Blogging 101

[Boogie]

Getting Started

First you'll need a blog script. Currently there are three very popular and very easy scripts to use.

My personal favorite is Wordpress , which is an open source blog that is commercially free. yes free.

It requires SQL and must be installed on your server, but is highly customizable in all ways including the look of it (themes) and the application of the hundreds of plugins being developed by knowledgable coders. From incoroparting polls to category pages, for many blogging source integrations, or amazon.com intergration, you'll find its pretty easy to do all of these things by simply installing a plugin. Most trained monkeys can use wordpress.

typepad is likewise very popular. It is one that I've never personally used but it seems to be one of the most prevelant. From looking at their tour they have a free trial so giving it a shot shouldnt be a problem. They also offer hosting options.

The third suggestion is Blogger, which is owned by our good friends (or hated enemies) at google. This script can be done either on your site, or hosted at their domain blogspot.com. Both are good choices. Blogger lacks many of the features of typepad and wordpress, but is incredibly easy, is integrated into the google toolbar and the free hosting makes it pretty much mindless.

So choose a script, get it installed, and tomorrow we'll talk about your theme and/or content choices.