Idiots guide to setting up a blog

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-Rob-

Say Cheese!...Oh, and call me Susan
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I currently have a Photium website which has a limit of hosting 2,000 images at a time. I am therefore looking for something to run alongside the Photium site that can host my archived images in a nice presentable way. I would therefore like to set up a blog. The problem is I haven't got a clue how to do it.

Does anyone fancy helping me walk through the process step by step until I have it all set up. Basically what I want from it is it for to be cheap, have an unlimted or fairly large upload limit, easily customisable, generally easy for me to set up and keep up to date and most importantly looks good to anyone viewing it.

So, where do I start? What do I need to do first? I'd rather just go through the first step for now then when I've done that I'll come back for an update for step 2. If someone runs me through the whole process before I even get started then I'll get lost, very lost.
 
I will watch this with interest as i'm in a similar dilemma, although my main problem would be keeping it updated ie things to say write about etc etc :thinking:
 
mattyh is your man for this. Will chuck him a pm pointing him :D
 
I'm pleased to see other people have the same dilema and will hopefully get some use out of this. If I manage to get through all of this will a blog I am happy with then I might even turn all the info in to a tutorial that's easily followed by idiots like myself.
 
I would suggest using wordpress.org which has tons of nice photoblog templates and a great collection of plugins that can help you personalise the site. It really depends on your coding skills though. If you are not happy coding you could try other blogs, maybe blogger.com from Google, but it won't be half as good.
 
Well at the moment my coding skills are absolutely none existant but I am willing to learn because I would defiantely like a nice looking site. I've had a very brief look at wordpress.org and didn't really know what it was all about.

Like I said, this really needs to be an idiots guide.
 
Hi Rob

I can help you with wordpress. Have you a domain name and hosting space at all

stew
 
smoothedit said:
mattyh is your man for this. Will chuck him a pm pointing him :D
Click to expand...

Cheers for the referral :p

Wordpress is your man here, with a decent photoblog theme added the possibilities are almost endless :D

Download Wordpress (or some hosts offer one-click install, which is even easier!) then add a theme.

Here are some good free ones

If you're happy with how it looks - great, no coding skills required... If not, you'll need to get in amongst the code for the theme, which can look a bit daunting at first, but it's not too bad once you understand how it works.

Wordpress has an excellent Codex, which contains everything on their software, from basic installation steps, through to advanced PHP tips and code. I'd highly recommend familiarising yourself with the way WP works, so you can get the most from it, but it really isn't too bad to use to be honest.

If you like, I can set you up a test site on one of my domains to have a play with? See if it's what you wanted, or not?

The only limits with regard to file hosting and such are the limits set by your host, which are usually fairly generous, even 1gb will store a fairly decent amount of images at web resolutions!
 
I think we have established what it is you want, we now need to establish how badly you want it!

There are free options about, but like your photium, they come with limits on what you can do with them. Do you have a budget in mind (or even intend to pay out any money), have you considered this aspect?

For a nominal fee you can have your own webspace to store files and display through a blog etc as required. With the right hosts, it really is simple to set up the blog, and then add some plug ins. I personally am quite literate in all manner of things PC/Web realted, however I am no expert in this web thinigy but with a couple of online tutorials I made easy work of creating a wordpress blog for showing pics off.

If you are looking into paying for storage, do you really want a blog? Would a flickr pro account not suffice? A lesser fee for more storage. Alright, not a nice looking interface compared to your own custom webspace, but IMHO a better solution for the cost concious and web coding unsure.

K
 
Thanks for that Matt, that's a really great start. I didn't even realise I'd have to download some software to build a photoblog so I've learnt something new already. I'll get the software downloaded and have a good look round the wordpress website then get back to you.

Will I do all the hosting of images through wordpress or do I need to look elsewhere for some hosting space? If so, who would you recommend?
 
Ka$h, My main priority is for the final look to be right. I want it to look like a professional photoblog so if there is a cost to set it up and run it then I'll pay the cost. I don't want the cost to be huge though because I am already paying £16 a month for my Photium site but if there is the option to make the Photoblog in to my main website to display all my images then I could potentially get rid of the Photium one.
 
Hi Rob,

I wasn't clear in my first post - sorry.

Wordpress has two options;

1. A wordpress.com blog, which is hosted by them (and limited in some ways)
2. A self hosted blog, on your own webspace.

I'd recommend option 2, so you're not limited to storage sizes set by them, and other restrictions on plugins and the like.

You'll need some hosting spcae, (I use eukhost.com - who also have a one click install for WP) and also a domain name if you don't already have one.

It won't run on your computer locally (unless you install a piece of software like xampp, which I use for testing stuff) - it's easier to build it online tbh.

EDIT: £16 a month will be plenty for your own domain name and hosting - hosting will probably be about a fiver a month at a guess.
 
Rob - you download wordpress and install it to your webspace. You can then update the blog from any computer as it is all browser managed.

Or you can use one of the hosts matty mentioned and it will be preinstalled.

Edit: DANG Matty is quick!
 
Yep, first step is to get your hosting and domain name set up. Do you already own a domain name? You'll need to "point" that towards your hosting, so when you type in www.name.com into the address bar, it goes to your site.

Second, install Wordpress, either via the one click installer (fantastico, if using euk), then you can start adding themes and the like :)
 
-Rob- said:
So just to check I have got this right, the first thing I need to do is find a suitable webhost and buy a package with them and preferably one what comes with a one click install of wordpress like eukhost.com? I'll check them out now.
Click to expand...

Also have a look at Krystal Hosting. I have had the last 16 months trouble free with them (Topaz Package). Their Control Panel like eukhost has the Fantastico section which allows the one click install of WP.

As pointed out you will need a domain name (Free with Krystal, or £3.49 per year for a .co.uk from 123-reg) and some hosting. Mine was £49.99 per year so under a fiver a month if paid all in one go.

So.... find £50 and think of a name and the ball is rolling :)
 
Interesting thread, and something I'm keen to learn too.

May I be so bold and ask, the gurus of Blogging, would it be possible to set-up a "Setting-up Blog Tip of The Day"; something like what cowasaki did with Apple / MacOS?
 
Another question that I probably need to work out the answer to before I go too far down the road of setting this up:

I already have www.robgeorgeson.com registered which is what I use for my Photium site. I obviously can't use the same URL for my blog so I need to decide what URL I am going to register for my blog. The thing is though, if the photoblog is going to become my main website that's capable of doing everything my Photium site can do then I will use www.robgeorgeson.com for the photoblog.

So, are there plugins available (or whatever it is I'd need to use) that allow galleries to be set up with print sales. I suppose the gallery wouldn't necessarily need to be an integral part of the blog, just linked from it but still hosted as part of the same site.

Bloody hell, keeping this simple is harder than I thought. :thinking:
 
It's possibly not as simple as that Stewart - I don't know how Photium handles redirection and the like, but it's possible it will end up with a 404 not found doing it like that.

What I do, is set up Wordpress as the root for my portfolio, and then use a seperate gallery software (jAlbum) to produce client galleries, which I password protect for each customer.

As far as I'm aware, there isn't a decent plugin for Wordpress yet that allows client galleries & ordering/payment software. There's a couple of ecommerce plugins, but I've not seen one that deals with 100's of images effectively... YET.
 
mattyh said:
As far as I'm aware, there isn't a decent plugin for Wordpress yet that allows client galleries & ordering/payment software. There's a couple of ecommerce plugins, but I've not seen one that deals with 100's of images effectively... YET.
Click to expand...

no - I was unable to fin one, trust me I tried before I bought photocart

Hugh
 
I have photium and use a blog, go take a peek, I could add much descriptive text if I wasn't so lazy.

I know Photium are working on some blog features and hopefully will be implemented soon.
 
artona said:
go to the control panel for robgeorgeson and create a folder called www.robgeorgeson/blog, do your blog there
Click to expand...
Is that possible if my website is done through Photium?

I am able to create custom pages on my Photium site or have menu links that link out to other sites so could I host a blog site somewhere and just link to it through a Photium menu link without it having a specific URL of its own?
 
I've just found an example of exactly what I'd like to be able to do with my blog when it is set up.

Our very own Hacker (Colin Greenlees) has a blog site as his website which has a menu link to a client gallery page which seems to be done using Zenfolio.

If I could create something like Colin has then I could use the Blog to show some sample images of each shoot that potential clients can view but then have a link to a client gallery that actual clients can use to view the full gallery of images and potentially make purchases.

OK, so now we're getting somewhere with working out that I'm aiming for.
 
mattyh said:
There's probably not that many tips, tbh :D

I'm going to write a "get started blogging" type guide, if that's any help
Click to expand...

Thank you :thumbs:, that's very kind of you :)

On the "many tips"; I am sure there are more than you can imagine. If each of your help from here was a single tip with a bit of a work-through, I think there's been a good 10 already :wave:

Whichever way you choose to help out, it's very generous of you. Thank you again.
 
Right, I've made some progress. I've registered a couple of new domain names, a .com and a .co.uk that I am going to use for the new website.

I was planning on using eukhost as recommended by Matt but their site quotes a monthly price yet when I try and register it is asking for the full yearly payment up front. Is this the way it works or should I be able to see an option to pay monthly?
 
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-Rob- said:
Right, I've made some progress. I've registered a couple of new domain names, a .com and a .co.uk that I am going to use for the new website.

I was planning on using eukhost as recommended by Matt but their site quotesa monthly price yet when I try and register it is asking for the full yearly payment up front. Is this the way it works or should I be able to see an option to pay monthly?
Click to expand...

Ah sorry, I don't use their cpanel hosting... It does look like you have to pay yearly up front :thumbsdown:
 
-Rob- said:
Hmmmm looks like you get a lot less for your money when you pay monthly. Looks like I might have to bite the bullet and pay it upfront.
Click to expand...

What I would say is get the cheapest package from whoever and upgrade as you need to, pretty sure most decent hosts will let you do that :)
 
-Rob- said:
I've just found an example of exactly what I'd like to be able to do with my blog when it is set up.

Our very own Hacker (Colin Greenlees) has a blog site as his website which has a menu link to a client gallery page which seems to be done using Zenfolio.

If I could create something like Colin has then I could use the Blog to show some sample images of each shoot that potential clients can view but then have a link to a client gallery that actual clients can use to view the full gallery of images and potentially make purchases.

OK, so now we're getting somewhere with working out that I'm aiming for.
Click to expand...

Hi Rob

The link you give for Colin goes to http://www.greenlees-photography.com/blog/. Reading Matts post above I get the impression Photium takes over your domain name or maybe they supplied it, I do not recommend this. The domain name is what its all about, you must own the domain name.

Co.uk names are the best because you own it and if you ever have a problem nominet will step in if you ask them.

Colins wordpress is a theme and he has created a folder called blog and uploaded wordpress and then the theme. He has then forwarded http://www.greenlees-photography.com to http://www.greenlees-photography.com/blog/ so that people only have to type in http://www.greenlees-photography.com to get to it.

The theme colin has used is popular with many of us and costs about £100.

As for your host look at their bandwidth restrictions. Many offer unmetered but they then have a little clause stating fair useage

stew
 
Thought it might be worth a mention in your quest for a host for your blog, might be worth noting if you get any Mysql databases with your package because you may need one or more to get your blog and some addonns/plugins to work.

Just to throw another hosting service into the mix I have been using Compila for a few years without any problems. Click Here, 32 quid pa 10 mysql db's and more
 
Hi Frank

I was happy with Compila until this week when we decided to really start using one of our sites. Then we found out our so called unmetered bandwidth limited to 3 gigs per month, have a check in your cpanel and see if you have an upper limit.

When you contact them they say its not limited...... if it goes over the limit then contact them and they will lift it. So its limited then!!

stew
 
artona said:
Hi Frank

I was happy with Compila until this week when we decided to really start using one of our sites. Then we found out our so called unmetered bandwidth limited to 3 gigs per month, have a check in your cpanel and see if you have an upper limit.

When you contact them they say its not limited...... if it goes over the limit then contact them and they will lift it. So its limited then!!

stew
Click to expand...

Nicely spotted Artona, I missed that, at the moment My bandwidth useage is not much but on a similar note when I renewed last year I noticed they didn't give me the webspace increase newcomers were getting, a short email and they increased it for me with no hassles.

Sorry for going OT guys.
 
Good thread this.

I've just updated to a wordpress blog, which I've seemingly installed ok. The only issue I have is that i want www.paulbeggy.... co.uk/blog not www.paulbeggy....co.uk/wordpress.

I thought just changing the folder from wordpress to blog upload that over ftp would do it but that just results in an errorpage being shown :( .

I haven't done anything else with the blog bit yet because I'm scared that i'll have to start from scratch and any changes/themes etc etc will have to be reinstalled.

Perhaps i'm taking gibberish after drinking too much wine :D

What am I doing wrong?
 
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