Things To Do Before Making Your First Post/Weblog Entry...Part 3

This third "to-do" is intended for totally brand-new bloggers using the free Blogger platform.

3. Make all the necessary settings on your blog template.

This seems too obvious that you'd probably say I shouldn't even write about it. Well, yes and no. Yes, that statement applies to experienced bloggers. But, no, you are likely to overlook this if you're a total newcomer to the Blogger platform, because after completing Blogger's simple three-step registration process, you are prodded to click the "Start Blogging" button at the lower right hand portion of that final page.

Actually, that's exactly what happened to me. I clicked the orange-colored "Start Blogging" button, and proceeded right away to writing my thoughts. So, if you'll see my maiden post in my original blog, there is one small detail there that is not right--the time I published my post.

Officially stamped on my blog was "4:52 p.m.", although my own notes about my first day of blogging said that I clicked the "Publish Post" button at "12:52 a.m". Now, I didn't notice this error until much, much later, when I started wondering why my timestamps did not reflect official Philippine time. But then, time was only one of the several other small details about the Blogger platform that I was oblivious to at the start.

So, I suggest that you get these necessary settings over and done with even before you start blogging. The Blogger "Dashboard" is where you are taken after a successful log-in. You will notice that there are 3 main Manage tabs in that Dashboard--"Posts", "Settings" and "Layout". For our purpose here, the adjustments that you need to do before publishing your first post are mostly in the "Settings" and "Layout" tabs, and these are discussed below:

A. SETTINGS

A.1. Basic

Title -

I used to think that I was stuck with the title of the blog which I used to register with Blogger. No, this is not the case. You can change your mind about your blog's title. The only thing you cannot change is the sub-domain name of your blog, i.e., the keyword that appears before the "Blogspot.com" in your full blog address (technically called "URL").

Description -

It pays for you to spend some time for drafting this. The key is to keep your write-up brief but concise. Use as many of the keywords that you want your blog to be tagged with in the search engines.

If you have done this exercise satisfactorily, you'll realize that it's all worth the trouble when you start joining social networking sites, online directories, etc. All of these will require you to give a short description of your blog.

I doubt if you'll relish the idea of re-writing your blog's description every time you join a new directory or networking site. You just need to copy and paste your blog description in Blogger, if you have done your homework here.

How you set the rest in the "Basic" tab (like "Add your blog to our listings", "Let search engines find your blog", etc.) will depend on your own preferences as well as intention. After completing your adjustments, don't forget to click the orange-colored "Save" button.

A.2. Publishing -

This is where you are shown your official Blog*Spot address. This is also where you can manage your shift to a "custom domain", or where you "point" your own registered domain name to your blog. I will devote a separate post for the latter.

A.3. Formatting -

Show-

How you set this depends largely on how prolific a blogger you are. Some bloggers have the time and energy to write more than one post a day. But some, like me who have a full-time day job, find it difficult to religiously publish even one post a day.

However, whether you are a prolific writer or not, there is something that you need to be aware of when setting "Show"--the loading time for the main page. The more contents on the main page, the more time is needed for the complete page to appear on the computer screen. In fact, if your page has a lot of graphics, images or photos, in addition to text, the loading time would be comparatively longer than that of a page with pure text.

Now, why am I pointing out this obviously technical issue that has nothing to do with writing or blogging per se? It's because there are blog readers or visitors who don't have the patience to wait for the entire page to load before they decide whether to stay or not. Most would simply leave and move on to other sites. That would be a pity, given how difficult it is to attract visitor traffic to a blog.

The rest of the adjustments will again depend on your personal preferences (e.g., Archive Index Date Format, Timestamp Format, etc.) and personal circumstances (e.g., Time Zone). Whatever you do, just don't forget to click the orange-colored "Save" button.

TO BE CONTINUED...