Blog start-up help?

[zipworth]

How does one go about deciding the focus of a blog should be? I have a lot of things I would like to write about, but difficulty narrowing it down. A lot of my interests have to do with Childhood and education, so I would like to blog about that, but.....can you have entries that are tangential in nature?Like if I wanted to write about cooking for example? Are there rules around this?

Also, how do you physically start a blog? I am seriously behind the times on this, but am ready to learn. Are there websites to guide you? Fees associated?

Lastly, could you share your favourite blog so I can have a look at how it is done?..I would love to read some of yours.

Thanks in advance:Rain bow

Natalie

[SoulCakes]

Welcome to the blogosphere!

First off: picking a topic. Most blogs have a particular angle, but many are "life" blogs with some posts about a particular expertise thrown in. For example, you might write about your experiences with your children most days, but every once in a while devote an entry to new recipes (or have a regular "recipe Monday" or something like that). The great thing about blogs is that they're not sterile academic journals; everything is somehow related to something else so it's easy to focus on one thing, like education, while tying that in to something that you were thinking about, or read, or saw your children learning, etc. It's great fun.

Secondly: starting a blog is easy! Free sites such as blogger.com (as well as many others) allow you to sign up in minutes. They have several background styles for you to choose from and you can upload a photo for your header, etc. If you're not too computer savvy, I would start here and then later get a friend to help you if you want more bells and whistles (or hire a local computer kid to put one together to your specifications). Posting is super easy: if you can navigate forums like this one, then you'll have no trouble with blogger.com!

I have too many favorite blogs; two of my favorites are:

www.nectarandlight.typepad.com/

and

http://blog.piajanebijkerk.com/WordPress/

(Wordpress and typepad are two other popular blogging/journaling sites; you may or may not have to pay for their services but it's worth checking out.)

Anyway, good luck and get blogging!

[fullofgrace]

Moving to Writing for the Web

[bajamergrrl]

SoulCakes has given good advice.

Check out the list of MDC mama blogs and see if there are any that fit the style you're thinking of.

[zipworth]

Thanks! That is the exact advice I needed!

[zipworth]

How do you find out tools or websites used to 'build' a particular blog? Is there information somewhere on a blog that would tell you this?

Where can you find images/fonts that you can use on your blog that don't infringe upon copyright laws?

I am having a lot of trouble narrowing down my focus. I want to write about:

Parenting with depression/anxiety/ADHD (Ha! Can you tell why I'm having trouble focusing?)
Motherhood
Early Childhood Education/Educational Philosophy
Child Development
Child Nutrition
Child advocacy topics
Children's Art
Toys

Do you think all these topics can fall under one umbrella?