Welcome to “Simple Tech Week!” My goal for the five posts this week is to share with  you five simple tech tools you can use to (1) connect with more people, and (2) get more out of technology in a simple way.

Blogging is a lot of fun, but it is also quite a bit of work. However, with the amazing growth of the Internet, it is my opinion that Christians need to “flood” the web with more positive, Bible-based content. We have had this blog now for a long time (around 5 years) and it truly is a labor of love.

I want to share with you two ways you can be involved in blogging.

Blogging 101

First, a super simple way to get involved in this arena. Go to blogger.com and join. This site is run by Google, so if you have a Google account, it’s even easier to sign up.

The site is completely free, and will walk you through the process of blogging. It really is as simple as typing in your content and hitting “publish.” That’s it.

For those who just want to put bulletin articles or other short information on the web periodically, this is a great and free solution. Blogger has made it easier to customize your site in the last couple of years, but I would recommend that, if you are going to use Blogger, you keep it very simple.

Blogging 202

Now, what if you want to do something a bit more extensive? Our blog is on WordPress, but we pay to have it. This does take some time, but you will be able to add tons of customization to your blog and make it far more interactive. WordPress really is the way to go if you don’t mind paying a little bit to have your site really be YOUR site.

In addition to having a WordPress account, you must have a hosting site. We use bluehost.com. It costs a little more than a few other sites, but the customer service it second-to-none. When you are simple-minded in this area like I am, that is worth a few extra dollars per year! [If you are thinking of going with this option, take 4 minutes and watch this video on YouTube that shows how simple this is.]

After that, it is just searching for what add-ons or features you want and adding them in. I periodically take about an hour and spend time on Google searching for “best WordPress plugins.” Often, these lead me to things to add to our site that I really like.

I probably spend 2-3 hours per month on our blog as far as features go. If you want to have a paid blog, expect to spend at least that much time with it each month. If you want to post many times and want to have a feature-rich blog, however, this is the way to go.

Extra Credit

What about letting people know about your blog? Here are a few tips:

1. Post your new content on Facebook and Twitter, but do not ONLY do that on these sites. Make your new posts part of what you are providing through these sites, not everything.

2. Put your url at the bottom of emails, and on business cards.

3. Word of mouth. Don’t be a salesman, but if it comes naturally, let people know that you have a blog and are proud of it.

4. Be patient. Our site has been around a long time, and we still don’t have a huge readership. That’s okay. It  has grown slowly, and we anticipate it will continue to grow. We now have over 100 people who receive this blog via rss, but that took around 5 years to get!

Entrance Exam

Okay, so you are thinking of blogging? Answer these 3 questions to see if you are ready.

1. What is your purpose in blogging? Don’t start one until you determine what it is you want to do. Our purpose is simple: “To provide encouraging, Bible-based, family-enriching information–and a little fun–to our readers.” It is that broad and simple so that we can post about many different topics (like this one for example) and still be within that purpose.

2. Are you willing to post regularly? You need to have a schedule and you need to basically stick to it. It is okay to vary it from time-to-time, but far too many people decide they are going to blog 7 days per week and run out of excitement (and material) after about 2 weeks. It’s okay to post once per week, just be regular with it.

3. Will you enjoy it? This is worth asking. There is no reason to have a blog…just to have a blog. It needs to be something you enjoy doing. If you don’t enjoy writing, you can still blog, though! Try a picture-based or video-based site. Make sure you fit your blog to your personality. That’s really where interest and growth comes from.

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What other tips would you give?