When you decide to start your own blog, there are many choices to be made. The very first choice is which platform to use. The most popular blog platforms are Blogger, Typepad, and WordPress. This article will explain the basic differences of these platforms and the pros and cons of each. When choosing your blog [...]
What is a permalink and why do I need it?
November 24, 2008 By 40 Comments
Before I start my explanation of permalinks, I want to show you two examples so you can refer to them as necessary: An example of a blog’s main URL (which shows all the posts for a given period of time: http://www.bloggingbasics101.com An example of a permalink: http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/101/2008/11/what-is-a-permalink/ A permalink is the link to an individual [...]
Do you know the difference between tags and categories?
November 19, 2008 By 4 Comments
Tags are usually one- or two-word (three at the most) descriptions (or keywords) of a blog post. For example, I might tag this article “define tags” and “define categories”. The tags you choose are used by sites like Technorati (the blog search engine) to find your site and group it according to tags (e.g., putting [...]
What is a hexadecimal value?
September 17, 2008 By 1 Comment
A hexadecimal value (or hex code) is a six-digit alpha or numeric value that is read by a browser to produce a specific color. For example, the hex code for black is #000000; the hex code for white is #ffffff; the hex code for red is #cc0033. It is possible to just type the name [...]
What is CSS?
August 20, 2008 By 1 Comment
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is used within an HTML document to determine how an entire page or web site looks (fonts, headings, background images, etc.). By changing the CSS on one page, you can change the look and feel of the entire site instead of changing the code on each page individually. [...]
What is HTML?
August 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It’s a simple programming language that tells your internet browser how to read your text and display it. For example, if you’d like to make something bold and you are coding your HTML by hand you would type <strong>make this bold</strong> and you would see make this bold in [...]
What does SEO stand for?
August 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization refers to how you are ensuring that search engines can find your site. Search engines are based on text searches. They send out bots or spiders (not really a robot or spider–it’s an algorithm) that crawl your pages and send back information based on the [...]
What is a FAQ?
June 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment
A FAQ (usually pronounce FACK) is an acronym for Frequently Asked Questions. Usually when you click on a link labeled FAQ, you’ll be directed to a page with a list of questions (and their answers) that address the most common questions about the site or blog.
