How to Put Up a Blog

As you may know Blogging has exploded onto the scene in the past few years. Some people say that two new blogs are created ever second! Why? Because it's pretty easy to make one and start publishing anything from your diary to politicial rants.

Blogging gotten to be so pervasive that blogs will have at least as much effect on future elections as the TV News or Newspapers.  Well-known political bloggers can influence many people and will generate discussion ranging from calm to hysterical. 

So what's a blog, really? A blog (short for web log) is a website which is usually constructed as a set of entries set up in chronological or reverse-chronological order, with the most recent post at the top and older posts near the bottom.  As the blog builds more and more content, older posts are usually archived by week, month, or year. Of course, some blogs, just like any other wib sites, will have a far more complicated structure.

Learn to blog

It’s pretty easy to learn how to blog.  Actually, setting up a blog is much easier than setting up your typical website. You can do it in a few minutes and you can do it for free. Now, if you want to have a fancy, custom blog you may have to learn some html, php, and css skills. To get started, though, you don't need to do any of that.

If you want to know how to blog the best way to learn is to see for yourself what other people are doing.  First, go to Technorati.com and look at the top 100 blogs. They cover a lot of subjects and different writing styles and you can get a good idea of how people write on blogs.

Then you can go to a free blog hosting site, like blogger.com (owned by Google) or livejournal.com and make your account. It's quick, easy, and you'll be up and running in minutes. Actually, the hardest part is probably picking a name that hasn't already been taken!

While a website can be easy to do, something like blogger.com is easier, faster, better looking, and is owned by the ultimate web monster, Google.com.

You'll decide what to call your blog and then you'll have an option to choose from a number of different “templates.”  One of the nice things about blogging is that if you change you mnd later you can easily change the template and have a whole new look, without trashnig your site.

These templates determine how your blog will appear to users, from the color of the backgrounds to the size and color of the text.  When first learning how to blog it’s usually best to pick the template you like the most and stick with it, saving any tinkering for later. This let's you get up and running more quickly than otherwise.

Once your blog is setup you can start posting, usually from your own page within your host’s website (Blogger calls this the “dashboard”.)  To type up a post, all you have to do is type in the text you want to appear on the blog into the provided text box and click “Post.”  Your post will then be published on your blog; it’s as simple as that. 

Inside the blogger editor you'll be able to add hyperlinks to other pages of your blog, and other blogs, as well as photos and even video.  Many people even post their favorite YouTube videos on their blogs.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they’re learning how to blog is that they have no theme or general idea for their blog.  While you can write about whatever you want whenever you want, and many people do, most people won’t want to read it.  After all, why bother putting together a blog if nobody reads it? 

Many people, especially those learning how to blog for the first time, decide to setup personal blogs which work as online diaries. Frustrated with the current political scene? Put your own point of view on your own blog. Like tech? Write about tech. Want to get paid for it? Go to a site like Problogger.com and do what he tells you to do.

Online diary type blogs can be especially helpful for people who are traveling or moving away, since they allow friends and family to know what you’re up to.  Some friends of ours moved to Central America, but they post to a blog and we can follow their adventures.

Whatever you use your blog for, it won’t take long to setup, learn how to blog, and start posting away.