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Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thread

Posted: 24 Nov 2015, 17:50
by comixminx
I know there are a fair few bloggers / website maintainers on this site; I thought it might be useful to have a discussion thread that could cover general advice and information for anyone who is thinking of creating a new blog or website. I'm sure there could be much to learn for those of us who are relatively old hands at that, too!

What triggered my thinking on this was that over the past couple of days Phoenix has said he is considering setting up a website to allow him to make available material on the various boys and girls story papers that he has done a lot of research into, without the expense of putting it into book form. I'd vaguely assumed at first glance that he might be thinking of another blog, but maybe not, and there are other options of course.

I have a free Wordpress site, which means I can easily create Pages (relatively static bits of the site that are accessible via menus at the top of the browser window) and Posts (smaller snippets of updated content, arranged by date order on the front page of the Jinty Wordpress blog). The sort of Posts I/we make are about individual Issues, individual Stories, or Creators - I then link to them on the more static Pages, so that it should be easy to find them again. (Posts fall off the bottom of the front page of the blog as more new Posts are made.) It was also quite straightforward to invite Tammyfan to be a co-maintainer of the blog, so that she could create entries too. There are facilities for commenting (and for filtering spam comments) and for easy upload of images (very important for a site about comics!).

Phoenix has indicated that he's used to thinking in terms of a blank page of a book, and I know there are options for producing something that looks more like a book or magazine. Has anyone used http://issuu.com/? I had a test account at one point but never really did anything with it, but I know the end result gives you pages that look like book or magazine pages, which you turn.

Or, has anyone tried using software to create an ebook? Presumably you can then make the ebook files available on your own site.

Does anyone else have useful experiences to add in, or questions that might fit best into this sort of thread?

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 25 Nov 2015, 16:53
by stevezodiac
I'm keen on starting a blog but it is an unknown area to me. Having thousands of comics and magazines going back over a hundred years I'd like to share them with the wide world. I think I will need to get my own flat first though so I can do it uninterrupted and with my collection around me rather than in storage. I know there are blog sites that give you tuition but then it comes to the images and what size/definition to have them.

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 25 Nov 2015, 17:12
by ISPYSHHHGUY
A blog is much reccomended Minx if you enjoy writing especially. ........I do.......and it is very easy to set up on Blogger.

It takes up a lot of my time but the end result is I am building up a good archive of my cartoon material.

I seldom get any comments but I know I get repeat viewers from around the globe through the source index.

I am on 2300 hits a month at the moment which is OK.

I sometimes even put in subversive material but I went back and watered it down.....you can edit until your heart is content on a blog.


I am spending less time on forums as a result though.


Best to keep updating regularly at least two posts a week I reckon.


For control Freaks like me a blog is the best route to go......

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 19 Jan 2016, 01:06
by Marionette
I've had some experience creating ebooks. I'd recommend anyone interested in going that route to grab a copy of Sigil. It's a free ebook creation program and is incredibly useful.

It's not actually that difficult to create ebooks that are every bit as professional looking as retail editions. Possibly moreso, since some professional publishers don't invest quite as much as they should in proper proofreading.

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 24 Jan 2016, 01:26
by big bad bri
do you have to pay fees to do a blog or is that just for a proper website or are both free now? cos im really thinking about it too. i'm no writer but just want to do it for reference for myself and perhaps others will get to enjoy as well.

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 24 Jan 2016, 11:33
by comixminx
big bad bri wrote:do you have to pay fees to do a blog or is that just for a proper website or are both free now? cos im really thinking about it too. i'm no writer but just want to do it for reference for myself and perhaps others will get to enjoy as well.
It depends on the blog setup, you certainly don't need to pay fees (I don't). Wordpress, for instance, has plenty of free designs you can choose from, but there are other page layouts that you pay money to use. If you have big storage needs for instance then that might cost you money too, but the Jinty blog is in no danger of going over the storage limits, even though we upload quite a lot of full-page images.

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 24 Jan 2016, 11:54
by colcool007
comixminx wrote:
big bad bri wrote:do you have to pay fees to do a blog or is that just for a proper website or are both free now? cos im really thinking about it too. i'm no writer but just want to do it for reference for myself and perhaps others will get to enjoy as well.
It depends on the blog setup, you certainly don't need to pay fees (I don't). Wordpress, for instance, has plenty of free designs you can choose from, but there are other page layouts that you pay money to use. If you have big storage needs for instance then that might cost you money too, but the Jinty blog is in no danger of going over the storage limits, even though we upload quite a lot of full-page images.
I am currently using the free wordpress package and as long as I am smart enough to keep image sizes to a sensible size, it will take a long time for me to use up the 2Gb allowance.

Until I get more adept or I am gaining a bigger following than 10 hits a day, then I can't see their being a need for me to spend money on this aspect of my hobby, which leaves more money for the comics. :lol:

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 24 Jan 2016, 13:20
by Lew Stringer
big bad bri wrote:do you have to pay fees to do a blog or is that just for a proper website or are both free now? cos im really thinking about it too. i'm no writer but just want to do it for reference for myself and perhaps others will get to enjoy as well.
Blogger is completely free and easy to use with various templates to choose from. Scan your pages into Photoshop or similar software, save them at about 30cm wide at 72dpi in a folder on your computer. Log into blogger, write your post, click the add picture icon in Blogger to upload images from your computer. Once published you can (if you choose) delete the images from your computer to save memory, as they'll then be on your blog if you need them again.

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 24 Jan 2016, 19:31
by Niblet
I use blogger - it's fairly straightforward, especially if you've ever used Word or similar text-type applications. Bri - I suggest you create a blog on blogger (as mentioned above it's free) and just try it out, mess around with it for a while. You don't have to tell anyone that your new blog exists until you've posted something that you're happy with. That's how I started. You could even delete your first attempt if you don't like it and start again.

You first have to create an account on google https://accounts.google.com/SignUp?hl=en

Look here for a guide to starting your blog https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1623800?hl=en

Have a go!

Re: Creating and running a blog or website - discussion thre

Posted: 25 Jan 2016, 10:12
by ISPYSHHHGUY
I agree that Blogger is brilliantly easy to use and the only minus I encountered is that a few of the very early images from 4 or 5 years back got reduced in size much later on---presumably to save on memory-space.

You can still go back in and re-edit in larger images to replace the too-small ones , though: so hang onto your original material if this is needed.


Other than that, blogger is really flexible and reliable.

I often go back in and re-edit some of my more near-the-knuckle writings----just to be on the safe side.