Blogging: How to get Going

I have assisted a number of individuals in getting started as bloggers, and I can tell you from this experience that they are quite often intimidated by the prospect and seem to let the slightest obstacle upset them to the point where they nearly quit. But really, you can learn how to be a blogger in a very short period of time, typically a few hours or less depending on the level you wish to proceed at. Your first step is deciding which kind of blog, or web log, you wish to launch. You will generally want a business, news or personal blog. If want the latter, then one of the blog freebies' services such as blogger or myspace will be adequate.

In this case you simply sign up for a free account, choose the name for your blog, choose a template (this part is self explanatory. Generally you just point and click your selection among several possible choices) and perhaps choose a "skin" which is sort of like a background or wallpaper.

Then you simply start posting. Although this is one of the easiest steps, some people have difficulty here because they cannot find the button. It is different on a lot of different blogs but it often is identified as 'Creat Post' or 'Create Blog' but it can occasionally be different. You will know you found it when a blank screen with a subject line pops up, much like an email form.

If you are starting a business web log, and you would like to use a free blog, you may want to go with Blogger because they are easily integrated with Google Adwords and you can post your blog entries directly to your website if you choose. They also allow for an unlimited number of posts. If you don't mind spending a little bit of money for your business blog then I would probably recommend Moveable Type or Type Pad but there are several other good ones depending on your specific business needs. These services generally offer another level of flexibilty and sophistication, elements which are not always needed by the novice blogger.

If you are planning on starting a news blog, there are a number of free services which will probably be adequate for most beginners. http://www.blogeasy.com/ has many of the same flexible features offered by blogger, and I really like http://www.blogsome.com/ as well. Some of these and other free blog services will allow you to have newsfeeds connected to your blog while virtually all of them will allow you to publish your own RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed, which is the one essential ingredients for a news sites and for many business blogs as well.