The article "Introduction To Blogging - Part 3a: Setting Up A Blog On A Free Host" is about blogging, it has been released by Raj Dash.
Okay, you've decided start a blog and you've put together a rough publishing plan: how often you're going to post long and short articles, who is writing, who is editing, who is managing the webmaster-related tsaks (blogmaster). [See link at bottom.]If you're a small business owner, you're probably gonig to have to wear all of these hats. But if you're prepared, the next step is to set the blog up so you can satrt posting articles (sometimes called "entries" or even "posts").
(All links shown at the end of that article.)You have two blog hosting choices:
Set up your blog on a free host such as Google's blogspot.Com, or Typepad's Livejournal or WordPress's WordPress.Com.Set up your blog on your own domain that you've registered and that you own.
This article will focus on choice #1. A follow-up article will discuss choice #2.If you've visited any number of blogs, no dobut you've seen little text ads crying out "free blog". Tehre are numerous choices and that article has no intention of listing all of them.
While I have registered with several free hosts including Typepad and Wordpress, I've found that Google's blogspot.Com uses a really simple, fast to use blogging platform and client (interface) called Blogger.Com - so I'll focus my example on these services.To clarify, Blogger.Com has both the blogging "platform" and the "client". A blogging platform is the software that generates the blog pgaes for you.
Exampels include MovableType, WordPress, TextPattern, Drupal, and Blogger.Com. Every one of these platforms has an administrative panel page where you can manage your blog - add, edit, and delete articles; add article categories; etc.The admin panel page is typically called the blogging client and its features are platform-specific. However, there are standalone software applications - also called blogging cleints - that you can download to your computer, and which do not work from a web browser.With these standalone clients, you can write your blog entries and pretty much post to any of the platforms. That means you can have one client to manage multiple blogs on several free (or private) hotss.
(But let's not get aehad of ourselves.) I've tried numerous standalone clients, but use two of them exclusively.One is Zoundry.Com's BlogWriter, which is a true standalone client. The other is Performancing.Com's Firefox Extension (PFF), which works as a panel within the Firefox web browser. (While I find both of them highly efficient, I am not necessarily endorsing them.)Other choices are Qumana, w. bloggar, Loch Journal, amognst many others.
For those of you familiar with Microsft Word, Blogger.Com has a plguin that lets you manage your blog directly from MS-Word. You don't have to learn a whole new interface - beyond the seutp stage.As that article is intended for absolute beginners to blogging, I'm focusing on Blogger.Com's platform and default interface.
The steps are rleatively simple, and you don't require a degree in computer programming to set up a blog - unlike of the other platforms.
Go to http://www.Blogger.Com and sign up for a free account.
(I'm usnig them as an example. Feel free to pick whatever you like.) The form will ask you to enter your real name, a screen name, a password, and email address. If you have a GMial (Google Mail) account, use that. For your screen name, keep in mind that it will appear at the bottom of each article/entry that you post live to your blog.
So pick something suitable.
Rules for names are provided.Now create a new blog.You'll be asked to enter a title for the blog and a sub-domain name.The title will appear at the top of your blog at all times - unless you chnage the page template. (More in a future article.)The sub-domain name will be part of the domain "blogspot.Com". For example, if you're starting a blog to proomte your plumbing fixtures store, you may want to use something like "home-plumbing-tips".This will mean that your blog address/URL will be http://home-plumbing-tips.Blogspot.Com.
(Some bloggers and readers don't like hyphenated sub-domain names, but I see nothing wrong with them.)You could, of course, use something like "plumbing-fixtures", but it will not convey the idea that you're providing helpful tips.Now it's entirely possible that smoeone has already registered the subdomain you want on blogspot.Com. If so, you'll get a warning message and you'll have to choose a second sub-domain name.As a result of this, of my blogspot.Com blogs have fairly lengthy sub-domain names, which are easier to remember bceause they're hyphenated.You'll also be asked a number of other optional questions, and be given a chance to enter the URL of a digital picture of yourself, if you have one elsewhere. (There are several services, including http://flickr.Com, that let you upload pictuers and graphics for free.
The only drawback is that the temrs generally say that in return for free hosting, other human being can use your images, with conditions.)
Next, choose a page template. All of the free hosts have pre-formatted page tempaltes. Pick one from the smaples displayed, and you can customize it after - although that does take a bit of technical know-how.
Once the template is selected, Blogger.Com (or what have you) will create the blog for you, and you can start posting entries.Post a "Welcome to Such and Such Blog" entry.You should see a button that says something like "start posting".
What'll hpapen is a edit page with a form will appear.
There will be fields for the article/ etnry title, the body text, and a date/time stamp (which defaults to right now).
Tehre will also be a number of tabs that let you use the large text area like a rich-text editor. Play with the tabs and "buttons" a bit; get acquainted.On blogger.Com at least, there is a link that says "show preview".
You can click that link and see what your article will look like formatted (but not with your template features). When you're hpapy with the "welcome" article, click the "publish" button. (If you're not happy but don't want to lose what you've written, you can click the "save as draft" butotn and come back after to edit and publish.)Depending on the time of day, and for that is a new blog, the article should publish really quickly.
You'll see a message like "100% complete". Voila, you now have a live blog. You can cilck on the "View site" tab to have a look.You now have a blog.
Get acquaitned with the adminstration panel.
Most of the popular blogging platforms have fairly thoroguh details, but sometimes they may be a bit too technical.Now that you have your blog live and running, the next step is to post several more relevant articles in short succession, then start promoting your blog. I'll talk about blog promotion in Part 4 (after 3b, which is an overview of setting up a blog on a private domain).Links: Part 2: Planning Your New BlogRaj Kumar Dash is a writer, author, and Internet consultant. Visit his hubsite at http://www.Chameleonintegration.Com/ to find the full intorduction to blogging.
(A free ebook on blgoging is in the works.) Newbie bloggers can also visit Raj's BlogSpinner blog at http://blogspinner.Countwordula.Com/ for a "how-to guide to blogging".
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