Setting Up Your First Blog in 15 Minutes

I am the proud owner of 5 blogs. Two of them get postings almost every day. The other three are waiting for their day in the sun. With all that experience, I am not an expert on setting up a blog. I am actually an amateur. However, if you are just starting out, I am the perfect person to get you started. I will also list various places you may want to visit on the web that will broaden and deepen your understanding.

1. Who to use as a host? With 50,000,000 blogs already up and running, it may not surprise you that there are lots of folks who would like you to be part of their blog hosting program. The largest is Blogger. You'll notice that my site is a Blogger site. If you click on the little blogger thing up in the left corner, it will take you to a place where you can register your blog name and URL, set up a template, and start posting in about 15 minutes.

I like Blogger because it is easy, free, owned by Google, and will likely continue to offer the best easy site management available. However, there are many other choices.

Many of my blogging friends use typepad. http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/ It is also supposed to be easy (maybe not quite as easy) and potentially offer a few things Blogger doesn't. It costs a small amount per month.

Here, for instance, is a recent article with several of the best tools listed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4737671.stm

How do you pick a name and URL. Come back Tuesday for some ideas.