Author Archives: kbs

Margaret, Me and Blogging

Posted by kbs

Last December Margaret Roach contacted me about doing four websites for her. She was leaving Martha Stewart after twenty some years to get back to her roots. Roots, as in gardening. She is an amazing gardener and garden writer. You can read all about it here: www.awaytogarden.com.

That is the blog that I set up for her. She had not blogged before and we set out to learn together. She is a master now. As you know (or more likely have heard/read) the blogoshere is vast, complicated and growing. (yes, i am going to say it: Viral.) Margaret is smart, hard working and a very good writer. She is my source for blogging needs. Not that I need them, but my clients will.

I expect to be designing more sites with blogging software (right now WordPress) because it allows the client to manage/edit his own site through his/her browser: Safari, IE, Firefox. Tip: check out the browser Flock. If you are into Web 2.0 and social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) this browser wants to be your tool.

That is why you are reading this, right? You are thinking about your website? You may not want to blog or even hate the idea of blogging, but you would like to edit your own text, yes? I do have clients using Adobe Contribute to edit their sites now. Foremost all of this depends on the client’s level of digital savvy. Just knowing how to do email and surf is probably not enough. But close.

Why am I moving from Contribute to blogging? Mostly because WordPress offers so many add-ons. They are called plugins: guest books, mailing lists, photo galleries, newsletters. Maybe too many. Part of what can be annoying about blogs. But I am on a quest to make websites with WordPress that doen’t look like a blog. I want your site to have your identity when a visitor arrives, not the feeling you are coasting in the blogosphere slipstream. (I couldn’t help it. I get a metaphor in my head and I just can’t trash it)

That is the beginning of my journey with WordPress. Next I want to add more about the WordPress theme Revolution.

Feedburner

Posted by kbs

(Below is an entry from my previous Blogger blog that is very relevant.)

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2008
Learning About Feedburner

Today I read an interesting article in the NYTimes about a site www.politcalbase.com. NYT describes it as Web 2.0
I went to check it out and saw that it is also a blog. Its RSS link (in Safari) took me to their Feed with extras that I would want for my client’s blogs. On the page http://feeds.feedburner.com/PoliticalbaseBlog, is a Subscribe Now! box.
Did some more investigating and signed Kurt up with a Feedburner acct (Google now owns Feedburner)
Haven’t finished investigating but i did get this:
!!!! http://feeds.feedburner.com/KurtAndersenBlog !!!!!
That is what I would want an avid reader of to find, a way to subscribe to the client’s blog. I subscribe to Richard Lacayo’s TIME Looking Around Time blog and now I have a link to it on my Yahoo! home page. It tells me the title and when it was posted.

Well, I have not figured this out completely. If you look at the above address in FireFox and you will see what I want. But it is not giving me the Extras I want in Safari though it does for politicalbase.com. Maybe I need the free Pro account. Tomorrow.

Keepin’ it Real

Posted by kbs

I have a lot to learn about WordPress. I may use blog and WordPress (WP) interchangeably because WordPress is the OpenSource blog software that I am using. I first put it on Kurt Andersen’s site and then Jamie Malanowski’s. But when Margaret Roach asked me to make three blogs for her, I knew I would be scaling the learning curve. Fortunately Margaret has done her homework and has a network of friends who are also into WP.

I put a blog here about four years ago using Blogger, the software that is now distributed by Google. But this week I finally loaded WP to use this a place to write about my commercial work and share my web learning experience. And right now that is about blogging.

My goal is to set up sites for clients that they can control the content from their computer. I have been doing that by using Adobe Contribute software. But I think WordPress will prove to be a worthy content management system (CMS).

Funny Title Goes Here

Posted by kbs

Lumpen PortraitsInstead of dummy copy, I will write here that we are now in the Eliot Spitzer downfall news cycle. So much buzz. Yesterday was the zenith. Or at least I assume it was. Today I want to know more about the high priced hooker. To me, this is all playing out like something from Law and Order.

What will be the tag line for the Spitzer Downfall? It needs a title or a Seinfeld catagory, because this has strangers talking to each other in Manhattan. Each year there are only one or two events that reach that level of buzz. Today I was in the hardware store looking for some halogen bulbs when I heard the manager answer the phone, “Eliot Spitzer’s office, he can’t come to the phone right now.” All three customers started laughing and shared their opinions as they checked out. It was the manager’s opinion that since his mother-in-law had forgiven him, he didn’t need to resign. I agreed.

Addenda

Posted by kbs

This is posted to demonstrate the Widget SideBlog. In this SideBlog called Addenda, I can add snipettes of appropriate information. Entries need to be marked as “Asides” category. See Dashboard > Settings > Sideblog. Advanced info here.

I AM READY! I am?

Posted by kbs

Thanks to Margaret, I have added a WordPress blog to kennethbsmithdotcalm. I have made other blogs but mostly to see how they function and how the design structure works. I thought it would help to make a place for clients to come and read what I have learned. This will also be a place for instructions.