Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Overcoming The Technology Hurdle To Blogging

View Comments | Posted In Life & Mindset by David

Hey, how’s that PHP programming going for ya? Not so good?

Hey, you want to modify your blog theme? Well, just FTP into the themes directory, put the proper theme template tag in there, with the right function attributes, throw a little cascading style sheets into the mix, and you’re done! See how easy that was?!

I feel for new bloggers today. I really do. Those of us who are already successful with our blogs take the technology side of things for granted. It is second nature and we think nothing of it. Or we just hire somebody.

For a lot of new bloggers, it isn’t so easy.

Technology is, for many, a chasm that must be crossed before you can get to the fun stuff on the other side.

Deep inside the closed doors of the Blog Masters Club, I also have students who are running up against the barrier of technology. And it is a tough issue to deal with. After all, Blog Masters Club isn’t a course about web design or programming. It is about the business of blogging. Unfortunately, though, that business cannot take off if you’re still struggling to get Wordpress set up and route your domain name to it.

In the Club, I have over 40 videos designed to cover those basics. But, watching a video and translating that into the real-world is still sometimes daunting for a newbie. And, when they go out into the world to get help with tech issues, they get even more frustrated. More words they don’t understand. People who do understand things are perceived to be fairly snobby about it, perhaps.

What to do?

The Importance of Words

Words are how we convey thoughts to others. If you don’t understand the words, you’re liable to feel pretty confused. Ever try communicating with a person who speaks a different language? It can be rather frustrating.

Technical terminology is often misunderstood by beginners. My observation, however, is that most newbies fail to take it upon themselves to learn the terminology.

Simply put, if you gloss over words that you do not understand, you’re going to get confused and you’re going to ultimately separate yourself from that confusion. It is human nature. We don’t like confusion. And, in this case, a separation means throwing up your hands in disgust and saying “This whole blogging thing is just too complicated.”

The entire problem can be avoided by applying a little due diligence, realize that you’re not understanding the terminology, and go out and DEFINE these words for yourself. I mean, in most cases, a little looking around Wikipedia will get your confusion answered. Or do a Google search for the term.

But, for God’s sake, don’t just keep pressing forward in the face of a barrage of technical terms you don’t understand. You’re just going to run aground!

How I Learned

I got started on the Internet via a magazine article on how to make a website in 20 minutes. I thought it sounded cool, and I followed the steps.

So, I proceeded in a methodical manner. The site was stupidly simple, but I made it myself. Then, I started progressively making changes to the site. I learned by proceeding toward a goal and learning only what I needed to know to make THAT happen. I also learned by watching others. I would look at other people’s sites and, if I liked something, I’d view their HTML source and literally COPY it. Then, I’d mess around with it little by little to adjust it to something of my own. By playing around with these things in small baby steps, I learned the ropes.

So, I learned by watching others, copying them, then altering it to make it my own. And I did things in baby steps rather than trying to accomplish everything at once.

So, that’s my advice. It is a tough issue to advise somebody out of because, at the end of the day, it takes a degree of perseverance to push through that initial confusion. And I can’t instill that into anybody.

What about you? If you have gotten through those initial confusions, how did you do it? What worked for you?

And if you are currently in that initial confusion state when it comes to getting set up with your blog, have you found that anything helps? Got any good resources to share?

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  • Wow. Your focus is awesome and a great example for others.By writing it down you are creating a sense of accountability and structure to your goals.keep it up.keep blogging
  • Good points David. I don't think you need to learn everything technical but it's very good to learn the basics in most areas. Even if it's just to get an understanding.

    I personally like to know a bit about most technical things to do with blogging. I do have a degree in multimedia which helps enormously but technology changes every day. It's great to learn something new, understand it and then apply it all on your own :)
  • That's a great post.Thanks for giving the nice information of good blog posting.It's really an amazing post.Thanks again.Keep posting.
  • noelwiggins
    This is a great point, and as a developer I realize that I may be talking to quickly over technical jargon. And my clients/prospects are too intimidated to ask questions, I hope I don't come off as a snob, because I am always willing to help someone understand a term they don't understand. I am taking away from this article that I want to be a bit more patient when I describe things.

    --

    Thanks and Regards

    Noel for Nopun.com
    a professional graphic design studio
  • I've learned enough about the technology side of it to make myself dangerous - no more no less. I can do the basics and even a few advanced things in wordpress/php/etc, but ask for some more advanced things, i'm lost. I know enough to get me by, and the rest I either hire someone to do for me, or I just let it slide. I like to focus on other more important things that will make me money.
  • The key is to keep it simple, reversible and repeatable.

    Understand every step if possible, if not, write everything down.

    I've written lot in other places about how to teach oneself programming, and the above practices will go a long way for anyone.
  • I simply define a clear goal, then spend all my energy and focus searching for information, studying them and implementing them step by step each day.

    Of course, Google is my good friend walking with me.
  • I pretty much learned all the coding I know from google, copying others, and tweaks here and there.
  • Good post.
    I started using computers around 1980 and can recall my first attempt at building a website. I didn't know diddly-squat, but soon found the "view source" feature and copied the code of ther sites and tinkered around with it.

    My advice to others: You must realized that no explosion is going to occur if you screw up, just get started. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you can accomplish. Not to over-simplify, but coding is really nothing more than learning how to speak a new language. Yes, it will be difficult at first, but trial and error brings progress.
  • I used to run an online website design company. It was an interesting time because I taught myself to design basic websites. Everytime I got a project there was an inevitable question: Do you know how to do "this". There was always something I didn't know how to do, but whenever I was asked the question my answer was always - "Yes indeed".

    That would begin my quest. I'd head over to google and figured out how to do it, since my clients had already paid, at least to some extent. You'd be surprised as to what all you can find in a google search. You can basically teach yourself to do ANYTHING.

    On the other hand, it's a good idea to outsource those tasks even early on. You can get people to do it at a very affordable cost, even for someone strapped for cash, if you know where to look.
  • Like you David... I learned on my own. I have been doing this online business stuff for around 9 years now and I think (if I remember correctly) the first site I built was using Netscape. I think they use to have some sort of website creator built into it. From there I moved on to some software program call Hotdog (I think that was it) from some company in Australia. It had all sorts of add-ons you could buy to give your site more functions. It was the great web design software I could find back in the day.

    I think I was one of the people in San Diego to have a site running PHP as well. Back in the early 2000 I saw some site that was running PHP3 on their site and it was way cool. I just had to have it for a domain reseller site I wanted to create, so I contacted dozens of programmers all over the US and no one had ever heard of PHP. Finally I had some guys from Russia create the backend for the site, and ever since then I have loved PHP. I know just enough to get myself in trouble now.

    Same with designing... I can pop out a site pretty fast nowadays, but I would rather pay someone to do it and just make simple modifications myself.

    I don't think everyone needs to know how to design and/or program... but it is good to know enough that you don't have to call a programmer or designer each time you want to make a small change to your site... as it can be expensive and you usually have to wait a while to get it done.
  • Frank
    David;
    Of course you know for me, you hit the nail on the head with this topic. Thank you, I see you still understand the new blogger. I think I'm past the first steps confusion. I have taken two online courses, Become a Blogger, by Yaro Starak, and Blogmastersclub, which is still ongoing.

    I have since found Sitepoint.com, a great nuts and bolts training site for HTML, PHP, and CSS
    I'm still so new at blogging, that I have given up Thesis for Headway. It will be a much better fit for me.
    My best advice for people like me is:

    Follow PCmech
    Go slow
    Read more
    Understand what you are reading

    Do what I did not , look it up and of course, (KISS) Keep it simple stupid



  • This article spoke to me David. I like your advice of taking one aspect of learning the technical stuff and then moving on. This is definitely less frustrating. Thank you.

    Wishing you a scent-sational day!
    Patty
  • sgorney
    Dave, your post does a great job of explaining the journey. If you determined to provision hosting, load Wordpress, overcome CHMOD issues, load and modify the template, install the correct plug-ins, then i encourage everyone to try it and educate yourself over time. We provide a service to businesses that know they need a blog, want a blog, but are just to busy to blog. It is called a Third Party Blog. And we do everything including the writing and promotion. So for those who can not overcome the technical issues, or just don't have the time and need to focus on running the business, we provide a great solution.
  • Marvin68
    I'm using a hosting company that does most of the tech stuff behind the scenes -- I pay $300 a year but when I post, I basically just sit down and type -- I will say that I'm learning html a little bit at a time and making changes in my site/blog when possible.
  • My company does website design. We encourage our customers to blog. We have started offering to set up their blog along with their website for a small additional charge. It doesn't take us long to do it and it saves them a lot of headache, and, we make a little bit of extra change for it. It is easy for us because we have been involved in technology and marketing for almost 30 years. Yes, I guess that makes me old.
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