Thread: New To Blogs, Where Should I Start?

I never once used, owned, visited or maintained a blog.

However, I would like to start.

Where could you guys lead me to so that I can successfully use and create a successful blog?

What blog specifically?

I do not need any kind of high tech or fancy blog, just something that lets me say what I want, in however many words I want, allows me to place as many text links as I want, and always me to have a signature which also allows me to place text links?

This is what I want, can anybody lead me in the right direction?

Hi,

If you want to start blogging Matt Cutts suggested to use the Wordpress.com However, Blogger.com is very easy to use. Please take note do not add too much links on your blogs/ articles because it will appear as keyword stuffing. If you want you can put your links on the blogroll.

Thanks, do you personally use these services?

Is any topic related blog allowed access, mine would be in my niche biology?

Yes, Blogger is the easiest to use, and it is getting more advanced all the time. (Wordpress is still better though.)

I would recommend Blogger to start with. You can learn a lot as you go. It may well be adequate for your needs for as long as you blog. But if it isn't, you can always import your entire blog over to Wordpress anyway.

Hey,

I am also recommend blogger.com It is easy to use and friendly.

Blogger.com, definitely the easiest, and you can also start straight away if you already have a gmail account. Otherwise, it still is super fast to set up. A bit more effort, but very easy too to set up with free hosting is Wordpress

Start doing your homework and decide on a niche to focus on. Some niches are more profitable than others. You also need to find out if your niche is profitable. However, you can focus on a really broad niche such as natural health, herbs or even cars. Just keep in mind that there will be more compeitition with broad niches. Good luck!

I would sit down and write out a hierarchy of what you want to blog about: From start to finish. If you wanted to write about frogs for instance I would write down every major sub category such as Mating, Types, Poisonous, etc. Then do categories under those main ones: Mating Frogs in Africa. Mating Frogs in Europe. Frogs that Mate all year round. etc. The point is to break every topic down to it's smallest denominator.

Originally Posted by sarahberra

Start doing your homework and decide on a niche to focus on. Some niches are more profitable than others. You also need to find out if your niche is profitable. However, you can focus on a really broad niche such as natural health, herbs or even cars. Just keep in mind that there will be more compeitition with broad niches. Good luck!

Thanks, now do these blog services have categories in which you can create your blog in?

Originally Posted by FlightCenter

I would sit down and write out a hierarchy of what you want to blog about: From start to finish. If you wanted to write about frogs for instance I would write down every major sub category such as Mating, Types, Poisonous, etc. Then do categories under those main ones: Mating Frogs in Africa. Mating Frogs in Europe. Frogs that Mate all year round. etc. The point is to break every topic down to it's smallest denominator.

Thanks, very good idea. I do not even have the blog yet so it would be good to go in with a game plan before i get lost in features and adapting to using blogs.

thanks, very helpful suggestion

The only downside with blogger is you cannot sell the site quickly should you wish to do so further down the line.

Cool, now do any of these blog services allow me to have a signature, just like the one I have here at WTF?

Blogger has a post footer that you can format to include text and/or links which will automatically be included at the end of every post. I'm sure Wordpress does something similiar.

i prefer blogger than WP.
when you have completed your blog, the first thing to do is introduce your blog in any social bookmarking site, social networking site, blog commenting and so on

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

Thanks, do you personally use these services?

Is any topic related blog allowed access, mine would be in my niche biology?

Yes, I'm using both services and you can create a blog according to your niche without any problem as long s you follow their TOS.

Blogger.com is best it will provides you several of theme to make your blog better although its giving a lots of widgets to make you blog more stylish even you can change html according to your need. TRY BLOGGER :sneaky:

Hi,

Use them all and a few more that you can find Free..They help you build backlinks to your site

:flower:

Sami

just remember that "Content is King"

i suggest wordpress.com and blogspot they are 2 of the best for start

I prefer a WP installation on a hosting server instead of wordpress.com or Blogger. Either one of them can mistake your blog for spam and terminate it. Their spam detection systems are automated and sometimes come up with false positives.

Originally Posted by vectro

I prefer a WP installation on a hosting server instead of wordpress.com or Blogger. Either one of them can mistake your blog for spam and terminate it. Their spam detection systems are automated and sometimes come up with false positives.

oh that is really good info to know thanks, would you happen to have a link to a place where I could read more about who one can host their blog on a different server besides theirs?

Thanks

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

oh that is really good info to know thanks, would you happen to have a link to a place where I could read more about who one can host their blog on a different server besides theirs?

Thanks

Hosting accounts sometimes come with Fantastico installer. With Fantastico, you can install WordPress in just a few clicks. Check if your provider already has this. If not then you would need to find a host who does.

Originally Posted by vectro

Hosting accounts sometimes come with Fantastico installer. With Fantastico, you can install WordPress in just a few clicks. Check if your provider already has this. If not then you would need to find a host who does.

ok thanks, all of that sounds really complicated lol. I am mostly sure that my current host does not offer that kind of service, because I would have already known about it.

Since I am new to the whole world of blogging, I guess for a beginner I should stick to a blog that has free hosting.

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

ok thanks, all of that sounds really complicated lol. I am mostly sure that my current host does not offer that kind of service, because I would have already known about it.

Since I am new to the whole world of blogging, I guess for a beginner I should stick to a blog that has free hosting.

What is your host's home page?

yep yep, blogger is also seo friendly something really important if you want to get your site high in the search engines.

Weebly.com is pretty easy to use, but it's also quite awesome, if you ask me. It just might serve your purpose.

Originally Posted by BiologyWebmaster

I never once used, owned, visited or maintained a blog.

However, I would like to start.

Where could you guys lead me to so that I can successfully use and create a successful blog?

What blog specifically?

I do not need any kind of high tech or fancy blog, just something that lets me say what I want, in however many words I want, allows me to place as many text links as I want, and always me to have a signature which also allows me to place text links?

This is what I want, can anybody lead me in the right direction?

Wordpress is great and rember you need to have a topic or niche you want to explore. It can be a hobby of your self or something else that interest you, then let it out on your blog, keep it updated regulary to atract readers etc..

You have very wide range to make a choice. As you said that you are beginner in blogging so you can start with wordpress.com or blogger.com. Because these both are very good and easy to use. You will find these both blogging platform are very user friendly. I have my personal experience with wordpress.com.

use blogger.com

Good content of the blog .... Visitors .... Continuously update = profit

There are some tips:-

* written a variety of different types and styles of posts
* learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
* promoted your blog in a variety of ways
* built relationships with readers
* reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
* developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
* discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
* designed a plan for the next month of your blogging

I would also recommend Blogger for starting to blog - that is where I had my first blog and getting started is really easy.

Originally Posted by vectro

I prefer a WP installation on a hosting server instead of wordpress.com or Blogger. Either one of them can mistake your blog for spam and terminate it. Their spam detection systems are automated and sometimes come up with false positives.

I think you should heed the advice above. The way you have described, your blog will definitely be classified as spam. Don't waste your time with free hosted blogs. Get paid hosting blogs is my sincere advice.