You Don't Need to be a Professional Geek or HTML Diva to use WordPress

You don't need any great knowledge of HTML or CSS to make and maintain a site on Blogger or WordPress.

I never learned more than a touch of code, or any more than I needed to actually use to understand the general language. It really is a language, just a bit more mathematical than you're used to with day to day English.

If I really need something I find it online and just copy and paste it in where it says to put it. There are loads of great guides on how to do more with WordPress. But, really, just find a plugin and forget it is simpler than dealing with the actual code. Why reinvent the wheel?

I've been using WordPress from the first year it existed. I don't claim to be an expert but I've got experience and common sense for whatever the experience doesn't cover. I run half a dozen sites on my own domains with WordPress. …more

These are ideas you can use to make your site an asset to yourself, as a writer, and a resource to bring others to your site.

Set up a blog on Blogger/ BlogSpot or WordPress. Pick a theme you can add a background and/ or header graphic to. Your blog should look like something you have done, not a clone from another site. Getting your own domain is a huge asset, if you can afford the cost. This will also give you an email address which will use your domain name.

The best thing about a blog on your website is keeping your site freshly updated and making it interactive without too much fuss on your part. You can update daily, or once a week. Quickly add an inspirational quote, a writing tip, jot down a new publisher/ market, load an image you found or scanned or photographed yourself.

However, a blog doesn't have to be the focus of your site. If you already have a main HTML based web site, make it sidebar blog, a secondary page or a secondary site. Turn a subdomain into the blog if you like. It really does help to keep traffic to your site if they can expect to have something to read when they get there. Avoid link rot, stagnating pages and a bland site in general by adding a blog. Be creative, that's what we do!

If you are not a great graphic artist a few simple text graphics are really all you need. Look for a font you like and make a banner to head your blog. Add some smaller text graphics as navigation links. You don't have to be a great artist to add a little colour and graphics to your blog.

Monitor your traffic, read and respond to comments, keep a guest book, a contact form or some form of message boards available. People are more likely to leave a quick note than send an email. Comments are preferred because they are quick (if you don't go overboard on CAPTCHA and word verification) and people can leave you their links and contact information too.

If you go with the blog plan and turn your site into a resource of some kind (for writers, hobbyists, or a niche topic) you will find it easier to get linkbacks if you are offering original content. If you have a voice of your own and something to say, they will come.

Consider ways of going out to your readers. Post your RSS feed link where it can be easily found. Add your URL to your email signature and your signature links on any forums you join too. Leave comments on other blogs too. Start a newsletter with your best content of the month/ week, depending on how much work you can put into it.

Set yourself up as an expert on your topic/ genre by reaching out to network sites like HubPages, Squidoo, About.com, Suite101 and EzineArticles. Don't copy and paste content right from your blog to the networks. Make some edits, add some new or different information and try a different slant on the topic. Shift things around.

Add surveys, quizzes and personality test type things to your blog now and then. It doesn't have to be rocket science. Keep them fun. Give freebies of some sort. Site awards were popular once. You can update that idea by offering gamification awards for people who visit your site and comment regularly. If you write books offer desktop wallpaper of the cover art from your latest book. Offer a free eBook with tips you've posted in the past.

If you make appearances or attend events keep a schedule available on your site. Of course, keep it updated. You can also keep readers up to date with what you are working on. Let them know you are writing a fresh chapter, proofreading copy, mailing out an article, hearing back from that promising editor, etc. Also, write about professional organizations you are a part of, as they relate to your work. Turn your blog into an information hub for your niche topic or yourself as a writer.

Make sure you also include all your essentials for any freelance business that comes your way: contact information, clips, your writing experience, the services you offer, and so on. Writing is a business, not just an art.

Laura Brown (AKA ThatGrrl) has been a web writer since 1998. She keeps the Word Grrls blog and writes for the HubPages network. In her own time she creates ASCII art and photographs old buildings.

This was originally published (by me) to EzineArticles.

I've had LiveJournal for a long time. I was happy to install a new plugin (I've become a plugin window shopper) today. Live Press says I can choose to publish any of my WordPress posts to LiveJournal at the same time. That is a good thing. I am always having trouble trying to post at LiveJournal. Yesterday it would not even let me type in the screen for adding a new entry. It was pretty odd. I'm hoping this will work around that and give me the chance to keep my LiveJournal account from getting too stale. I won't be using it as a receptacle for everything I post here. Far from it! But it can have enough to look less ignored.

I haven't really thought a personal blog could be a niche blog. Seemed there was just too much to pack into or nail down to become a niche. I was wrong.

I read a post from Lorelle who has become famous (at least to me) for her posts about WordPress. She posted about her cousin's personal blog as part of a series about personal blogs. Lorelle says her cousin, Duke, has the example of a perfect personal blog. Not to my thinking as I'm not a fan of any blog with a black background, but there is something to be learned from Duke's blog. It fills a niche, nicely. Read the description of his blog, that's where the niche gets nailed down and he slides right in. It's very well done.

Duke, maybe with help from his cousin, has used his personality, his interests and become a niche blog. I bet it wasn't done in a day. But, it was done and I think this really does show that any personal blog can become a niche, if we take some time to think and plan. Come up with a few lists about who you are and what you most like to post about. Even though there are thousands of Mommy Blogs there is something unique about yourself and your blog that you can find a niche too. I'm going to work on it for That Grrl, my own personal blog.