How to Start a Blog

The art of blogging has sparked your curiosity as you find yourself scrolling your sister’s blog on her family. Your husband’s blog on photography, mother’s blog on gardening, best friend’s blog on psychology and son’s blog on rap music are all inspiring you to put your own creative juices to work. How would you be able to do this, though, with everything you have to do in the day? Who will run the errands, do the chores, and cook the meals? It can be done, and if you choose to, you can make a profit. I’ll show you how.

First, you need to choose a blog site. I prefer Blogger for my blog. This is a free site, and has a lot of features that I like about it. For instance, you can post anything you want on your blog–including text and videos. You can add your own pictures and add captions. If you don’t like the templates they provide, then feel free to customize your own. Readers are also allowed to follow your blog, and you’ll receive an update each time they comment or join your feed. If you’re on the go, it allows you post from your cell phone and even has the opportunity for a group blog.

Similar to Blogger is Xanga, but Xanga is different in many ways. While it is a blogging site, it’s a social blogging site. What this means is that authors of blogs are able to join web rings, add people to their friends lists, and generally have a larger reading audience. The same features of Blogger apply–text, videoes, audio, pictures–and in addition, Xanga always lets you customize your blog site.

If you choose to start a blog with LiveJournal, keep in mind that this is a journal instead of a blog. Users can still see what you post, but you’re given security settings to avoid what you don’t want others to see. With blogging sites, you are not always given this option. Similar to the prior two, you have a user biography to describe your interests and are able to make friends by subscribing to their blogs. However, with any of these and other ones, keep in mind that what you put out on the Internet is fair game to present and future employers, family, friends, and everyone else.

Once you have a blog account open, then it’s time to choose a niche for your blog. Think about your passions and what interests you. Would you be able to commit to writing about this everyday or a few times a week? If you don’t know what to write about, there are always ways to find ideas. You can talk to friends, do some reading, or surf the Internet for a fresh idea to draw readers into your latest post. Make your something fascinating to you, and it will become real to your readers. One of my favorite type of blogs to read are travel photography blogs. It makes me dream of places I can go see, and I find the pictures fascinating.

If you’re looking to make money from your one or many blogs, then let’s talk some green. Google AdSense is probably the most popular revenue-service around for blogs. The basic theory is this: Each time someone clicks on ads Google listed on your blog page, you make some revenue. The catch 23 is that the more you write, the more money you’ll make. There are also pay-per-post affiliate programs that pay bloggers per blog post. Similar to AdSense, you have to write and update your blog daily or at least weekly to make any serious money. Third, you can blog with your company. Many companies are moving towards the digital age, and are looking for employees who know Adobe software for Macs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Final Cut, or even Office Publisher. All these software names contribute to blogging, and some may have Windows versions.

Next, you make want to add widgets to your blog. For any website you have your writing on, there might be a widget you can add to your site. A widget is an application that is either a game, weather/time, search engine, and so on. Too many of these can clutter up your blog and drive visitors away. Be careful how many you post and avoid the annoying ones.

You may also want to vary topics in your postings. If you usually post text, throw in a video, poll, or other random type of post for your readers. Maybe ask your readers their opinion on your niche. For example, if you quilt, have your readers send in pictures of their quilting projects. You could combine them into a post, or a series of posts. You may be surprised what you find out, and may make friends in the process!

Finally, submit your blog to search engines. Do a search similiar to “free url submission to multiple search engines.” Some of these search engines will submit your site to 20+ sites for free. Others charge less that $5 to post to more than that, but why should you pay? The more exposure you give your blog, then the more readers you’ll have. The more writing you do, the more people will read your blog. Keep in mind that you have more readers than comments, and when you stop writing–they’ll stop coming. It’s a two-way process that’s being done, and you may have some loyal readers.