Lecture 2 - Content Building

Welcome to today's class.

We shall be looking at how we can source for content that will be on your site.

In the last lesson, you were shown how to create a blog and an assignment was given. I hope you were able to carry out the assignment. If you did, Well done.

Content can be sourced for in three ways:

• Writing it by yourself (original content). This is highly recommended.
• Getting free articles from article sites such as ezinearticles.com and so on.
• Hiring writers to write to your specifications at places like elance.com

Other ways through which you can get articles /content are:

• Through RSS feeds.We shall look at this much later.
• By inviting other people to write on your blog.
• By partnering with other writers through article exchange.

There are so many other ways. You can even create one yourself.

Original Content

As said earlier, this refers to writing your own articles yourself. No matter what your niche area is, when you decide to write, based on your experience and research, you are giving useful and fresh information to your audience and from your own point of view too. Your own article can never be the same with any other person's because you are unique.

You can write on anything, ranging from how to do things to reviewing a country or state, sports, fashion and so on, but make sure you are giving useful information to your audience. You can also express your feelings about issues.

All you need to do to write your own article is to make a draft of it on your paper and follow these steps:

• Type your url i.e. www.yoururl.blogspot.com on your browser.
• Select "sign in" from the top right corner of your blog.
• Type in your gmail username and password. This will take you to your dashboard.
• Select 'new post' and type your topic and the body of your article.
• When you are done, click on 'publish post', and your post will be published. The next page will ask you if you want to view it. Click on view and then sit back and watch what you have done.

You will repeat this each time you want to make a post.

Congratulations for a job well done.

Lecture 1 - Getting Started

Welcome to BLOG TUTOR. A place where you can learn how to become a good blogger and also be exposed to various opportunities that are available to you as a blogger.

At the end of each lecture, other sites that might be of interest to you will be listed, but be warned, start and focus on one aspect. Master it before venturing into other aspects, no matter how good they may look.

Let me start with the definition of blogging. I am going to give it my own definition which is, the art of writing and publishing your feelings, research, expressions, e.t.c. for the public to view. In other words, it is the diary of one's interest that is being shared with the world.

There are various blogging sites such as Myspace, Yahoo, MSN, TypePad, Blogger, Facebook and Bitacoras .

I am going to introduce you to blogger.com as this is a very simple and encouraging site to use. It belongs to Google and they have various supports and programs that help bloggers worldwide. You are free to venture into another blogging site but learn with one first.

To start blogging, you will need to

• Choose a site where you can host your blog. In this case, we'll use blogger.com
• Choose a niche area. That is an area of interest or an area where you have discovered a need.
• Choose a name for your blog. A name that matches with your niche area.
• Open a Google email address (for blogger.com).
  

All that ready, let us move to action.

1. Go to www.gmail.com from your browser.
2. Create a gmail account.
3. Go to www.blogger.com on another page.
   
4. Log in using your gmail address and password.
   
5. Create a blog by following the simple steps given.
6. Select your blog name and url.
7. Select a template - this means the design you want your site to have.
8. Fill in the other information truthfully.

CONGRATS! You are done. You can now view your blog.

N/B:
Anytime you want to view/sign in to your blog, you log in using your gmail username and password.

Assignment:

Write a short article, introducing your blog to the world. You can do it, don't be afraid.