How to Start a Blog?

Let's start with some good news! Technology has made it relatively easy for

you to start a blog. The Blogging platforms you are privy to have become very

user friendly, even hosting providers have started to make uploading those Blog

platforms simple by means of automated programs.

After you have decided to start a blog, the next decision is what kind of blog -

there are two very distinct types:

Start a Blog using a 3rd party hosted Blog service
Start a Blog by self-hosting your own

The difference is relatively simple. A 3rd party hosted Blog is hosted on a 3rd

party's website! Let me give you an example. your website dot wordpress dot com

would be a 3rd party hosted blog (hosted by WordPress), whereas your website dot

com would be a self hosted blog (hosted by a company you would pay a hosting fee

to).

Whichever way you choose to start a Blog, there are advantages and

disadvantages. Here are a few advantages for 3rd party hosted Blogs:

Most are free, no hosting or Domain Name fees
Very simple to setup, Blogging software already installed
Easier to get your Blog *indexed on the more popular sites
Sometimes easier to get followers on establisged social media platforms

*Indexing relates to search engines visiting your site, and recording or

"Indexing" them in their database, so that when potential visitors search for

material related to your site, it shows up in the search engine results.

3rd party hosted Blogs are a great way for the beginner webmaster to start a

Blog. But before you rush out and sign up, let's take a look at the advantages

of a self hosted Blog:

Control - you can put what you want, where you want
Piece of mind - 3rd Party sites can remove your Blog at their discretion
Plugins - Plugins are what make a Blog! You can install any Plugins you want
SEO - Search engines prefer full domains over sub-domains
Professionalism - looks better to have "your own Domain Name" (Branding)
Emails - can have email addresses like admin at yourdomain dot com
Customizations - customize anything (or everything!)
Security - you can install Plugins to increase your Blog's security
Monetization - You can sell products, display whatever Ads you like
Backups - you can easily backup your entire site as often as you please

It's clear if you choose to start a blog using the self hosted approach, you

have a lot more options open to you, albeit at greater expense. I will focus the

remainder of this tutorial mostly around self hosted Blogs, as this requires

more explaining. However, if you do decide to start a Blog using a 3rd party

hosted service; here's a list of the most popular ones:

WordPress
Blogger
Tumblr
Live Journal
Weebly
Squidoo

The Various Types of Blogging Platforms

Before we get into specifics, I just want make you aware there are several

software platforms you can use to start a Blog. A Blogging platform is the

actual software that provides the functionality of your website - such as adding

new pages and allowing comments to be posted.

WordPress is the most popular currently use (in 2011, 14.7% of all websites were

WordPress driven!). I use WordPress myself, and of course it is what I

recommend! I will be focusing on WordPress for the below examples. Here are a

few other choices - all are free:

Drupal
Text Pattern
Movable Type
Flat Press

Now, let's move on to those specifics!

Choosing a Domain Name

Yes, this one's kind of important. If you want to start a blog, you need to give

it a name! Here are some quick pointers:

Make it as relevant as possible to the theme of your website
Make it as short as possible, while maintaining relevance
Don't abbreviate, bad for SEO and makes it harder to remember your Domain Name
Choose a dot com over any other TLD's (.net, .org etc)
You can add "a' or "the" or "e" if your first choice Domain Name is taken

Finally, try and make it something catchy, something people will remember!

Hosting

I mentioned it was relatively easy to start a blog at the beginning of this

article. Two very popular programs most hosting companies provide make getting

your Blog online easy:

Softaculous
Fantastico

Make sure your chosen hosting provider supports one of these. Two providers that

do support these programs (and ones I have used for several websites, so can

personally recommend) are:

FatCow
HostGator

I find it's a lot easier to watch someone do something than to read instructions

about it. Open YouTube and search for Fantastico (or) Softaculous WordPress

install and you'll be presented with a host of video tutorials!

Content

Once again, I'm going to lean on my opening statement on how easy it is to start

a blog, and the content aspect is what really makes this statement true. There

are literally hundreds of free themes from inside the WordPress dashboard. In

fact it takes mere seconds to change the entire look of your site by changing

themes! Here's how we load a theme:

Access your WordPress admin dashboard
Under the Appearance menu on the left, click Themes
Click "Install Themes"
You can filter by colors or type here, or just click search to bring back all themes
Select the one you want - you can preview it first, or just click Install
Click Install now from the box that pops up, wait a few seconds
After the Theme has installed, you can click on the "activate" link to make it
live!