Big Island Blog Network

We’ll be covering the basics. Your advanced questions will be answered too. Everyone is welcome to attend after you register.

No registrations, no class. Be sure to register here.

As usual, the class is free for Big Island Blog Members. All others pay $25 bucks.

Free Blogging Class Outline

Who is this class for?

* Writers, creatives and bloggers at all skill levels
* Small business owners in search of online marketing tips and tricks.
* Web designer and developers in need of a faster way of building websites for clients that are standards-based, written in valid xhtml and css with full cms.
* Educators that need a better way to disseminate information and have a desire to teach their students something about blogging in a web 2.0 world.

What is blogging?

* Getting your message out!
* Personal Publishing System aka Content Magagement System
* Interacting with the blogosphere

Why would I want to blog?

* Same reasons for having a website
o Create revenue
+ Sell products online
+ Advertise your business
o Reduce costs
+ Big Island Blog Network
+ Edit your own content (No need webmaster for 80% of needs)
* To get your message out!
* Drive traffic to your website
* Collect comments, feedback and create community
* Share information with family, teams, customers and people you don’t know
* Search Engine Results
o Must be fresh
o Must include important keywords

How do you create a blog?

* Using Free, hosted blog services
o Blogger
o TypePad
o WordPress.com
* Hosting your own blog
o On your own server
o On the Big Island Blog Network! (WordPress.org)

Why WordPress?

* Open Source
* Large designer / developer community
* Standards based (XHTML and CSS)
* Device, Browser and OS independence
* Complete separation of content and style
* Unlimited options with self-hosted version

How do you write a blog post?

* Go to your site and write a post (or a page)
o Login to admin page http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin
o Click “Write a Post”
* Easier than email
* Easier than most free websites
o GoDaddy
o Tripod
o Trelix

How do you include a photo in a blog post?

* Go to your site and write a post (or a page)
o Login to admin page http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin
o Click “Write a Post”
o Upload image via built-in ftp or upload the image
o Click on the “Insert Image” icon
o type in the path to the image on your server (BIBN)
o or point to an image already hosted elsewhere

* Demo

Look for an upcoming re-release of the Basic Human Tone site with fresh music releases including Put It On. Also look for some fresh videos shot at the Emerald Orchid of Kurt, Kalae and Frank. Check out the Emerald Orchid blog site for the latest concert postings.

Another site in the works is Ulumau.org. Look for more details on that site as soon as it launches.

To get your own Big Island Blog website, just fill out the online application form.

Servloop.com is now active with regular postings and updates.

Currently in development are the Hawaii United Industries and Green Collar Technologies websites. Both of these sites will be next generation 2.3.2 theme customizations. Not inside the blog network but a good example of Flash in a WordPress blog is the new HIEDB.org website which is currently hosted at bigisland.name.

To get your own Big Island Blog website, just fill out the online application form.

Hawai`i Fit Club has been released and is taking on hits and traffic (that’s a good thing). Robots in Hawaiian has been released and is active including a new Google Calendar. The University of Hawai`i Conference Center website is up and running with loads of content including their own Google Calendar.

To get your own Big Island Blog website, just fill out the online application form.

Welcome to the Big Island Hawai`i Blog Network!

Blogs in the Big Island Blog Network are listed in the links on the right.

Small business owners, designers, developers, writers, musicians and anyone interested in writing about the Big Island and getting their message out to the world should contact us. We’ll set you up with a managed blog that is search engine optimized and supports more features than you’d expect. Small businesses will benefit greatly from the exposure created by joining and being active in the Hawai`i Big Island Blog Network. Anyone with a strong mana`o (message or mission to achieve) will also benefit greatly from the exposure we create for you on the web.

Features of Big Island Blog Network Websites

The Short List
• A great, easy to edit, custom and extendable website that’s standards-based, open source and backed by a large community of designers and developers.
• Great hosting with plenty of space, lots of email accounts and tons of bandwidth. Any feature you can imagine is available and most are included.
• Traffic - What good is a site no one sees? - We provide traffic via search engine optimization. We optimize your site for the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) and include many extras not possible with typical website hosting packages including auto sitemap generation, keyword and key phrase optimization and because you’re in our network, your site benefits from reciprocal linking, local style.
• Monitoring and reports - User-friendly stats help you to understand where your visitors come from where they go on your site.
• Big Island Blog Member Training and Support - we’re here to assist you with all your feature requests, technology questions and upgrade needs. We offer intro and advanced blogging classes as well as Web 2.0 specialty courses at discounts for the public and free for Big Island Blog Members.
• Good people - That’s right we’re good people and we’re here to support you. We share a common goal of helping Hawai`i reduce it’s dependency on tourism by empowering you to become self-sustainable using the web as a platform.

Comprehensive list of member benefits >>