Creating A Blog

Creating A Blog

A blog is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries or articles or posts typically displayed in reverse order (the most recent post appears first).

Primary objective of a blog is to spread information and author's views and concepts.

Secondary objective is to generate revenue.

Blogs are one of the best ways to earn money online. Its a simple 4 step procedure :

• Get a Domain & Server.
• Design your Site.
• Publish articles / posts.
• Place ads.

The above steps are basics of creating a blog but revenue is not generated in a day. Writing meaningful blogs and making your blog SEO friendly helps your blog to rank higher and attract more readers.

There are many blogging sites that help you make a blog. One of them is Blogger by Google. The benefit of using Blogger is that it is a Google Property. So, you do not need much to do. Sign in to Google. Just select the design and start writing your blogs. Its free and no hustle and tussle.   

Creating a blog in WordPress is easy too. Get a Domain and Server, design your blog and start your blog. Blogger is a nice and easy to use platform, but it just doesn’t cut it in terms of flexibility and customization. That is where WordPress excels. Today, more than 24% of the internet websites are build in WordPress. Thus, this makes WordPress one of the best blogging platforms.

   

Blogger Versus WordPress

Blogger

• Blogger is Free.
• Blogger is Easy.
• In Blogger, you don't own a website. Its the property of Google.
• Not flexible.
• Not Customizable.
• SEO friendly.
• Make the best of Google's tools.
• Limited  themes, widgets and plugins.
• Many forums that can solve your problems.

WordPress

• WordPress is also Free.
• WordPress is also Easy but not as easy as Blogger.
• In WordPress, you are the God of your site. You can do anything. You are responsible for everything.
• Flexible.
• Customizable.
• SEO Friendly.
• Thousands Of themes, widgets and plugins.
• Many Support forums that can help solve problems that you may face. 

Its upto you to which you prefer. If planning WordPress, do see my previous articles on Installing WordPress And Designing.

So !!! Ready to make a blog ??

First, I am going to take you through Blogger and then WordPress.

Blogger

Log on to Blogger.com and sign in with your existing Google account or create one if you don't have. Confirm your profile ie. using Google+ or create a Blogger profile. Click on New Blog button in your left. Give a title and a url.

eg. Title : Website And Mobile App Development

       Url  : http://target-studios.blogspot.com

Select the template that you like and you should see your dashboard. To see how your site looks, click on View Blog.

Now, go to Layout. Here, you will see the blueprint of your site. You can add a logo, add a navigation bar, place ads and more. Gadgets are the widgets or add-ons that you can add to your site which can enhance the site functionality.

eg. Subscribe to Newsletter box.

Now, go to Templates. Here, you can change the design of your website. If you are good at programming, you can also change the HTML by clicking on Edit HTML.

Click on New Post and you can start wiring your articles. In the Posts section, you can find your posts, in pages, you can see all your pages. In stats, you can see page visits and you can improve your search results. Ready to earn ?? click on Earn and connect your blog to AdSense. 

That's it. Your Blog is Ready. 

WordPress

To create a blog in WordPress, please follow the Installing WordPress And Designing articles. If you have read them then go ahead with this.

Login to your WordPress and Install the Nictitate theme.

• Go to Appearance --- Themes --- Add New Theme --- Nictitate.
• Now, Customize it by adding site title, tag line, etc. 

• Now, check your Static Front Page and click on the radio button that says Your Latest Posts.
• A " static front page " means that your front page will not contain your posts but you can add images, text, etc. describing your blog. This is useful if you do not want to show latest posts on front page.
• A " Your Latest Posts " means that your front page will have your latest posts.
• You can change the number of posts displayed in " Settings ".

• Now, if you see your website / blog, it will be something like this.
• The " Hello World " is a sample post given by WordPress

• If you want some changes in your blog, you can go to Appearance --- Theme Options and here you will find many ways to improve your site.
• You can add a Favicon, your personal details, social media links.
• Also you can change the layout of your site : Full Width / Boxed / Sidebar and more. 

• Now, go to Posts.
• Here, you will find all your posts which you are going to write. 
• This is the dashboard of your posts.
• You can manage everything on posts from here.

Writing Posts In WordPress

• Writing a post in WordPress is easy.
• Go to Posts --- Add New.
• Give your post a title and start writing.
• After writing, verify and click on Publish.
• If you are editing a post, then click on Update.
• Done !!

Adding Media

• Images / Videos are the part and parcel of any post.
• They enhance your post and keeps your readers active.
• Click on Add Media.
• Add Images, Videos, Audio and more.  

Alignment Of Images

• The representation of an article is very important.
• You can align your images to the text to make your posts beautiful.
• Click on the image and you will see your alignment options.

     

Your website / blog will look something like this

You can add pages, add your portfolio, add contact information.
In fact, you can also ask readers to join you. In this way, even they will be able to publish posts.

Want To Earn Some ?

• Would you like to make some money from your blog ??
• There are many affiliate programs that can help you earn.
• Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive content which helps them earn some $s.
• Infolinks is another in the runners up.
• Create an account, place ads and start earning.

Thank You