Nothing personifies the internet like a blog. A blog of course being an online journal, organized by date and containing frequently updated information pertaining to the the blogs content. Because of their ability to broadcast information, blogs are quickly becoming a way of communication. A way to share your information with the masses. Thus the need to know how to create a blog has become pertinent.
With so many blogging options out there how do you know which option is the right one for you and your windows computer?
The first thing you need to do prior to creating a blog is to plan out what you will be writing. Know how often you will write and why people would want to read it. As silly as this may sound, if you do not have a plan the chances are you will not be successful with your blog. Once you have your plan in place then you need to decide whether you will be using various free blogging softwares and domains or if you will be creating a self-hosted blog.
Let’s start with the free blogging software and service options:
WordPress.com, blog.com or Blogger.com are probably the easiest hosting sites to use. All three of these sites will help you easily create a blog with attractive themes with their free hosting and built-in interface. They all offer extremely easy formats for creating, tracking, and posting your blogs. One of the major pluses with all of these sites is they all support third-party blog sites. Meaning you can set up and maintain a blog on your own website using one of these blog services. More information on that to follow.
Livejournal.com is another popular blog site. This site also offers free hosting and a built-in interface. This site is much more community oriented.
Next let’s move on to self-hosted blogs:
If you choose to create a self-hosted blog you will first need a domain name (yourblogsite.com) as well as a web host. While the free blogging software and service options listed above make it extremely easy for set up, you don’t actually own the content of the site. The host is in control of the blog. That being said, if the blog host randomly decides to shut down, you will not longer have your blog. This would be a huge loss.
In searching for options to self-host a blog, I have found that the best option is to use a companies like godaddy.com or websitepalace.com. These sites allow you to purchase your domain and host your site easily by following the simple site specific instructions. Their low costs a relatively the same as well. As previously mentioned the next step would be to use a site which supports third-party blogs like wordpress. Personally I like wordpress because they offer many options for making your blog more interactive and fun, as well as it is extremely easy to use.
Assuming you choose wordpress, you can then easily login to your hosting account and choose the option to “Install WordPress”. Once this step is complete the blog will be up and running on “yourblogsite.com”. You can then login to wordpress and begin blogging immediately.
Remember to have a successful blog you will need to follow your plan and stick to it. Persistence and focus will help you succeed.