What is a blog? ( Part 1)
A blog is short for “weblog”.
Basically, it is just a website that has entries listed in reverse
chronological order. The original idea behind it was to be a online
journal or diary that was updated daily (or as frequently as the writer
chose). Over the last decade many software programs and blogging
platforms have been created to make the process VERY EASY. As the blog
writer, depending on which platform you use, you can just type your
entry, press submit and it shows up on your blog for the world to see.
Most bloggers don’t know any programming languages and are not
“techies.” Starting a blog is one of the easiest ways out there to start
a website. If you haven’t started one yet, why not try it? It can be
very quick to set up and can be completely free.
Is it easy to start a blog?
It is very easy. Even if there are steps along the way that are
confusing, there are plenty of resources to get the help you need. There
are over 20 million blogs in existence, so it can’t be that difficult.
How much does it cost to blog?
There are many services that allow you to start a blog for free (see
below). I suggest using one of the free services to get a basic feel for
blogging and “get your feet wet.” Once you decide you want to stick
with it and that you want to make money with your blog, I suggest moving
up to a self-hosted blog (see below). Anyone who is really trying to
make money with a blog will probably be more successful with a
self-hosted blog. Getting a self-hosted blog may not be free, but still
can be VERY inexpensive. You will need to pay for nothing more than a
domain name ($10) and web-hosting (as cheap as a few bucks a month).
Getting a blogging platform
All 4 of the options listed are free. The first 3 options are the
easiest, but the are also limited on features. If you are just trying to
make an extra few hundred dollars from your blog, these options could
work. But if you are really serious about trying to make good money from
your blog, I recommend self-hosting your blog (which we talk about in
the next section…).
Tumblr.com
– This is probably the simplest blogging platform to use, but it also
is the probably the least customizeable. So, it might be something good
to start with, but it would be more difficult to build an
income-generating website with it.
Blogger.com
– Blogger is also very good, easy to set up, owned by Google, you can
customize the theme, and the domain name includes “.blogspot.com” (in
some people’s opinion a little less professional). Blogger continues to
become more customizeable and currently has a lot more options than they
did a few years ago.
WordPress.com
– I like wordpress.com they are completely free, easy to set up, you
can customize the theme, but other customizations are limited, domain
name includes “.wordpress.com”.
WordPress.org – Wait, what is the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org?
To put it simply WordPress.com is where you will go to set up a basic,
easy blog with limited features. WordPress.org is where you will go to
get a self-hosted wordpress blog. If you get to the point where you are
serious about blogging and really want to make some money with it, you
need to self-host your blog.
Further information will continue in next post.Stay tuned