Get Your Blog Up And Running

Well, things have progressed to the point where BlogOnSC! is up and running.... sort of.
I've gotten Wordpress functional, semi-finished building a template and some structure and have posted a few posts. There is much to be done and I am trying to rapidly aquire the knowledge to do it without paying someone the big bucks.

Using WordPress as a CMS is giving me some real glitches. There are a lot of questions for which the answers seem vague and unpromising but I'll keep looking and trying things. I believe if you want to do it all yourself, learning xhtml, css, ajax, php, javascript and others is pretty crucial. I think I'm on stage 1 at best so far but am trying my best to get the basics down pat. Ultimately with the idea in mind of having a website that functions as if it were built by the pros and makes a good e-commerce plateform/blogging site. That's a long way down the road.

One thing I have learned, there are enough free resources out there that for anyone wanting to make a blogging site, or a simple GP site, you can easily do it for free. All the graphics I am using, or will use, are created with GIMP, the code editing is done in HTML-Kit, available at Download.com and of course WordPress is available free of charge along with the host of information and forums available to help you figure it out. The only expenditure to date, is a book I picked up on CSS, XHTML and AJAX as I am still more "old school" when it comes to information and like to highlight text and important items rather than having it on my computer. It's easy to sit in a chair and read through things, highlighting as you go then get on the computer and try them out at a convenient time. So total cost to date, $30.00 for the book. If it really helps, I'll give it a plug here and on my site

So far the only posts I've put up are a couple of humor posts about being a stay at home dad and one political post about South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford and the bailout money. I guess it's time to really start blogging and trying to get traffic.

Next up, I'm going to post a list of all the resources I used to get things going, the trials and failures and (minor to date) successes I've had.

See you soon.

The rest of the story>>>

Getting Better at Joomla

Well, It's been a few (several) days since I posted, not that anyone has noticed, but here goes.

I've been multi-tasking for several days. Learning CSS has taken up a good bit of time and I've found several good resources for tutorials, etc... Getting the details correct is pretty durn difficult for an old dog but I am getting the hang of the basic elements (properties, values etc...) and learning to edit and re-write CSS files to achieve the look I want in my pages.

I think I've mentioned using GIMP for doing editing of the image sources for your pages. It works really well. I took a good basice template and completely re-skinned it by using GIMP. The look is totally different and I can use the "localhost" to verify changes before uploading to my website, very cool.

So a LOT of time has been spent re-skinning the look, learning the CSS properties and adjusting them and a LOT of time spent reading, researching and trying to retain all of the information I've absorped.

Anyway, I'm about 2% short of going live with my site BlogOn!, and hopefully will have a viable site operating very shortly.

Here is a list of very helpful sites and resources.

Great HTML resource
Pick a color scheme
Primo tutorials on everything
A lot of good stuff for joomla
free OpenSource is always cool

That about wraps it up, I'll be blogging regularly from my new site very shortly. I still need to figure out all the feeds, trackback, all that good stuff. Looks like a whole lot more reading to do.

See ya all. The rest of the story>>>

Web Resources For Editing Joomla Templates

Editing CSS Templates, Resources.

I found a couple of great resources for editing the templates you get for Joomla, or for creating your own.

This is just a quick jot down to put it out there in case anyone stumbles on this.

When I began messing around with the "local host" feature to edit and view my Joomla experiment, I googled around and found a couple of resources on the web that'll teach you anything you might want to know about creating or editing style.css, template.css etc... so that you can get a truly customized look to your site and step outside the parameters of the templates you can download.

The first one is the Web Developers Handbook which has an inexhaustable supply of info. It also has links to css generators etc.... Great Resource.

The other is Css, Accessibility and Standards which is another great resource. Check them out and see if they don't help.

That's all for now. The rest of the story>>>

Building My First Web Site: Part 1

Installing Localhost.....finally!

One of the problems I have with the way websites are designed is the editing and posting of pages.

While the old "static" HTML pages are almost a thing of the past, it was nice to be able to get on your computer at home and create pages which could easily be viewed in IE without any special software. All you needed was Notepad and IE and that combined with knowledge of HTML were the tools necessary to build pages that functioned just fine. I used to create .html files for fun and would build "websites" on my computer back in "the day". I never actually got on the internet with any site, but it was just an interesting experience. With those web sites of old, it must have been a pain in the a** to have to keep re-writing and uploading files when you wanted to change the appearance of the website, but at least it wasn't complicated. Now, with all the different stuff, like .php, .css, .xml etc... I didn't know where to begin in my quest to create a website. With the site that I do have, I had to use a template compatible with Joomla and it didn't seem possible to edit it and make it look good. (all the templates seem to look the same to me) but after days of downloading templates, reading the .css files and reading forums, tutorials etc.... I think I've figured out how it all ticks and it makes a lot of sense to "outsource" a bunch of coding for the appearance of your site to one file so that you can change one file, and change the look of all the pages linked to it.

So when I wanted to work with the template for my website and make it look good, it was hard as heck to figure out what to do. I didn't want to keep changing the appearance of the front page while the millions of people viewing my site (hope you see the sarcasm there) were browsing all the pages and I also didn't want to have a "root directory" index.html file there keeping the people out with an "under renovation" sign. What to do? Oh, yeah, it was also a pain in the but having to keep uploading, downloading or whatever to try and edit/build the pages. Needless to say, I was longing for the good ol' days when you could do it all in one folder on your PC without having to have all that mumblety gumbo stuff like SQL, Apache or whatever, but those days are over and I needed to figure out how to design, build and upload the finished product. Well, I did find out how to do just that!!!

Now, most of you savy people out there probably are laughing as you read this (all "0" of you) because you have known for a long time what needed to be done, but remember, I am a "fast-topping-out-at-middle-age", construction guy. For me, this is all new. Anyway, I found a tutorial on the net at a place called My-Guides.net and found the tutorial that showed me how I could still build the site on my own PC and then upload the finished product. It showed me where and how to download Wampserver and utilize it to create a virtual "server" environment on my own PC with "localhost".

It was about 1:00 in the morning before I had finished. It's shameful to say, maybe, but the simplest of errors made me have to uninstall and reinstall the blessed thing three times over before I figured out the simple error I was making.

I won't bother going through the steps of how to do it, the tutorial is great. Keep in mind two things however; number one, when you view the tutorial, both the joomla screen shot and the wamp server screen shot are a little outdated so you'll have to make the correction and work accordingly, but it isn't hard to see the minor differences and enter the right data in the right boxes. Number two, when it comes down to time to log in to the Joomla adminstrator page, don't do as I did and try entering your e-mail or name as the user name, just enter "admin". That's the shameful part that caused me to uninstall and reinstall three times. I kept thinking I must have entered information wrong and would never be able to log in, so I just deleted and re-did it. Eventually I looked back at the screenshot in the tutorial and saw that it showed "admin" as user name, so on the third attempt, I entered that and VIOLA! I was in. Bottom line is, if I can do it, anyone can and probably in one attempt.

So, even though I have not had the opportunity yet to start using the "localhost" and designing my site on my own PC, I am excited at the prospect and will let you know how it goes

The rest of the story>>>

What Hosting Service Should I Use?

Unemployed, 44 year old construction guy, tries to build web based business!

I guess the real question will be, can a guy, with limited experience who has spent the last 21 years in the residential construction industry build a web based business with just a swiss army knife and some duct tape? I kind of have that McGyver mentality. I never want to pay someone to do something that I think I can do myself. It may take some self-education, late nights experimenting and a lot of frustrating "trial and error" along the way before I get to the final, usable end result, but the satisfaction of the "do it yourself" success is incomparable.

This attitude has stood me in good stead over the years. I've learned to do just about every trade in the residential construction industry from masonry to roofing, carpentry to carpet so when something needs done at home, I don't have to spend money paying someone to do it for me. It's much like having a second income in that it saves me a lot of money along the way.

So when I was hit with the brilliant idea(?) for a web based business, I immediately had the attitude that I would take on the task myself from inception to completion. I got down to

step one......

First thing: Choosing a Hosting Agent!

It took a week or so of reading forums and reviews. Spending hours of note taking and comparisons of different hosting services, like Host Monster and Blue Host, Host Gator, and others, before I settled on InMotion Hosting and signed an agreement. For me, there were too many "customer service issues" posted regarding some of the "money mill" hosts and I wanted to be certain I got the kind of treatment I need when I contact support.

Making spread sheets of things, writing them down and having a checklist of my own, not someone elses compilation, was a helpful tool. It can be a simple notebook sheet where you have a list of questions on the left and a column for each host, on the right, into which you can enter the answers to get a good cross comparison. It's too easy to look at the lists the hosts themselves provide and get a lopsided, marketing hyped comparison. Also, with all the affiliate marketing going on, it's hard to tell if someone is getting paid to give a good review on their blog, (I don't get a dime for the links I'm providing), or are a ghost-blogger for the host themselves.

Call Each Hosting Agent

Take the time to call each hosting service and speak to a live representative. If they don't have a number to call, don't bother with them.

Have your list of questions with you when you call and get satisfactory answers to each of your questions. I won't go into all the questions you should think of, you can dig around forums and advice blogs and come up with 100 questions in no time at all. But it is important to make the call and see how the agent handles your questions.

Does the hosting agent treat you with respect?

Is the agent knowlegeable, or do they seem to be reading a "sales pitch" from cue?

Do they try to "sell you" on their service? Do they seem more like a sales agent than a customer service specialist?

Those are important things to consider when talking to a live person, you'll be calling them from time to time and you don't need the hassle of an un-professional, poorly trained agent on top of everything else. Dealing with someone who seems less knowledgable than yourself is a real "downer" and you shouldn't waste your time. After all, if the difference in service costs from one provider to another is only a few dollars a month, you can spend that money in the aggravation factor on the first time wasting phone call to a phone jockey from a money mill provider.

How quickly do they respond to your e-mailed questions? If you e-mail them and ask them to call you, do they? All important things to consider. If they aren't responsive when you are in the market to buy their service, they certainly won't be responsive when you are already "hooked".

In the end, as I said, I settled with InMotion hosting, they were very helpful, polite, patient and knowledgable each time I called them. From the time I signed two weeks ago, till now, I have registered another domain name (at three in the morning) and called just to ask a couple of questions to which I needed a quick answer. They answered the phones quickly and were very professional, I've gotten almost immediate response to each e-mail I've sent, (and not the "generated" type of e-mail) and feel like this company still has a commitment to serving their clients.

The cost of InMotion, for the plan I signed up for, was $8.95 a month. Just a few dollars more than the "money mills" and I really think it's worth it.

The rest of the story>>>

Building a web based business from scratch

Well, I've taken the plunge! After tinkering with the internet for the better part of two decades, and not taking it seriously until a few short years ago, I'm pulling out the stops and starting a web based business from scratch.
In 1990, I bought my first computer, a used HP Netserver with a 60mhz intel processor, 1gb scsi harddrive (didn't even know what that meant) and 16Mb of RAM. Within a week, I had the bug. I started researching and hit the local computer parts supply house, http://www.computerdirectoutlet.com/, and found that not only were their prices comparative to the online stores at that time (still are) but also that they were very "user freindly" in that you could bring your computer in, get advice from a good tech, install parts right there in the store and make sure everything was up and running before you took it home. Great concept, and I was off to the races.
To make a long story short, I built a decent system, learned a lot in the process and had a great time. But job calls, especially when you're a self-employed builder, and I let the whole internet thing blow by.
Years later, I got tired of my old HP (not the original Netserver) and decided to build another computer. Man, was I in for a shock at how much things had changed in the industry, it was like starting from scratch all over again. But with a little continuing education of the self-inflicted type, some money and a few hours labor and my new scoot was up and running and man if felt good to do that again.
So here I sit, at a crossroads, I've got my first ever website http://www.heathersheart.com/ for an experiment more than anything and to learn about CMS's and all the necessary tools and knowledge needed to run an online business and I think I'm ready to take the proverbial bull by the horns and do it! After all, the residential construction business is dead in the water and the competition for the work that is out there is like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy going after a guppy. So what's to lose.
As I go through the process, I'm going to post the daily efforts just to let people know if a gaffer like me can actually make a go of it, and to make of manual of "what not to do". :-). It might help someone thinking of the same thing and I certainly won't go all geek on you.
The rest of the story>>>

If it weren't for women, men would live in caves

Men need the womans' influence
Let's face it guys, although women can be extremely (extraordinarily, overwhelmingly, completely.....you get the picture) aggravating and frustrating, we need them in more ways than the obvious. The influences they wield in our lives go far above and beyond telling us the grass needs cut and reminding us that the "PTA meeting is tonight, so don't be late coming home." Those things are important, because I can come home from work and ignore the fact that the dog is always getting lost in the backyard and it isn't easy remembering the fact that my child is actually in school let alone that they expect me to show up on a Monday evening to listen to a couple hours of fund raising plugs and a vote for next years officers. By the way...... never mind, the PTA thing is another whole article.
Truth be known, we need women in a much deeper, life enriching way, because we need our house, yard, "home".
What do I mean? Reality is, if it weren't for women, men would live in caves with a bigscreen TV, couch, fridge and, maybe a microwave. What can be more sublime than coming home to nothing but the essentials, though maybe I should also add a PC and toilet to that list. But women have a kind of balancing influence on us, they keep us from focusing on the essentials and get us off on rabbit trails. Like, what fabric the couch is upholstered with and whether or not it goes with the rug they just have to have.... Rug?!?!? Hey, it's a cave for crying out loud who needs a rug but then, to keep the peace, we give in "just this once" and from then on, it's a slippery slope to Home and Garden and Southern Living.
Next thing you know, we have a house in the suburbs, two cars, a dog who always gets lost in the backyard and PTA meetings....... shoot! gotta go, I can hear her telling me we're going to be late.
So thanks ladies. If it weren't for you, I'd just be laying around on my couch watching the big screen and thinking about what's in the fridge. The rest of the story>>>

Does the World Need Another Blogger?

Well here I am! Shooting the proverbial arrow into space and/or jumping into the void with my eyes closed.
Please welcome me to the world of blogging. I've been in the residential construction industry for about 22 years and, as most people know, that machine has slowed to a barely discernable crawl. So, I'm taking some time to do something I've thought about for years, get my footprint on the web. Up until now, there has been no time to spare, but with the housing carcass starting to bloat and the vultures circling, the opportunity presents itself and after two weeks of trying to figure out how to turn on the computer, I'm finally putting some words into the unknown.
I'm not sure my wife likes the fact that I've been reduced to blogging, sporting a five day growth of beard and wearing salsa stained pajamas all day but I've put in my 5x10 work week for a long time and so far haven't run out of tostitos.
At any rate, I hope I have something of value to add to the already well established blog-o-sphere. It is rather like trying to hit the ground running while putting on your shoes for an old fart like me but over the years I've gathered a bit of wisdom about a thing or two and do love a good conversation, or fight.
Feel free to pitch in and clue me in. Or tell me to unplug my machine. The rest of the story>>>