The Best Way to Start a Blog

So you've been pondering a weblog. All of these ideas keep popping into your head, but something keeps you from starting that blog. Maybe it's because the process is a bit intimidating. Or maybe you just can't "picture" how it will be in your mind. Or, as many of us are, you're afraid of putting yourself and your thoughts out there, whether they are personal or business related, or somewhere in-between.

As they say, the first step is often the hardest, and it's not different here. So what is the first step? Just get a blog. Forget how it looks - it doesn't really matter. It can always be changed. Nobody's going to start flocking to your blog just because it's there, so just start doing it, and then let people know about it when you're at your comfort level. And just be yourself - if you try to write like somebody else, you'll never get as much writing done.

Where to Get a Blog

The easiest, cheapest, and fastest way is to get a Blogger account, which is owned by Google. You're very limited as far as design goes, and you won't get your own domain name (rather, it'll be like http://yourname.blogspot.com) - but that's not the issue. The issue is to get started. Once you're going, you can either keep it up there or export your blog and take it elsewhere.

If you or somebody you know is comfortable with uploading files to a web server, you can get a free copy of WordPress and use it on your own domain name. Or, you can get a WordPress-friendly host that has WordPress already installed and ready to use, or get up and running immediately with a free account at wordpress.com (similar to blogger) - with many of these setups, you can get your own domain name too.

This site is running WordPress. Even though I'm a web developer that tends to write content management systems, there's no need to reinvent the wheel sometimes. WordPress is primarily designed for blogging, and that's all I wanted to do. As of this writing, I'm still using the default WordPress template, which is fine but not really my style. But you know what? I'm writing again. I'll give it a face-lift later.