I'm thinking of starting a CG blog/website...

[eclark1894]

I've been thinking of this for quite sometime actually. Several years in fact. To be honest, I still haven't decided whether or not I will do it. Mainly, it's more a matter of will I have time to do it or not more than anything.

My thought is to write articles, probably one or two per week/bi-weekly on something or someone in the CG field, primarily, but not confined to Poser, Blender, and GIMP. If you're wondering why I left out obvious other software like Studio, Silo, or Photoshop, well, I don't use any of those well enough to know what I'm talking about, so when and if I have articles on those software packages, I'll probably present it it the form of a guest contributor who knows what they're talking about.

Other things will be tutorials on the features in certain Software like poser's Cloth Room, how to use Bullet Physics, or how to set up renders for Cycles to get the best result.

I'd also like to do a controversial one... product reviews. That's on a back burner for now... with the flame off.

I don't know whether or not I will have a forum since frankly, I don't want or need the headache, so while people may be able to respond to my blog articles, to begin with they will not be able to start any new threads of their own. Maybe that will change, maybe it won't. We'll see.

Right now, this is something I'm mulling over doing. I'm checking out web hosting sites and blogging software. How much this will cost, etc. Right now, I have no desire or intention to have a pay to join site, so ads may be a necessity here to help pay for it.

Thought I'd post this to get some feedback. Thoughts?

 

[Miss B]

I don't do much in the way of web design these days, but I've had several clients who went with WordPress for their blogging software, and most web hosts I've had contact with support it. Once you have the site set up, it's reasonably easy to maintain.

As for web hosting, I've been with DreamHost for about 15 years without any major problems, but there are other web hosts out there that are popular, good, and similarly priced. The only thing I would suggest is you NOT do your domain registration and web hosting at the same place. IOW, I registered all my domains with GoDaddy, but even though they offer hosting, I have always hosted my sites elsewhere. The same is true in reverse; I wouldn't recommend registering a domain with a web host, even though they do have those services. I always recommend this because it could be a problem if you ever want to move to another host. Having the domain registered at GoDaddy didn't cause any conflicts.

That said, I do know DreamHost offers one free domain registration with each account, so you could take advantage of that option, and not have the additional expense. There might be other sites which do so as well. I already had more than one site when I moved to DreamHost, so I didn't take advantage of the free domain registration until I set up my WordPress dev site about 10 years ago.

 

[LisaB]

I think a blog is a great idea. It doesn't lock you in as its a blog, and you can explore and feel out your idea. You can share what you know about what you know and we can have an additional resource. Plans we have for this forum include promoting relevant articles from elsewhere so you'll have an audience.

From my experience, don't try to cover all bases and do all things such as having forums. Focus on what's easy for you, what you're good at and network with others who have different areas of focus so that you CAN have the time to do all you want/need to do.

 

[Lorraine]

Just a note: I don't know why but Wordpress is a data killer. I have seen it eat 600mb of mobile data in a one and a half hour interval before I found out what a hog it was. I've abandoned my blog on it for that reason. I'm now also very careful to spend as little time as possible on any Wordpress site though that only works if 'wordpress' is in the address, I still get caught out.

I enjoyed doing my blog and I would like to start again on a more data friendly base.

 

[eclark1894]

I am investigating using Wordpress, and I'm also investigating using a separate host.

Also, I really don't want to do a forum at this time. Frankly, I visit too many of those already, plus forums are fight farms and I don't have the time or inclination to police one.

Also, I speculated on the possibility of doing an article or two per week or bi-weekly. My plan is to make the blog educational as much as possible and show people techniques for gettting the most out of their software.

For example, maybe an article on how to get a posed Dawn into Blender to render in Cycles.

 

[Miss B]

Just a note: I don't know why but Wordpress is a data killer. I have seen it eat 600mb of mobile data in a one and a half hour interval before I found out what a hog it was. I've abandoned my blog on it for that reason. I'm now also very careful to spend as little time as possible on any Wordpress site though that only works if 'wordpress' is in the address, I still get caught out.

I enjoyed doing my blog and I would like to start again on a more data friendly base.

Hi Lorraine, did you have a blog on WordPress.com, or did you have WordPress installed on a regular web host? WordPress.com has thousands of blogs on it. It's what WP calls a Multi-User blog. Whomever owns WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org, which is the site where WP is developed, and where you would download it and any number of plugins/addons), set it up for multiple blogs, which is a function of WP. I tried it for testing client blogs, but my host didn't like the idea, so I had to get a separate dev site, and just switch between themes when I want to test things.

I ask because I wonder if the WordPress.com site is what's the hog, rather than your individual blog, if that's where you had it. I don't spend time on blogs when I'm on my tablet, and I don't surf the 'Net on my phone, so I, personally, haven't come across anything like this before.

 

[LisaB]

Just a note: I don't know why but Wordpress is a data killer. I have seen it eat 600mb of mobile data in a one and a half hour interval before I found out what a hog it was. I've abandoned my blog on it for that reason. I'm now also very careful to spend as little time as possible on any Wordpress site though that only works if 'wordpress' is in the address, I still get caught out.

I enjoyed doing my blog and I would like to start again on a more data friendly base.

I have a Wordpress blog. Long after I started it I read that there is a HUGE difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org. I have the .com the .org is supposed to be the desired and optimal one for reasons I forget.

 

[eclark1894]

I have a Wordpress blog. Long after I started it I read that there is a HUGE difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org. I have the .com the .org is supposed to be the desired and optimal one for reasons I forget.

I wanna see!

 

[Miss B]

WordPress.org doesn't host blogs Lisa. That's the site where you can download WP to upload to your own web site, and they have thousands of addons and plugins for every thing you could possibly think of. WordPress.com is strictly for hosting blogs for folks who don't have their own web sites.

BTW Earl, something I forgot to mention earlier . . . most of the large, popular web hosts have what they call One-Click Installs, and most of them (I know DreamHost does), have a One-Click install for WP, so you DON'T have to download it and FTP it to your web host in order to have a WP blog. Just using the One-Click option, installs it so you can just go in and set it up how you'd like it to look. That's half the job done right there.

 

[eclark1894]

I haven't actually had a website for some time and it wasn't a blog, it was a web comic called Android. In fact, it's still up even though I haven' actually added anything to it in a couple of years.
I don't know if freehostia is One-Click install or not, but the site is free and still registered to me... as far as I know. I'm going to have to check that out. Right now, Wordpress does seem to be my best choice I believe.
Android/ Cricket McGuire

 

[LisaB]

I wanna see!

It hasn't been updated since I joined Chris on this journey with the Hive but I've just been talking with my hubby to the past few weeks as to how it can evolve as I evolve. I may have lost my domain name that goes with it, too. It was at SeedsFromHome.com but I'm posting this without even having looked at it for a while. I may have lost my custom layout, too.

WordPress.org doesn't host blogs Lisa. That's the site where you can download WP to upload to your own web site, and they have thousands of addons and plugins for every thing you could possibly think of. WordPress.com is strictly for hosting blogs for folks who don't have their own web sites.

BTW Earl, something I forgot to mention earlier . . . most of the large, popular web hosts have what they call One-Click Installs, and most of them (I know DreamHost does), have a One-Click install for WP, so you DON'T have to download it and FTP it to your web host in order to have a WP blog. Just using the One-Click option, installs it so you can just go in and set it up how you'd like it to look. That's half the job done right there.

That's the part I forgot and was probably why I chose the .com option although I did have a web host at the time. I should have went with the .org. The .com wants mucho dineros from me every year.

 

[Miss B]

That's the part I forgot and was probably why I chose the .com option although I did have a web host at the time. I should have went with the .org. The .com wants mucho dineros from me every year.

Yes, the free sites at WP.com are very basic, with only a few "themes" to choose from. If you want a decent design, they charge just like any other host, and I find most regular web hosts these days have very decent prices.

You know Lisa, you should probably investigate the web host you guys are using for HW3D. It's possible you might be able to get your blog in the same hosting package. Just about all web hosts I'm familiar with allow you a decent amount of site domains per account, so even if you haven't lost your domain name, you might be able to move your blog over here. It's certainly something to think about, especially if you want to focus it toward HW in some way.

 

[Pendraia]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Tumblr...I have had a wordpress blog but iirc they started charging for some services. I know that was why I switched to Tumblr...but I tend to forget to post. Lots of good intentions but never enough time.

 

[eclark1894]

Okay, I've run into some issues, and since some of you have said that you have or had blogs before, maybe you could answer a question two for me. I don't think I'm ready to start a blog just yet. But from what I'm seeing, in order to get a Wordpress blog up and running so i can see what I'm doing, I literally have to find a host first , THEN work on the site. I want to fix my blog off line, on my personal computer,
THEN upload it to a host once everything is the way i like. Can i do this and if so, how? Otherwise, I may have to hand code my own blog.

 

[Miss B]

In order to work on the blog itself offline, you would need the appropriate software installed on your computer. The software needed would be Linux (unless you're on a Linux computer), Apache, MySQL and PHP.

Since most folks don't go that route, what you can do, which I do, is to design the site as a static X/HTML site. That way the pages can be viewed locally with your browser of choice, and then you would be able to cut it up into pieces to fit into the WordPress design. IOW, Header, Menu, Sidebar (if needed), Body, Footer, etc. Once the appropriate parts of your pages are set up within the WordPress Dashboard, then they would be displayed online. What you can do, which I do when working on a new blog design, is to have a static web page as the main page of my dev site so that the general public doesn't see anything while I work. That way, even after you have WP installed on your site, no one will be able to see it while you work on it.

WP's Dashboard allows you to "view the page" so you can see it by clicking the link, but it still won't be viewable by the general public, until such time as you're ready to debut your blog.

 

[eclark1894]

Well, that does sound like the way to go. I haven't actually done too much with html in awhile. And before I do anything else, I'm thinking I might just go another route until I'm ready to debut my blog... IF I decide to do a blog. I'm hoping that Chris, Alisa and Lisa have no objections if I post my articles, tutorials and tips and tricks for working in Blender, and Poser here in the Hivewire forum (3D software subforum). That way when and IF I do my blog I'll already have come content ready, AND I'll have a better idea of how I want to structure things or even if doing a blog is the right thing for me at all.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Well I certainly like the idea of your blog. Although as I hate web design in any form (actually I hate UI design in general) I don't envy you that part of it. But you definitely have some people who will check it out if you do decide to go that way.

 

[Miss B]

Oh absolutely Earl, and publishing here to start off, might be a very good idea.

 

[eclark1894]

Hmm, this presents a small problem/issue... where to post this stuff? I'd really like to keep it all together, but I'm not sure how or where to do that. I'm writing a tutorial now on Volumetric lighting in Poser, and I could post the tutorial in the Poser software forum, but I also have a tutorial for Blender about aligning vertices in the Blender forum. And where do I post an article I think is very relevant to rendering or computer graphics in general?

 

[Miss B]

Hmmmmm, I see what you mean. You could, if you want, start a general thread in the Software Discussion forum (below the separate software subforums), and post each of your tutorials/articles there. Find an appropriate general title for it, and it won't matter what software you are writing about.

Then, too, you can post in the appropriate software subforum with a link to that thread so folks in the those subforums can go find the tutorials/articles you've written. How's that sound?