists

U

V

Best Free and Low-Cost Video Conferencing Tools

Best video publishing widgets by Robin Good

Vision and art: The biology of seeing–How the mind works

Visual complexity–has 708 projects

Visual Search Engines

W

Web site in 16 weeks

Whitby (town map)

Working alliance

X

Y

Z

By basykes

November 11, 2008 was the night my husband and I thought we had mice. We both awoke at 3 a.m. (does anything good happen at 3 a.m. other than new babies?). What we heard sounded like baby animals of some kind. Because we live in Florida on a fresh water canal, various critters aren’t unusual for us. But we’ve never been awaken before except by the opossums in the garbage cans. But this noise sounded as if it were in the house and not outside.

Previously that day I found the  puppy cam site about the shiba inu puppies that 3-4 million people watch daily and downloaded it to my PC. I minimized it and promptly forgot about it. I use my PC infrequently throughout the day as I get carpal tunnel in the craziest places because I use a computer 8-12 hours most days. My laptop I use on a portable, adjustable table. The adjustable table is great plus I got a new comfortable chair. The table, the chair, and my handy carpal tunnel brace make carpal tunnel disappear.

But back to the puppies—in the middle of the night, I awoke to some animals in our house. But I couldn’t locate them. Lou got up and went outside and said that they were in the wall. But we don’t have real walls in these homes. I thought they were down in the heat vents. But I still couldn’t find them. So I decided to come out with a flashlight and “trap” them. When I came out to the kitchen with a flashlight, I noticed the light from my computer speakers. It was the puppies—apparently; they love to play at night.

In finding sites like the puppy cam, many of the blogs I read daily for writing ideas have a RSS link—that little orange button you see everywhere. With RSS, I can keep a check on all the blogs I like and only have to read 5 headlines from each to see if I am interested or not.

The 2 RSS readers I use are Google Reader (the most popular) and Pageflakes. I am so obsessive I use two so that I can skim Pageflakes when I like and read Google reader closer daily. I follow about 100 blogs—many of the more prolilic bloggers follow 500-600 daily. But many of the the large blogs also have 5-10 writers to cover a wider field of daily information.

The following list are places you may look for new blogs. Never forget to check the blogs listed on the blogs that you like.

1. Google Blog Search–returns links from machine-made blogs sometimes which is disheartening when they ban bloggers for the same practice.

2.  About.com has a blog search engine page that lists several search engines for blogs.

3.  Webcrawler has links to find blogs. This link page also has good articles for the blog newcomer.

4.  Resource Shelf has links for finding blogs by location.

5.  Blog Catalog lists itself as the blogger social network but also has a good directory. It also has a “rate my blog design” until Jan. 9, 2009.

6.  I use delicious a lot and it has a blog that has a lot of tips for using delicious on your cellphone if you are going mobile. Here is my delicious tags/bookmark list.

By cliff1066

No matter where you are from you can find blogs in your locations. Some of the local blogs in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. are:

(1)  Tumblr–you can add your own. Check out Digital Collage to see what you could do with the post about friends and family. Zoom in the Tumblverse to see the posts in any area of the US or the world. Click on zoom in to bring up the map so that you can choose the area you are interested in. The day I added mine to Margate, I found onlyjay.com in Coral Springs. Hint–To see the other posts, use the slider bar.

(2)  Placeblogger.com–is a place to create your “place” by adding points of interest and having others add to you place. There are presently 3000 placeblogs. “Placeblogs, however, are about something broader than news alone. They’re about the lived experience of a place. That experience may be news, or it may simply be about that part of our lives that isn’t news but creates the texture of our daily lives: our commute, where we eat, conversations with our neighbors, the irritations and delights of living in a particular place among particular people. However, when news happens in a community, placeblogs often cover those events in unique and nontraditional ways, and provide a community watercooler to discuss those events.”

(3)  Blogdigger.com–I entered 33063 and found this link that are still posting: /dev/random (subtitled reality has a liberal bias–and is written by Florida-based software developer).

(4) Topix.net–gives local and national news.

(5) Ft. Lauderdale local page in American Towns.