40 Rivers To Freedom

Where were we?  Oh yeah, we were discussing how to become hardened masters of the fly fishing blogosphere.

So you’ve decided you’re gonna take the plunge and create a fly fishing blog to call your own.  First things first, you’re gonna need to figure out where to do it.

Choosing a Platform

There are several bloggin platforms to choose from.  In simplest terms, a blog platform is basically a computer software thingy that let’s you easily customize your blog’s appearance and publish your content.  There are a handful, but I’m only going to discuss a few.

Blogger

When I first started writing the Day Tripper Blog, I used Blogger.  It was free and easy to use, but once I got going and seeing stuff some other blogs were doing, I realized that it was inferior to the other big name platform- WordPress.  That’s about all I have to say about blogger, and I’ll bluntly advise anyone thinking about creating a blog to avoid it in favor of WordPress.

I know there are plenty of other fly fishing blogs running on blogger.  I’m sure some may have a reason for going with blogger- but they don’t know what they’re missing.

WordPress (WP)

WP is the ultimate in a blogging platform.  As a fly fishing blogger, you’ve basically got 3 different ways to use WP.

1.)  WordPress.org

You can buy your own domain and install WP via a hosting account.  As far as I know, the cheapest route is via GoDaddy.  Your domain name will cost you about $8/year, and GoDaddy’s economy hosting will run you about $4/month.  GoDaddy actually has a service that installs WP, so you don’t need to worry about figuring that part out.  You will want to have basic FTP knowledge if you go this route as you’re going to want to upload different themes and plugins( we’ll get into those shortly).

2.)  WordPress.com

Another option is using WordPress.com.  Like Blogger, this is free, except that you have to pay for stuff like extra storage space and the ability to customize your theme’s CSS (colors and stuff).

Honestly, it will take a hell of a long time to use the 3GB of free storage space WP.com gives you, so the whole having to pay for extra storage space part is kind of a moot point.

The having to pay extra to customize CSS isn’t the biggest issue for those of you who really don’t care what your blog looks like, but you want this ability.

Before we get into the third(and best) option, let’s look at what is, in my opinion, the biggest downfall to a wp.com(wp hosted) compared to a wp.org(self hosted) blog-  there are only a few dozen themes to choose from.  And here’s the BIGGIE, you can’t use plugins.

3.) The Hatches Blog Network- powered by WordPress

The third option is also powered by WP, except it takes the best features of a wp.org blog and combines them with the best features of a wp.com blog.  It is, of course, the Hatches Blog Network.

Like wp.com, a Hatches blog is free.  Like a wp.org blog, you have the ability to customize your blog’s theme, as well as the ability to add any of the hundreds of wordpress plugins, or any of the hundreds of themes out there.  Really, a Hatches blog isn’t much different than a wp.org blog as you can do all the same stuff.

There is one other thing worth mentioning.

You only start with 10MB of storage space.  There’s actually a legitimate reason for this.  See, 10MB is about the amount of space you’ll use in 2-3 months if you wrote a post every day and uploaded one picture to go with it.  So basically, starting people out with 10MB is a way to kind of hold the reins until Hatches sees if the person is going to actually use the blog, or just abandon it.  Think of it as a trial period, only you’re not on trial.  If the person is using the blog, they can get a storage space upgrade at no cost.

If you’re a fly fishing blogger, this is the way to go unless you want to host your blog yourself.

Themes And Plugins

Themes

A theme is basically what your blog looks like.  WP themes are easy to use, and you usually need little to no  HTML or CSS knowledge with them.  Changing your blog’s theme is literally as simple as one click of the mouse.   You can get one, two or three column themes is about every look or color combo possible.  They’ve already been designed, you just have to click the theme you want from your themes directory.  There are new themes coming out almost daily, so if you see one you want and it isn’t in the Hatches directory, just say the word and the geeks in the basement will get it for you.

Plugins

WP plugins do almost anything imaginable, from blocking spam comments, to photo galleries, to polls, to tweeting, to tracking site statistics, to SEO.  The only thing wordpress plugins can’t do is fill your fly boxes for you- but I’m sure that one isn’t too far off.  If there is something you want your blog to do, there is a plugin out there that will do it for you.

If you’re hosting your own blog, you’ll have to upload the plugin to your site via FTP.  If you’re using a Hatches Blog, you can have particular plugins uploaded for you.

Once a plugin is uploaded, you just go to your plugin menu through the dashboard, and click activate.  Some plugins will require further tweaking, usually just filling in the blank type of stuff(not complicated), and others require no further action.

Geesh

That’s about all I feel like writing today, so I guess there will be a part III coming tomorrow.  In it, we’ll discuss the basics of using the wordpress dashboard-writing, adding pictures, and some other stuff I’ll think of between now and then.