Starting a Blog

Photo by woodsy

Why Should You Start A Blog?

Here are a few reasons I have thought of:

• To share your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and experiences - Through your blog you can keep people up to date with what is happening in your life. You can tell the world what you believe and what you think about things.
• To connect with people and make new friends, contacts, and acquaintances - A blog can be a great way to meet new people. From the people that comment on your posts to other bloggers, your blog can facilitate you meeting new people in virtually any field that you are interested in.
• To make money - Your blog can also be a way to generate some passive income and thus get you to be a little less reliant on your job. It can help to give you the freedom to do the things you want to do when you want to do them.

But, no matter what your reason is for starting a blog, always make sure that you are dedicated to providing content which your readers will love to read, otherwise, no matter what your reason for starting a blog, it will not succeed.

Ok, I’ve Got My Reason, What Do I Do Now?

The next step is to decide if you want to host your own blog or have it be hosted by someone else. If you don’t want to pay anything and don’t mind not having your own unique URL then you should get one that is hosted by someone else. Here is a list of ones that you can get free:

• Blog.com
• Blogabond
• Blogger
• Blogonize
• Blogster
• GreatestJournal
• Live Journal
• Open Diary
• Stagepaper
• Vox
• Wordpress.com

These just require you to sign up and you can start posting to your blog. If, however, you want to host your own blog and have it on your own website then you will first need to register a domain name and get some hosting. I would recommend godaddy.com for registering your domain name and you can find a list of hosting sites here. Once you get registered and get hosted it’s time to choose a content management system (CMS), following is a list of CMSs you can get for free:

• AdaptCMS
• Apache Lenya
• b2evolution
• BLOG:CMS
• blosxom
• Bricolage
• CMSimple
• Cyclone 3
• Daisy
• DotNetNuke
• Drupal
• e107
• eZ Publish
• Exponent
• Jahia
• Joomla
• Lyceum
• Mambo
• MODx
• Movable Type
• Nucleus CMS
• OpenCms
• phpWCMS
• phpWebSite
• Plone
• PostNuke
• Radiant
• Serendipity
• SilverStripe
• TangoCMS
• Textpattern
• Typo
• WordPress
• XOOPS
• XOOPS Cube

Out of all of those I would recommend WordPress, possibly just because it’s the one I use, but I do find it very easy to use. I can’t say about any of the other as I haven’t tried any of them. Once you have chosen a CMS to use the next step is to install it on the server that is hosting your site. To do that just follow the directions on the website of your chosen CMS and if you have any problems contact your hosting provider and they should be able to help you.

After you have installed the CMS the next step is to make your site look good by getting a theme for your site. There are three ways to do this: hire someone to create a custom theme specifically for you, create a theme yourself (requires the knowledge of html, css, and php generally), or you can search for a free theme that someone else has already created. The last option is the one I recommend and you can find the free themes by going to a search engine and typing in the CMS you are using followed by the word “themes” (e.g. “wordpress themes”).

After you have found one you like you are ready to post. Good luck with your new blog and watch for my next post tips for having a great blog.

~Chris Jones