It’s actually quite easy.

Start with two browser windows or tabs open, one where you’ve logged in to your blog to write a post, and the other one on the page for the video you want.

1. On YouTube, look to the right of the video and you’ll see two little boxes of code. All you need to do is highlight the contents of the box for “Embed” and copy it.

2. Switch over to your blog where you’re writing a post. In WordPress, first of all switch from using the Visual editor to using the HTML editor. Place your cursor to wherever you want to Embed (insert) the video, and simply paste in the code.

Publish, and that’s it!

If you have any difficulties, see my additional notes below the video – after you’ve watched it, of course

This video is perfect for cat lovers and music lovers everywhere!

Le Duo des Chats, sung by Les Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois:

To be honest, I have lately encountered some trouble embedding videos, and I don’t know if it’s glitches in WordPress or what. If you have problems, start over and make sure you:

1. Log in to WordPress as somebody with Admin rights. It should not be necessary, but it helped me out a lot.

2. Start a simple blog post using the HTML editor, not the Visual one. I tried over and over with the Visual editor and it simply failed to include my video embed code, no matter what I did. You can go back and edit and update your blog post later, after you’ve got the video in place.

3. I also had trouble previewing the blog post – I simply had to Publish it and then go back and edit the post. (I tried both firefox and IE 8, but it doesn’t appear to be a browser issue.)

But 90% won’t do it, or don’t keep up with it.

The most common complaints are that it takes too much time out of their working day, and that they can’t think of anything to write about.

Let me dispell the first complaint. First, if you are a business owner, think of this as part of your overall marketing and advertising to generate customer loyalty and acquire new customers! Blogging is sooo easy these days – I promise. Plus it can be fun!!

Now – what to write about?

If you are stuck for things to write about, here are my suggestions:

1. Think about the questions your customers ask you. Chances are, if they have a question about your service or products, so do other people. Particularly potential customers.

2. Think about what friends and family ask you about your business at social occasions. When Mrs. Grundy asks “what do you do?” well, what do you tell her?

3. Write about anything you want! Don’t feel constrained to write about one specific subject.

4. Write about what interests you.

5. Don’t feel intimidated. You are not expected to be writing term papers Blog posts can be as short or as long as you like.

6. If an idea suddenly pops into your head but you don’t have the time this minute, jot it down on a little pocket notepad just for blogging ideas. Then get back to it later.

7. Take some time to surf the ‘net for fun. Participate in finding interesting sites, news, and use social networking/media. These can be great sources of inspiration for writing about your own thoughts and experiences.

8. Check out sites like www.askoxford.com which is a site all about words and word games, quotes and sayings, crosswords, etc. Just browse around  – something is bound to trigger a thought connection in your head.

Finally, if my own ideas haven’t helped yet – check out this article, Triggers for Story Ideas by Asheville Writer and Editor Susan Snowden. Susan has won many awards for her writing, and is one of the best professional editors I know. Her site contains many, many resources for writers of all kinds – including inspiration!

Guess what – I’m starting over aaaalll over again.

So I thought I’d write some tips and advice on how to avoid what I went through!

Step 1: Make sure your site and/or blog is hosted by a company that provides you with cPanel and Fantastico Deluxe. I happen to use www.hostgator.com for my hosting needs. But there are plenty of other good hosting companies that also offer these features. Just make sure YOURS does.

Step 2: Re-read step 1.

With cPanel and Fantastico Deluxe, you can:

1. Install WordPress either as an add-on to your existing site, or as a stand-alone site, with pretty much one click.
2. Back up (and restore) your WordPress database.
3. UPGRADE your version of WordPress without all the techie hassles or even needing a plugin.
4. Re-read #3.

After I had desperately tried everything, and finally had to resort to a totally new WordPress install, I discovered that Fantastico Deluxe now offers the WordPress update feature. If I had known that, I could have easily avoided HOURS of panic and mind-bending hassle. Not to mention time I’ll have to spend now re-adding prior posts.

Step 3: After installing WordPress, use your cPanel to back up your database before you do anything else!

Step 4: Continue to do regular backups.

More tips:

If you find yourself having to do a completely fresh install, go get the latest versions of your themes, plugins and widgets you might have used in the past. Might as well

It’s a good idea to save your posts by copy & paste into a word processing document or Notepad, and save them individually in case you ever have to restore a post.

(Re writing your posts in advance in, say, Word, I have found one problem. If you copy and paste your text from a Word doc into the WordPress Write Post window, like I am now, the paste includes all sorts of horrible formatting stuff carried over from Word. So I generally write my posts directly in WordPress. You can always just keep it as a draft until you’re done. )

If the worst case scenario happens and you do have to start all over, look at it this way – you now have a chance to make your blog even better I’m using this “forced opportunity” to add a couple of plugins and redesign the layout of my blog to make it a bit more user-friendly.

A blog is a terrible thing to waste – but may you never need to know what I’ve just written