Welcome back to our ongoing series, Blogging Basics, where we give you blogging tips to create a successful blog. Click the link to view all of the posts that have been published in this series to date.

If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, you’ve learned what a blog is, become familiar with basic blogging terminology, and learned blogging etiquette do’s and don’ts. Now it’s time to actually start your blog.

The first step to starting a blog is to choose a blogging platform.

By blogging platform, I mean the program that provides the foundation for your blog.

Three of the most popular blogging platforms are Blogger, WordPress.com, and self-hosted WordPress. I’ll be providing a features comparison in a few minutes. Before I do that, however, I want to help you figure out what you need in a blogging platform.

Answer the following questions:

1. Why am I blogging?
   • to create a personal space where I can write what I want
   • to create a community
   • to make a little money on the side
   • to be my primary source of income
2. Is this just a blog, or do I want information pages, too – like About, Contact, etc.
3. What is my budget for starting this blog?
4. Will I want to add features (like pages, contact forms, and more) in the future?

NOTE: If you are blogging for any reason other than to create a personal journal, I highly recommend that you purchase a domain name (like berriesandcreamblogdesign.com) as this will give your blog more credibility with your readers.

Once you’ve answered those questions, you’ll be able to make an informed decision regarding which blogging platform to choose.

Compare the Platforms

Here’s a comparison of key features of Blogger, WordPress.com, and self-hosted WordPress.

Choose Your Platform

Based on the above chart, here are my recommendations:

1. If your blog is going to be strictly personal space, I’d recommend using Blogger. It’s free, you can change the design and layout as much as you want, and you probably won’t need more than 10 pages.
2. If your blog’s purpose is anything other than personal, I’d recommend choosing the self-hosted option. You will have complete control over your entire blog and will never have to worry about limitations placed by Blogger or WordPress.com.

You may wonder why I don’t recommend WordPress.com for any purpose if it’s so popular. I simply don’t think it’s as good a choice as the other two platforms. I don’t like that you have to pay to change the design of your theme, and I don’t like that you can’t change the layout of your theme – ever. If you want a different layout, you have to choose a different theme.

Your blog will have a hard time standing out from the crowd if you are limited to using the exact same designs as everyone else.

If you want to use a custom domain name for your blog (highly recommended), you not only have to buy the domain name, but you must also pay WordPress.com for an upgrade to be able to use the domain name with your blog.

In addition to the design and domain name limitations, WordPress.com’s Terms of Service prohibit you from having ads on your blog, meaning your blog can never legally be anything more than a personal blog.

Blogger allows you much more control over your blog than does WordPress.com, and the price is the same: free. On top of that, you won’t have to pay anything to get features that WordPress.com only gives you if you pay to upgrade.

Create Your Blog

Now that you’ve decided on a platform, you are ready to start your blog.

Blogger: Go to http://blogger.com/start and sign up for your free blog.

WordPress.com: Go to http://wordpress.com/ and sign up for your free blog.

Self-hosted WordPress: There are several steps for this type of blog, but I promise it’s worth the effort.

1. Decide on and purchase a domain name. A domain name is like your house address – it’s how people find you on the Internet.Based on my experience, I recommend NameCheap for domain name purchases. You may be able to find a discount code at RetailMeNot.
2. Purchase hosting. Hosting is like your actual house. It’s the space for your belongings. In the case of a blog, it’s the space for your posts, pages, images, and other content.I personally use and highly recommend Hostgator. I have found their service to be outstanding, and their customer service reps have never been less than polite and extremely helpful.
3. Install WordPress. Many hosts, including Hostgator, have a simple way to install WordPress. Log in to your control panel and look for Fantastico, Simple Scripts, or something similar. Here’s a tutorial for using Fantastico to install WordPress.

If you need help getting started with your blog, we do offer WordPress installation services in addition to our design services.

What is your favorite blogging platform, and why?

Welcome back to our ongoing series, Blogging Basics, where we give you blogging tips to create a successful blog. Click the link to view all of the posts that have been published in this series to date.

If you want to enter the world of blogging (whether as a blogger or as a reader), it is important that you understand blogging etiquette. After all, you want to receive an “Excellent” on your blogging report card, not a “Poor,” which is what you are likely to receive if you don’t follow basic blogging rules.

In last week’s post, Blogging Basics: Etiquette (Part 1), I shared a few of the things you should do as part of the blogosphere. Today’s post will address a few things you should avoid doing as a member of the blogosphere. Again, this is by no means a comprehensive list. You are invited to share other blog etiquette “don’ts” in the comments.

Avoid the following:

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