There used to be a time when only the brave few undertook the challenge of starting a *blog. Nowadays there are so many bloggers out there it seems everyone is willing to give it a go.I think it’s a great idea to try blogging, regardless of your age. What may begin simply as a creative outlet might open up a whole new career – you’ll never know until you try. If the idea of blogging sounds appealing to you, but you’re not really sure you comprehend what it means to blog, here is a little introduction to the world of blogging.

Why start blogging?

There are so many reasons! Maybe this could be a platform to express ideas, to promote a service/ product/ business, to connect with like-minded people, to share your experience or even to earn some money on the side…

How to start?

The best way is to start doing. The most basic questions you should be asking yourself are: What should my blog be about? Who is my target market? What should I name it?  Who are my competitors? Do I have a team? What would my blog look like?
Now to get a little bit more technical: choosing your platform. The most popular platforms for blogging are easy to install, simple to work with and in most cases free of charge. WordPress is perhaps the most feature-rich blogging services out there, and it offers many features in the free version: traffic stats, anti-spam filters, SEO, gorgeous themes and more. We use WordPress at TDA and so far it has been a great experience. Many beginner-bloggers prefer Blogger as it is easy to use. Blogger offers a no-nonsense interface for administering your blog and top-notch integration with your Google account. Tumblr is a popular and feature- packed microblogging platform. It comes with many outstanding and interesting features such as audio blogging (for sharing your music, for example), free custom domains, hundreds of amazing blogging themes and more.

What’s next?

Once your blog is up, it’s time to start creating the content! It could include text, images, illustrations, videos or sound. It is best if most of your content is original, but some very popular blogs only have links (for example www.swiss-miss.com). Frequency of posts is another thing to consider. Some blogs publish new stories every day whilst others post once a week. It all depends on how much time you wish to spend on the blog and how seriously you take it. Readers prefer regular flow of content so it might be a good idea to set yourself a goal as to when you plan to post a new story, for example every monday. Start small, and once your readership grows then try posting more often. You could even expand your list of contributors by employing guest writers.

Now it is your turn to give it a try! Be positive, determined and enjoy the ride.

* What is a blog? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwcW5AKcfl4