Resources for Christian Ministry
In order to give appropriate consideration to the birth of our savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ, we will be celebrating this holiday time with our family. That means that we will not be actively answering questions in the forum or sent to our email starting Wednesday, December 21, 2011 until we return on January 2nd, 2012.
We would like to take this time to wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Crafting a compelling post takes some time and effort. You don’t want to just throw something up and hope for the best. If you aren’t putting out quality material people won’t want to read it. Seems harsh but that’s the reality of it.
Think about what you look for when you read blogs. Do you enjoy reading posts that are extremely long with no space between paragraphs, contain run-on sentences, grammatical errors and overall a weak message? No, typically we seek out to read well written work — and we go back to read more.
There are many things to consider when preparing to write a blog post. Here are some basics to get you started and pique reader interest.
He was tired. Change to: His eyelids drooped. Or: She is old. Change to: The arthritis made it hard to grip the pencil. See how your writing becomes stronger and more visual when you change out weak verbs? Usually when you write with be-verbs like this, you are telling. Eliminating them helps you to SHOW instead.
I encourage you to always be in a place where you want to learn more and be better in your writing. There is always more to learn and if we hope to move forward, we shouldn’t be content to remain where we are.
Good photos are the eye candy of a post. It helps to illustrate what you are trying to say and also helps to make the post easily manageable for the reader.
There are some guidelines that should be followed when using images in your post.
When you sit down to write a post, you should have a structure planned out. Specifically, you want your post to flow with order. Once you figure out this structure, you can use it as a guide every time you sit down to write. It will save time and help eliminate frustration.
Here is an example of the order of a post:
–>Introduction {this is where you need to capture your audience}
–>Image
–>Personal story, experience, testimony {choose one}
–>Main points {use bullet points and numbered lists freely}
–>Closing paragraph {kind of sum up what you wrote in new words}
–>Call to action {invite your readers to answer a question or participate in a challenge}
If you are serious about blogging, this is something you want to be open to doing. Bloggers such as Michael Hyatt and Jeff Goins would agree and have been successful as a result.
Do not taking writing on your blog lightly if you expect to capture an audience. You must understand the importance of writing technique, eye-popping images, and blog post structure if you want to be successful as a blogger and/or writer.
Christin is a wife, and mother of 5. She has a heart to help women in the discipleship of their children and in the making of their homes. She also enjoys learning and teaching others about blogging and all it entails. You can find her writing at Joyful Mothering and tweeting as ChristinWrites.
Lisa and I want to extend a great big thank you to all of you for making the last two workshops such a huge success! Rachel Meeks’ workshop on Simple Blogging sold out the day before. We are so excited to see so much interest. And my goodness, did we ever learn a lot from Rachel. Two of the things that stood out the most to me were these:
It opened my mind to hear from someone with more experience and who has achieved such great success in blogging. She had some practical applications that we were able to take away and apply immediately but I appreciated that her emphasis was on being who you claim to be. If you tell others to put family first then you would serve yourself and your family well to do the same. If you tell others how to live a better life and enjoy each day then don’t do it while still in your jammies with your hair up while the house is a mess. Actually enjoy life yourself.
We have another workshop this week that is going to be a game changer in your blog style. This workshop is highly recommended for anyone developing an online presence. If you cannot attend live it is recorded so you can play it back whenever you like. You must be a ticket holder though. Tickets are going fast so grab yours today!
Darcy is our featured instructor for Better Blogging: Identity & Branding in Today’s Blogosphere. DIY Ministry’s workshops are providing what you need to accomplish your online goals.
For most bloggers, the reason we blog is to be social; to participate in a community. In order to do that we need to gain readers, loyal visitors who have an interest in what it is you blog about. I’ve talked before about how I haphazardly blogged for several years before getting serious about it. Once I did get serious my stats started to take off.
What I did was follow the advice of other well situated bloggers. We all need to learn from someone. Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions of other bloggers. For every one person who ignores your email there are probably 10 more than willing to help.
Here is the advice that I was given on how to increase blog readership.
Image by manop via Flickr
First things first, decide that you want to have a larger readership. Something magical happens when you actually make a decision to do something. You stop waiting for it to happen and you take charge and do things that will “cause” it to happen. The same is true of growing your readership. When you make the conscience decision that you want it to grow then you begin to take steps in the direction of growing it. You are no longer passive about it. you become proactive.
If you faithfully employ these steps for a minimum of thirty days then you should begin to notice changes in your readership.
As always, if you have questions or comments please let us know in the comments. And if you need more intensive blog help then simply sign up for our one year DIY Ministry membership. It is like having your own consultant 24 hours a day and only cost $24.95 for a whole year!
Once you log in to your WordPress administration area, you will see this Dashboard screen.
How do I get to my site?
Look in the top left corner of the screen where it says Dashboard and then to the right, there’s a WordPress logo and the name of your site. The name of your site is actually a link to the front part of your site or the domain name. I suggest you open it in a new window or tab so you can easily switch back and forth between the two.
What are all these boxes and do I need them all?
The boxes that you see can be turned on or off and can be moved around. Just click and drag the title bar area of a box to move it into a different column or above/below another box.
You do not have to keep all of these boxes on your Dashboard. It can be overwhelming to have all of that information in front of you when you log in.
How do I simplify what I see on my screen?
On any screen you go to in the Administration area, you will see a button in the top right corner that says “Screen Options.” Click that to expand the options for the screen you are on. For the Dashboard, I recommend unchecking the box next to WordPress Blog, Other WordPress News, and Plugins. While you are learning, this information would be overload and not necessary. You can always come back here later and turn them back on.
Main Navigation
On the left side of the screen is the main navigation menu detailing each of the administrative functions you can perform. At the very bottom of the main navigation menu is a Collapse Menu link to collapse the area to a set of icons. Each major function such as Posts has a sub-menu that will show when you expand the menu by clicking on the heading. Click the heading again to collapse the sub-menu.
Work Area
The large area in the middle of the screen is the work area. Specific information relating to a certain navigation choice will show here and allow you to edit the information.
Updates
WordPress now alerts you when there are updates to either WordPress itself or Plugins you may load. This information will show up at the top of your Dashboard highlighted in a yellow box with a link to perform the auto-upgrade. Note: Some hosts do not have their file permissions setup to allow for WordPress to upgrade automatically. If you get an upgrade message, click the link and tell it to upgrade, you may get an error message that says Installation Failed – Could not copy files. In this case, you will just have to check in with your hosts one-click install area and wait for them to provide the upgrade that way.
You registered your domain name.
You went through the one-click install of WordPress through your host.
Now what?
Once the one-click install is finished, you should be able to go to your domain name http://yourdomainname.com. You will see a Welcome screen that asks you for some information needed to finish the setup of your site.
Site Title: You can change this later if you want, but this is what you call your site. For example, here our site title is DIY Ministry.
Username: Put in your desired username. It can be anything and do not make it admin. Admin used to be the default user and that’s what most hackers (mean people) will target.
Password, twice: You know the drill. Put in what you want your password to be. Please consider making it a secure password by using a phrase and replacing vowels with numbers. Also throwing in some capital letters here and there, for example 8myR0cksD3s1gn is Amy rocks design with eights for a’s; zeros for letter o’s; ones for i’s; and threes for e’s. These passwords make it harder for those mean people to run their special programs and guess your password — especially if it’s in the dictionary.
Your E-mail: This is where your email will be stored in WordPress and if you ever forget your password, you can reset it using this email.
Leave the box checked to “Allow my site to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati.” After all, we do want people to find you 
Then click the Install WordPress button.
The next screen should be a “Success!” screen and give you a Log In button to click. This button will take you to the log in screen and then direct you to the Administration area of your blog. You’ll want to bookmark or remember this url (http://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/) because it is where you will go to change settings and do things like post.
Image via Wikipedia
I have to admit that I have struggled in the area of finding a niche. Every well intentioned instructor and successful blogger speaks about having a tight niche to build your platform upon. I could never think of one subject that I wanted to write on exclusively. I am a mish-mash of cooking, creativity, blogging, interior design, organizing… on second thought, I sound like a mom. hmmm….
Being a mom isn’t a tight niche though. I mean, there are thousands of mom bloggers out there. What would make me different?
I bet you have asked yourself the same thing.
Because I am a mom, a couple of my favorite shows are Next Design Star and Next Food Network Star. Can I tell you that I’ve learned a lot more from those shows than how to hang curtains and use a pressure cooker? You can hear the judges week after week saying, “I like this. It is nice but it doesn’t tell me who you are.” With other contestants you can find them running from the places they came from and it shows in their work. The judges keep repeating, “Where are your roots? Work with what you know. Learn new things to grow but they must be rooted.”
Be who you are. It really is that simple.
Whether you are an educated businessman who wants to blog about all the latest gadgets or fantasy sports or if you’re an empty nester who wants to blog about cooking for two or the grand kids: let your writing reveal who you are.
So who are you? A New York socialite with an affinity for cottage decor? A football lovin’ dad from the south? Maybe you are newly wed and traveling across the country with your military spouse. Whoever you are, blog that. I don’t mean blog about your roots unless of course you want to. Instead, blog from your roots. That is your niche.
This is a question that I am asked often. Everyone wants to know how to balance time online and off; between family and online activity. How do you do it all? My secret: I don’t do it all. That is the bottom line.
Get your “priority” straight – I used to live my life in this “priority” frame of mind. By the time I made it past God, husband, and kids then there was no time or energy left for house, ministry, and everything else. Then it dawned on me that God is my only priority. Now I ask Him every day, “What do you need me to do today, Lord?” Sometimes it is about my husband; sometimes ministry; sometimes a friend. I’ve found that if I just make God and His will my only priority then He spreads me around to accomplish each day what I need to get done.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Do I always get it right? No. I mess up on many occasions. In fact, just recently I threw my hands up and called my mom-in-love to come get Matthias because I just could not carry him one more step. That boy is almost 28 lbs of pure energy. He had head butted and kicked me so many times (because he gets easily excited) that I was just about to drop to the ground. I got frustrated with other things too and it wasn’t until this evening that I realized that I did not read this morning and I did not ask Him what I should do today. I didn’t put Him first.
Set a timer and keep a to do list – I also watch my time like a hawk. I set a timer for replying to email and working on my blog. I have a “to do” list for every day and I use it as a guide; a reference for what I should accomplish. For online stuff I keep digital post its with my list of what needs to get done. When I have work to do online then I turn off email & chat, don’t click on links, and check things off as I go. I don’t let sites like Facebook and Twitter suck up my time either. I use them on occasion but I am not a die hard user.
I also reward myself for getting things done. If I accomplish my online to do list in say two hours then I make myself a frappacino or use my special bubble bath. I know it might sound strange but having a goal and a reward to look forward to motivates me to get things done. It helps me to focus.
Eliminate stress – Another secret I can share is that I realized that when I was stressed or in constant thought about something then it caused me to wander the internet aimlessly. Before I realized what happened the 2 hour timer would go off and I would have done nothing productive. My thinking about whatever was bugging me was in the forefront and my browsing the web was more or less done unconsciously. When I sit down to write or work then I shut my brain off to everything else. I listen for Matthias and the boys but my focus is on what I am doing. If something keeps popping up in my mind then I add it to my digital post it or I write it down in my notebook. Many times while I was online I would get great ideas but instead of quickly researching or implementing those ideas I just write them down for another day and get back on task.
Another trick is to close all other applications except for the one you need to accomplish your tasks. If you are trying to write and schedule posts then turn off your email & Twitter alerts. Close out Facebook and Google +. Close out every tab except the ones that you need for the immediate task. Those things can distract you easily and steer you off course.
Be flexible and submissive to His spirit – And like I said I do have a daily to do list but I don’t follow it religiously. If I don’t do something on that list then my life isn’t over. I simply put it on hold for another day. Some days I don’t get around to blogging or doing things for for some of my online projects because other things need to get done. There are also weeks that go by when I don’t reply to any email. Sometimes people get upset but I don’t feel bad because I was putting first what I felt God wanted me to do. I really do just depend on Him for guidance as to what to do.
Tip: If you do intend to ignore email for a while it is best to set up an auto response to let people know that you will eventually get back to them but it won’t be anytime soon because you are taking a break.
Support from your spouse is priceless – Ryan is a BIG help. He doesn’t mind helping with laundry, dishes, cook, clean, whatever needs to get done. He recognizes that we are a team and doesn’t mind helping out regularly. I am really blessed in that sense. He knows that I have to work sometimes and that my “work” helps me to wind down. He is also the first to tell me to go take a bubble bath when he sees that I am wound up a bit too tightly.
Make time for family – We also take time together a couple of nights a week to watch TV on the couch. It helps to laugh and get excited about things. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie but we both find it helps our emotional well being to allow ourselves to be distracted by the shenanigans on The Cake Boss or to laugh our heads off at Wipeout. Emotions are easily induced which means if I am stressed and I watch something happy then my stress goes away. Ryan and I are similar in the sense that he and I both have to deal with things immediately. We don’t let them stew or brew. That in and of itself is a stress eliminator.
Learn to let go of things – And all of that online stuff I do… I downsize quite often. I have had to walk away from other online projects that I was involved in because I know that they are in good hands and I needed the time I was devoting to those projects. I also stopped doing all design work (besides my own, of course!) Now I just spend my time with my blog, DIY Ministry and AWI – and I’m downsizing that now too because I have a bigger project in the works. I’ll be contributing to two online publications on a regular basis but have gone to strictly guest posting on others. Other than that I don’t regularly obligate myself so that I don’t let myself or anyone else down. There are seasons in life and sometimes we can handle a lot and sometimes we can only handle a little. You have to stay close to Him to know what season of life you are in.
I don’t over think it; over plan it; and I don’t wait until I think I have enough time to do it “just right”. That has always hindered me in the past. Now I just do a little at a time. And it is amazing how much God has rewarded that.
Oh and the power water I drink… it’s just good ol’ iced tea.
What do you do to balance it all? How do you make it work?
I know. I know. You are ready to get to the fun stuff about how to make your blog look pretty right? But I know you have some incredible stories to share and the last thing I want to happen to you is for you to lose all that you’ve written. First let’s learn how to backup WordPress.
Manually backing up WordPress
The first method is better than nothing. Seriously. To backup your WordPress php files, you’ll need an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client (software that runs on your computer). I recommend downloading and using FileZilla. You need the client software only — not the server software. Your web host should have sent you the information you need to login via FTP. It’s most likely the same as the login username and password as your control panel. The host is generally ftp.yourdomainname.com.
Once you put that information into FileZilla, you’ll see a list of the files on your computer on the left side and a list of the files on your web host on the right side. If you were to click and drag a file from the left side to the right side it would upload that file to your web server. If you click and drag a file from the right side to the left side, you would be downloading that file to your computer.
Make a special folder on your computer and open that folder on the left side. On the right side you will see a public_html folder. Double-click to open that folder. Here you will see the php files that make WordPress run. The only thing that you need to make sure you backup is the wp-content folder. You can right-click that and select download or just drag it from the right window to the left window. It will go through a long process but it’s copying the files from your web server to your computer. Everything else can really be replaced if the files were corrupted, but there are some things in the wp-content folder we’ll get to in a few days that have to be backed up.
To backup your database, you can install the WP-DB-Backup Plugin. I’ll be going over how to install plugins, but just know this one is pretty crucial. Once you install it, you can immediately download a copy of your database or you can setup a schedule and have a copy emailed to you. I recommend setting up a schedule as it’s well, scheduled and you don’t have to think about it. How often you have the database emailed to you depends on how much you blog. If you blog 5 days a week and would be sad if you lost a week’s worth of posts, setup to email you daily. If you blog once a week or so, have it email you once a week. I’d try to keep at least 3 database backups in your email or on your computer. Things can happen to those files, and it’s better to have a couple of back-ups of back-ups.
Automated Backups
I usually don’t recommend paying for plugins, but BackupBuddy has been one of the best purchases I’ve made to date. It will make a backup file containing your database and all the WordPress files that make your site run. You can have it automatically backup your site on a schedule as well as have it email you those backups. It definitely beats having to backup your site manually!
* Note for Blogger users
I hope you’ll forgive me for this, but I feel it’s important. If you are still on Blogger: go login, go to Settings -> Basic -> Export Blog. Save this file to your computer. Do it now. Seriously. If Blogger were to crash and lose your stuff (and are they really going to care? They provide you with a free service), you might just be sick to your stomach — literally.
Everybody likes a good WordPress how to, right? Well let’s start with the different parts of WordPress. You need to know this to know how to install and alter the themes.
There are basically 2 parts to WordPress. The first part contains the WordPress application files. These files are what’s included in the .zip file you may download from WordPress.org or the files you see when you log in with your FTP client (not sure what an FTP client is? We’ll go over that later!). The WordPress files are PHP files (meaning they have a .php extension). The second part of your blog is your database. WordPress interacts with a MySQL database to store information about your blog. This may sound like I’m getting too technical here, but hang with me.
PHP Files
PHP is a scripting language. These are files that you can open on your computer in a text editor (like Notepad). These files when opened in a text editor, will most likely look like a bunch of gibberish to you. When those same files are on a web server, the web server actually goes through the lines of gibberish and ends up displaying a pretty web page. For this reason, you can’t “run” WordPress on your computer (that’s why you need a web server).
MySQL Database
So, now you know under your web hosting account, you’ll see a bunch of PHP files. These PHP files will tell the web server to connect to a database server — to your database. When that connection is made, the PHP files will pull information out of the database and display it on the web page. Your entries — the headlines, the content and things like the date, are stored inside database fields. Think of the database as a big container. Inside that big container are individual little containers that hold a title, the text, and other information about your blog and blog posts.
This is most important to understand when we talk about backing up your blog (coming in a few days). If you look at the WordPress PHP files, that’s only half of your blog and not even the most important half. The WordPress PHP files can be reloaded by downloading the files again from WordPress.org. If you lose what you’ve written — the stuff that’s saved in your database — well, you can’t get that back unless you have a backup of the database.
