The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Becoming a Blogger

I have been asked the question’s a few times from family members here in Barbados what is a blog and then how do you go about setting one up. Well I have put together my beginners guide to becoming a blogger. It really is a simple process that anybody can do, all it takes is a wee bit of an effort and time.

So you want to become a blogger, it seems that nowadays everyone has a blog or are thinking about starting one up. Whether you want to start a blog to make some extra money or are looking to promote your business or purely for fun, my simple beginners guide will help to get you started.

What is a blog, It is basically a type of website which has its content arranged in chronological order from the most recent post {or entry} at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom. Blogs are updated frequently and are fairly straightforward to publish. The real beauty of blogs is that they require very little technical skills to update and maintain them, unlike traditional web sites.

Blog Content, you will have to decide what you are going to write about, the subject matter of your blog is of vital importance to you. Whatever topic or topics you choose to write about you will have to be prepared and knowledgeable enough to do so on a very regular basis.

Publishing your Blog, next you will need to decide the publishing method you are going to use to make your blog available to the world. The choices are either doing it the free way, through company a like, blogger.com, which is entirely free and straightforward. Or buying your own domain name, paying to host it and publishing it through something like Wordpress. 

Marketing of Your Blog, when you finally see your words published on the web, it is highly likely that you will want to share them with as many people as possible. If not why go to all the bother.  The next best thing to do, is make all your friends, family, and work colleagues aware of your blog; this will get the ball rolling. The next step is to submit every article you write to social sites such as Del.icio, Digg, Stumble Upon, Tehcnorati etc.

These are just some simple steps to help you get started as a blogger. So what are you waiting for if you have something to tell the world go and do it.

Some more great tips which will help you to become a  better blogger can also be found at 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger

Some more great advise for those looking to become a blogger, which I would recommend reading can be found at How to become an authority blogger

For those of you that are interested in life in Barbados, visit the sister site to here, called Barbados Photo Blog.

Dam I Need To Know The Code

Yesterday I had a few international telephone calls to make and my brain and remembering numbers, especially international dialling codes don’t go too well together.

I had to call the UK, USA and Dubai all on the same day and believe me my head was spinning thinking about all the dialling codes and different time zones. Life in Barbados was feeling kind of confusing, I needed help real bad.

The answer to many of life’s tricky problems is of course Google; it has saved me on so many occasions. All I had to do was type in international dialling codes into the wee search box and all my prayers would be answered. Well it wasn’t quite as easy as I hoped, I tried a couple of web sites but they were what I would call utter garbage.

Eventually I was rescued by a site that not only very easily gives you the dialling codes required but they also have a time zone convertor. That sure made my job of calling all around the world a hell of lot easier.

The site I used was called time and date.com, and I think it is a great resource for travellers and business people alike. I may add I found this site all by myself through Google and that I’m giving a review for no other reason than because I want too!

For some real self promotion I’m going to mention my  other Barbados related blog called Barbados Photo Blog.

Fusilier Road, A Must Visit Road In Barbados

Fusilier Road at Gun Hill Signal station was built by the Royal Scots Fusiliers during their stay there from September 1862 until February 1863. When I walked along this road it, felt good to walking on a such a historic road built by my fellow countrymen, who were so far from home.

Another historic signal station that I would recommend visiitng would be A Fun Day Trip - To Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station

Star Struck In Barbados

I was visiting family members on Saturday night in the Parish of St John, and I couldn’t but help but be amazed at the amount of stars that I could see in the sky. It sure was a beautiful and inspirational site that I had the privilege of experiencing in Barbados.

I had to pull the car over and gaze at the wonderment of all those stars shining brightly in the sky over Barbados. It has been many a year since I have seen the sky lit up so brightly by so many stars, I think the last time I experienced such a wondrous site was when I was camping in the wilderness of Scotland, about 5 years ago at Sandwood Bay, which is near Cape Wrath.

I now have the urge to go and visit the Harry Bayley Observatory, which is open to the public on a Friday evening. It is seemingly the only observatory in the Eastern Caribbean and gives the public the opportunity to see the moon, planets and deep sky objects through a Celestron 14 inch telescope. I think it will be a good experience for not only my wife and myself, but the kid as well.

Hopefully next week, I will be writing about my trip to the Harry Bayley Observatory, if things go according to plan, but this is Barbados and things don’t always to according to plan…..

Barbados Provides Me With The Bumpiest Rides Of My Life

I’m sure that every car driver that has ever driven in the Caribbean island of Barbados will agree that the roads are ever so slightly bumpy. I use to moan about the condition of the roads back home in Scotland, but the unbelievable condition of the roads here make the ones back home seem like a bowling green.

I have already had 2 burst tyres and 2 slow punctures in the 2 months since I have had my car, all the shocks on my car are also needing replaced. There are pot holes all over the roads in Barbados and  you could really mess up more than just your tyre if you had the misfortune of driving over some of the huge ones, and believe me at night when its dark it is difficult to see them.

I know quite a few people that carry two spare tyres just in case they have a real unlucky day. You really need to keep your eyes peeled to avoid the potholes. It kind of gets crazy when its raining as the roads do flood real bad in Barbados and of course the pot holes get filled with water and you cant see the dam holes. Also the you wouldn’t believe how some of the roads here just seem to crumble when they flood, I don’t know what kind of tarmac they use here but they need to change it real quick. An article I wrote about my recent experience of driving through floods in Barbados, The Heavens Opened And The Rains Came Down In Barbados.

I don’t envy those brave souls in Barbados that cycle or the motor bikers, they are most certainly dicing with death or serious injury on a regular basis. I’m living in hope that the huge increase in road tax will mean a huge improvement in the dire state of the roads in Barbados.

If Barbados wants to be taken seriously as a top quality tourist destination, they have to start doing something about things like the crap state of the roads and the lack of signs, because there are loads of countries out there that are doing everything they can to grab a slice of the tourist dollar. I have previously written about the joys of driving on the roads in Barbados, The Nightmare Of Driving In Barbados.

I recently read an article that helps to highlight how dangerous the roads are in Barbados and  that something radical needs to be done to make them safer a safer place, More Road Deaths Than Murders.