Photoshop Withdrawal as I Gimp along

Part of this blogs mission statement says that it and its accompanying website will be built using free, and preferably open source tools.  One of the single most important components of building a site and to an extent a blog is to be able to manipulate your images.  Like many others I've long used Adobe Photoshop, however since this conflicts with my mission statement I will not be using in on this blog or the site I'll be building.  To take over the role of Photoshop I have been exploring Gimp.  Gimp is an open source image manipulation program that has many similarities to Photoshop.  It has layers and most of the tool suite that is available in Photoshop.  However some of its terminology is different for example instead of the magnetic lasso of Photoshop, Gimp calls theirs the scissor select tool.  Also Gimp functions differently than Photoshop and on some levels is less intuitive.  The most annoying part is that certain basic features that are available in Photoshop such as drawing an arrow requires finding, downloading, and installing an extension.  The learning curve has been slowing how quickly I am able to edit images where something might have taken me five minutes in Photoshop (or less) I now sometimes have o spend half an hour figuring out how to do a comparable action in Gimp.  So I've been going though a serious Photoshop withdrawal, that said some of the features in gimp I have taken a liking to after I've figured out how to utilize them it just a matter of spending time with the program until I've become relatively proficient with it.  I do have to say that for someone who struggles with technical aspects of computing might struggle installing extensions in Gimp this is because it has no wizard to put the extensions in the correct location this is left up to the end-user.  I will most likely look into other image manipulation programs at a latter date as well.

Starting a Blog on Blogger

Are you ready or just want to set up a Blog on Blogger.  Goggle has definitely made it very easy to start blogging.  The first step is to log into your Google account if you don't have one you will need to create one its petty quick I'm not going to bother to explain the Google sign up process, if your scratching your head at this point you have a long long LONG way to do.  If you are still wondering just do a search Google sign up should work fine, basically if you can't find something search for it!  Anyways just go to Blogger and activate it with your Google account and it will bring you to the Blogger home screen.  From here you can quickly create a blog.

• To create a new blog on Blogger click the "new blog" button that appears on the upper left of the screen after you have signed in with a Google account.  (hint its where the arrow is pointing)

Blogger Home Screen to start a new blog just click new blog! *Since I've
"started" a few other blogs on blogger they appear on my home screen,
some of these blogs exist in name only currently other are seldom updated
and their stats reflect this. *edited with paint

• After clocking on the "New Blog" button Blogger brings you to this screen where you will name your blog and create its address.  Based on what address are available you might have to change this a few times.  Don't worry to much one of the advantages of blogger is that you can change these at any time latter on.  *note if your blog is well established DO NOT change your address on Blogger it will reopen the address for registration and not redirect anything to your new address.  Instead if you want to move an established blog setup a new domain for it and Blogger will redirect to your new site.  Also don't worry about picking a template for your blog from the start this is better handled latter and the default will work fine for your first few posts. 

Blogger create new blog screen. *edited with gimp

Configurations! you have just created a Blog, Blogger should have redirected you to your Blogger homepage which should now list the blog you just created.  At this point I would recommend creating a first post, personally I usually do a post on what exactly the blog intends to be etc (it helps me focus my own intentions) but really can write about anything (though try to stay on your blog's subject).  Also do not include content over PG 13 (unless that's what you want I have no objections), if you include content over PG 13 you will be penalized by search engines and other content filters.  (Notice even here I did not use certain wording, or word combinations that may trip such content filters, nor will I be listing possible words and word combinations anywhere on this Blog, just use common sense and think of George Carlin and you will be fine.)  

Before Starting a Blog or Site

Whoa I almost got ahead of my self and skipped a critical yet surprisingly easy step in the creation process.  For all sites and blogs that you build on the web it is essential that you have an idea regarding its the direction and subject material.  This is important because some of the first steps you will take setting you your blog or site will effect its performance online.  Specifically registering its root url either as a domain name or with a secondary address such as those hosted by Blogger.  The importance of a root url has been reduced but it still plays a role in telling both the search engines and your potential audience what your site or blog is about.  For instance the the url of this blog is http://webbuildingblocks.blogspot.com/, basically a potential reader can tell with a large degree of certainty what might be discussed here and so can search engines.  A bad root would be something along the lines of "joesblog." why?  Well if someone sees a url of joesblog. what does this tell them besides that its a blog written by some guy named Joe.  The same can be said for search engines basically the url might help if someone is searching for Joe or blogs by guys named Joe but unless Joe is a famous individual it will not help drive traffic to him.  A bad url can be overcome by good content, and properly optimizing other elements of a site, but if you are just starting out why not try to find a url that fits you and your subject?

Two key points to figure out before you start a blog or site, first what is it going to be about and two, a rough idea of a name for the blog that is related to its subject matter.  I say rough idea because many urls are already registered so you will have to adjust based upon what is available.