Blogging For Beginners

Hey, we all gotta start somewhere. One of the reasons why I left my last couple jobs was due to the fact that, despite having written so much about the company and stuff, I've hardly done any writing for myself. And man, did I have a lot of stuff to vent back then!

Anyway, I only started blogging last March- totally inspired after an invigorating trip from Singapore. Yeah, I've had a few friends who have already been regular bloggers at the time, but other than that- I have had no experience at blogging at all.

A friend of mine gave me a few tips to help me start out (thanks Gabby! -you can check out her blogs here). I now include those tips here, together with some of mine.

Later on, after setting up my first few blogs, I've ran into other bloggers- some a lot more into serious than me, others more casual- you really get all kinds, you know?

Blogology 101

Blogs start off with the idea of putting your thoughts online- think of a blog as a diary, a notebook, a bulletin board, a review column, a collection of media, or any mix thereof. The beauty is that it can be pretty much anything you want it to be.

Many people write for various reasons. Traditionally bloggers write for the purpose of informing and communicating. But a lot of bloggers do so because it makes for a great outlet to get creative, go crazy, or get into an experimental mindset.

It's great for socializing- think of it as setting up a room online where others can visit you, and from which you can also visit others. Be a good neighbor, and you can see others be good to you and your blog when they drop by too.

So how does one start getting in on the Blogging Bandwagon?

Setting Up Your Blog Empire

For starters, let's set up your blog. I would suggest you make use of free blog services like Blogger, Wordpress or LiveJournal.

Blogger/Blogspot is a great blog service to start with, being extremely user-friendly, simple to use, and allows you a number of widgets (nice little applications you add on to your basic blog).

Wordpress is also good, allowing you more applications to play with. While not as easy to use as Blogspot, it looks a great deal sharper and more professional. Also, if you plan to go professional, there's a pretty good chance you might be using the Wordpress interface, so you might as well get used to it now.

LiveJournal is great because, while it has the most simple features compared to Blogspot and Wordpress, it seems to allow you the greatest deal of privacy- so you can choose who gets to view your blog.

Later on, when you've gained more experience and think you can handle your own hosted domain, you could choose to do so.

Good luck, and let me know how your blogs turn out!

Cheers!