The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: FrostyM on September 23, 2013, 04:58:41 pm
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I have an idea knocking around in my head. It's a rare occasion I must say :D I was thinking of starting a blog and/or a facebook page for my random smallholding related stuff. I don't have too much going on, a back garden with a polytunnel and veg patch, a few chickens and plan on getting some pigs again next year. I am pretty good with computers and the like but I wondered if people had any advice as to which blogging site to use or if they found blogging time consuming or if they felt they didn't have much to blog about? Any advice or comments welcome :)
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A lot of us here are on Facebook - look at the profiles and click the FB link.
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Sorry I didn't explain myself very well. I have a personal Facebook page where I share some of my photos and stuff but I don't like the feeling I am spamming friends with stuff that they aren't interested in. I was thinking of setting up a page for my smallholding stuff that people could "like" to see my updates if they want to. Also people can like my smallholding page without adding my personal page if they don't know me if that makes sense?
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Yes Frosty - that's what I have, a personal page and a pygmy goat/sheep page so my non animally friend don't get fed up of every kid and lamb born pictures!!
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Sorry I misunderstood - I have the same - one FB page for me and one for Aberdon Gundogs, but I must admit I rarely have time to swap over and add to that page.
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I have a page for my pups etc and dog related stuff on Facebook, quite a lot of people cross over to both though...and I DO get mixed up too and post dog stuff ALL the time on FB...I love it :wave:
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I had thought I could share some of the more "interesting" posts on my personal page but there are only so many pictures of onions most people can take :D I am also planning on building a few things over the next few months, cider press, chicken coop etc that I might write a blog about. Has anyone any experience, good or bad, with any blogging sites?
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Look at getting a cheap hosting account with Wordpress available (not on wordpress.com). It's the best blogging platform there is, and is much easier to move around than platforms like blogger.com which are tied to a single provider.
Something like this:
http://www.5quidhost.co.uk/wordpresshosting.php (http://www.5quidhost.co.uk/wordpresshosting.php) or this:
https://www.tsohost.com/product/wordpress-hosting (https://www.tsohost.com/product/wordpress-hosting)
It'll cost a few quid a month but generally when it comes to the web you get what you pay for - with a lot of the free sites you don't understand the costs until you try to move away or expand.
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Thanks for that Dan, I don't mind spending a few quid if it will save hassle in the long run. It's not overly expensive anyway. I can give up my night out this week and put the money towards one of these hosting sites ;)
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I've just started this blog on my cider website. I've mad three posts so far but they've all been about Pru the pig. I think it should be quite enjoyable to keep it going but I'll have to make myself keep it up to date. Other than blatant plugs like this ::) how can I set about getting more people to look at it?
http://www.ourcider.co.uk/blog.html (http://www.ourcider.co.uk/blog.html)
I've only had two comments left so far and one of those was from one of my best friends. :huff:
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i had a website with a farm diary and it was linked to facebook, where i also had a business page. people do read it so its worth the effort if you are selling things.
there are a few blogs that i follow as they are so interesting.
try it. i never spent a penny but sold loads through them.
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I've just started this blog on my cider website. I've mad three posts so far but they've all been about Pru the pig. I think it should be quite enjoyable to keep it going but I'll have to make myself keep it up to date. Other than blatant plugs like this ::) how can I set about getting more people to look at it?
http://www.ourcider.co.uk/blog.html (http://www.ourcider.co.uk/blog.html)
I've only had two comments left so far and one of those was from one of my best friends. :huff:
It takes time to become established, and more time now than it used to - many months and probably years to get solid results in Google for popular searches.
Post interesting snippets to Facebook, photos to Pinterest, linking back to posts on your blog - these types of things get people to your site more quickly, and they then share. Ask other related sites to link to your site. It'll slowly build traction. You've got Google Analytics installed, so can see what's happening on your site - use the information in there to understand what's popular and where people are coming from.
I think you have to enjoy blogging and be able to do it for the sake of it. We treat our blog like a diary, and sometimes post things we know will be of little interest to anyone else, but it's a record for us and we refer back to it all the time to remember what we did when.
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We treat our blog like a diary, and sometimes post things we know will be of little interest to anyone else, but it's a record for us and we refer back to it all the time to remember what we did when.
thats exactly what we found. when you have blogged the new arrival of lambs, then you dont forget the date for their reg papers etc. very handy when you have a terrible memory like mine ...lol
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I started with a simple blog on Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/) at the beginning of last year but as I have plenty of previous web development experience I soon felt too restricted with that arrangement so I got a dedicated domain for the blog.
The hosting company I use now is Pipe Ten (http://www.pipeten.com/windows_and_linux_hosting.html) and as I already have a few other websites/domains with them I bought their multi-host deal so I can easily add another site at any time.
Personally I'm not so convinced of the benefit of Facebook pages but I have one for my blog and I can see how they might work for some people. However I am a big fan of Twitter (https://twitter.com/)for promoting the blog as well as making contact with like-minded people.
Once you get multiple accounts like that you really need a tool like HootSuite (https://hootsuite.com/)or my personal favourite Buffer (http://bufferapp.com/) to manage them from a single point. These allow you to post to some or all of your accounts as needed plus they give you some feedback on the results as well. The free accounts are more than adequate for my needs at least.
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I like the idea of using a blog as a diary to help keep track of dates and the likes. I am always forgetting things and losing track of dates. I am not the type to keep notes as I always lose them. While I like the expansion options with a paid hosting site, I might try starting off on a free site and see how that suits me as a few here seem to find them enough for their needs. I have no business side to what I do, it's just a hobby at the minute so I think my needs will be fairly limited. Thanks for all the advice and opinions folks.
Just an idea, would there be an interest if there was a thread where people could share their blogs? One place where people could browse blogs to find ones that interest them and could help people increase their traffic on their blogs? I don't know if there is already one I haven't seen or if there would be any demand for this kind of thing. Just a thought :)
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Just an idea, would there be an interest if there was a thread where people could share their blogs? One place where people could browse blogs to find ones that interest them and could help people increase their traffic on their blogs? I don't know if there is already one I haven't seen or if there would be any demand for this kind of thing. Just a thought :)
Good idea. We have a links directory here: http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/links/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/links/)
I'll add a "smallholding blogs" section and ask for submissions. :)
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When I start my travels quite a few people have asked to be kept up to date with where I am and what I am doing.
I find blogs a bit irritating to read as its all back to front if you come in late (perhaps I am not the right generation!)
But would a blog be better than say starting my own website, which I am quite happy to do?
Also I did join facebook a few years ago but have been told I didnt have the right settings - what does everyone think about facebook - quite a few folk I know joined then didnt like it. And Dad says Twitter is good - what about that.
keep any advice simple, you are addressing someone who just called in the electrician this morning for what turned out to be 3 dud bulbs :o :o ::)
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Personally I think Facebook is only just more useful than it's irritating. I'd far rather follow someone's blog if I'm interested in them and what they're doing. You can of course post your blog entries on Facebook to cover all bases ;)
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Or start your own private group on FB, set it to secret group settings , membership by invite only - that way outsiders can't see your group postings and you are the moderator.
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I use weebly.com (http://weebly.com) which I find easy ,cheap and aduquate for my website and blog. Of course one pays for the domain but otherwise the service can be free, even with webshop. What I like about it is that the only advertising is weebly's own small logo.
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My problem is that I'm a bit of a dinosaur. I don't do Face Book because of the amount of drivel that's posted on it and as far as I know, twitter is apparently just as bad. Forums in general are supposedly on the decline because of competition from the two but give me a happy informative forum every time by preference.
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We do have a Facebook page for the farm. To set it up we did have to make OH a personal profile, but it has absolutely nothing other than his name on it, and is set so noone else can see it. We keep the page for purely farm related stuff, and I think it has been quite useful - have sold a couple of things few the page, and made contact with other Kerry Hill breeders. Because it is a business page, we don't have 'friends', just 'likes', so don't have to know what everyone had for their tea, but do get updates from other pages we have 'liked'. I find 'groups' annoying though, as I can't join them as a business page.
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I have bitten the bullet and signed up for a blog on blogger and set up a dedicated facebook page. I have spent a few minutes trying to make them look a little more personal but haven't really added much in the way of content just yet :D Hopefully this weekend I will get out and about with the camera and get a few photos and things to upload. Thanks for all the input folks :thumbsup:
Here are the links, but as I said, there isn't much actually up on them
http://myovercrowdedgarden.blogspot.ie/ (http://myovercrowdedgarden.blogspot.ie/)
https://www.facebook.com/myovercrowdedgarden (https://www.facebook.com/myovercrowdedgarden)
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Nice looking blog page!
I saw the pig pictures on the Facebook page which was the most interesting as we will be taking our first 2 Tamworths off sometime in November.
Good luck with it all
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I have two blogs on blogger, as well facebook fanpages and twitter account for the stud. Websites are based on wordpress. Good luck! :thumbsup:
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Interesting that I never know what blog to read unless I know the person....I actually do not read too much but how do you find blogs that may interest you?
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... how do you find blogs that may interest you?
Most blogs will have a "blogroll" or list of links to other blogs which cover similar or related subjects and I've found this sort of thing a good way to find others.
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"blogroll"
:thumbsup: