Advice on how to start weblogs.

[TheIronStar]

A few recent events have caused me to decide to start to write weblogs.

I am planning on starting with two stripped-down minimal weblogs, and later, if possible, upgrading to better websites with forums and all.

Where would be a good place for an absolute beginner to start? I've never written any kind of weblog in the past.

Monetary issues are almost entirely irrelevant to me--I don't plan to make money doing any of this, and can afford to spend small amounts of money if absolutely necessary; the main goal is to cause the most change in the world on those two topics that I can, given that I plan on being an occasional blogger (I cannot afford the time to do weblogging full- or even part-time).

[Elenny]

Start with a free Blogger blog. If you decide to upgrade later, you can easily move over to Wordpress or something more powerful.

[Caveman Joe]

GeekLog looks best for you - it's very, very easy to later on upgrade it to include a forum, and Static Pages can make it behave more like a traditional website. I use it for all of my blogs, community websites, and even most of my traditional sites.

[TheIronStar]

Thanks people.

Also, once I get them up, what would I do to start getting the word out about them? (Spamming, shameless plugging, or other evil or questionable methods are out of the question.)

[Robert Avila]

TheIronStar...

Here are a few suggestions for getting the word out....

1. Include a link to your blog in your signature.

2. Create chicklets using the site below -so visitors can subscribe to your blog via RSS Feeds just by clicking on the buttons on your site.

RSS Buttons for Your Blog from TopRank Online Marketing Blog

You can select which buttons you want....and with one click it creates the code.

Once you cut and paste the code to your site, remember to edit the code and insert:

Step 1. Your blog url
Step 2. Your blog rss feed url
Step 3. The name of your blog

You will see where to insert the above info in the code that is created.

3. When you update your post update the search engines by going to Ping-o-Matic!

4. Submit your blog to blog directories....too many to list


Wish you the best!

Robert

[TheIronStar]

Thanks all. I've just gotten started on one of them using the free Blogger blog.
So far I've only written an introduction post, but in time I'll get more stuff in.

[Calvin Woon]

Register an account with Technorati, which tracks all blogging activities.

Most importantly, if you want your traffic to be sticky and generate repeat visitors, quality content is the most useful. Once you have a few good posts, people will start coming back and might even link to you.

For a start, I would suggest frequent updates of blog posts too. As if people start realizing you seldom update, the frequency of visits will also drop. Worse still, they might decide never to come back altogether.

[TheIronStar]

That's a problem then; I might as well give up and find some other medium in that case (I cannot currently afford the time to update frequently).

[Mark Lapierre]

"frequently" doesn't have to mean once a day. If the quality of your posts is good, one post a week would keep me coming back.

Actually no, with RSS, one good post would make me sign up. And then I wouldn't care how frequently or infrequently you post, I wouldn't have to remember to check your site to see if you've updated, I'll find out almost straight away.

And if the quality drops off and doesn't reappear after 5 or so posts, I'll unsubscribe.

But above all, don't let the potential for low traffic stop you. If you want to make the most change possible in the world, you won't do that unless what you have to say is of top quality. Forget the traffic, focus on the quality.