1. Find A Reliable Host For Your Blog
Should you need to create and be in charge of your personal blog you will need a website
host. This means that you will have to sign up with a website hosting company that
supports the type of blog platform you want to utilize.
Prior to signing with any of these services you should just reflect on if a free blog on one
of the large blogging sites like Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous or WordPress.com would
match your requirements. These sites allow you to rapidly create a blog however you
don't have the versatility that comes with self-hosting your site.
The first aspect to consider is the domain name. You will need this when you sign-up
with a web hosting product and will have to make a decision whether to register it
through the website hosting company or with a 3rd party registrar. In terms of the day to
day management of your site it won't have any effect however, getting it registered with a
third party will most likely make it simpler to move between hosting companies in the
future, if you need to do so. Should you use the hosting company make sure that the
domain is in your name and bear in mind that even if it is free (as it is bundled with the
hosting) you will be required to pay the cost of this if you cancel the hosting, even during
the period of any money back guarantee.
You can find a variety of software you can utilize to build a blog such as Movable Type,
Textpattern or even Drupal (for larger blogs) however WordPress is the most common.
There are a large number of plugins available which means you can get your blog to
perform as you wish. There are also numerous themes available using which you are able
to make the color scheme and layout of your blog as you require. If you encounter any
issues or need something unusual you will discover lots of assistance accessible on the
web as there is a large user community.
Having decided to setup your own blog you will need hosting and you may consider
using one of the free hosts. If you are new to blog hosting I would advise against this as
there is invariably a downside to free services. You can't expect anything more than
limited support, by means of email, neither should you expect any promises regarding
uptime. Not only that but you are likely to be required to install your blog manually
which may be difficult if you do not know what you are doing.
As a result you are best served by signing up with one of the major suppliers the majority
of whom give support for blog software such as WordPress (but this does not apply to all
of them so you need to do some research). Many offer a One-Click, or at least very easy,
install which means that your blog will be up and running in just a few minutes. If you
have any difficulties they will give technical support at any time.
