Step by Step Instructions on Creating Your Blog

Welcome Back!

Now that you have figure out your niche, we are ready to actually create your blog. There are many free blogging sites you can choose from but I am going to use blogger.com as my example considering it is the site I am using now. Go to www.blogger.com/start. Click on the orange box that says "CREATE A BLOG". This will bring you to a page where you enter you email information, create a password, and choose a display name. Your display name is what you use to sign all of your blog posts so don't make it too obscene. Enter the word identification in the box and click on "I accept the Terms of Service" box.

The next page is very important! You are going to choose the title of your blog and blog URL. When selecting these it is important that you use keywords in both. For example when I opened my blogger account I knew I was going to be talking about being a successful freelance writer. The obvious choice for me was http://makemoneywithfreelancewriting.blogspot.com/ with a title of Make Money By Becoming a Freelance Writer. They both clearly state my keywords...I guess you could say they kind of knock you in the face but I am definitely getting the point across. You may have to try several times for the blog URL due to availability but don't give up! When you have finally found your title and URL, click "CONTINUE".

Next you will be taken to a page with several page layout templates. Feel free to preview all of the templates and pick your favorite but keep in mind you can change the look of your blog at any time. You are not committed to the template you pick now. Choose a template and then click "CONTINUE".

Congratulations! Your blog has been created.

Now click the "START BLOGGING" and we will continue with the second half of set up. This page will have a title box and the blogging area but we are not ready for that just yet. There are four tabs at the top of this page and you will need to click on the "Settings" tab. This will take you to the sub-tab labeled "Basic". Here you will see your blog title and then a blank description box. In this box you will need to use your keywords a few times to help with Search Engine Optimization or SEO (I will discuss SEO in a later blog post). Briefly describe your topic here. There are several questions below the description box that have a default yes or no answer in them which you can leave the way they appear. Scroll down and click the "SAVE SETTINGS" button.

After you have saved your settings I want you to go to the next sub-tab which is "Publishing" and make sure the Blog*Spot address is the URL you choose earlier. Enter the word verification and hit "SAVE SETTINGS" again. You will see a small orange box in the upper left that says, "Settings Were Saved Successfully".

Next we go to the "Formatting" sub-tab. Here you can choose how many posts are shown on your main page. I chose 1 (one) because I know that I tend to be very wordy and a single post of mine would take a full page. However, if you plan to make short posts then you may decide to keep the default at 7...this is up to you. Most of the questions on this page are preference based so go down through them and see how you want your headers to look and set your time zone here as well. Leave all the default yes and no questions as they are. You can also leave the "Post Template" box empty. Click "SAVE SETTINGS" again and you will see a small orange box in the upper left that says, "Settings Were Saved Successfully".

Select the "Comments" sub-tab and change only the "Backlinks" section. It automatically defaults to Hide and I want you to change it to Show. Click "SAVE SETTINGS" again and you will see a small orange box in the upper left that says, "Settings Were Saved Successfully".

Go to the "Archiving" sub-tab and keep the Archive Frequency to Monthly and click yes to Enable Post Pages? Click "SAVE SETTINGS" again and you will see a small orange box in the upper left that says, "Settings Were Saved Successfully".

Now we have completed all technical aspects of setting up your blog site, you are now ready to start posting! Go to the "Posting" tab and select the title of your first blog. Make sure you use your keywords in your title. Write your blog in the text box and make sure you use your keywords there as well. Below the blog text box is a field for "Labels for this post:". Here you type in keywords separated by a comma. When you have complete your post click on "PUBLISH POST" button. CONGRATULATIONS! You have just posted you first blog entry!