In this post I want to give a rough guide to the blog environment. I’m using WordPress to do my blogging because it is known all around the world.
Although I am pretty good when it comes to technology I was scared to delve in at first as I didnt know the software, but I am glad I did because I now use it on 3 websites of my own.

WordPress is free and you can get your own URL for your blog. I recommend buying a domain to host it on but that is the easy part. WordPress can be accessed from anywhere as it is an online platform. Usually your website address for logging in to your blog will be:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/blogname/wp-login.php
From there you can do all your normal blogging and maintenance and start to build yourself a mini community.

Here is a lowdown to get you understanding WordPress:

Posting

Big topics can be split into groups and categories. WordPress lets you assign your own categories and tags.
Categories are different from tags. Categories are to do with what groups a certain number of posts together in a wider range and tags are to do with what sort of things are mentioned in the blog.
For example if I had a blog about celebrities, I would have each celebrity I wrote a post about as a category and in each post I’d have tags to give a quick brief single word ‘summary’ of what you would expect from that post.

Media uploading

You can upload media (pictures) to make your blog pretty and break up text on your blog. Media is a great way of helping your readers to understand what it is that you are blogging about.

Blog themes

You can use blog themes to ‘wallpaper’ your blog. When you are ready for a challenge you can mess around with these themes and change anything that you want. If you are even more clever you can write your own.
There is a big library of themes to choose from and explore, and you can buy themes later on when you cant see any free ones that you like.

Plugins

A Plugin is a mini program that sits inside your blog till you want to use it. You can use a Plugin to stop spam occurring when people comment. Spam is usually comments that are not related to the post or blog and must be deleted. You have complete control of this in WordPress. Remember to check back often to see if the Plugin that you have got has been updated. Sometimes there will be a complete WordPress update and that may give you new features.

Blogging with WordPress is the easiest that I have come across yet. There is so much out there to help you have the best blog on the web!

Main twitter is still GoldChoiceUK.

I think it is important to set out these ‘guidelines’ so no confusion is made.

1. The Proposal…

You need to spend time with your client in making sure you fully understand what each other requires and what your client wants in content. Take a notebook/pad or even a laptop to write the notesin digital format so you can print copies to give the client and to file for later.

2. Drawing up designs….

This is your job as designer as you need to show what you can sell to the customer and how you can change it to make it a clean site to navigate.

3. Getting photographs or images…

This can be done by either but usually the client will want specific pictures up and they need to find time to do that. If it is a simple site then you may consider using a free site that you dont neet to pay anyone to use images from. If you do use graphical content from other sources dont forget to state where they are from.

4. Timing…

It is your job to keep time on a task as you dont want to be wasting the clients money. Note down the times that you work on each individual project and work out your rates accordingly. The client should not pay for time that you, as designer, have not worked on
the project for. Keep a diary to space work out so you avoid working on one project for too long at a time. That also helps because you can stop falling behind with work.

5. Signing off…

You need to make sure that you have done everything in the proposal, and even made it better than that if you can. Talking to your client at the end of the project about extra things they may want is great and will earn you respect. They may want to pay you to keep the site updated on a regular basis.

6. After the sign off…

So basically much of the planning rests on your head to complete a project but you have to work well with your client to get exactly what you need to know to complete it all on time so they use your company or services again.

You may be wondering why I have decided to put this post up, and how I can relate it to web design… I thought about writing a post about Aspergers and Social Networking after 2 of my friends wanted posts about how an Aspergers sufferer deals with Twitter and what not to do. This is a follow up post I wanted to add.

Anyone can use a social network and I have developed myself online by making new friends and finding old ones. Being able to keep those friends is a massive step for me. I never before thought that social networking was going to be that easy for me. Infact I took to it like a duck to water.

I use Twitter and Facebook lots, but Twitter has the upper hand as I have been able to express what I like and talk to almost anyone I wanted to (including celebs!).

Twitter is a lovely way to share web design knowledge (see I told you I could link it to web design in some way!) and the freedom to reply to things I think are worthy of a comment. I enjoy reading blog links and the like but if it wasnt for Twitter I would never had known about it all.

Facebook is for closer friends and only select people can read your status when you approve them (just like Twitter I add) but it is a totally different ball game. I dont use Facebook as much but I like the fact that it provides an extra help source when requiring knowledge about something. You can reach out to an entirely different range.

When on Twitter I post about all sorts of things that interest me. I get replies based on them and now I have a seperate Twitter for a few of the interests in my life. Like one for web design related stuff, one for gaming and one for Aspergers. I like to use Twitter on those accounts in completely different ways. My main account that I established myself on the internet was through GoldChoiceUK Twitter. I liked how Twitter worked from the start and through that I was able to talk to people with the same feelings as me with the different subjects I like.

However all this social interaction on the internet made me mute in the real world and not able to talk to my parents in the right way. Not that I swore or anything – no – but I was rude to ignore things went downhill rather fast and rapidly. and I started to stay up till all hours of the night Tweeting and just messing about on my PC. I started to get really fed up of not being able to find a job too. I still cant find one and it is become really hard. There is simply nothing out there! That is when I set up a Twitter for my Aspergers friends/followers. I wanted to give back to them my experiences and how I felt and they could relate to it all.

As I have been on Twitter for over a year I have seen myself grow in a number of ways, which is great. I have been able to make funny comments and have a bit of a joke and make friends who actually care. I care for a great deal of them all too. I have special friendships with some of them and some of those I could not have ever done without. They have all made me feel really welcome and I have enjoyed having such a lovely relationship with them all. I wouldnt have done half of the things I have done this year without the aid of Twitter as it has helped me to communicate at a level that is acceptable by all. I have learnt how to Tweet and talk to others. I wouldn’t have spoken to Beverley Knight on the radio if I wasnt on Twitter. That made my confidence really high and I feel able to make conversation to a wider audience.

It is easy to forget I have Aspergers sometimes and my Tweets just make sense the way they are. I may Tweet some random things but that is what it is for. I enjoy exploiting myself with my disability and to prove what I can do and say and to show the whole world that Aspergers is really not the worst thing known to humankind if worked on well and having Twitter’s experience has made me realise how important it is to be real and alive.

Aspergers is not the end of the world and I know I can push myself to learn whatever I want and I will learn more as I continue to use the social online networks. It has increased my self confidence and I never thought I’d ever come in contact with such a lovely bunch of friends as I have now. Twitter has made me belong to society instead of feeling too odd. Aspergers is my way of living and I have made it work for me which is great.

If you have Aspergers or know someone who has please get them to read this and then get them onto Twitter (If they are old enough).

My post on Andy’s site… Contacting The Millions
My post on Clair’s site… Twitter with Aspergers

Beverley Knight has captured my heart in music and I really enjoy tweeting with her of an evening. But at the moment as her tour is on she is very busy. She has made me so much more confident about myself. I cant wait till the show. I will put a blog post up after the concert telling you all about it.

I hope this will be a birthday I will never ever forget!

I thought of writing this post to tell people who are interested about making their own sites (or they can drop me a line to make one ) a few resources I keep to get inspiration and learn how to code.

1. My experience

I am not being big headed in any way at all but it is important because I feel that 1-to-1 teaching is great and there is someone there to ask if you have a problem.

2. Website building magazines/books (online and offline)

Online:
There are a range of books and websites to help out with long term design.
For online forum based knowledge I recommend Boagworld. The forum offers loads of things to get people started. There may be answers to your questions there. Also go and pick up a copy of Paul Boag’s book Website Owners Manual for further tips if you have already the HTML basics and you want to learn how to take your website/team to the next level. Why not have a listen to the Boagworld Podcast which often has a special guest they have interviewed.
If you are a young budding web designer check out Scrunchup. Their newly created online magazine recommends and delivers some of the tips from real web experts.

Offline:
For offline go to a local library and find the computing section. There is a selection of books to help first time website makers. – I have a book called Build Your Own Web Site (published 1998) that I learned the basics as kid nearly 10 years ago! I don’t know if it is still around but you may find a similar book that may help you get the very basics of what code actually looks like.
Failing that you can go and order one of the many Sitepoint books available. I haven’t myself read one or had one in my hand, however I love the range and I doubt that you won’t find what you are looking for.
In the way of magazines, there are a few but I picked up an issue of Web Designer Mag from WHSmith or buy a subscription from their site. I rate this publication as it has a CD/DVD of extras and the magazine itself has tutorials and general ‘webby’ stuff and goodness.

3. Use online tutorials
Some great tutorial/hands-on resources to help you get the best out of learning how to code.

a. W3Schools is a great ‘testing’ site with tutorials and ‘sandboxes’ to test your newly learned skills.
b. The W3 Consortium is the web standard site for web standards!

4. CSS Zen Garden for ideas and style

Lovely site that shows many designs by many people and is a great way to not only learn some HTML but go one better and learn CSS too. I rate this site highly.

5. Read blogs and other articles of interest
This is where I get to show off my good web friends! I have several sources that I look at regularly and some I have written for in the past.
a. Andy Kinsey has his blog called AK Designs, and regularly writes a great piece about SEO (Search Engine Optimistion). You will also find odd other things on his site that he has written about to express his enjoyment of a service/product in the hope that you too will find it useful.
b. Clair has knowledge of web design in the PHP area. She has a blog that she updates with all kinds of things including hardware tech and software. Some really nice articles that are easy to read and provide an insight to a techie’s life.
c. Jamie Knight is an autistic guy who I started to talk to on Boagworld Forum. Jamie has a great site of really useful web information and Tech stuff.

Finally use my website to gain knowledge and through the posts and tutorials. There is no substitute for just reading and finding all you can really learn.

6. Twitter
Twitter, we all know about, is a great tool for getting help with a coding problem. Go ask some of the top designers your questions and they will be pleased (I’m sure) to help you.

I hope that you have an insight into where you can go for tech and web related articles and help.

URL’s and resources in this post (order as discussed in the post):

GoldChoiceUK: www.goldchoiceuk.co.uk
Boagworld: www.boagworld.com
Scrunchup: www.scrunchup.com
Build Your Own Web Site: (ISBN: 07460 3293 5)
Sitepoint: www.sitepoint.com
Web Designer Mag: www.webdesignermag.co.uk
W3Schools: www.w3schools.com
W3 Consortium: www.w3.org
CSS Zen Garden: www.csszengarden.com
Andy Kinsey: www.andykinsey.co.uk
Clair: http://cds-world.co.uk/blog
Jamie Knight: http://www.jkg3.com

I have been a loyal Geocities (fan?) for 3 years, updating my website and changing the look etc, but now it is time to put it to bed to rest.

I had my first ever site on Geocities and I’m in some way sad to see it go. Why?

- It was the first website I ever had up. Without Geocities I would not have got this site that you are looking at right now.
- Following on… Geocities was a great starter package for me to get to know what a web server does and how to make sites… I could experiment with it and change the layout as much as I wanted.
- I had a way I could show my friends and family what I was doing with my time and show them my skills and what sort of things I was into.
- I had not got the money for a real address.

But why not also say some bad things about it? Why not?

- I couldnt connect Geocities free to a FTP client which made it useless if I wanted to upload multiple files in one go. I would have to select the files each individually.
- There were adverts.
- There wasnt enough customisation room / space for me to go put up something really snazzy.
- Having my e-mail address in the url stopped me from sharing the website with The Whole World. Thus only close friends and family I could allow to view it.

There may be more things but anyway I enjoyed using Geocities and hope that it has changed some peoples lives in the way it did mine!

So far we have looked at ways to get feedback and the feedback you may experience.

In this final part I would like to go through how you can approach changes and how to maintain a healthy site.

With all the feedback you have (if a large amount) it may be a good idea to put it into one document to pick over.

I submit my sites for review on Twitter as I have followers that specailise in design reading my feed there. The more places, and people, you submit the url to the more views you will get from different people thus helping your design skills.

My tip: The feedback I get I could do what I described above but in Windows Vista I like to use the Snipping Tool. With that I don’t have to worry about the ‘have I copied/pasted that’ problem because I’ll have the data in .jpg format. Then I can disregard all of the pointless comments. If they are major changes they will need to be done first. Small tweeks wont be as noticable so they can be done later on.

You may like to thank your friends for helping you as they are a good second-eye for spotting mistakes, and I know I miss them occasionally.

Finally when all the hard work is done you can relax and let visitors come to your page. However… one slight catch… to maintain a healthy site you should update it often. Maybe you could have a set day in the month where you check for broken links or you may want to add new features… all to keep people interested!

You could add:
A blog – assuming current site is only a showcase
A forum – depending on type of site
You come up with something more fantastic than I can? Tell Me!

I hope you have enjoyed my 3 part blog post topic- I hope to do one again sometime.