WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
I’m often asked how to go about setting up a blog. Or how to customise one. Or what the best plugins are to use. Or how to get more people to subscribe to your blog. As it’s the summer holiday and I’ve got some time on my hands, here’s a post which should answer some, if not all, of those questions…
Set up your edublog
- Get some high-quality, low-cost hosting (I recommend Bluehost)
- Download Wordpress from Wordpress.org
- Follow the instructions on how to install Wordpress
Customise your edublog
- Browse some themes and download the ones of which you like the look (tip: look for ‘widgetised’ ones - it’ll make your life a lot easier when it comes to configuring plugins)
- Install some relevant plugins. Many edubloggers list the plugins they use for the benefit of their readers. Check out my list here. You may also want to try lists such as 30+ Wordpress Plugins To Get More Blog Readers.
- Move things around on your blog’s sidebar(s) until you have configured it the way you want it.
Get people to visit your edublog
- Read more posts than usual in the edublogosphere. Either summarise what people are saying, add your thoughts to the overall conversation, or produce a list (people love lists). At the end of your posts ask for comments - what do people think about what you’ve written?
- If you’re part of a forum or social network, advertise the fact that you’ve started a new blog.
- Comment on other people’s blogs. Put the web address (URL) of your blog in the ‘your website’ part. This will make a link to your blog out of the name attached to your comment. People often visit the blogs of people who make insightful comments for more words of wisdom!
Find out more about your visitors
- Sign up for a free Feedburner account. Install the Feedburner Wordpress plugin.
- After a while (a month or two) you should find out more about your audience by logging in to your Feedburner control panel. Which posts are people reading most? Are they visiting your blog to read your posts or are more reading via an RSS reader?
- Tailor your posts more to your audience. Don’t sell-out and post things just to be popular, but spend longer (perhaps) on those posts you know your audience will appreciate.
Have I missed anything? How did you go about setting up your blog? What advice would you give to someone just setting out? 
PS You might also want to steer clear of 8 things that irritate me with edublogs, and instead head towards the 8 things that I like about edublogs. Also check out Eric Hoefler’s helpful post Metablognitive Questions and Stephen Downes’ How To Be Heard.
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