Blogging is not for everyone. If you don't enjoy writing, or at least communicating, I don't believe you will enjoy blogging and I don't believe that you will stick with it. You might as well use a totally free service while you find out. There are many free blog hosting companies.
One more note about getting started: if you are doing this to make a lot of money, just stop right now. It's not worth it. You might as well cut grass or deliver papers. At least that's guaranteed income. Some people do very well but most people how make any money at all are just making enough to pay for their hosting.
Now on to choosing a blog provider. I chose blogger.com way back when because it was the first one I found. Wordpress.com did not yet exist. As a matter of a fact, many of the sites that exist now did not exist then.
If you go to google and search on "free blog host", you will get millions of hits. There are a few very popular sites and you should probably start with one of those unless you have a specific reason to go somewhere else (like some friends already have sites or something).
The biggies are (completely free):- Blogger.com - extremely easy setup, be up and running in minutes, very liberal policies on advertising and such.
- Wordpress.com - extremely easy setup, be up and running in minutes, no advertising unless you pay for it.
- Yahoo! 360 - Free blog from one of the giants. New service. Expect excellent integration with other yahoo services.
- Microsoft Live Spaces - Web environment from Microsoft. Ties in with Microsoft Live Office. You can get a free domain name and web hosting via the Office Live Basics package.
I'll cover sites that require payments in the future. As I said above, I chose blogger.com and have been fairly happy. It is somewhat limiting in that I don't have full control over the site (like accessing root), but I do have access to the html for my blog so that works for me.
In the near future, I will also cover sites that let you easily build a web presence outside of a blog. Where you can get aBecause I chose blogger, when I start covering things like customization and widgets, the specifics will apply to a blogger.com blog. The basics will cover any blog but the actual details of the implemntation will be specificallt for blogger.
Now, I recommend that you browse the web sites I mention above and see which one suits your fancy. If you want to, go ahead and create a blog on each and see which one works best for you. It's free and you really want to find a site that fits your needs and wants.Good luck and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. There is a comments button right below this post. I check comments frequently.
LewisC
Do you recommend a good web site/address for FAQs about Blogger? I started a blog about a month and a half ago, and am ready to ramp it up a bit. There are a few things that I want to edit, but don't know how. For example, when my blog is emailed out, I don't know how to create the "title" of the daily blog so people can click on it and take them to that post. Of course, now that I am typing this question, I am going to try to insert a hyperlink into a typed title. That still does not help me create a "blog title" section like I see on MANY other Blogger emails. Thank you for any help. I would also like help accessing a help site on designing a cute Blog Title. Italics and color are not enough for me anymore. :-)
ReplyDeletethx again, hurley
hurleythurston.blogspot.com