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A common question people ask is how can they write a blog when they do not consider themselves to be a writer.
We grow up admiring people who can write and we are educated to believe that writing is a special talent that few people have. It is true that if you want to write a masterpiece that will be remembered fondly in a few hundreds years time then you do need to have a significant talnt as a writer but if all you want to do is write a blog then you need not worry so much.
If you want to write a blog just get on and write it. Punctuation is not terribly important unless you are writing about English grammer. Spelling is only important if you are writing about spelling. Yes, we should all try to spell properly to make ourselves clear but most blogs will have a spelling checker built in or there are online spellcheck websites and most computers will have some sort of spellcheck program or word processor.
If you need a small quick word processor program I use an excellent little free program called Jarte which has the facility to spellcheck in different languages amongst many other features but it is quick and simple to use to write an earticle before you publish it on your blog. Find it here... Jarte There is a Pro version available for a fee but I have never tried that as for me the simple free version does all I need.
So, you want to write but are still unsure? What do you do when you get together with friends or family? You talk, right? If you are telling them about something, you just tell them. Why should writing be any different to that. The answer is it can be exactly like that. If you write an article as if you were talking to someone and explaining something, you won't go too far wrong.
It actually makes articles more easy to read and enjoyable if you write as you would talk if the person was there with you. It makes your blog feel more relaxed, friendly and approachable.
Some of bloggers are well known for poor spelling but many don't even bother to use a spellcheck when they have one. They feel it is more honest and natural if you read the words exactly as originally typed.
If you feel you have something worthwhile to say then just say it. Don't go worrying about getting it perfect. Most people who visit your blog to read it will now be worrying about it being grammatically perfect so just get on and write the article you have in your head.
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There's something very important you need to know about setting up a new wordpress blog on your own hosting server. Once you have gone through the process of installing wordpress which is easy to do if you are using a cpanel server, as most are, as all you have to do is go use the Fantastico button and select wordpress and click install new. Entering your chosen login details and password entry and a click and you will have wordpress installed on your server. It doesn't get a lot easier than that.
Once you have installed wordpress there is a certain amount of setting up to do before you start posting blog entries. I may explain more about the specifics another time if people ask me to but there is one very important thing you should do before you begin posting to your blog.
I am assuming you want to get visitors to your blog and for that you will want the search engines to check out your blog and link to it when searches are made for what your blog is all about. If this does apply to you read on.
When you install wordpress, version 2.8.6 is the current one as I write this, you must click on settings and then on privacy. You will see two options and if you do want the search engines to see your blog you should change the setting to Visible to everyone as by default it seems to set your blog to be private and invisible to the search engines.
Blog Visibility
I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archiversI would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors
Once that is done you will find that you have a ping list visible on the 'Writing' settings page and you can add a list of sites to ping when you make a new post, which all goes to help your blog become more well known and helps attract visitors.
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