Setting Up Your First Blog Thing
Here it is.. the abosulte beginning. How to start a blog.
This will focus on the actual set up, not tell you what to write or how to write. There are a million blogs that go into that and we’ll save that subject for another time. First you need a ‘platform’. I chose WordPress because it is widely used, stable and expandable. There are many other platforms to consider such as Blogger, Movable Type or TypePad and countless others. Try googling ‘Blogging Software’ and see for yourself. I am using a self install of WordPress and hosting it on my own server.
The easiest way to set up a blog is getting a free account at a place like Blogger.com and you choose a nice name for the subdomain… ie mycoolsite.blogger.com. But most will want your own domain name, especially if your goal is to try to turn a buck from your site. For hosting I reccomend Blue Host. They will set you up with a domain and everything you need to have your own website. They have one-click installation of WordPress along with many other self installing popular packages. Nice Job. Definately the way to go. Try them.
If you already have a website you will need it to be php enabled and have access to a MySQL database to install WordPress. Download the package from WordPress.org and read the README file that comes with it. All you have to do is edit the config file to tell it about your database and you are off. Upload it to your website and run the install.
Next i went to a WordPress Themes page and downloaded a theme for my blog. Eventually I will make a custom template but templates are an effective way to get a good looking site up and running quickly.
There you have it. With this info you should be able to create you own blog.
Of course if you have your own website you probably know how to do most of this stuff, but this is a blog about my experience.