Thinking Of Starting A Blog

[Majorix]

I am a Computer Science & Engineering student at a local Institute of Technology.

Some of my friends have blogs related to computers and technology. One talks about Android devices, one talks about C Programming, and one talks about devices like Raspberry Pi.

I too want to start a blog, not because it seems like a "trend" right now, but because I have been wanting to do this for a few years.

Three questions arise:

1. The most important one is this: What should I talk about? I am interested in UNIX-based/UNIX-like systems, and more so than anybody at the school, and in the community I am a part of. I am also the only one around who admires the Ruby Programming Language. The blog would mostly be about these, but seriously what can I write?

2. Write in English or in mother-tongue? I mean I am fluent in English but I am not sure if ignoring people from my own country would be a wise choice.

3. Where to find a blog host? I have never done this before, nor have I seen it done.



If someone can answer these questions, I would be glad :)

[Primefalcon]

regarding the technical aspect, of where/how to host

1. you could host for free on either wordpress.org or blogger.com (I'd recommend Wordpress)

2. you could find a free host suc as X11 and install the Free/OSS wordpress software to there and manage it yourself..... (gives you more control than #1) and if the host goes away you can just upload the wordpress database and such to a different host (you keep control of your data)

3. Get a cheap $3 or so hosting account at GoDaddy and do the same as above. (more reliable than #2, while allowing you to keep control)

4. Set up your own home machine as a web server and do it all from home (probably cost about $60 all up monthly) but this gives you a full dedicated server at home, but you'll have to do all the work yourself.

[ratcheer]

My first inclination was to say, go for it, everybody has a blog. But when your first question is, "What should I talk about?", I'm not so sure. If you don't know what you want to talk about, what is the point? A blog is to tell everybody what you want to say.

Tim

[Majorix]

...A blog is to tell everybody what you want to say.

Tim

You are quite right there Tim. But since I am not the most talkative of peeps, I thought maybe a few pointers might help. General ideas. In the end it will come to my own words, of course :)

@Primefalcon:
I was also looking at wordpress. Can you add polls/comments for the articles there?

[vexorian]

If you intend to make buck with ads. I would avoid blogging programming unless you really, really love it. The problem with programmers is that most of them use ad blockers :/

[Primefalcon]

You are quite right there Tim. But since I am not the most talkative of peeps, I thought maybe a few pointers might help. General ideas. In the end it will come to my own words, of course :)

@Primefalcon:
I was also looking at wordpress. Can you add polls/comments for the articles there?
About wordpress.org, I am running wordpress but on my own godaddy host, so if I need functionality, I just upload an appropriate plugin (wordpress has tons of them).

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

[Primefalcon]

oops btw where you host your own is http://wordpress.com/ http://wordpress.org is where you download the software, and apparently they have a lot of features at.com out of the box

[mamamia88]

Wordpress is dirt cheap to get started with your own domain. I paid $26 to get everything up and running and i paid extra for private registration because i didn't want assholes contacting me

[Majorix]

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

I think I got the answers to the questions in the original post. I will write in Turkish, use WordPress, and blog about Ruby and FreeBSD.

However I am not sure how to add plugins to my WordPress blog. I have looked around, and it seems like I need an FTP server, which means I will have to find a host. Is there not an easier way, without finding a host, and not paying at all (for now at least)?

[d3v1150m471c]

domains are cheap, why not run your own webserver?