Become a blogger

Having read some blogs, maybe you think it's time to write one yourself? If so, then it's pretty straight-forward to do.

This exercise uses Blogger (the service I'm using the write this blog) - http://www.blogger.com/. Before you start creating your own blog, you'll need to sign up for the service. If you already have a Google account (and you can remember the password!), you can use that.

Before you put fingers to keyboard, have a think about the following:

1. What's your blog going to be about?
2. Remember that a blog isn't a one-off thing - in order to keep people coming back, you'll need to keep adding postings (http://northxeast.com/blogging/8-rules-to-develop-the-habit-of-blogging/ for more information).
3. How much information do you want to give about yourself?
4. How are you going to handle comments - do you want to moderate all comments before they can be posted?
5. Have some ideas for your first post worked out ready to type in.

Once you have got the ideas for your blog worked out, you can make a start:

1. Load up Blogger in your Web browser
2. If you already have a Google account, login using the boxes at the top of the screen
3. Click on the Create Blog link
4. Give your blog a name - this is the title of your blog
5. Choose a URL (Web address). This can be based on the title and will be the address you can give to people who want to read your blog.
6. Click Continue
7. Choose yourself a theme - this is how the blog will look. Don't worry about getting it perfect right from the start, as you can change it later.
8. Click Start Blogging
9. You are now ready to write your first post ...

Next Steps

Write your first post. Then comment on this post, giving us the URL. We'll link to your blog from ours.

Your Thoughts

Now you you have your own blog, write a blog post about what you think of blogging:

• Will you carry on blogging?
• Is this useful for work or your personal interests?

Remember to let us know the address of your blog so that we can link to it.