How To Become A Blogger in 5 Easy Steps

So you have ideas, skills, or a product that you are anxious to let the whole world know about?  Or perhaps you would just like to keep your friends and family update on your life events through a nice web portal.  Becoming a blogger can be a bit daunting, especially if you are not an experienced web professional.  This article will attempt to line out the steps involved to become a blogger, with no professional experience needed.

1. First, you should decide on your medium. Yes, there are literally hundreds of ways to get your blog on the internet.  Blogger, Livejournal, Facebook, Myspace all offer free blogging tools to get your site online.  There are several disadvantages to choosing a service like this to host your blog.
   1. No customization or limited customization. Often times with these services you do not have the ability to customize the look, feel, and functions of your blog.
   2. Getting lost in the shuffle. These sites will often have sloppy links or complicated links that do not look professional on a business card and are difficult to remember.
   3. Links to other people’s blogs or sites. For some this is not an issue, but if you are talking about a product or would like to keep your readers perusing your site, these links to ads or other people’s blogs can be a distraction your goal.

   The good thing is, there are many low cost web hosting services available that can meet and exceed your needs so you do not have to use one of these services.

2. Choose a domain name. If you have leaned away from the free and somewhat unprofessional blog providers, it is time to pick a name that will uniquely identify your site.  Many people choose their name as a domain name if their blog is of a personal nature, like thomasjones.com or sallysmith.com .  However, if your blog is about a product or service, you should choose the domain name accordingly like tipstosavemoney.com or greatwindowssoftware.com.  Many low cost web hosting services can actually register this domain for you or you may visit an independent domain registrar such as godaddy.com or networksolutions.com.  These registrars tend to be a little bit more expensive for a domain name than low cost web hosting services will charge you.  In fact, some discount web hosting companies even offer a free domain when you sign up for their services.  Domain names are purchased in year-increments and you are currently allowed to purchase up to 9 years at a time.
3. Chose an affordable web hosting provider. There are literally thousands of low cost web hosting services available today.  Since your goal is to become a blogger it is best to seek one of the low cost web hosting services that offers all of the following features:
   1. Fantastico.  This is a piece of software installed on a server that enables 2-3 click installation of many popular pieces of software.  For example, most budget web hosting companies that offer Fantastico will have an option to install WordPress.  WordPress is a very popular piece of blogging software that is completely customizable.  Fantastico makes installing WordPress onto your server a snap!
   2. SQL databases.  Most blogging software requires SQL databases to work properly.  Generally, this is something you will never even know about if you are using Fantastico, but bloggers definitely need some type of database to store their posts.  Most quality low cost web hosting services will offer SQL databases with all of their packages.
   3. Support.  Things happen.  Should your site go down, you want to make sure there is someone to call.  Some low cost web hosting services try to cut costs by offering little to no support.  See that your affordable web hosting provider offers some type of support, whether it be in the form of email, tickets, or telephone support.
4. Design Your Blog. Once you have WordPress (or other software) installed, decide what you would like customized in the layout and functions of the blog.  The home site for these blogging tools (such as wordpress.org) often have many themes (layouts) and plugins (functions) pre-made for you to download and utilize.  If you would like more than these sites can provide, you might want to seek advice from a web professional.  Contact your low cost web hosting provider to see if they have any recommendations for web designers that specialize in your blogging tool.
5. Start Blogging! It’d be a good idea to make a roadmap of the topics you would like to cover while blogging, so that your blog is organized in a logical way that is easy for your user’s to understand.  Once you are comfortable with the tools and software, contact low cost web hosting services to see if they have any recommendations on search engine optimization vendors/professionals so that you can get your blog found!