{"id":2147,"date":"2013-06-12T06:54:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T10:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/?p=2147"},"modified":"2013-06-11T22:29:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T02:29:27","slug":"lisa-maccoll-blogspot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/lisa-maccoll-blogspot\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging for the Technically Challenged"},"content":{"rendered":"

I asked one of my favourite Canadian bloggers, Lisa MacColl, to describe her experience using Blogspot as a response to my story about using WordPress (see\u00a0http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/blogging-via-wordpress\/<\/a>). Here’s Lisa’s post:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lisa<\/a>When Tracey asked me to write a guest post about Blogspot, I declined at first. I don\u2019t know the first thing about the technicalities of Blogspot.\u00a0 I just write stuff and post it.\u00a0 She said that was okay, so here I am. If you\u2019re looking for a technical explanation, you might as well click away now. You won\u2019t hurt my feelings. I am the poster child for blogging for the technologically challenged.<\/p>\n

Since I was a child, writing was my way of surviving the world around me. \u00a0I could be absolutely honest\u00a0 in my scribblings, in a world that often required following a \u201cdon\u2019t think, don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t feel and don\u2019t tell\u201d mantra. I started writing poetry as a way of releasing emotion that otherwise would have killed me eventually.\u00a0 To this day, I am very particular about who gets to read my poetry. It\u2019s the raw, unvarnished me, and it took me well into my 40s to stop being a \u201cwho do you want me to be\u201d chameleon and accept who I was, take it or leave it.<\/p>\n

So when blogging came along, it seemed like a natural expressive progression.\u00a0 Problem was, I am a techno-wienie and I knew nothing about coding, html or other such things. I just wanted to write things and share them because our commonalities are so much more than our differences, and finding out that other people have walked or are walking the same path makes life friendlier. I enjoyed reading blog posts, so I thought I would give it a go.<\/p>\n

I decided to go with Blogspot because it seemed pretty straightforward. Choose a template, spiffy it up and start typing and hit post. I started blogging at a time when my small child was only in school part-time, I was trying to build a freelance writing career and my mom was starting to need more care. I didn\u2019t have time to learn something that required complex machinations to get the words out into the ether. I just wanted to type and go.<\/p>\n

WordPress is the blog creator, site, not sure what the word is, of people who are serious about blogging. I also listened to any number of my creative friends beating their heads against a wall due to its complications and persnickety nature.\u00a0 The end result is definitely worth the effort, but I didn\u2019t have the time to MAKE the effort when I started blogging. I needed something easy.<\/p>\n

Bloggspot isn\u2019t as complicated as WordPress, although one of these years I\u2019m going to learn that puppy. In the meantime, it gets the job done. It has lots of great templates that can be customized, I get decent analytics, I can upload simple photos and move them around, I can set notifications to know when someone has commented, I can moderate, post and delete the comments, and for a non-technical person, it works for me.<\/p>\n

I write two blogs-The Sandwich Chronicles, (http:\/\/lisa-maccoll.blogspot.ca\/<\/a>) which details my juggling of my mom\u2019s deteriorating health, my daughter\u2019s challenges and my fight to stay sane in the middle of it.\u00a0 Lisa Mac\u2019s Musings \u00a0(http:\/\/lisamaccoll.blogspot.ca\/\/<\/a>) is a hodgepodge of random observations, rants and commentary.\u00a0 They are both on Blogspot. Stop by and check them out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I asked one of my favourite Canadian bloggers, Lisa MacColl, to describe her experience using Blogspot as a response to my story about using WordPress (see\u00a0http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/blogging-via-wordpress\/). Here’s Lisa’s post: When Tracey asked me to write a guest post about Blogspot, I declined at first. I don\u2019t know the first thing about the technicalities of Blogspot.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-yD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2207,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/technical-tools-for-writers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":0},"title":"Technical Tools for Writers","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"June 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What in the world do I mean by \u201ctechnical tools\u201d for writers? There are many possible tools a writer might use, including a dictionary, a thesaurus and a desk (either standing or sitting) and chair or large ball, but that's not what I'm talking about here. Technical tools include: a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"typewriter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/typewriter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2072,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/blogging-via-wordpress\/","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":1},"title":"Blogging Via WordPress a Grand Adventure","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"June 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Blogging seems like a straightforward thing for a writer to do, but I didn't find it easy to begin. The technical gibberish around the industry seemed too dense to navigate. It took years of consideration before this site was created. Now, I don't understand what took me so long. Blogging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"books towards blogging","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/freelancewritershandbookcreatingwebsites.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2105,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/my-5-favorite-writing-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":2},"title":"My 5 favorite writing apps","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"June 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My 5 favourite writing apps are WordPress plugins I rely on. Akesmet removes spam and is a necessity at: http:\/\/akismet.com. 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He also believes his experiences led to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unapologetically Canadian"","block_context":{"text":"Unapologetically Canadian","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/unapologetically-canadian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Unapologetically-CanadianCoverArt.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Unapologetically-CanadianCoverArt.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Unapologetically-CanadianCoverArt.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Unapologetically-CanadianCoverArt.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Unapologetically-CanadianCoverArt.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18347,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/yoshua-bengio\/","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":4},"title":"Yoshua Bengio: the man leading Montreal\u2019s Artificial Intelligence movement","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"September 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"If Montreal\u2019s prominence in the evolution of an artificial intelligence industry in the past five years is primarily due to the leadership of Yoshua Bengio, we are all lucky he became a father and is a beloved son. Two main things changed me,\u201d he says. \u201cRelationships with women taught me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1922,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/cadillac-fairview-mixed-use\/","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":5},"title":"Cadillac Fairview Mixed-Use Development","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Renewal, Re-investment and Expansion Mean Strong ROI, says\u00a0Cadillac Fairview Mixed-use joint ventures between land-owners, developers, retailers and residential owners aim to create \u201clive, work, learn and play\u201d neighbourhoods Multiphase developments now underway in Anjou, Ottawa, Markham, Montreal, Pointe Claire, St. Bruno and Toronto will revive and renew urban neighbourhoods while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Canada"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Iacono headshot","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/SalIacono.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2150,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}