Determine a theme: Most bloggers take one of three approaches. Some write on whatever happens to interest them at the moment. In this sense, their blog is truly a “web journal.” They write whatever they like (but actually blogs are made for that only). Others, select a single theme and stick to it. Frankly, this takes a lot of discipline. Still others, like me, focus on a primary theme but occasionally deviate from it. If you want to develop a following of loyal readers, I think the latter two approaches are best. People who have similar interests will keep coming back for more.
Select a service: Some of the free services are Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, Blog-City.com, Blog.com, Blog.co.in and MSN Spaces (also Xanga.com). Others charge a nominal fee. Examples include SquareSpace.com, BlogIdentity.com, and Bubbler.com (also TypePad.com). However, even the fee-based services usually offer a 30- to 60-day free trial. But what I suggest here is first try out a free service and after a few months if you feel that now you have become a proper blogger who nutures his/her blog religiously you can go for some paid services. For the time being I am also using Blogger.
Set up your blog: Most of the blogging services I have looked at make this a very simple process. Don’t be put off because it sounds technical.It usually isn’t. The tools available are inexpensive and very easy to use. They make publishing to the Web simple for anyone, even if they can't spell HTML. You won’t need to become a geek. However, you will have to make some decisions about how you want your blog to look. You’ll have to decide on a “theme,” meaning the colors, number of columns, and the overall look and feel of your blog. You may want to include your picture. If so, you’ll need a digital copy. Regardless, this is something you can tweak as you go. So, the easiest way to understand things is to make your own blog, as this will not cost you anything and you will get a feel of your own blog...So lets start...
Currently, the most popular tool for creating and maintaining a blog is Blogger, part of the ever-expanding Google empire. All you need to get started is an Internet connection (even dial-up works well), 15 minutes, and something to write about. The service is free and can be accessed from just about anywhere.
Getting started with Blogger is a three-step process. First, you need to create a Blogger account. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and click the button to Create Your Blog Now.
The system will ask you to create a user ID, which must be unique in the system, and a password. You'll also need a display name for yourself (put some funky or very decent name for yourself depending on the type of blog you are planning to start) and a valid e-mail address.
The final step is to select the appearance of your pages. There's no reason to sweat over this part right now. During the initial setup, Blogger gives you a small choice of templates for your page design. You can choose a new one from a larger selection at any time. If you understand a little about HTML and cascading style sheets, you'll have the option later to modify your page in many different ways.
Click the button and in a few seconds your new blog will be ready to go. Now comes the hard part:
Writing your first post: Write your first post. Okay, now you’re ready to create your first post. If you haven’t done a lot of writing, this may prove to be the most difficult part. If you don’t have a lot of experience, keep your posts short. Develop momentum. Get the hang of it. Stick to what you know. You probably take for granted the fact that you have a great deal of specialized information that others will find helpful—possibly even fascinating. If you don’t know where else to start, begin with a “Welcome to My Blog” post. Tell your prospective readers why you have started your blog and what kinds of things you intend to write about.
After completing the setup process, and whenever you log in to Blogger in the future, you'll arrive at the Dashboard. While there's a lot of information on this page, essentially there are two things you can do at this point: write a new post or change your settings. You could also set up another blog associated with your account, but one should be enough for right now.
For the first time when you create a blog you are directly taken to "Posting" tab, "Compose" and you get an interface that looks more like your word processor, and even includes a spell checker.
Give your post a title, type what you want to say, and click Publish Post. In a few seconds, your thoughts are out on the Web for everyone to read. You can always go back and edit or delete them later, but considering the speed of the Web, review your words carefully before you click the button.
There is so much more to the world of blogging and many more features to personalize your blog in Blogger. This, however, should be enough to get you started. Now, it's time to think about creating your wiki. Don't think too, the easiest way to learn about blogging is to startup your own blog.
In my next post I will write about the different settings you can do for your blog, different layouts and all other stuffs till then you get the feel of creating a blog of your own. Do give me your valuable feedback, comments and suggestions... Till then .. Happy Blogging!!!
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