How to start your own blog
By Dylan Biles
Contributing Writer
So, you’ve been persuaded. You’ve read an article or two, you’ve heard people talk about them, and you’ve realized that the world will be a much better place once they are able to read what you have to say. You’ve decided that it is time for you to start your very own blog. Now it’s time for you to learn what it is that you are getting into.
HOW TO GET STARTED
To begin with, you have to choose a blogging platform. There are hundreds of software options to choose from, but most of them require a graduate degree in computer programming and Web design in order to make them function properly. Because most of us don’t know the first thing about designing our own Web pages, there are blogging Web sites which can help you create a site and make it easy. We’ll highlight three of them here:
BLOGGER
(http://blogger.com)
Blogger is easily the most popular blogging software out there, mostly because it is free. It includes a decent variety of design templates and easy access to the code so that those with some design knowledge can tweak the look of their sites. The downside is that many Blogger sites end up with a homogenous look, and are sometimes clunky and hard to load.
TYPEPAD
(http://typepad.com)
Typepad employs the award-winning blogging software Moveable Type by Six Apart, and does the heavy lifting by hosting it on their own Web sites. Typepad is a pay service, with prices ranging from $49.50/year to $149.50/year. Typically, Typepad sites are a bit sleeker looking than other sites, but accessing the code to tweak the look of your site is much more difficult. Typepad is very popular, and its popularity has caused service slowdowns.
WORDPRESS
(http://wordpress.com)
WordPress is free (for the time being). Rusty Tanton of Radicalgeorgiamoderate.org is an avid WordPress user. “The two things that make Wordpress a better choice than others,” he says, “are its outstanding design and its developer community… If you have a question, you can expect an answer more quickly from fellow Wordpress users than you would get from other user communities.”
Sites like MySpace provide blogging tools as well, but MySpace blogs aren’t widely read. Choosing a blogging software is important, but you can always change.
NOW WHAT DO I DO?
This is the easy part: Write. Write about whatever you want. The greatest thing about blogging is that the only person who can dictate what gets written on your site is you. If you’ve decided to become a blogger, chances are you already have at least a small idea what you want your blog to be about.
However, there will be times when you won’t know what to write about, but don’t panic. Take a deep breath. It’s probably because you’ve forgotten to do the most important thing a blogger can do.
READ OTHER BLOGS
Reading other blogs is more important to the life of the blogger than writing. A blog without other blogs is just a journal that you’ve made bizarrely public. Combine and connect your blog to other people’s blogs, however, and you’ve suddenly made yourself part of “The Network.”
THE NETWORK
It’s the most rewarding part of blogging. As you read other people’s blogs, they will begin to read yours. Give it some time, and I think you’ll find that something pretty spectacular has happened. What began as a little Web site, which existed as a home for your thoughts and opinions, has actually become a community, alive and vibrant.
In a post marking the first anniversary of my blog in June 2005, I wrote this: “… what made blogging addictive for me was knowing that I had an audience. Having an audience caused me to write for that audience, and my writing style developed and evolved as a result.”
That being said, you should not, under any circumstances, write your blog in order to build an audience. The illusion of blogospheric fame is enticing, but building an audience should not be your ultimate goal. Here’s why:
The audience is a byproduct of a successfully maintained blog, not the goal. Just read and write. I think you’ll find that you are more proud of the community that you are responsible for than the statistics and traffic your site pulls.
It’s a new medium, but it’s really about using the old tools. Read and write and you’ll be successful.
— Dylan Biles, a NLC student majoring in journalism, is the author of his own blog, Something Requisitely Witty and Urbane, at http://srwu.net. |
