Five Technical Things Every Blogger Should Know
Where 15 years ago, having a Web site was something of a
badge of neediness, today having a site doesn’t require much technical
knowledge at all. Someone with almost no technical expertise can set up an
account on WordPress.com or Blogger and be blogging within minutes.
However, this doesn’t mean that a blogger can get away with
being a technical dunce. Though getting words on the Internet is pretty simple,
building and growing a blog does require one to know a bit more than how to
flip on a PC. Social networking sites make it easy to get online, but blogging,
especially over the long haul, takes something more.
So what are those things that every blogger should know?
There are many, definitely more than what is on this list, but here are five
things every would-be blogger should know before, or at least shortly after,
getting started.
1. The Basics of the Web
The Internet is a pretty amazing thing. Data travels all
across the world on the back of a system that, when explained correctly, seems
like it should never work. It’s both breathtakingly complicated and brilliantly
simple at the same time.
Though a blogger doesn’t need to understand every technical
detail about how the Web does its thing, a basic understanding of how a browser
goes from a “.com” and then loads a site is probably a good idea. This should
include at least a basic understanding of how domains are registered, how DNS
works and how data gets from A to B on the Web.
One doesn’t need to know how the TCP handshake works, but a
fundamental understanding of the “big picture” when it comes to Web
infrastructure is pretty useful.
Even a basic understanding of the workings of the Web can
help you be a better blogger.
First, if you go to set up your own hosting,
you’re going to need some of that understanding to make everything work and
understand the process of setting up your own domain.
However, even if you host with a free site, it can help you
understand site outages, how to speed up your blog and why visitors often have
very different experiences based upon their location.
2. How a Web Server Works
Similar to the Web itself, a server is a thing of beauty.
How a machine receives contact from the Web at large, processes the data and
then returns a response is both a simple and an amazing thing. On most blogs
this process involves the use of several different programs, operating in
several different layers and working in tandem to pull together the information
requested and present it in a human-readable format.
To make matters even more complicated, one physical server
can, and often does, run hundreds, even thousands of different Web sites. It is
even common for one physical
machine to house several different virtual
machines within it.
Though one doesn’t have to be ready to manage their own
server to run a blog, understanding the basics of how it works can prove
infinitely useful.
First and foremost, a basic understanding of a server will
help you set up your blog so that it works with the hardware, not against it.
It helps you understand how WP Super Cache can improve the performance of a
site and what you can do to keep your site running quickly.
However, perhaps more importantly, it helps you understand
communications from your host. Knowing the basics of how a server works will
help you better grasp what went wrong when your site goes down, how bad it is
and also enable you to ask smarter questions of your support team.
3. Basic HTML (And Maybe PHP)
If you’re used to using nothing but a word processor, HTML
code can look very intimidating as it comes with strange symbols and syntax
that can look like an alien language. Many understandably confuse markup
language for programming language and do everything they can to avoid even
looking at it.
Fortunately though, HTML is not nearly as complicated as it
looks at first glance and most of the code one would need for blogging is very
basic. However, not knowing it can be very costly.
Though WYSIWYG editors are much better now than they were
just a few years ago, they are still not perfect. At some point, if you are
going to get something to look how you want it to, you’re going to need to get
your hands dirty at least a little bit.
Also, if you’re using a self-hosted WordPress installation
you may want to have at least enough understanding of PHP so that you aren’t
intimidated if you have to make a few changes, as it is a part of updating and
customizing many themes.
However, even if you don’t customize your theme at all, the
first time your table isn’t aligned exactly right or the text doesn’t wrap
correctly around an image correctly, you’re going to want to have the basic
knowledge to fall back on.
W3Schools has a great basic overview of HTML and is also a great
reference for those who know (but sometimes forget). Likewise, Tizag has a good
overview of PHP.
4. Image Compression/Sizing
Image compression is something of a black art and even those
who are veterans will argue over the finer points about it. What file type to
use (GIF, JPG or PNG), how much to compress and the size of an image are often
areas of intense debate among the Web-savvy.
However, there are still some things one should never do as
they can cause problems and knowing how to avoid the pitfalls is critical when
running a blog.
If you don’t compress your images correctly, you can wind up
with a Web page that is many times the size it should be. A logo that is 100 K
will slow even broadband visitors down. Couple of poorly-compressed background
and some heavy inline images and your visitors may be leaving before reading a
single word.
It is important to keep your site as lean as practical and a
big part of that is keeping your images down to a reasonable size.
5. Online Security
The Web can be a very dangerous place and keeping yourself
safe on it is vitally important for everyone, not just bloggers.
Online security can involve everything from not posting your
personal information to making sure your operating system is patched. It is
about keeping you, your data and the information of those close to you as safe
as reasonably possible.
Though there is no way one can be completely secured on the
Web, there are definitely things one can do to ensure that they are as
protected as possible.
Online security is important for everyone, whether they blog
or not. However, bloggers face additional challenges in this area. Having a
site not only gives attackers a new target, but also new openings. Blogging
systems can be hacked, servers can be broken into and sites can be shut down.
Online security for bloggers includes everything from
keeping software up to date, backing up data, not putting critical information
your server and choosing good passwords. It’s a wide swath of items to cover
but all of it is vitally important.
Last but not the least….
In the end, you don’t have to be a geek in order to run a
blog, but a little bit of technical knowledge will go a very long way. A basic
understanding of some critical technology will help make you a better blogger
and make it easier for you to grow your site and expand on the Web.
If you don’t have this knowledge now, taking the time to
develop a basic understanding will serve you well, especially in the long run.
Source: www.blogherald.com
