Whenever I have tried to learn anything new, I have always made it a habit of telling the person teaching me that I wanted the 'for Dummies' version. Please do not assume I have any prior knowledge, I'm a complete novice, and teach me from scratch. If you do that, I'll be fine.
So when I made the decision to get moving with learning how to set up a blog, and more particularly, setting it up using Blogger, I quickly discovered I had landed plum in the middle of a minefield.
Those who had been blogging for a while were encouraging with comments such as "you just have to play with it, you'll get the hang of it", or "it does take a while, but you'll work it out in the end". My hubby is one who loves to play with computer programmes and applications, wending his knowledgeable way through tech-speak and always getting a result. Me? I'm time poor. To wade through a programme to work it out is definitely not fun for me. I don't need to understand why something works, I just want to be shown how it does so I can get the result I want.
Impatient, much?
Different, certainly.
We were not created robots. Techno-speak is not a language I am fluent in. What we do have in common is that we all learn differently. I write my own instructions when I'm shown a task because I know that works for me. Or I've learned via video tutorials - I could barely open Photoshop when I first got it, but once I'd enrolled in some online scrapbooking classes, I was off and running. Big shout out to Jessica Sprague, Cathy Zielske and those who make it easy to graduate from dummy to proficient in at least one computer programme!
Blogger has apparently made some changes in 2019, so a lot of video tutorials I found spent time telling me about the updates, and assuming I was already proficient in the older version. Not helpful for a newbie learning from scratch.
The fact that you are reading this means that I have achieved some measure of success, even if the backend of blogging still presents to me as a screenful of gobble-de-gook. I hope in time that as I graduate from my L-Plates, that this blog will bring enjoyment to you and a whole lot less confusion for me.
If you are someone struggling with this Blogger journey, here are some links I found helpful, with a bare minimum of prior knowledge assumed.
Melecia At Home: her YouTube Beginner's Blog Tutorial was such a help to me - and I admit, I checked it out because it said (SUPER EASY). Yep, that's what I need! It's a little out of date now but the basics were there and she didn't speak to me as if I already knew everything and just needed a few tips and tweaks.
I know I will make mistakes from time to time but I will endeavour to ensure that links I put here are explained so you know where I'm sending you. Some of the easiest written tips and tutorials I found have come from a website called chron.com. It turns out that this is the website of The Houston Chronicle, one of the largest newspapers in the USA. The website boasts a daily readership of 825,000 which jumps to 1.4 million on a Sunday (who doesn't love a Sunday paper?) but as well as readers of the newspaper, they purport to be one of the top newspaper websites with 15 million individual visitors every month, and 95 million (!) page views. Well, one of those 15 million visitors was little old me from across the ocean, most grateful for the clear tips I found available to me by just a few Google clicks. For example:
Click here for How to Create A Blogger Header.
Click here for How to Add a Custom Header to a Simple Blogger Template
Click here for How to Make a Tabbed Navigation Bar in Blogger
I have created a Bookmarks folder in my Internet Browser called Blog Tutorials and Tips and I'm storing the links there so I don't have to rely on the old memory banks.
Do you have any Blogger tips for Dummies that you can share?
Song for this occasion: Trouble with the Computer by Skyhooks (1978). Forty years ago the escalating price of electricity was explained by a computer glitch. Sadly today - it's reality.
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