Building a Blog is Easy

Well...a basic blog is easy to build but once you start adding extra code and customizing things then it gets much more complicated and time consuming.

What I have done so far

I started with a basic Wordpress blog since that is definitely the most popular format for blogging and I have actually used it before so I am pretty familiar with it. I took a look at some custom themes and found this one that I liked called Cordobo - Green Park 2. I downloaded it and installed it.

After installing Wordpress and the custom theme I knew I would need to download some plugins. Here are the plugins that I am using along with their descriptions:

Akismet - Checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

All in One SEO Pack - Out-of-the-box search engine optimization for your Wordpress blog.

Google XML Sitemaps - This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.

Page Link Manager - Adds admin panel to choose which pages appear in the site navigation.

ShareThis - Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites.

Twitter for Wordpress - Displays your public Twitter messages for all to read.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin - Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds.

These plugins work really great. I will update the list as I add more plugins to the site. The next thing I will be working on is probably a more customized header and definitely a new footer with more info and links in it. One of my main concerns for the site is that I want to make sure I don't let it get cluttered. I want to keep all the information very accessible and neat. Since this is only the third post it is a little difficult to do too much to the site because of the small amount of content. I imagine it will get easier once I have a good amount of content.

I think I will continue to write posts about what I am doing with the site and what changes I make over time. This could really help someone starting their own blog and give them a nice road map to follow. Besides, if I am going to show you how I am going to be the next internet mogul, then I need to explain everything I am doing along the way. Right?

Are there any plugins that you would recommend that I did not list here?

UPDATE: I no longer use wordpress. I am now using joomla for this blog so I am not using these plugins anymore.

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