About Me. how difficult life with diabetes is and how having the right tools and support can make all the

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2 About Me My name is Sysy Morales and I started The Girl's Guide to Diabetes in the summer of 2009 days after my twins were born. Despite the title of my website, The Girl's Guide to Diabetes is not a do as I do type of guide. It is more of a cheer leader, a thought-provoker, and a sharer of my experiences with type 1 diabetes. My sister Ana, who also has type 1, is the artist whose work you see highlighting most posts. She and I hope to advocate for us diabetics with this site. We want to help spread word about how difficult life with diabetes is and how having the right tools and support can make all the difference. For more info about what I intend for my site to be, read here. Why start a diabetes blog? Because there's nothing like blogging with a warm mug! First of all, writing a blog is like free therapy. In fact, research has shown that when we spill out our emotions and thoughts by writing them down, we receive a major therapeutic benefit. Many people

3 with diabetes blogs have discovered this and are now hooked. By writing we are also documenting thoughts and symptoms and by going over what we have written, we can gain clarity and guidance. Another benefit is that by writing a blog about your diabetes you advocate about your diabetes by informing people and inviting others from all around the globe to understand your condition better. An army of diabetes bloggers is a powerful thing. Today, there are hundreds of diabetes blogs which make up the Diabetes Online Community, or DOC. We're a loud voice. We're a group of people that support each other through the hard times and congratulate each other through our victories, both large and small. We also send a message to the media through our existence- we matter and our opinions and feedback is not to be ignored. In my opinion, the more of us there are, the better. If you want to hear more reasons I do have a few more. You will exist forever. Your words will, anyway. Also, your kids can read your blog later and understand why you spent all of January 2011 screaming at them. Ohh, mom had diabetes burnout! Last but not least, someone in desperate need of your words might encounter them.

4 Why do I want to help you start a diabetes blog? I use my blog to share meaningful experiences and lessons I've learned with anyone who comes across the site. I open up about feelings and frustrations I have with diabetes. I had expected little response to what I was writing but found it felt good just to get the words out. After a year of blogging I started reading a lot of diabetes blogs and found the wonderful world of the DOC and discovered how great it is to be a part of a community that understands what I'm going through and can totally relate. You can read blogs, comment on them, and start your own blog. There is no wrong way to participate. I bet there are a lot of you out there who have an itch to share your own story but are a bit intimidated by the technology involved in starting a blog. Here is the good news! I am pretty lost when it comes to all things technical and I managed to do it and so can you. I did it while taking care of newborn twins, sleeping 2-4 hours a night, and so I know if you really want to do this you can find the time. I took a lot of extra time doing it and can hopefully save you some by sharing some of what I might have learned

5 the hard way. There is no need to start you own diabetes blog unless you want to. But If you want to, I don't want your lack of knowledge to stop you. Here is a guide to help get you on your way. It's not all encompassing but it's a start. Feedback is greatly appreciated and questions are welcome. Let's begin!

6 What kind of blog do you want? Answering this question early on can save you from some grief, later. For example, are you looking to start a free or a cheap, casual blog in which you share your experiences and thoughts about your diabetes with the world on a regular or random basis? Or, are you interested in a more professional approach? Do you want to brand yourself as a patient-expert? Whatever you want is fine. The key is to envision your blog. Maybe you don't like writing much but love taking pictures. There are blog themes available which are centered around photography where you can put up a photo and a brief paragraph underneath. I haven't seen too many diabetics do this but a picture can say a 1000 words and just because you don't like to write doesn't mean a diabetes blog is not in the cards for you. A great way to begin figuring out what type of blog you want to have is to read diabetes blogs online. There are hundreds out there and they all look and feel different. The Diabetes Resource has a huge directory of blogs and other diabetes resources you can check out. Browsing through blogs may help you decide what fits you best. Pay attention to features a blog has and write down which ones you want to see on your blog.

7 Choosing a blog title. What to name your blog? Believe it or not this question stumps a lot of people. So many choices. I suggest thinking about two things: A) Make it easy to remember. It's easier for people to come back to your site if the blog name is not super long and encrypted like -mytype1personalblog25.com. B) Make it meaningful and true to you. It's nice when your blog's title goes along with your personality or your feelings about your diabetes. For example, Ninjabetic.com is George Simmons' clever blog name and is a term he coined to describe his opinion on the nature of people with diabetes. (So now you know-you're a ninjabetic!) Who could forget a blog name like that?

8 Most importantly, make sure YOU love it. You may find it helpful to ask yourself just what you and your diabetes are all about. I regret my blog's title (The Girl's Guide to Diabetes) on so many levels. However, it is memorable so that works for me. It also sounds like a fun girly place to hang out. Maybe? Anyway, it's important to select a blog title you're really happy with and sure about. Deciding whether or not to self host. While viewing different blogs, you'll find some are self hosted with a domain such as, diabetesmine.com or you'll see some that go like this: diabetesblogexample.blogspot.com or diabetesblogexample.wordpress.com. The latter two are cheaper options for a blog, but you get the company's name before the.com so decide which you prefer. Owning your own domain name is pretty cheap since you pay for it once a year and it's really not very expensive. If you like the idea of free, click on this google search term: free blog website That link will show all of the most popular free blogging platforms. With many of these free website hosts you are not allowed to pick freely amongst any theme out there. (Theme-the style, the look, the features, function aspect of your blog) And many of these also do not allow advertising. Also, if you ever want to leave one of these companies your blog may be stuck in their system and you can't just move it over somewhere else. So check before committing. If you hope for a lot of growth to your blog and want to see a long future with it, then you may want to pay a little more to self host your domain.

9 My site uses wordpress because it's the most popular of blogging platforms. Most professional bloggers agree it's the best to use. But there are others so don't forget to check them out. Here are popular ones.

10 Your web hosting provider. If you do a search online you'll probably find that most people suggest going with one of the major hosting companies where you can set up your domain and website all at once (including pay the fees in one place). Here are Web Hosting Geeks top 10 list of Best Hosting Companies for 2011 with reviews and feature comparisons I began by using JustHost.com and can no longer recommend them as a hosting company. Reason being? Much of their customer support doesn't speak English well and I had a hard time communicating issues to them. Also, customer support takes days or weeks. The last straw was when my blog was using up a lot of CPU and Just Host shut down my blog, ed me to let me know that I needed to pay a lot more to upgrade to a higher tier and never tried to figure out why my blog was using so much CPU. A small hosting provider will investigate the issue for you and work to resolve the issue rather than having you pay a small fortune. I left Just Host in a hurry and moved my site over to a small company called Skewered Rook. You can purchase domain names from this company, as well. My domain, sysymorales.com was purchased there. Skewered Rook is a small hosting provider that gives excellent support with WordPress expertise and fast, managed upgrades. I never have to worry about my blog because the company owner makes sure all his clients are well taken care of. My blog loads much faster since making the switch, too.

11 Skewered Rook charges $75 per year, per domain. This includes reasonable tech support and user assistance. He'll even do free site migration and whatever initial support is required at no extra cost. I can't recommend this company enough. If you do want to go with a bigger company for your serious blog, avoid the budget hosts. Skewered Rook recommends going with a company that will actually do a good job for you and recommends considering wpengine.com. If you must have free hosting, Diabetes Daily is at your service. Click here to find out more. Theme selection. If you select a free blogging platform, you'll have themes, or blog designs from which to choose. If you self host and go with wordpress software, you'll have many more design options. You can choose free themes or more customizable ones that you pay a one time fee for. My blog theme is called Arthemia Premium and cost around $65, which for me, was worthwhile. I got a lot more excited about my blog when I got excited about all I could do with the design aspect of it. But that's just me. There are so many cool blog themes for free. Check them out here. Want to see the ones you have to pay for? Click here. These are as little as $30-one time fee. You can hire a designer to do a fully personalized theme for you. This is pricier but the option exists. Signing up for web analytics. If you want to enter the world of tracking data about your blog, sign up at Google Analytics. It's free and tracks the activity on your blog for you. You'll see data regarding how many visitors your blog

12 gets, who is visiting, from where they're visiting, how long they are staying on your blog, and even what posts they are reading. It's helpful information if you are interested in gaining knowledge about your readers and the content you are writing. Hire help when needed. I just want to mention that a few little things on my blog were not done by me. I couldn't get the title of my blog on the page, even though I designed the banner. So I hired someone from guru.com to help me. You explain what you need done, then people bid for the job and you accept an offer. You only pay when you're happy with the work they've done. It's not very expensive when you just need a little thing done here and there and it saved my sorry behind on several occasions at the beginning. There is also the website, elance.com Your first post and blog content. Your first post should introduce yourself to your potential readers. Say as little or as much as you'd like about yourself but do know that people appreciate the sound of a real person. It's always a good idea to put a profile picture of yourself so that people say, Oh, there she is. She's really exists. I recommend writing a few blog posts and saving them on your computer and putting them all up at once so your blog doesn't look so empty to your first readers. It helps when people see a site that seems to have some action going. When I started my blog I had already typed up about 10 posts and I went ahead and put them all up one after another. They were short and it was no big deal but I think it helps when someone visits a blog and it doesn't look barren. Some bloggers post every day, others a few times a week (I post about 3x/week) and most diabetes bloggers tend to post around one or two times per week. Some even post a few times a month. As long

13 as your posting schedule is relatively consistent, your readers quickly learn what to expect from you, and everyone is happy. Growing your blog. First thing I want to assure you of is that you will have readers and comments...eventually. To get regular comments, it took me a long, long, long time. I did get a bit antsy thinking that no one was liking what I had to say but what we all have to realize is that only about 1% of readers like to comment. This means that if you have 20 readers, you may not have any comments.

14 The way to start growing your blog is to read and comment on other diabetes blogs. Introduce yourself, talk about what you like about someone's post, genuinely interact, and basically just jump into the community. Know that there are so many people now that it's likely you won't be received with a welcome! from everyone. But with time, people will get to know you and those who are like-minded or attracted to your particular style of writing and content, will come around. Just be patient. Enjoy writing posts even if you don't think anyone is reading. Beginner SEO tips. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The better your blog is set up for search engine optimization, the higher search engines (such as Google) will rank your blog. And clearly, if your blog or one of your posts shows up on the first page, versus the 10th page, the more likely others will find it. I'm always a little sad when an excellent blogger has no optimization techniques in place because they're like a buried treasure. I have worked so hard to get a few of these concepts down. They're not my specialty but what I have implemented has helped tremendously SO, I want you to read Darren Rowse's 8 First Step SEO Tips for Bloggers. He knows what he's talking about and his entire site is a really useful one for anything blogging or SEO related. In fact, doing internet searches for SEO tips will quickly lead you to plenty. Another free tool to take advantage of is Google Webmaster Tools. Once you set it up this provides you a free and easy way to make your website more Google-friendly. The more Google-friendly your site, the more potential views you get. Last year I got a notice from Webmaster Tools letting me know there was a suspected hacking on my blog and as you can imagine I was happy to have been informed. So there are plenty of valid reasons to set this up.

15 Finally, and most importantly, enjoy yourself! If you absolutely hate to write, why are you attempting to write a blog? Like I mentioned earlier, do you like taking photographs? Do that! Are you an artist of some sort? Do that! Do you love to cook and want to share your recipes with fellow diabetics? Do that! Are you a talker and enjoy making videos or podcasts? Do that! Once you realize your options and match them to what you really like to do, the possibilities are endless. Your participation in the DOC is priceless and whatever you have to offer is a gift. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope I've helped a little. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments for myself and others to answer. Or you can me at Sysy@thegirlsguidetodiabetes.com.

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