setting up your own blog

The first thing we must do this semester is set each of you up with your own blog. It’s very easy to do. There are many free blogging services out there, the two most popular being Blogger and Wordpress.

First off, what is a blog anyway? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI

What will your “news” stories be? Well, they will be summaries, reactions, and critiques to our weekly readings, lectures, and discussions. Your blog is your own personal space on the web in which to interact with this class. Of course, it is also a public space. Everything you publish on your site will be fed directly onto this one, and also available to the world. Keep that in mind as you write. Your audience is me, as your professor, but also your colleagues in class and anyone else who might stumble upon your humble corner of the internets.

How to begin? Well, Wordpress.com has simple instructions for registering your own blog here.

You can also start with the how-to video from wordpress.tv: http://wordpress.tv/2009/01/05/signing-up-with-wordpresscom/

Once you’ve registered a blog, it’s time to add it to our course feed. Navigate back to the course website:

You see a little form on the right side bar. Let’s focus in on it:

Enter the url, or web address of your blog into the box that says Link Url. Enter the password and then click the Add Link button. I have to clear the blog on the backend, so don’t be shocked if it takes me a day or two to get to it.

That’s it! You are up and ready to go with your weekly writing assignment. Make sure to tag or categorize your posts with the term “hist475” (no quotes, though). If you don’t your posts won’t make it to the website, and you won’t get credit!