My studies are getting up and running.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

Great to see you are pursuing your dream. I very much hope you enjoy it.

[bnnrcn]

Congratulations and good luck Donald

[mugge]

Congratulations and good luck. I guess we will be seeing 'people photos' in your glorious B&W. Well I can only hope.
Cheers Ole

[tinally]

Donald well done on following your dreams. It is so difficult to have the courage to do that, especially if you have already studied up to a masters degree. And the arts get the short end of the stick so much its really difficult to make that decision to just go for it and trust in yourself. So I applaud you Donald!

I never quite managed to take that step myself. So now I channel my creative energy into my photography as a hobby whenever possible. I have been thinking about perhaps setting up a blog to somehow legitimise spending so much of my free time on it. How did you choose your site to host on? I see you use word press, did you go through a service llike this one from 1&1 to host your wordpress blogs or what did you use? I think this one looks quite straightforward but would love a second (or third and fourth) opinion!

Thanks, Tina

[Donald]

I see you use word press, did you go through a service like this one from 1&1 like this one or what did you use? I think this one looks quite straightforward but would love a second (or third and fourth) opinion!

I didn't go through a service like the one you linked to, Tina. I went straight to the Wordpress site and set up with the free option. That is all I need for the purposes of it being a Learning Log for my course. If I was setting it up as a means of showcasing my photography, I may well have looked at the 'pay-for' options because the do seem to offer more functionality.

Why Wordpress? In my case it was, again, pretty straightforward. The Open College if the Arts gave me a list of blog providers/resources, but then said that although it is more testing to set up, it likes students to use Wordpress as even the free version offers more options for including images, copied notes, etc (i.e. attachments), than the other options. I just accepted their word on that because I have no experience or knowledge to think otherwise.

I was obviously hindered by that lack of experience and it took longer to set up than if I had used a blog in the past. But once I started understanding what it was about and the basic underlying structure, things made sense. What I still don't know is what th4e difference is between Menus and Categories & Tags. I don't know when you'd want to use Menus instead of Categories & Tags. Also, there is a facility to create pages and I don't understand what that's about or why I'd want to do that. For me, I write a post and then use a tag to assign it to the category that I want and which I had set up at the beginning; e.g. Research; Notes; Reflection. End of story. Maybe one day I'll discover why I might need to use 'Pages' and 'Menus'.

[Clactonian]

What I still don't know is what th4e difference is between Menus and Categories & Tags. I don't know when you'd want to use Menus instead of Categories & Tags. Also, there is a facility to create pages and I don't understand what that's about or why I'd want to do that. For me, I write a post and then use a tag to assign it to the category that I want and which I had set up at the beginning; e.g. Research; Notes; Reflection. End of story. Maybe one day I'll discover why I might need to use 'Pages' and 'Menus'.

I have used Wordpress for several websites and a couple of blogs Donald and found it very straightforward once my head was around the basic concept.
Not all the features will be used for a blog. The menus for instance are more often used for navigation using a menu bar on a web page, although not exclusively so. Categories and tags on the other hand are useful footnotes to blog posts as they allow a simple search or collection of similar posts.
If you look on my website You can see them in action as this was compiled using Wordpress. Look HERE if you are interested, there is a blog as well, although under-used on my part. On the blog you will see 'News' and a date under the post. This is the Category. The tag is at the bottom of the post e.g. 'Locations'.

[Donald]

Mike - That is brilliant. Makes perfect sense and I now understand the whole thing so much better than I did 20 minutes ago. Thank you.

[NorthernFocus]

This is awesome, Donald. I read your blog and found it very interesting due to the insight on how you are approaching the subject. It will be interesting to follow your intellectual and artistic journey.

[Mike Buckley]

I now understand the whole thing so much better than I did 20 minutes ago.

Uh oh. That generally means you now have more work to do.

[tinally]

I didn't go through a service like the one you linked to, Tina. I went straight to the Wordpress site and set up with the free option. That is all I need for the purposes of it being a Learning Log for my course. If I was setting it up as a means of showcasing my photography, I may well have looked at the 'pay-for' options because the do seem to offer more functionality.

Thanks for getting back to me Donald. I suppose it makes sense to just go through wordpress directly at first then and if I want to develop it further and make it more professional I can always switch. It is so hard to predict what features you will want.

[Clactonian]

Donald do I assume when you say 'paid for' you will be using Wordpress to host your site if you enhance it?
I only mention this as I use a very competitive hosting package that gives me a free access to Wordpress. Details on request.

[Donald]

Donald do I assume when you say 'paid for' you will be using Wordpress to host your site if you enhance it?
I only mention this as I use a very competitive hosting package that gives me a free access to Wordpress. Details on request.

I hadn't actually got that far with my thinking. At the moment my website is hosted by SmugMug and, now, I have a free blog with Wordpress. But the question is - Do I move everything across?

[Mike Buckley]

Do I move everything across?

The only reason to do that would be if your blog provides significant capabilities that your current website doesn't provide. I doubt that it does. Actually, it's probably the other way around, at least based on my one experience of using a blog.

[Dave Humphries]

But the question is - Do I move everything across?

I wouldn't (move everything across to WordPress) - you may find a need to simply display images, say for clients you might not want to get directly embroiled in the WordPress site and blog.

Certainly I'd recommend deferring that decision until you're much further in to the course, see which gets used for what.
Only if the two appear to be interchangeable and you're wasting time uploading photos to both places, would I consider putting all your eggs in one basket, especially since the basket is free - and you don't know how strong or reliable it is!

[Donald]

Certainly I'd recommend deferring that decision until you're much further in to the course, see which gets used for what.

Certainly, that was my first thought. I'm very happy with the service from SmugMug and unless I wanted to fully integrate website and blog, which at the moment I don't think I need to do, it might not be worth the upheaval.

[Clactonian]

Agree no need to change if you are using Smugmug. I concluded from your earlier comments that you were considering an alternative.
I would also assume that even under Smugmug you will be able to add static pages to your blog if you needed to in order to create a landing page for instance.

[Donald]

Agree no need to change if you are using Smugmug. I concluded from your earlier comments that you were considering an alternative..

Sorry for any confusion, Mike. Ignorance is my only defence. I probably used language that someone who knows something about blogs would reasonably draw conclusions from. I'm wandering a bit in the mist at the moment, but it's slowly beginning to make sense ... I think.

[Clactonian]

Your results are impressive for somebody enveloped in the mist. Heaven help us if it clears!

[Mike Buckley]

I'm wandering a bit in the mist at the moment

As far as I'm concerned, any time a non-techie does battle with setting up a blog the first time, the resulting chaos is more akin to the fog of war.

[Clactonian]

I've just spent far more time than I intended reading on THIS site. Now whilst it is ostensibly about street photography the links to 'the masters of street photography' articles are fascinating and wide ranging.
I thought you might find some useful information and quotes here Donald. I've only scratched the surface but my mind is now in overdrive, questioning my approach to photography and considering whether or not I should be changing my approach.