Blogging is an easy way to get published, but quality varies. To start, choose a free blog host and create an account with a unique name. Decide on format and content, and commit to regular updates. Beware of lack of control over who sees your posts.
Blogging is one of the easiest ways for the average person to “get published” without using any technical skills. As a result, blogs of all types proliferate, and since there is no approval process or intermediary between the blogger and the public, blog quality ranges from excellent to terrible.
Maybe you’ve thought about it and are ready to start blogging. Perhaps you have a lot of edgy opinions you’d like to voice, or you feel a witty account of your trip to the country would appeal to many. Maybe you’re the most experienced in a hobe want to share your hard-won wisdom. After making the decision, how to start blogging and is it difficult?
You can start blogging by visiting a free blog host, such as Blogger, Movable Type or WordPress. Fill out the simple form to create your account. You should have already chosen a blog name and it should be unique, meaning no one else should use that blog name. The blog host process won’t let you pick an existing name, so if you pick a name that’s too common, you’ll be asked to come up with another one before you can start blogging.
You will need to answer a few questions about your blog’s format and content before you start blogging. Most blog hosts have a variety of templates that you can select from for the “look and feel” of your blog. You will also need to decide whether or not you want readers to comment on your posts. Think long and hard before declining comments: Readers appreciate being able to comment on what they’ve read, and disallowing comments could call you a “snob” and keep many drop-in readers from returning.
Different blog hosts have different tools and formatting, but they all basically do the same thing. Once you have filled out the form and created your blog, you can start blogging by simply typing your text into the ‘create post’ form. The preview lets you see what your post will look like, and when you’re happy, click the ‘publish’ button and your blog will become visible to the world.
Once you start blogging, it’s important to make a commitment to keep blogging – most blogs languish after a week or two as bloggers find they either don’t have as much to say as they originally thought, or they just don’t have the time to post to their blog. The most popular blogs are updated several times a day. This doesn’t have to take long: write a few thoughts on a story, hit “publish” and your blog is updated. If you plan to publish long, well-reasoned essays two or three times a week, say so in advance so readers know not to expect new content every day.
One caveat: Once you start blogging, you can’t control who sees what you post. So if you want to post stories about your kids and only allow relatives to read them, or something similar, check out Live Journal and other journaling tools that let you filter posts so only specific people can see them.
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