Back in July 08, I met a guy recommended as “someone you need to know if you want to learn anything about blogging and on-line social media”.

So, I set up an initial meeting with him, and listened to this chap throw out all these terms, references, links, buzz-words and names of “stuff” that I’d never heard of before. The one-way conversation may as well have been in Japanese for all I understood.

After about 10 minutes of me saying “aha, yes, okay” and lots of general head nodding in an falsely-understanding kind of way, I halt the conversation, saying that my head was already cooked with information, and was there anywhere that this sort of info was available from one source.

The answer that came back was “the Internet”. Well, ask a really stupid question, and get the most blatantly obvious answer back- I felt a complete bumbling idiot, and suddenly realised that I’d got into a conversation I had absolutely no knowledge of the subject matter.

The same applies today almost, but I’ve read a lot, met a lot of knowledgeable and friendly people along the way, learned from their tips, read, researched, read some more, and continue to do so, making mistakes along the way as are being documented in this blog.

The guy I met said that before I even start to think about how the technical widgets, plug-ins, designs, programmes etc all work, he’d lend me a book about the psychology and methodology and history behind not just how, but more importantly WHY this social media “stuff” works, True to his word, the very next day, the book gets hand delivered by him to me and I read it over about a 3 week period.

The book was called “Here Comes Everybody” written by Clay Shirky. Without a shadow of doubt, it was this book that started me on the path I’m now following. Some very wise words in there, and lots to think about- but like me, if you’re new to this blogging thing, read the book first before you even touch WordPress or similar.

Clay Shirky is very highly regarded in Internet-type circles- he knows a great deal, has some good ideas and speaks from experience. In May, he gave a short presentation at one of the TED conferences about the power of Twitter and New Media news dissemination, getting a network working, but I’ll move on to that as soon as I can:

Lastly, I’d like to say either a big sincere Thank You to Pete Ashton, the guy that gave me a book to read and spoke to me in a foreign language way back in July last year. Pete does some damn fine work around the web & Birmingham in particular. Go check him out if you ever get chance- take part in one of the Social Media Cafe’s – you’ll find he drinks tea, no sugar. But read the book first!

Great. The purchases have all gone through, and the new blogsite is up and running.

I’m pleased to say that all the plug-in’s and widgets all work well. But how did I do this?

Answer: Trial and Error, and asking a friend for advice (Tip: use Skype to keep your telephone call costs down). That way I’ve learned by my mistakes, and those lessons will hopefully stay embedded in my head for the future.

The design I’ve chosen at the moment (it’s called “Themepod”) came completely free of charge. Go to http://wordpressthemesbase.com/ and have a look around- there’s lots more available there that may suit your own needs.

However, please don’t let others do it for you. Do like I have, and learn how to do it yourself. You’ll get a much better understanding of how your blog works if you do, and you won’t be stuck in a sticky situation if your web designer/ pal falls over ill or is away on holiday, just at the time when you need to make that one crucial update.

Tip: Use the HELP button after you’ve logged in to your dashboard section- there’s some good resources, info and knowledgeable people on the forum, all of whom have probably experienced the issues you are. Read and digest their advice- it’s all free and you’ll be grateful of it in the long run.

Ok, so I’m presuming that you also are using WordPress to run your blog from, like me. I’ve absolutely no experience of other blogging formats that exist. I did some research into what established bloggers used, took some opinions from contacts and had a good look around before making the final decision. For me, WordPress suits my needs so far, plus it comes with lots of recommendations from others that know what they’re talking about, which is always a good sign.

Like the first (WordPress-hosted) version I had- the usability of the programme itself is exactly the same- still very good and easy to learn. The advantage is that with an independently hosted blog, I now have the option to expand the functionality of the way the site works as it develops. I’m not restricted by format any more, and as this blog takes shape, in the future there’s going to come a time when I want to add more functions, features, plug-in’s etc. With the WordPress-hosted version, I would not have had this flexibility. Think of it like a painting (cliche I know, sorry). If you get the paint out and start with a piece of small canvas, there may come a time when you want to add more detail. You don’t know yet what that detail is going to be, but if the canvas is too small and you’ve filled it up with “stuff”, when you come to expand you won’t be able to, and you’ll be kicking yourself because you’ll have to start all over again with a bigger canvas to fit all the detail in- a big waste of your previous time and efforts.

So, if there’s one thing you should seriously consider before you go too far down the “free hosting” route- it’s get your WordPress blog programme hosted somewhere- you never know when you will want to expand.

Oh, and make sure that when you type “WordPress” into your posts, you use the capital P in the middle of the type- Mark Steadman will get awfully upset in a self-frustrating-sort-of-way if you don’t

The limitations of a free wordpress blogsite are now stopping me from doing what I want to do, so I’m going to grab an upgraded version of WordPress, simply so I can use plug ins and have a better, cleaner design applied to the way this blog looks and works.

To do this successfully, I’ve had to buy a domain name to point the wordpress blogsite towards so I’ve purchased www.justblogging.co.uk . The good chap Mark Steadman at www.bluemilkshake.co.uk made the purchase for me, and he’ll be providing me with my hosting too.  Hence the change of name at the top of this- it’ll be a few days before Nominet send me details, but hopefully you’ll see a change in the appearance very soon.

This also means that I can have small windows for features on the blog itself (videos, photos, audio podcasts etc) and won’t have to create a new page every time I want to create a different subject format. That in itself is a bonus, and will make the site so much more easy to use. Hopefully you’ll agree.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to transfer everything from the current blog into the new one, but I’m sure the wordpress FAQ’s will help there (crosses fingers).