Friday 26 August 2016

How I Started Blogging- what you ought to know about blogging…



You Won’t Believe What I Went Through Before I became a Blogger...

  •       Have you ever asked yourself what blogging is all about? What about how websites are made?
  •       Did you ever wonder how that beautiful photo is placed on the blog post for you to see?
  •        You must have asked yourself what skills are needed for you to blog or put something on the internet, mustn’t you?
Worry no more. I had the same questions. All these questions. But sadly, unlike you, no one was there to answer me. No one was there to simply explain to me all this I am just about to take you through. No one except the internet.
It all started when I first came across a job advert, right after college, about an Article Writer on one of the social media. It was about a SEO, a term that sounded a giant jargon to me until I found out that it means a Search Engine Optimizer or Optimization. Simply put, a person who strategically writes web content in a manner that it is easily found by a search engine. Lost? Don’t worry. Read further and you will be in the know soon.

Just then my long journey to explore the internet and dig deep for answers started. I wanted to learn everything I could about the internet. Everything!  Could I? Yes I could, as I was to find out. Like the newbie I was, armed with nothing but the basic computer knowledge, I had no clue whatsoever where I was to find the right information about how the internet works. I was overflowing with Natural Resource Management skills, a course I had pursued in college and thought I would immediately land a lucrative job with many one of the many NGOs in Kenya but that was not to be.

 As a matter of fact, I was vastly skilled in this dynamic nature conservation sector, having scooped the best grades overall in my academic year. However, I took it upon myself to self- teach myself about the:
  • ·        Internet
  • ·        Websites
  • ·        Web content
  • ·        Web content development e.t.c

Thank goodness, I knew how to go about “googling” that is, searching for information on Google. I had to wade through the murky waters all by myself. I clicked on every Search Engine Result Page (SERP) - the options Google displays in blue color when you search for information. I pored through any web page content that suggested offering any insight to the websites. I literally shuffled through and turned all the pages I could. That was when I realized that all the information you need is just one click away. With the smart phones’ introduction into the market, you only need to click and you have all the information on your palm.

I read and read until my head ached but I never gave up. Still I had not found out anything substantial, save for the vague and pithy information that only did their best in complicating the whole search.
www.saylor.com/book
saylor's book content
My search would not have been complete had I not bumped into a PDF (Portable document format) electronic book or eBook. I pored through the eBook page by page. What marveled me most was how simple the explanations were. In addition, the rich references provided in the book were nothing to overlook.

 Click here to have a look at the ebook


From this book I learnt a lot. You wouldn’t imagine a layman like me, then, would have an anchored grasp of the internet like I do now. I read every page. That was when I confirmed that the world is simply a village, buzzing with great information for those who care to search for useful stuff. And in the end I was never disappointed.

Let me share with you the basics of the internet and the web at large in the very simplest form. The following are the terms used in the internet world that many people do not understand:
  • Internet: The Internet is a collection of connected documents or objects. The Internet is a worldwide network that allows for information to be shared between users.
  • Web Wide Web (www): The Internet is a worldwide network that allows for information to be shared between users (also known as “nodes”). The World Wide Web is a subset of internet that caters specifically to Web sites.
  • Hyperlink: Hyperlinks are what connect these documents on the internet. A hyperlink is a virtual link from one document on the World Wide Web to another.
  • URL   (Uniform Resource Locator): URLs describe where on the Internet a document is. It is what you enter in the address bar of the browser. It is the address of that document on the Internet.
  •  IP (Internet Protocol) address: A structured series of dots and numbers indicating where it is physically located. Every Web site corresponds to an Internet protocol (IP) address.
For Example: When you enter a URL into the address bar of a browser, the DNS (Domain Name System) record indicates where the document is that you are linking to. Many domains can translate to the same IP address. Confused? Look at the domain name and IP address for Quirk’s Web site:

         Domain name. http://www.quirk.biz 

         IP address. 212.100.243.204


  •  Domain: A domain name looks something like this: http://www.domainname.com/directory  www.domainname.co 
  • Directory. A folder to organize content. The web pages file exact location.
  • Web browser:  A software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. It is what help you browse or search for information on the websites e.g Mozilla firefox, chrome,etc  www.firefox.com 
  •  Website: A location connected to the internet that maintains one or more pages on the World Wide Web. Each organization or individual can own a website. I will show you how in my subsequent posts.
  • Webpage: A single hypertext document (written in HTML) which is connected to the web, accessible through the interne
  • Web Page Content: The textual, visual or aural content (texts, images, sound, videos and animations) that you view on a web page.
  • Search engine: A program that searches the internet for and identifies items (web page content) in a database according to the key search word you type on the address bar.
  • Web design:  The process of creating a website which includes web graphic design, interface design, authoring, and search engine optimization.
  • Search Engine Optimization: The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. Whoever does that is called Search Engine Optimizer (SEO), like the one I am now.
  • HTML: Hypertext Markup Language: A set of symbols or codes (tags) inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser page. It’s the only language a web browser understand, telling it how to display a web page’s words and images for users.
        For Example:

        <! DOCTYPE html>
        <Html>
        <Body>
        <h1>Hello World! </h1>
        </body>
        <html/>
  •  Internet marketing: Refers to advertising and marketing efforts that use the web and email to drive direct sales via electronic commerce using website, emails, videos etc
  •   Blogger: A person who writes the web content and uploads them or publishes blogs on the internet/ web. I do this right now and that’s why you can read what I wrote and published for universal readers like you.

Let me offer you a Bonus Clarification:

What is the difference between software, application and programs?

·        Software: The programs and other operating information used by a computer. Software can be made of more than one program.

·        Application- A program or group of programs that is designed for end user. Application software (an application) is a set of computer programs designed to permit the user to perform a group of coordinated functions, tasks or activities.


·        Program- A set of instructions telling a computer what to do. Commands for computer.


This was just a start to the critical journey I promise to take with you as I enlighten you about everything to do with the computer, internet, blogging, and blogging for money, internet marketing and many more. This is the hub of solution to your problems. I promise to compile a very eye-opening content in my next post. Miss at your own risk. Feel free to ask any question in the comment section below. You can share the link to my website on any of the social media by copying and pasting the link. Don’t miss my next post. Leave a comment below.

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