What is the whole internet but one humongous library FULL of information? Almost everyone who comes online wants to find some information. The sooner they figure out how to find exactly what they're looking for, the faster they can get their eyes on it.
Marketers have caught on. The way to bring you and me and all the world to their web site is to have lots of information. Or, as they refer to it, "content."
Get good content! That's the new cry. No matter what you are selling, add lots of related content! The smart ones, the gurus, are urging this in all the advice they give.
But what if you are a lowly web site owner, who doesn't know very much? Where will you find content?
Well, the clever entrepreneurs have an answer ready. You need a content management system. The techies are churning them out on a daily basis, and they create them easier all the time. You don't have to know a thing, just buy or use theirs!
Fortunately, there is a thriving Open Source sub-culture out there, and they keep churning out this as free software too. So now any of us can set this up on our sites, put in the links from other web sites which are offering their "content" like syndicated columns in newspapers, and by and large it's free. All they ask is that your visitors come visit their site - and hopefully buy something there. Cha-ching! Do you hear their cash registers ring?
As I've said before in some of my email signatures; The internet is a writer's paradise! Guess who has to produce all that "content" everyone is crazy for?
Yes. Writers! Prolific writers are in hot demand.
Go about it professionally, and we can get paid quite handsomely for our skills. Should we have a web site, which we fill with content, guess what; we can offer it for syndication on others' sites, and thus bring their visitors to our sites to look around.
That's why I've been researching this the last few months to make sure I have a good grasp of it all, and that I know the best way to handle my advantage.
There is an assortment of these content management systems, which I can add to my site with a few clicks. Then I can enter into the administrative area with a password, and write or paste in my content, or diary or journal entries. Save, and go on my way. Some allow me to give the page different looks as well.
I put up two blogs to learn from, one on this site about my novel, and one on my business site. (However, I've moved the content from both to the static or main websites to be safer from hackers).
I have discovered even more developed content management systems (CMS) available, so I explored those. You can set this up with a few clicks, pick some user name and password, and then set it up in two or three columns. Taking each block of space separately, you can fill it with your own original content, or else put in links to content that you like from other sites.
Most of them have a demo model up so you can try it out. There's a place to choose your background colours and add graphics, and voila in a couple of hours you might have a very busy web page ready. It could be your whole website if you wish. You would just go into your admin area on a regular basis and write something fresh for some of those blocks of space.
I already have three or more hand-crafted sites, so I have more or less decided that my largest site, Ruthes-SecretRoses.com, which has well over 400 files on it, (now in 2022 more like 1000), it will do best with the simpler .xml or rss feed, and I'll continue to add to the pages already set up.
The feed.rss (or it can be .xml) document allows others to show off my links and content on their sites, and is the least amount of work for me. I just add another little chore before publishing the RoseBouquet.
I merely write up summaries or descriptions with a title, and link on a plain .xml document, with up to five items. Upload it, and make sure the big RSS aggregator sites know I have NEW links available.
"What if I have no web site," you ask, "and I only want to read the RoseBouquet?"
Easy; you stay subscribed and get the email edition.
And-or, you see if you already have an RSS Reader on your computer. If you do, put this link into it like a bookmark; https://ruthes-secretroses.com/RoseBouquet.xml Then remember to check that Reader about as often as you check your email. Sometimes it's inside the same program.
Soon you'll have as many as you ever had ezines you were subscribed to. The trick is to develop a habit of checking your reader regularly for new updates.
Happy trawling for your kind of information.
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Ruth Marlene Friesen makes friends wherever she goes!
Her friends become her rare roses at Ruthes-SecretRoses.com
Order the softcover edition at Booklocker.com
And- Subscribe to her weekly ezine RoseBouquet
To follow and get to know Ruth better!
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada