Step 1: Starting a Blog

What blogging platform do I use?

There are several blog platforms out there, but the most popular are indisputably blogger.com and wordpress.

If you're a newbie at blogging, I would recommend that you use blogger first.

I have blogs in both blogger and wordpress platforms and it's pretty difficult for a newbie to get the hang of wordpress at the start. Also, if your aim is to get paid through your blog, the free wordpress platform does not allow that. It goes against their TOS (terms of service). But if you get your own domain name AND hosting and download the blog software from wordpress.org (NOT dotcom), you could use that site for earning purposes. You also have to learn how to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol). BUT wordpress.org offers a lot of flexibility and functionality. People who (finally) get the hang of it love it! But since we're assuming you're a newbie and want to spend your time starting blog posts rather than learning wordpress, then this is not for you, at least not now.

The free blogspot account can be used for applying to paid blogging sites later on. It's also much easier to get acquainted with. That's why I believe it's perfect for newbies to paid blogging!

Should I buy my own domain right away?

Again, it depends on you. If your aim is to earn from your blog, then it's best that you get a good domain name of your preference this early. It costs 10 dollars or even less, so consider it an investment. This is especially since most paid blogging sites prefer sites with their own domains, rather than paid blogging sites. Although you would still get opportunities with your free blogger account, especially if you already have a high page rank, there are more opportunities out there if you have your own domain.

However, if you want to wait and see first, it's perfectly all right to use your free blogspot account first. Then when you get the hang of it, you either buy a domain for a new blog with the earnings from your first blog and retain your original free blogger account (this is what I did and this is what I recommend) OR buy a domain for your current blogger account.

The reasons why I prefer NOT to change my current free (but earning) blogger.com blog to my own domain -- your pagerank, technorati rank, alexa rank and all rankings of your current blog will be back to zero. So it's better to just make another blog. Morever, you now have 2 earning blogs instead of 1.

If you want to get your own domain name, it's still best to get a dotcom(.com), since it's the top level domain that most people automatically think of. But other domains are also acceptable, especially since there are TLDs that are VERY cheap, like .info . But, for me, .com is still tops.

You can get your domain name (.com) for only $6.99 at 1and1.com . They accept credit cards and paypal.

Next: Step 2: What Do I Write About?