Creating a Blog

Blogging Online

There are many resources online for creating a blog site. One has shiny bells, while another has roomfuls of whistles, but ultimately Google has cornered the market. Ad serving used to be a competitive market with DoubleClick pioneering the efforts to violate our privacy so that display and text ads would seem eerily similar to the content of our emails and searches.

The reason ads seem to be so relevant and personal these days is thanks to cookies. You should understand the impact of your internet settings, but that is outside the scope of this guidance, and there are plenty of resources to learn about the machine we entrust so carelessly with our every intimate detail. I will say this, these days, a word spoken in the vicinity of a running electronic device, whether phone, laptop, or others, may be recorded permanently and shared liberally. Plenty of embarrassing videos of celebs stand as proof. A picture of Arnold in his backyard revealed he doesn't work out every second of his life; other athletes already knew, but the gossip of the rivers flows endlessly.

So, blog providers ultimately are interested in one thing: money. Unfortunately, they don't plan on sharing with the bloggers that join. A popular site that rhymes with birdpress charges $100 a year for the rights to run ads; otherwise, they run ads on your blog at their discretion and the traffic you attract is money they earn for the privilege of a confusing platform with almost no options in the free version.

I like blogger, because if you really want to, you can delete the whole HTML code and place your own. I don't recommend that. Google created a pretty good standard for beginners to familiarize themselves with the rest of the online surfers, and the options are free to everyone equally, which is fair. Also, should you choose, you can apply for Adsense for free, and eventually earn money from the traffic you generate. Look for the Adsense posts in the near future. It is complex and will require other tools to be learned first.

Creating a Blog

1. Assuming you're open to www.blogger.com, then click on that link in this sentence.
   
2. Use your Gmail account created in the Intro post to log into blogger
   
   If you want to create a new account without regressing to the earlier post, just click the Create Account link at the page that displays when navigating to blogger.
   
3. Once logged in, you will see a page with an option to Create a Google+ profile or use Limited Blogger profile.
   
   I recommend creating a Google+ profile at this point, since it does the work for you and is beneficial for attracting like-minded readers to your blog.
   
   However, you can opt for the limited account and if you decide to later join the G+ communities, a post for guiding those steps is slated for this site.
   
4. Enter a display name; either your name or a pseudonym of your choosing.
   
   Keep in mind, your readers will be friends and family at first, so pseudonyms may or may not add value.
   
   Pressing continue will bring us to the page with the New Blog link in the upper left, which is our next step.
   
5. Enter any title but then enter a clever, unique, and relevant address, which will be the URI of the standard blogger URL that the world will type into the address bar to navigate directly to your site. Keep in mind, entering the URL or parts of it in a search engine will not yet display your website, no matter how unique and interesting of a name you conjured.
   
6. Select a template; avoid Dynamic if you intend to run ads, and I strongly advise the KISS approach: Keep it Simple.
   
   The Simple template surprisingly provides the most options for custom look and feel.
   
   Clicking that button below does exactly what it states; creates your new blog.
   

Customization Steps

Before you start posting to the online world, take a second to update the settings. Below are my suggestions. If you follow other guidelines, be aware of the impact of every change.

1. On the left, click on Layout.
   
1. Click the Author Profile Edit link, and then Remove in the following popup.
   
2. Click the Archive Edit link, and remove that as well.
   
3. In the Main area, under Blog Posts is an edit link; click that sneaky link.
   
4. The blog post settings are at your discretion and intuitive.
   
   I highly recommend the Show Share Buttons be selected.
   
5. Do NOT try to display ads yet; you first need an adsense account. Please be patient.
   
2. Once you save that page, find and click the Template link on the left sidebar.
   
3. Under Mobile, click the tool icon and select No at the top of the pop up. Click Save.
   
4. Click the orange Customize link to the left of the Mobile image.
   
1. Key points here are choosing a layout, adjusting widths to 1400 (recommended) sidebars should be about 250 - 300 or so, and avoiding unreadable dark sections. The Advanced link provides great control over what people see and how they perceive. Remember, users can always adjust their zoom and other options on their end.
   
2. Click Apply to Blog; then follow the link to return to blogger.
   
5. On the left sidebar, click Settings.
   
1. Basic: Entering a description and opt Yes for HTTPS. The page saves automatically.
   
2. Posts: Show at most: enter 3; Comment Location: Embedded; and I suggest Yes the others.
   
3. Email: ignore
   
4. Language: ignore
   
5. Search: Description: this a meta description for search engines to find your site, so turn it on and enter a short, relevant, unique, clever, insightful blurb describing your blog. Ignore the rest.
   
6. Other: ignore; we'll circle back.



Now you can publish your first blog post.

Happy blogging.