XHTML: A New Skill or New Thrill?

I have decided to learn website design. 

As some of you know, I'm a big idea person. I have about a billion ideas a day and my wife patiently listens to them. Often times these ideas are quit involved and would require lots of time, effort, and money. Usually retail food based.

Sometimes I have ideas for websites... But, still don't have much time or money. So I decided to learn XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL to...

• Save money by building the sites myself.
• If I did ever pay money to have a site built, I would have a better understanding of what I could expect. 
• Possibly have a new career path if I discover I have Talent for it. (Which does not look likely so far..)
• Add another tool to the toolbox. I may not apply for a job where this is necessary knowledge but, sometimes people are impressed when someone knows things they don't. It's like saying you can speak 3 different languages even when it's not necessary to the job.

So I have done two things to teach myself. I have purchased a book called XHTML and CSS for dummies. I have also subscribed to a website called lynda.com. Both have been effective in helping me understand how little I know about the web and how hard web development is.

Learning XHTML is extremely tough for me and the learning curve does seem quit steep but, I have hope. I'm not going to school for it and am teaching myself. While I can't make a magical site, I can make one, and thats light years ahead of where I was. I'm still interested in it and I'm learning, so at this point, I'm still happily engaged.

Part of me feels like I'll never get it and should give up. I wonder, if I'm not blissfully passionate about web design, should I even bother to keep learning about it? Then again, my personality type, I'm not really passionate about anything besides eating and reading..

So it may be a passing fancy or it could be something really great, it's just too early to tell.

What do you think? Should I keep pursuing it or not waste valuable time on it?

Update

Hey, all.

I have not stopped blogging but have slowed down a little bit. I am currently still writing daily but not here. I do plan to get caught up though and start blogging again.

Once thing I am considering is writing a story chapter by chapter on my blog. This would give anyone who wants to read what I am writing acsess right away and also give me a chance to receive constructive criticism right away so as to make changes before I get too deep in the story.

Look forward to more consistent content shortly.

Thanks again!

5 things you can do to help your blog and mine!

If you're blogging and want to make your blog better or increase traffic, here is what I have learned thus far as a fledgling blogger.

1. Write good content that is true to you and has value to others.
2. Be patient and consistent. (Write consistently and be patient for results.) 
3. Share your blog with family and friends. If they won't read it who will?
4. Create links to blogs you like and ask people who like you to link to your page
5. Ask people to +1 your blogs, comment on them, and share them.

There you have have it! 5 things that will make your blog better and increase traffic to it!

Top 5 mistakes I have made with my blog

What are the top five mistakes bloggers make? I don't know but, I can tell you the top five I have made.

1. Creating post that are too long and hard to read.
2. Caring more about stats and monetizing (money) than content.
3. Not taking time to edit as much as I should. I.e. grammar, spelling, and other typos. 
4. Not having my awesome wife proof read more of my work before I post it.
5. Not always staying true to who I am

When I started blogging I had several goals. To practice writing, to build a platform, and to possible make a little extra money through monetizing. As I have been blogging I have had some small success. When I say small I mean it. $3.57 and two days in a row with over a 100 pages views. I have caught myself thinking about how I can make more money from the blog and less about making content that's true to my self.

If we create things of value everything else will come. Blogging is not all about us and about what we know and what we want. It's about communicating a message that's of value. The message itself should have value and should be true from the writer.The message it self can be about anything as long as it is in some way meant for giving and not taking.

Do you ever find yourself trying to produce things that are not really true to you? Do we perform at the detriment of your real goals?

A small change

If you have been following my blog you know I do a post everyday. You may have noticed that I do them in order of how they show up under the pages to the right. --->

That bad thing about writing blogs that way is that, on some of the days I really feel like writing about one subject but, won't because it's not the "right" day. So what I am going to do instead is write about the subjects that are inspiring me at the time, even if that means that I write under the dreams page 3 days in a row.

Is that cool with you? Do you think it makes sense or should I stick to what I have been doing?

Oh,on a side note that deals with blogging. I mentioned one of my hopes was to turn this blog into a kind of platform. My hope is to write on topics in a compelling way that is engaging, informative, and concise. I hope that as I get better at doing this more people will visit this blog, people who don't even know me!

I hope to increase readership of my blog. If you enjoy it, I hope you will help me with this goal. If your willing you can do the following things to help.

1. Link to this blog. If you have a blog or website, linking to this site would really help me out.
2. If I write something you enjoy, consider sharing it with a friend, either by email, which you can do to the right, or via social media like Facebook which, you can do below and to the left. 
3. Below each post is a little +1 box. By clicking on it you are saying this is a real relevant blog and that I'm a real person. please +1 everything I post, and if you don't mind, consider going back through all previous posts and giving them a +1. 
4. Consider becoming a follower/ subscriber of this blog.
5. If you're comfortable, consider posting a comment on blogs you enjoy. I really hope to get a conversation going.

Thanks  in advance for your contribution in making this blog relevant and interesting. I appreciate your effort in helping me with a goal that is important to me.

$ Bring Home the Bacon $

So I have been in the process of monetizing my blog. What this means is that I can now make money from my blog. Making money from your blog is not a bad thing. Remember, I have mentioned in past posts some of my goals, one of which is to generate money through on-line sources.
If you have been following my blog and have some of the same goals that I do, the following information should be of interest. Here is how I hope my blog will generate money.

AdSense from Google: Ads will appear from Google hopefully for things that are relevant to what I am writing about. The more people that click on the ads the more money I make. So please,click away!

Amazon Affiliate: I have been able to set up an affiliate account with Amazon.com. What that means is that I can sell stuff from Amazon on my web site. The great thing about this set up is that I can put specific products that I have used and believe in on my blog. If you should decide to purchase something I have recommended though the link, I will get a 15% bonus from Amazon. It's great! If I suggest a book I have read and loved and you buy it, we both win!

Support this blog: This is feature I added to my blog that allows people to contribute directly to me to support the blog..

So there you have it. Three ways to make money with your blog. If you decide to blog or are blogging already and are not adverse to making some extra cash, you should consider monetizing your blog. If you use Blogger like I do, its fairly simple, just click on the  "Monetize" tab toward the top of your page and follow the directions. If you are using another service you will have to figure that out by yourself.

Any questions?

My First Steps

I decided to blog for several reasons as mentioned in my previous post. One thing I had to do when I made up my mind to start was to figure out how. I did a simple Google Search on "how to start a blog" and read the first few web sites that came up on the subject. Below I will write out the basics.

1. Ask yourself the Why question. You need to know why you want to blog. Once you know that, the next question is, what do you want to blog about? The what part of the question is going to be impacted greatly by the Why. 
2. Next you will want to come up with a name that will reflect and capture what you plan on blogging about. The name for my blog may not have been the greatest but I felt it reflected the general feel of what I was going to blog about, writing seven days a week. 
3. How will you host your blog? There are several ways to do so. I had to decide if I wanted to pay for my own domain and use a blog format that you have to pay for or to use a free one. Free is free but it comes with a price. If you go the free direction you have less control over what you can do and more importantly you don't really own your blog. Now that being said I still went the free way. This is my first blog and I don't really need to have sophisticated options. Nor do I think I'm going to change the world or do something earth shattering with my first attempt at blogging.
4. Now you need to generate original content in keeping with the theme of your site. 
5. Invite your friends and family to become "followers" of your blog.

Specifically what I did was this. Once I decided that I was going to blog I did some reading on the subject. I then asked myself the why question and then the what question. Once I had the idea in my head I created my blog by using a free blog service through Google called Blogger. The site is www.blogger.com. I could run you through a how to step by step but I'm not going to. If you decide to go this route, they have a pretty good system that will run you through a step by step on how to get going. Its fairly intuitive and has a great support forum / help page along with a lot of tutorials.

If you need additional help or have any questions feel free to drop me a line.  One of my hopes in starting a blog was to start a conversation. A friend of mine mentioned the value of asking questions. So here are a few that may help get one going.

Have you ever thought about blogging? Why would you like to blog and what would you blog about? If you currently blog, what got you started? What advise do you have on the subject?

I look forward to learning with you and going on this adventure together. Lets do what we love and help each other to do so

Why Blog?

So why would I choose to blog? For the longest time I have heard the term come up but have never really been that interested in it myself until I started to think through my dreams or my goals. I am part of the I'm but generation. I'm a retail manager but, i really want to be ______. I don't think when we grow up we say I can't wait to work at Loews or Starbucks. We start to tell ourselves the ship has sailed on our dreams.

Anyhow, I have been uncovering the things I have loved doing in the past. One of which is to someday be an author. Another would be able to travel. Well blogging allows me to do several things all at once. It lets me...

1. Get practice writing.
2. Share ideas with others and hopefully inspire them.
3. Build a "platform" A platform is people who are interested in you and your ideas. If you want your message to be heard or if you want to be able to see farther you need a platform on which to do so. 
4. To make money. Yes, not very altruistic of me but true all the same. You see several of my dreams involve by necessity the need for money. For example I hope to travel. Money. I want to open my own business one day. Money. I want to maybe go to flight school of possibly self publish a book. All of those things cost money. 

So that's why blogging. I want to further my dreams while helping others. I hope to add informative information and opinions that make your day a little brighter. That makes people say "I never really thought of it like that." 

I hope you enjoy and I look forward to sharing how to start a blog, what I've learned from the experience and so forth. Enjoy!

Blogging

This page is about my journey to learn about how to blog, why I blog, and general observations of what I have learned as a "newbie" blogger. I will pour out my steps to learn about blogging along with my successes and failures.