Blogging is pretty mainstream these days, with just about everyone starting a blog. For those uninitiated but curious, I thought I’d put together this free guide/tutorial which might prove useful in learning how to make a blog or rather how to create a blog.
What is a blog?
Blog is short for weblogs – a method used in the early days of the internet, of logging web pages that the user/author found interesting in his journey around the world wide web. Other users of the internet would land on a person’s blog and see the various pages documented. Usually these would be of a particular subject and so would prove to be a useful resource for someone with similar interests.
This would add value to the websites included in the blog since it meant they were relevant to the topic/subject as deemed by the author of the blog or ‘bloggers’ as they came to be known.
A blog, therefore is a website that has pages with information added to it on a fairly regular basis – called posts. These ‘posts’ will usually have dates of entry included and will also be arranged in reverse chronological order i.e. latest posts first.
A blog can consist of an author’s views, opinions or observations. It’s like an online journal or diary with entries shared with internet users to read and possibly comment on.
Why start a blog?
Blogging is for everyone! Anyone and everyone can be a blogger.
A blog gives you a voice on the internet. You probably have interests or are passionate about a subject or topic and possibly have knowledge about it. Starting a blog is one way of sharing it with the world.
Your blog may be about a hobby that you indulge in or may even document your travels in the real world. There are umpteen travel blogs, fashion blogs and even baking blogs online. Your blog can provide tips and tricks or other personal insights on your chosen subject, whatever it might be.
Parents (and sometimes grandparents) have blogs that document their children’s (or grandchildren’s) lives, sharing anecdotes and photos at various stages of their growth for friends and family across the world to follow.
You can even have a blog about writing! Blogging is an excellent way of improving one’s writing skills and expressing oneself. A popular blog in New Zealand on politics is kiwiblog.co.nz. Other examples are a technology blog and a blog on internet safety.
How to create a blog?
Creating a blog can be exciting. Dozens of ideas fill your mind as you realise the possiblities seem almost endless. However, before setting out to create a blog it’s best you ask yourself a few questions.
Ask yourself “What’s my blog going to be about?” – is it going to be a general blog about daily life and my thoughts and views or a fashion blog about my taste in clothes. Or maybe it’ll be a hobby blog, about cooking/baking/sewing or a fan blog about my favourite actor/actress.
This then leads to the next question – “What am I going to call my blog?”. You’d need to come up with a name/title for your blog and possibly even a tag line. For example, ” Sally’s sewing – tips for fancy needlework” or “Rob’s recipes – successful experiments in the kitchen”.
It would be useful to have the demographic of a potential reader of your blog at the back of your mind. Would you define them as female in their forties or fifties or single males maybe in their thirties? This is just a general guess of course and definitely not limited to the ones in mind. Still, it would help to have some sort of an idea in your head to know who you’d be writing for.
Then you would need to consider how often you’d be able to ‘post’ to your blog. Do you have enough topics/subject material to add every other day, or weekly on the weekends maybe, or will it have to be fortnightly.
After having spent some time considering the questions above, you’ll be in a better position to move on to how to start a blog. Now let’s get started!