How To Blog?
“Is that how does one blog”? or is it “this is a blog of how to stuff”?
If I start with the topic of “how does one blog”, then I still leave my options open for the later. (i.e. other “how to stuff”). With a domain name like askdanblackburn.com it makes sence to make almost all of the posts that I make here about “how to do something”. So I guess that you could say that this is… or at least it will be, a “How To Blog”.
So how do you blog? If you want to learn how to blog, where do you start? And before I start, am I really qualified to tell you how to blog?
The answer to that question is probably not! I am not a successful blogger, I am not even that good a writer. I know how to blog, how to set up a blog, the different blogging platforms that are available and the various options available to anyone who wants to learn how to blog. I’m not claiming to be some “blogging Guru”, I just want to share what I know about how to set up blog.
I’ll use videos where ever I can in these post about how to blog and I’ll try to make it as interesting as possible for you. I hope you enjoy reading it. You’ll find every post in this “how to blog” series if you click “how to blog” in the tag cloud on the right sidebar.
If you are interesting in learning how to set up your own blog, then it can’t hurt to read what I have to say. You may learn something, I’m not asking for anything, and I am not making any promises. I’m not saying that if you read this you will start making thousands of dollars per day from your blog. However, I would like to think that if you do read this entire series, then you will feel that you got something that I should have charged you for. I hope so anyway.
Here’s what I have learned about how to blog.
There are many blogging platforms available and many options open to the blogger. There are many places online where you can create a free blog. WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Posterous are 4 of the best known, but you’d be surprised just how many places that there are where you can set up a free blog. Click here for a list of 24 places where you can set up a blog for free.
In all my time working online (which I can honestly say dates back to “pre-blog” days), the only blogging platform that I have ever used seriously is self hosted WordPress. The script is free other than hosting costs and it’s very easy to install and use.
However, if you are wanting to set up a lot of blogs, then TypePad Unlimited could me more cost effective. For just $14.97 per month you can set up unlimited blogs, each with it’s own domain name! (1 gig of traffic provided at this price, see other costs). Or if you are really serious, check out FirePow
Personally, I have never used TypePad, but it would not be right to write anything about how to blog, without at least mentioning TypePad. (and moveabletype). MoveableType is the blogging platform that powers TypePad. You can download it for free and install it on your own domain (just like WordPress). It is a leading blogging platform which I may start using in the near future. (If not only to add more content to this series of “how to blog” posts).
For now, the only blogging platform that I can tell you how to use is self hosted WordPress, because it is the only one that I have used seriously. (I told you that I was no blogging guru). Other free blogging platforms that you can download and install on your server include ExpressionEngine,Joomla, and Drupal.
WordPress do offer free blogs. But to me, free blogs are for getting traffic and back links, not for running a “main site”, however if your only option is to set up a free blog, then I recommend that you go with *Blogger.com
If you are serious about setting up a blog then to me, paying for hosting is the only way to go. You can pick up a starter hosting package from HostGator for less than $5 per month. Anyone can make $5 per month from a blog. Even if all you do is Adsense. Normally you cannot display your own ads on a free blog (*blogger excepted).
So I guess this how to blog series has now turned into a how to use WordPress series, or at least that is what I will cover first. In the next post I will show you how to install WordPress and give you the list of plugins that I use on my blog. If you would like to be notified when this next post becomes available, you can subscribe the the main blog feed here or the feed of this blogging series by clicking here.
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