First things:
1 Understand the basic concepts Every computer tool has its own way of organising things. When you think about how to write your blog, it's helpful if you start with an understanding of Blogger, blogs and bloggers, Posts, Pages and screens.
2 Decide which account to use
If you are writing a personal diary, travel-blog or similar, it's fine to use your personal Google account.
But if you are creating a blog for a club, or organsation or business (even your own small business that you might want to sell one day), or a blog that you might want to hand over to someone else one day, then you should think very carefully about what Google account to use. In fact, I recommend creating a separate account (done by setting up a Gmail account) just for the blog.
If you're not convinced, read this article about transferring blog ownership, especially the parts that cannot be transferred as yet.
3 Control who can see the blog
Most blogs are open so that anyone can find them, and read them.
But if you want to stop a blog being found by search engines, or by random people looking at Google's list of blogs, then the best time to set this up is before you've written any posts. You set it up in the Settings tab inside Blogger.
For even more control, you can make the blog Private, and choose to only invite specific people to read it. Do this in the Settings tab, too. But note that:
4 Help the search engines
There are lots of books, articles and websites about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
If you want search-engines (Google etc) to bring readers to your blog, then you may want to investigate some of these later on. But there are two simple things that you should do to start with.
Good keywords for your blog are the ones that people will search for when they should find your blog. They're usually quite specific - but no so specific that potential readers might miss your blog because they search for a more general term.
4 Get a template to match your blog
Each Blogger blog has a formatting-template that controls how it looks.
After you have written 2-3 posts, try using a changing to use a different template so that your blog's design matches your goals.
To change the template:
You could spend a long time "tweaking" your template to make the blog look "just right". If this is important to you, then do it! But most readers are more interested in the content, so you need decide how much time to spend doing this vs writing new posts.
What next?
There's no "right way" to use Blogger or make a blog: the next steps are up to you.
Look around. Experiment.
Keep an eye on Blogger Buzz (where Google announce new features), and on the Blogger help forums (where you can ask for help when you get stuck).
Have fun!
Related Articles:
Assessing an idea for a new Blog
Changing colours in your Blog
Linking your Blog to the Social Networks
Transferring blog ownership
Managing Pictures
Restricting your blog's readership may not be as secure as you'd expect.
If you are writing a personal diary, travel-blog or similar, it's fine to use your personal Google account.
But if you are creating a blog for a club, or organsation or business (even your own small business that you might want to sell one day), or a blog that you might want to hand over to someone else one day, then you should think very carefully about what Google account to use. In fact, I recommend creating a separate account (done by setting up a Gmail account) just for the blog.
If you're not convinced, read this article about transferring blog ownership, especially the parts that cannot be transferred as yet.
3 Control who can see the blog
Most blogs are open so that anyone can find them, and read them.
But if you want to stop a blog being found by search engines, or by random people looking at Google's list of blogs, then the best time to set this up is before you've written any posts. You set it up in the Settings tab inside Blogger.
For even more control, you can make the blog Private, and choose to only invite specific people to read it. Do this in the Settings tab, too. But note that:
- You can only send 100 invitations 100: they may change this in the future, but that's the limit for now.
- There are some cases when restricting your blog's readership may not be as secure as you'd expect.
4 Help the search engines
There are lots of books, articles and websites about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
If you want search-engines (Google etc) to bring readers to your blog, then you may want to investigate some of these later on. But there are two simple things that you should do to start with.
- When you are trying out the various templates and formats, make sure the at the option to display titles is ON, and that you give you posts good titles.In the pre-Sept 2011 interface:Settings > Formatting > Show Title Field.
- it's always on in the post-Sept 2011 interface
. - When you start to write posts, put good keywords into the title field, and into the post contents.
Good keywords for your blog are the ones that people will search for when they should find your blog. They're usually quite specific - but no so specific that potential readers might miss your blog because they search for a more general term.
4 Get a template to match your blog
Each Blogger blog has a formatting-template that controls how it looks.
After you have written 2-3 posts, try using a changing to use a different template so that your blog's design matches your goals.
To change the template:
- Go to Design > Customize , and choose one, OR
- Log in to Blogger-in-Draft, and go Design..
You could spend a long time "tweaking" your template to make the blog look "just right". If this is important to you, then do it! But most readers are more interested in the content, so you need decide how much time to spend doing this vs writing new posts.
What next?
There's no "right way" to use Blogger or make a blog: the next steps are up to you.
Look around. Experiment.
Keep an eye on Blogger Buzz (where Google announce new features), and on the Blogger help forums (where you can ask for help when you get stuck).
Have fun!
Related Articles:
Assessing an idea for a new Blog
Changing colours in your Blog
Linking your Blog to the Social Networks
Transferring blog ownership
Managing Pictures
Restricting your blog's readership may not be as secure as you'd expect.
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