PLUGINS
For those working on a WordPress platform (WordPress.com or WordPress.org), plugins play an essential part in setting up and maintaining your site. It certainly can be confusing to new bloggers and even those of us who have been blogging for years.
Those working with Blogger don't have to worry about Plugins since everything is provided by the Blogger program. It is the perfect program for those with little time to invest in a website or blog, like pastors.
Images are one way to dress up your blog and set it apart from millions of others that feature only text. They say that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, advertisers have proved that proverb a long time ago and have taken it to another level.
Note: Free web hosts like Blogger and WordPress.com only allow a limited amount space and images take up a lot, so care should be taken to use pictures and images sparingly.
With pictures and images mixed into your posts, you can create greater interest in your viewers to actually read your posts. Images and pictures definitely improve a post and can also help you take your blog to the next level.
Here is an article published in Charisma Leader Magazine: “Got Blog”, by John Brandon. It is a short article to help ministers get started blogging. The three main topics:
1. Why Blog?
The writer gives good reasons why someone in the ministry might consider blogging as an extension of their ministry.
Is Your Internet Ministry Effective? Have You Checked?
Here is my take on the subject:
There are many different ways to gauge whether your Internet ministry is effective or not. A lot depends on your goals, objectives, and reasons you put up a site in the first place.
Among the many confusing terms that you run into when you are just starting out in the blogosphere is “RSS”. Yet this term is of prime importance to understand if you are going to expand the influence of your blogging ministry.
What is RSS? Simply defined it stands for : Really Simple Syndication.
Here’s a good article from DailyBlogTips: “Write Your Titles CAREFULLY and AFTER the Post”
Daniel Scocco writes that titles are important and more time and effort should be given to composing the best possible headline for a post. It is a fact that most decide whether to read an article or not based upon the title alone.
Anyone who’s been publishing a blog for a while has received comments that are inappropriate for a Christian site–comments full of obscenities or bearing links to pornography–or comments that you would rather not have published on your blog.
There are always those Christians who consider it their mission to drop pre-written articles into the comment line of any post that comes close in anyway to their specialty issue. Mention ‘baptism’ in a post and you might receive an unsolicited 2 page teaching on "why infant baptism is a false practice"–posted on the comment line. You may even agree with the teaching but it really doesn’t respond in any way to the original post–what do you do?
There are so many host sites anymore that is confusing to a beginner and even to someone like me who has been around for nearly ten years. To find the best current host for you site--'google:'
best blog hosts or
best website hosts or
top ten hosting sites.
.com .net .info .org .us
The right domain name is extremely important to have yet few folks spend a lot of time coming up with the best Internet address possible for their blog or ministry site.
Remember, you have to live with the domain address and your target audience needs to be able to find you. Another aspect rarely thought about is the fact that the Internet is ‘international’ and whether you intend to reach out to the world or not folks from all around the globe will visit your site. The name should reflect well on who you are and what you intend to be doing in this international forum.
I know of one Christian who has a real popular blog site who is nevertheless considering a domain change because his address contains the word ‘naked’ as in ‘naked truth’ but ends up being blocked by some search engines as a potential porno site. The name is innovative and is easy to remember and creates attention—all of the things that you might want in a name except sometimes it gets the wrong type of attention.
I found that 'Blogger Help' site is the best at helping one to start a Blogger blog with the least trouble:
https://support.google.com/blogger/
There are a number of very good reasons to use Blogger.
1. The Cost: 0, zip, nada.
2. It is fast and easy. Using the basic default settings you can get started in less than 30 minutes. Even if you are particular like me and you want to view a bunch of template possibilities, it should only take an hour or so. It took me less than an hour to set up this site the way that it is. *note: This info. & site features the 'New' Blogger program.
