Build-a-Blog

Vida Vegan Con 2011

Panelists: Amey MathewsWake up. Snuggle doggies & kitty. Practice yoga, teach yoga. Walk doggies with boyfriend. Make some art. Look through cookbooks. Go to farmers' market. Cook vegan food. Eat vegan food with boyfriend. Blog about it. Snuggle doggies & kitty. Sleep. Repeat.

Panelists: Bianca PhillipsNewspaper reporter by day, vegan food blogger by night. First cookbook — Cookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South — is due out in April. Lives in Memphis with six cats (yes, I am a crazy cat lady), a dog, and an omni boyfriend.

Panelists: Sherri Montgomery

Gardens, hikes, writes, creates art, runs events, teaches yoga, and cooks fabulous vegan food. Sherri and her wife live in Portland, Oregon with their 4 cats and 1 dog.

Blogging is....Recipes, stories, reviews, pictures,

ideas, comments, personal experiences,

and more!

Free is a very good price...

Visual attraction...

Adding photographs and images to your blog brings visual interest and helps to illustrate what you're writing about. Some blogging portals will let you upload your own photographs or you can store the on a dedicated site. You can also reference other people's photographs, just be sure to credit the owner.

Investing in Your Blog

Professionally developed themes and art can be an investment, but may add a lot of polish to your blog.

Getting Noticed

○ Social Media○ Guest Posts○ Vegan MoFo!○ Product reviews ○ Promotional materials ○ SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

○ Commenting on others’ blogs

○ Posting to Flickr photo groups

○ Holding contests/giveaways

Knowing You're Noticed

The details...Don't forget your contact information!

Consider posting a policy and a disclaimer, particularly to manage comments.

Advanced building● Custom domains

○ Good name != good URL● Hosting Solutions

○ Portal Hosting○ Server Slices

● Hacking your blog○ Open Source Software○ User Groups

Keep in touch...Amey Mathews:

● Vegan Eats and Treats (http://veganeatsandtreats.blogspot.com/) Bianca Phillips:

● Vegan Crunk (http://vegancrunk.blogspot.com/)○ @biancaphillips

Sherri Montgomery:

● Vegan Nosh (http://vegannosh.me/)○ @VeganNosh

● Like Words Together (http://pdxyogini.com/)○ @PDXyogini

**Slidedeck will be posted at SlideShare.net "Build-a-Blog - VVC2011"

Places to blog

● Blogger (http://www.blogger.com)● WordPress (http://wordpress.com/)● Dreamwidth (http://www.dreamwidth.org/)● LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/)● Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/)● Posterous (https://posterous.com/)● Twitter (http://twitter.com/)● Google+ (https://plus.google.com)● identi.ca (http://identi.ca/)● Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/)

Pictures, Images & Stuff● Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/)● Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/)● Snapfish (http://www.snapfish.com)● Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/)● istockphoto (http://www.istockphoto.com/)● shutterstock (http://www.shutterstock.com/)● Sticker Giant (http://www.stickergiant.com/)● One Inch Round (http://www.oneinchround.com/)

Advanced Building

● WordPress User Groups/Meetups: http://wordpress.org/support/forum/meetups

● WordCamp: http://central.wordcamp.org/● MeetUp: http://www.meetup.com● DreamHost: http://dreamhost.com/● MediaTemple: http://mediatemple.net/● AppFog: http://appfog.com/● Rackspace: http://www.rackspace.com/● Gandi.net: http://en.gandi.net/● Linux User Groups: http://www.eskimo.com/links/lugs.html