Peggie,

I actually run a site called WebForGod.com that sounds very similar to yours. It could use some better direction and more content. What would you say to working together? I'd be glad to give you hosting on my site, a section on the site for your blog entries, and possibly a WebForGod.com email address or other goodies. Your entries will appear on the main page and in your own section, as well. You won't have to worry about the technical details, and maybe we could even work out a way to profit from the site if it becomes popular. How about it?

Alternately, you could try setting up a blog with Blogger, which can be hosted either on your site or theirs. I'll help you with the details if you want to go that route. Please respond here or PM me with your answer. I look forward to talking to you soon about either prospect.

(By the way, this offer goes out to anybody who wants to write content or has ideas regarding Web evangelism, church technology, and possibly general tech and Christianity.)

Mod Edit: This forum cripples html. You need to use the BBCode [url] tags instead of the html <a href> tags.
I fixed it in this post.
- MrHerald

Tools like Blogger and Wordpress and others make managing the posting of articles easy. As mentioned above you can set everything up on your own server or have someone else manage the software, such as is done with Blogger or can be done with Wordpress as well. If you are wanting to incorporate it with a larger site there are a couple ways to go. One is to use something specifically designed for blogging, like Blogger or Wordpress and create a theme for it that will work with the rest of your site. The other is to use a CMS (content management system) that you can use for your whole site and that contains a blogging component.

Peggie, not knowing something isn't dumb... it's just stuff you have yet to get to learning.

I've dinked around with several open source blog setups and have found WordPress the easiest to use and adjust. My host has Fantastico (an installer) available, so I haven't setup WP only worked with it.

You can just use WP as is, add themes (or skins), and there are loads of plugins for features you might want later.

You could try going to blogger.com and set one up, (this will not be wordpress, but the blogger system is essentially the same from one to the other) just to try it out and get the feel of how a blog works, and also work on setting up WP (or other blog you choose) on your own site. If you have your own domain, you would want the blog to be there and not at blogger.com, but blogger.com has lots of help articles, and you can get your feet wet there painlessly and then just delete the thing when your own site's blog is ready to go.

You can also go to http://www.opensourcecms.com/ and try out online demos.

Thanks for the encouragement that I am not dumb! Sometimes it is east to feel that way when so many seem to know the ropes and I am still trying to learn what seems basic to others.

I have been looking at the wordpress and it seems easy enough, but I am just afraid of trying it and seeing if I can do it I guess. It appears I need to instal it on the cpanel and work with it from there, is that right?

I have looked at blogs, tried to get into the one for this site but tells me I am not allowed. My husband has a blog on blogger and all he does is grumble about how he can't get it to look the way he wants, I have sat with him and helped him make changes as I know much more about codes than he does, but way less that most of you I think.

I have my own .com which I am working on and am going to be adding another one. The blog will be on at least one of them, possibley both if I can do it.

This is probably not the place to put this next bit of info, but I am not sure where it would go. Several years ago after my first husband died I tried to go to school to learn as much web developement and design as I could. I did not get the course completed because of circumstances beyond my control, but I had some mentors that helped. Now I have moved to Texas, remarried and have no one who can look at something with me, and go over where I am getting a brain fart. I am greatful for this forum, yet sometimes you need someone to just sit there and show you, or else a one on one walk you through something. How do you all handle that? Or do you have someone nearby?

Anyway, thanks for being here, all of you!
Peggie

Hi,

Don't know if this is what you are looking for but I started 2 blogs and 4 podcasts last year with a place called rapidfeeds http://www.rapidfeeds.com

They make it so easy to create blogs and podcast it is not even funny. They host the feeds themselves and you host your content. It works great and I am already seeing success. I have a decent amount of subscribers for each of mine.

Russell

I do most of my work on my own, though I keep in regular touch with one or two friends via MSN (in terms of doing web/design work). But it's not the same. I often dream of working in an agency with others in the profession, it would be an exciting thing. Where I work also, I am largely a black sheep in the flock. I often send stuff via msn messenger to people, or upload it. I am part of a couple of teams on youth web sites (one is a national team). But there are certainly hours of the day that there is no-one around, and often no-one that I know that can help me solve a problem I am encountering. This forum is great for that. And then there is also the WWW and Google.

Ok, I have downloaded the Wordpress and am in the process of getting it ready to put up. Is there someone here who uses it and would be willing to give me a little one on one with an IM or something to help me with it? I am trying to understand and think I do, but have some questions. Thanks in advance

Peggie

I haven't installed Wordpress, only adapted it some, so can't help you with installation ?s.

Have you looked at the WordPress support forums? I have had several questions, and found answers to all of them there.

http://wordpress.org/support/

As far as incorporating a blog into an exisiting site:

I have a Blogger.com blog that has also been set up with a FeedBurner feed. FeedBurner has a feature called "BuzzBoost" that is basically a hunk of Javascript code you can plug into your existing site, and then use CSS to format how it looks.

Here it is in action:

Blogger.com: http://evangelcast.blogspot.com/
FeedBurner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Evangelcast
Church site: http://evangelag.net/pastorb.cfm

I like the authoring tools on Blogger to make it easy for the Pastor (or whoever) to create the blog entry. Feedburner comes in to handle both the Podcast and the BuzzBoost stuff.