Starting a personal blog

Why start your own blog? It may seem like everybody and their poodle is doing it, but that's not the big reason why you should. Blogging can be your conduit to the world, your very own publishing stream for all thoughts great and small.

Blog Services
Blog hosts have proliferated like bunnies online. Some of the most popular free providers are Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, Windows Live Spaces and Xanga. TypePad is a paid service that has professional-level features like mobile device posting, password protection and display advertising available. Most basic blogging services are free - so feel free to play around with them until you find one you like.

Topic Tango
Some people make a living from blogging and some just want to share their inner musings. Many blogs are anything-goes general topic blogs , but you can also choose to specialize. Start a blog about your Hello Kitty collecting hobby, update your classmates on your history project, or keep tabs on the latest fashions. Focusing on a particular topic can open your blog up to more readers, as other people who are interested in your niche stop by.

Not everything you blog has to be shared with anyone in the world with a web browser. Most blog service providers let you choose between having public and private posts. Private blogs are accessible to just the people you want to let in. That's handy if you want to keep it to a certain circle of friends or just among family. It can also help you keep comments under control.

Anatomy of a Post
Writing for your blog isn't quite like composing an essay or writing a novel. Here are some tips for an effective blog post.

1. Long, run-on paragraphs turn readers off. Keep it compact and use lists, photos and videos to break things up. Headings can split up the main post into readable chunks, and basic formatting, like bolds and italics, makes sections more distinguishable.
2. The look of your blog goes a long way toward setting the mood. Your blog service will have a variety of templates for you to start with. You can often customize with your own photos and colors. Red text on a black background or green text on pink can make eyeballs ache. Choose colors that are easy to read.
3. Go for quality over quantity. Some bloggers post multiple times a day; some are lucky to update once a month. It's great to keep up a regular posting schedule, but you don't have to post everything that comes to mind just to fill up your blog.
4. Link your heart out. When you're referring to posts, people and web sites elsewhere on the web, add a link. You can even link back to your older blog posts when they're relevant to a new one.
5. Clean out your comments. As your blog grows in popularity, you will likely have to deal with the occasional spam comment that is either rude or attempting to promote someone else's web site or product. Keep an eye on your comments and delete anything inappropriate.

This Is How We Blog Roll
You blog doesn't have to be an island. Get involved with the blogging community at large by exchanging links and building a blogroll. A blogroll is basically a set of links that connect to other bloggers’ blogs. This can be blogs by your friends, family members or other bloggers who cover similar subjects. It may just be blogs that you like to read. It's a good idea to keep your blogroll manageable (around 10 to 15 links) and check it periodically to update new links and make sure the old ones are still working. Consider guest blogging on someone else's blog or bringing in a guest blogger for your own.