MIT Courseware - Free Internet Communications

MIT has, for a few years now, opened its courses to the public. Colleges and university's world wide can either use the courseware as a template for their own, or just them as is. Individuals can use them for self training. I love self training. Especially when it's free. I'm cheap. ;-)

Anyway, you can check out the entire list of courses. I guarantee there are at least a few worthy blog entries in there. However, there is one course in particular that is relevant to bloggers. It's getting a little old now but is still worth looking at. The course is Communicating in Cyberspace. Cyberspace is just so yesterday. ;-)

In the related resources section, there is a list of Excellent Websites, Poorly Designed Websites and Useful Resources. There's even a list of useful books, some of which I own already.

This course has less in the way of presentation and lecture notes than many of the courses but it does give a good over in general. There are several writing courses available. I always like the history courses as that is a hobby of mine.

Enjoy,

LewisC

Technorati : college, courses, free, mit, university

How Do I Choose a Web Hosting Provider?

I have discussed web hosting providers like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. I stumbled across the most complete list of web host providers I have ever seen. The list is from Mashable.com. It's called, 40+ Free Blog Hosts. This is a seriously useful list of providers.




The list is sorted by blogging software with a list of themed sites. This is a must see.




Ok, so you have a list of providers but how do you chose one? You need to read some reviews. One good site for reviews is Web Hosting Jury. Here is the description from the site:

Web Hosting Jury is a web hosting reviews site but with a difference. All the hosting reviews on our site are reviews submitted by past or present customers of that particular web host. Unlike some other web hosting review sites, we do not accept payment from any host in regards to getting a higher ranking on our site. Hosts are ranked according to our algorithm which is based entirely on user ratings. Please feel free to browse through existing reviews or submit a review. Even if the host is not already listed on our site you can submit a web hosting review about your web hosting company. By submitting a review you will be helping other people who are looking for a host. Also visit our Web Hosting Coupons section for some great exclusive hosting discounts and special offers.

Another review site that might be useful is Hostingreview.com, a webmaster oriented review site.




I'm not associated or affiliated in anyway with any of these sites. I would say hit all three review sites and see what people have to say.




LewisC

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How do I start a blog?

If you are just beginning to blog, and since you are reading this, I expect you are, I recommend that you start small and begin with a free hosted blog like blogger.com. The reason I say this is that millions of blogs are started every month and millions of blogs are abandoned every month.

Blogging is not for everyone. If you don't enjoy writing, or at least communicating, I don't believe you will enjoy blogging and I don't believe that you will stick with it. You might as well use a totally free service while you find out. There are many free blog hosting companies.

One more note about getting started: if you are doing this to make a lot of money, just stop right now. It's not worth it. You might as well cut grass or deliver papers. At least that's guaranteed income. Some people do very well but most people how make any money at all are just making enough to pay for their hosting.

Now on to choosing a blog provider. I chose blogger.com way back when because it was the first one I found. Wordpress.com did not yet exist. As a matter of a fact, many of the sites that exist now did not exist then.

If you go to google and search on "free blog host", you will get millions of hits. There are a few very popular sites and you should probably start with one of those unless you have a specific reason to go somewhere else (like some friends already have sites or something).

The biggies are (completely free):

• Blogger.com - extremely easy setup, be up and running in minutes, very liberal policies on advertising and such.
• Wordpress.com - extremely easy setup, be up and running in minutes, no advertising unless you pay for it.
• Yahoo! 360 - Free blog from one of the giants. New service. Expect excellent integration with other yahoo services.
• Microsoft Live Spaces - Web environment from Microsoft. Ties in with Microsoft Live Office. You can get a free domain name and web hosting via the Office Live Basics package.
  

I'll cover sites that require payments in the future. As I said above, I chose blogger.com and have been fairly happy. It is somewhat limiting in that I don't have full control over the site (like accessing root), but I do have access to the html for my blog so that works for me.

In the near future, I will also cover sites that let you easily build a web presence outside of a blog. Where you can get a .com or something very close to that.

Because I chose blogger, when I start covering things like customization and widgets, the specifics will apply to a blogger.com blog. The basics will cover any blog but the actual details of the implemntation will be specificallt for blogger.

Now, I recommend that you browse the web sites I mention above and see which one suits your fancy. If you want to, go ahead and create a blog on each and see which one works best for you. It's free and you really want to find a site that fits your needs and wants.

Good luck and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. There is a comments button right below this post. I check comments frequently.

LewisC

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