Which blogging platform to choose?

The first step towards creating your own blog is to find a blogging provider. The majority of these sites offer you ready‐made templates and push‐button publishing for which you don’t have to be too tech savvy.

While there are hundreds of different providers out there, I recommend you start with either Blogger or WordPress. Blogger is very simple to use, especially for first time bloggers. WordPress (while it does have a free version, is best if you install on your own server) has its own advantages and offers a lot of features as compared to Blogger.

If you have never created a blog before then you should probably start with Blogger as WordPress is a little more complicated to install. As an added advantage Google owns Blogger so may give them a boost in the search engine rankings.

1. So first thing is to head over to Blogger and set up an account.
If you already have an account with Google (such as a gmail email account), then log in at the top, otherwise click the orange arrow that says ‘Create Your Blog Now’.

2. The second step is to choose a name for your blog. The name of your blog is going to be yourblogname.blogspot.com so try and think of a good domain name for your URL.

I think it’s a good idea to try and name your blog something that fits the theme of what you are going to write about. So if it’s scrapbooking you could name it thescrapqueen.blogspot.com or something. You can even choose your own name if you like. Of course there is nothing stopping you having more than one blog, so if you want a personal blog with your name, and a business blog with your topic that is absolutely fine!

Enter your Blog Title, your Blog web address, type in the word verification (this is there to make sure you are a real person signing up for a blog and not a computer program). And finally press continue.

3. The next step is to choose a look for your blog. Blogger has a few designs to choose from to begin with so pick one you like. You can always change this at a later date if you want so don’t worry too much if you can’t find the perfect design.

Press Continue and Voila! Your Blog has been created! Now it’s time to get posting.

Click the Start Blogging button and you will immediately be taken to a screen where you can start writing your first post.

WordPress is a little more advanced, but has many more benefits such as more control over how your blog looks, many more templates to choose from, the ability to add custom widgets, ancourse being able to place your blog on your own website so that you have full control over it.

Even though you can have a WordPress blog hosted by them, it is really recommended that if you are going to use WordPress that you download their blog files and place it on your own server.

If you want to try it, first you need some web space and you need to be able to create a database on that server. Most Internet Service Providers will allow you to do this, so check what their rules are.

It’s even better if you can have your blog listed on a top level domain with your own domain name, so instead of www.yourname.com/blog, have www.yourblog.com as the website address.

When attempting to set up your own online presence, first and foremost invest in a good web host. Choose a domain name that is relevant to the business you wish to transact online and register the domain name chosen by you with a registrar.

Once you have a place to put your blog, it’s just a matter of following the instructions that WordPress has on its site for installing it on your website.

Ok, so now that you have your blog set up. What are you going to write about?

Well obviously you can’t write directly about your company or products, but you can write about topics related to your products.

So if you are in the kids clothing business, you can mention things like which fabrics are the most durable, or what’s hot in kid’s fashion.

If you are a scrapbooking expert you can offer layouts and design ideas.

You get the idea.

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