Ever Thought About Having Your Own Blog?

Just in the past couple of months, I've had several people say to me, "I've thought about having my own blog -- is that something you could help me do?"

Actually, it is. I'd be happy to help. Just email me or leave me a comment here on this post and I'll get in contact with you.

Or if you are feeling brave and you have at least average technical skills, it's probably something you could set up on your own. I'll tell you about the basics here, and then you can explore your options. When you're ready to start blogging, let me know if I can help.

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First, what is a blog? It is a shortened term for "web log." It is basically a web page that has multiple entries or articles posted to it. Over the past couple of years, blogging has exploded. In fact, blogs are now so sophisticated that you can use them for a lot of different things in lieu of having your own web site. You can even sell products on a blog.

A blog is a web site basically -- just a certain kind. Blogs are really good for sharing articles, publishing short essays or poem, journaling or just writing about different subjects. You can publish pictures and videos with your articles, and because it is on the Internet, you can make it available to anyone to see who is connected to the web.

There are basically two different ways you can set up your blog. You can sign up to have it hosted for free on a variety of sites, or you can have it hosted on your own web hosting account. You can get a free account at blogger.com (which is where I have this blog published) or wordpress.com or a variety of other sites. However, these two are the biggest.

Once you sign up for an account, you can choose the name for your blog, choose a template for what it will look like, and then you're ready to start blogging. It's just that simple. I think this blog originally took me about 5 minutes to set up.

Whenever you are ready to write a new entry or article, you go to your blog host, log in and use their interface to enter the text for your entry. Once you've written what you want, you click the "publish" button and you're done.

One drawback to having a free account is that you are somewhat limited in what kinds of "bells and whistles" you can put on your blog. Google (who owns Blogger) and Wordpress maintain control over what you can do with the design of the site to a large degree. There are other sites out there that offer free templates, but the basic functions of the site are restricted.

The other drawback to a free account is that they own the content. If for some reason the company doesn't like your blog or thinks it has crossed some boundary that they have said is inappropriate, they can take your blog down without notice. However, for the vast majority of users, this will never be a problem.

A free service like Blogger has a lot of advantages like ease of use, easy publishing, email publishing and a great record of up time.

If you want more control, you should choose to pay for a hosting service. This works a lot like a traditional web site hosting arrangement. You pay for a web hosting service, install Wordpress software on your space on the site, and then start blogging. This way you have the flexibility of installing plug-in's, different templates, changing the design and adding elements that you can't add if you are using a free server.

(I use BlueHost for one of my hosted blogs. They are inexpensive and have an easy-to-use Wordpress installation. The other host I use is 1and1.com. They are very inexpensive, and also have Wordpress installation. Check them both out and see what you think.)

Well, that's enough to get you started. I've been blogging for about two years now -- a lot more seriously in the past few months. I've been reading a lot of articles and guides about the more technical side of blogs and about the business side of blogs (how to use them to make money online). If you have questions, send me a message and I'll do my best to get you an answer.