How to Set Up a Blog: Guest Blog by Dana Silverthorne Newbrough

This blog is truly a family affair. Today I'm featuring Part One of a guest post series from my Web/Blogmaster and baby sister, Dana Silverthorne Newbrough. She has graciously taken on the challenge of turning our ideas into this blog. Enjoy!

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A couple of years ago my sister approached me about this book her and my mother were writing – the book you now know as Depression Cookies. She was struggling with how to get her book and her writing in general noticed and how to “plug into” the web world. I had fallen in love with blogs and was using them as a medium to not only share baby pictures and videos, but to also create Recipe Swaps amongst fellow at-home mothers.  

Three Sisters (Dana's in the middle)

My experience was new and far from professional, but I was absorbed in learning how to infiltrate this beast known as the Internet. So, my sister somehow convinced me to help her on this journey of social networking, which has been a lot of fun, at times overwhelming, and more often a HUGE learning curve! You must know how much I love my sister, because only true love and an insatiable curiosity would make anyone take such a job pro bono, especially with a little one and now #2 on the way! ;)

I have to admit I had NO IDEA what I was saying yes to! My sister and mother dove right into their “vision” for the web and blog headfirst. My sister spent hours researching what she wanted and still constantly sends “proposals” on new ideas, forums, contests, feeds, and integrating other social networks. I spent hours reading and learning html codes and how to manipulate them, reading articles, looking through templates, and learning how to design banners/buttons.  What I thought would be a simple project, put it all together and then BAM you're done, was not the case. 

What I did learn was that building attractive and effective sites take a lot of work, but the key is in setting them up right! 

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Don't miss the next two parts to this series.

Part Two: What Makes an Effective and Successful Blog will be featured on Monday, October 17.

Part Three: What Makes an Attractive Blog will be featured on Monday, October 24.

Please tune in!

If you are a blogger, what has been the most challenging part of blogging? If you are a reader, what draws you into a blog or turns you off?