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Creating a blog site and starting your own blog is an exciting journey! If you're new to blogging, don't worry - this will be in-depth guide that covers all your questions. In other words, this blogging for beginners guide was designed to make it easy for anyone just starting out.

I'll walk through every step together: Think of this as your friendly roadmap into the blogging world; by following along, you'll be sharing your thoughts with the world in no time!

Who is the target audience for this guide?

Anyone who has ever considered creating a blog site, but isn't sure where to begin, is our target audience.

If you're seeking an easy-to-understand guide that breaks down the blogging process into manageable steps without overwhelming jargon or technicalities – this is for you.

We aim to support and empower beginners of all ages and backgrounds as they embark on the rewarding adventure of creating a blog site.

Before moving on to the blogging guide, it would be useful to discuss a brief history of blogging.

A Brief Blogging History

Blogging has a rich history that dates back to the early days of the internet. The concept of blogging is not new and can be traced back to the invention of the written word, with people keeping diaries and journals. Even on the web, diary websites existed before the term "blog" was coined.

The first true blog is believed to have been created around 1994, although the exact date is not known. The term "weblog" was introduced in 1997 and was soon shortened to the more casual term "blog".

In 2002, the term "blog" was nominated as a Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. [1]

Several portmanteau words were also nominated for Word of the Year in 2006, but those words have not been widely adopted as well.

Let me give some examples of those which define more specific types of blogs, such as [2]:

Blook: a blog turned into a book, that defines a more specific type of blog
Blovel or blogel: blog + novel
Blogfic (blog + fiction)

As the years progressed, blogging diversified extensively.

The early, one-size-fits-all blog format has splintered into a range of specific types: news blogs, political blogs, video blogs (vlogs), gadget blogs, and fashion blogs have emerged as just a few examples.

This shift signifies not only an exponential growth in blogs but also a significant evolution in form and content.

Blogging as a Rising Phenomenon in U.S.

Although there were many blogging applications before, we can say that, historically, blogging became popular in the United States thanks to political blogs.

As a new form of political commentator, bloggers were profiled in an article published in the NY Times on September 26, 2004.[3]

They are being described as a new breed of political commentators whose influence is just beginning to be understood.

A Beginner's Guide to Creating a Blog Site

You want to create a new blog site. You have a brand new journey ahead of you. We can categorize the process of creating a blog site under three main headings. These are:

Choosing the right blogging platform.
The creation of excellent content.
The promotion of your content.

1. Choosing the right blogging platform

The first step is to choose a platform among the best blog platforms that suits your needs and technical expertise.

Before diving into creating content, it's crucial to understand what blogging platforms are.

These are specialized services or software that host and display your blog on the internet. They come with tools for writing articles (posts), adding images and videos, customizing layouts – everything you need without having to code from scratch.

Custom Domain vs Subdomain Usage

Custom domain:

A custom domain is a unique web address that you choose for your blog. This becomes the official website URL that visitors use to access your blog. You pay some amount of money to a domain provider, and you'll have rights to use that address.

It typically follows the format of bloggingplatforms.app or www.bloggingplatforms.app.

Those two are treated as different addresses and demonstrate the examples of using a custom domain either with an Apex (Root) domain or with a subdomain respectively.

Subdomain:

A subdomain is essentially an extension of the main (custom) domain. It allows you to create separate sections or categories within your website with their own unique URLs while still being part of the main site.

The structure usually looks like this: subdomain.wordpress.com

When it comes to free blogging platforms, they make it available to users with the sole limitation that they may only be used in conjunction with their subdomain. These subdomains are often difficult to remember and can lead to confusion or loss of traffic. Additionally, these subdomains often lack the customization options and features that are available on paid blogging platforms.

Get a Custom Domain

Popular Domain Name Providers I use are as follows:

Free vs Paid Options

There are many blog platforms that offer free plans with limited features or a limited time period. It would therefore be advisable to use the free options to try out their features.

The best free blog platforms are discussed in an article we wrote.

Features That Matter

In choosing the right platform, take into account factors such as ease-of-use interfaces (for easy content updating), responsive designs (that adapt to a variety of devices), SEO capabilities (to facilitate finding your blog via search engines), etcetera, etc.

Writers and Authors: A good platform for writers and authors would be one that prioritizes content creation with a clean, distraction-free writing interface. Features such as autosave, draft versions, and grammar checking can also be very helpful to writers.
Photographers: It is essential that the blogging platform supports high-resolution images without compromising the overall loading time, and that it offers options for creating photo portfolios or galleries on the platform.
E-commerce Businesses: In order to drive traffic from search engines, advanced SEO features are essential in this case, as well as integration abilities with e-commerce platforms as well as secure payment gateways and shopping cart functionality.
Designers/Artists/Creatives: It is crucial to have flexibility in your design - customizable themes and templates allow you to showcase your work in a way that is visually appealing. Drag-and-drop design tools can also be a big help if you do not have code experience.
Educators/Bloggers: If you are sharing informational content, look out for tools that allow you to easily embed multimedia elements (videos, podcasts, slideshows, etc.), organize your content into categories, tags or playlists, as well as facilitate comment and discussion boards.
Businesses/Marketers: Integration with email marketing services (such as Mailchimp) or CRM software would be beneficial; the analytics/reporting tools will help track the performance and user engagement for these applications.
Nonprofits/Volunteers: It would be very useful if social sharing capabilities could help spread awareness about causes/events/campaigns; donation buttons/plugins could facilitate fundraising efforts for nonprofits and volunteers.
Tech-Savvy Users/Web Developers: Users with a keen eye for HTML/CSS codes and scripts might prefer open-source blogging platforms that give them more control over HTML/CSS codes and scripts - this allows for a level of customization that goes beyond what is possible through standard templates, themes, and plugins.