Blogging Guide by Kathleen Cragun

To download this guide go to http://www.slideshare.net/larrykcragun/how-to-start-a-blog-14222141
and click save file. That will download it to your desktop.

How to start a blog from Larry Cragun

Posting A Video Into An Article

Linking To Another Article

How To Publish An Article

A Slide Show explaining it is here: Click  Here

Simple Organizational Steps For A Research Blog

The simplicity of this type of blog is what makes it so powerful. You are more likely to do this type of blog.

The important ingredients are few.
1- Label each article to categorize the point of the article.
2- Have your blog labels widget live for your sites visitors.

Research Blogging Takes Less Effort

A research blog is a great research log, but more practical. If you post your research only, not trying to entertain or be a great writer you spend less time in producing your content.

Today I posted 11 articles in about four hours of online research about my 5th  grandfather in Ireland. He is a hard one to find, and it is interesting as I am learning a lot about Ireland.

As I found relevant information I copied and pasted it into my blog.

Here are 11 articles I posted in that short time. Click this link.

Video: Adding links to your sidebar

Video on how to add links to your sidebar.

http://bit.ly/NviDaq
http://bit.ly/NviDaq

Changing Your Blogs Template

Flickr Sets Feature Is Handy

As experienced bloggers for marketing purposes, Kathleen and I are convinced its application for genealogy success is huge. We are already seeing the benefits.

We blog to make connections and are making them. We blog to be found on the search engines, just check out a couple of searches on our lines: Like search Cragun or Porter and see us on page 1.

We blog for many reasons. It's worth it.

Photographs Are Important To Most Type of Blogs

Our Buddies, The Tigers Taj And Almos

A Tip On Loading Photos

In preparing this site I used Jing on almost every illustration. It was quick and easy.

http://jingproject.com/

In some cases I used Power Point and uploaded it to http://SlideShare.net/ From there I was able to obtain the HTML and post the power point into the article. In some cases it was just a slide or a photo that went to SlideShare.

Today I also uploaded to SlideShare copies of my grandmothers marriage certificate for an article on my main blog. I needed it in HTML format to be able to insert it into the blog as the format that came out from scanning wasn't acceptable to the Google Blogger blog.

Between Flickr and SlideShare I am usually able to find the right place to upload a document, photo or Power Point.

Preparing To Blog - What Is The Purpose?

Whether you have given a lot of thought to blogging for a genealogy purpose or even if the idea just struck you - you need to decide what would be the purpose of this endeavor.

There are many great reasons to do this, but it will take some effort to learn the simple parts of doing this and even more effort to disclipine yourself to being a regular publisher.

With this in mind I ask you to consider what is the purpose. Below is a slide show with some suggestions. There are many more reasons, one of the best is learning to be a better writer.

Blog for genealogy class full powerpoint

View more PowerPoint from Larry K Cragun is on a family history mission

How To Create A Blog On Blogger

A Cool Tool, Bit.ly

Shorten Long Links

Sometimes you may want to send someone a link and you wish it were not so long. You can easily accomplish that by going to https://bit.ly

You just paste the long link into the blue area and click shorten and it will produce a small link just for that URL.

Jing For Screenshots

Capture What You See -

Available to download at: www.techsmith.com/Jing

Jing is a free handy tool I have been using for years. It has inexpensive upgrades, for purposes like taking longer videos, but my main use is for taking a photo of something on my screen.  It's a must, easy to use, and keeps a history of what you have Jinged. Please go to the site and downloand it now.

You Will Use Jing More Than You Ever Imagined

I even use it to photograph documents online. You lose no quality.

Create A Flickr Account

Flickr is an important tool with two functions:

1- A place to upload photos.

2- A place to search for photos you can use in  your blog. Photos make an article more interesting. A lot of viewers will stop and study an article simply because of the photo.

Inserting A Photo Into An Article

Inserting a photo from Flickr or another photo sharing site: From Larry Cragun YouTube Channel.


To adjust the location of the photo (left right center), change the size, and to put a caption you touch the photo while in compose mode and it opens up an edit box either on top or on the bottom of the photo.
The Flickr license is setup so the photographs you cannot use do not display the HTML/BBCcode. You might notice that the HTML includes a link to their Flickr account. Double clicking the posted photo actually takes one to their account. They are notified you are using their photo.

Think Photographs Think Interesting

You Can Get Content From Others When Done Right

I like to read others articles and either follow the process above or write my own version of the topic.

Writing An Article (Post)

Writing a post
The oops slide at the end is incorrect. All the slides are here.

Uploading a Photo To Your Article

The first option, uploading from your computer, is the same process as attaching a file to your email.
The second option is to go a site such as Flickr and capture and insert the HTML.

I had posted the instructions for this on my family website and you can go to those instructions by clicking here.

If you already know how to upload from your desktop you can stay on this site and view the slide show below on uploading from Flickr.

Capturing a photo from flickr

View more presentations from Larry K Cragun is on a family history mission

Getting Into The Backend But Not To Post An Article

It seems convoluted to me that this is the route to your back end, but it is what it is. Enter the blog from the front end by either logging in or clicking you are going to start a new post. Then it's simple. This has only 3 slides.

In but not to post an article

In but not to post

 

More About Flickr

YouTube, Like Flickr Can Be A Source of Content

More On YouTube