A “blog” is a personal website that allows a user to easily and simply put information online in the form of a newspaper. The term “blog” is the contraction of “weblog” (in the same way, “blog” is the contraction of “weblog”).

The blog is, therefore, a web page, which is usually based on a dynamic publishing tool to manage the content layout, in which the author publishes news, links to other blogs or websites, photos, or short texts of his creation. On a blog, briefs, called notes or notes, are published in an anti-chronological order, that is, the most recent notes are displayed at the top of the page, and then follow the oldest messages.

One of the most important things about a blog is the ability of readers to respond to published articles, which gives blogs great responsiveness and richness.

Creating a blog “ready to use”

Creating a blog does not require special computer skills. Indeed, the principle of blogs is based on the use of an online tool that allows one to insert and format articles. Thus, to create a blog, it is sufficient, at first, to find a blog host and create an account, and second, to publish the content through the tools available.

How to start a blog for free?

Creating a blog is very simple and only requires a few steps:

• Have a starting idea and an original concept;
• Choose your CMS;
• Choose a domain name
• Write articles regularly;
• Make his blog known.

Choose a host

The first step to opening your blog, choose a technical platform. And the choice is not neutral since a blog is conditioned by its platform, whose presentations vary by provider. In addition, you should know that it is difficult to migrate a blog from one platform to another.

You can choose the host of your blog based on the aesthetics of the standard pages it offers, but also according to the free or not hosting, and depending on the features offered. A paid platform offers additional options such as delayed posting, adding sponsored links, or trackback. Useful only when your blog is very visited. It will also be necessary to take into account the notoriety of the platform.

Choose also the platform according to the graphic possibilities that it offers, so that the graphic charter of your blog is most inadequate with your activity.

A host of tools are available on the Web, mainly blog farms, offered by BlogSpirit or TypePad, as well as software to install yourself, such as Dotclear free software or WordPress, or the paid Movable Type software.

The list below lists the major blog hosts. The choice of a host depends on the cost (some are free), features offered, and look’n’feel of the interface:

• Blog4ever
• Blogger (free) -> requires registration on Google
• BlogSpirit (free or paid form)
• CanalBlog (free)
• Eklablog (free)
• High and High (free or paid)
• Over-Blog (free and without ads)
• Skyrock blog (free)
• Typepad (free)
• ViaBloga (for a fee)
• WordPress (free or paid formulas)

Publish your blog

Publishing a blog is simply done using forms. A simple click is enough to post a note, a comment, an image, and sometimes even a video.

However, to allow the blog to be read by the largest number, it will usually be necessary to activate the “Content Syndication” or “RSS Feed” option to automatically generate an RSS feed, ie say a file usable by other bloggers to post your notes on their blog!

About the Author

The first section to be completed is “About the author”. This will be your blogger ID, where you can choose to be anonymous or not, with or without your photo. The authenticity with which you introduce yourself is important for the way your blog will be perceived. You can choose to put your age, your profession, your interests …

For the email address associated with the “Contact author” section, it is better to use an e-mail address dedicated to the blog, which you can create for the occasion (at Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail …). Often, your blog host also offers to create an email address under his name.

You can also just write your email address in the form “my name (at) domain” so that the robots responsible for recovering e-mail addresses on the Web do not notice yours.

Comments

This is one of the topics that makes any blog live and identifies it. Besides its content, each ticket can receive comments from readers of the blog. In the technical interface of your blog, you can decide whether or not to activate the comments function. Basically, it is better to opt for comments: you show more honesty and openness by accepting the “returns”, but also compliments (often rewarding!) To your tickets brought by your readers.

You can also choose to moderate these comments: they will only appear on the blog if they have been approved. You can filter them a priori (so validate them before their publication) or a posteriori (delete any undesirable comments already published). It’s up to you to see if you want a more or less lively blog and take the “risk” of accepting any comments before.

You will have to watch these comments anyway, to avoid the trolls, this voluntary diversion of the topic of conversation in a forum in order to “pollute” it.

By moderating these comments, you certainly lose spontaneity, but you avoid problems, including legal ones. Indeed, according to the law DAVDSI, a bit like a director of publication, the blogger is legally responsible for comments posted on his blog, even if he is not the author. It can, therefore, be sentenced if they are offensive, defamatory, racist …

Presentation

From your platform, the form of your blog is imposed on you, but you will bring your personality by multiplying the contents. In addition to the tickets themselves, take care of the Blogroll section, referencing blogs that you feel close to: by their tone, but also by the topics they cover, perhaps similar to those of your blog.

Creating a blog “Only master on board”

If the idea of having a blog identical to all the others does not please you, that you want to customize the latter entirely and that putting your hands in the grease does not scare you (HTML, CSS, PHP, installation of modules, …), so nothing like going to the next level.

Many hosts offer you, free or not, to host your website. This means that you can also choose to use this space to install a blog.

You deposit on your server a set of files, and very often, you proceed to an online installation, and go! The advantage is that you are the only master on board. Does a new plugin interest you? You install it. You are a graphic designer and the themes proposed by default do not please you? You make yours, unique.

It also means that if there is a problem, it’s your fault … and the updates (essential for the security of your blog) are yours.

Blog Engines

There are many blogging engines on the web. The best-known is probably Dotclear and WordPress, but they are not the only ones.

Here are a few :

• BlogCMS
• Dotclear
• Serendipity
• SimplePHPblog
• WordPress

The list is not exhaustive. From experience, the Dotclear and WordPress communities are very active and you will find help for all your worries. In addition, many additional plugins are available to add features to your blog. Look for, you will probably find the rare gem you are missing.

Throughout this list, how do I know which one best meets my expectations? The simplest is to try. There is no question of downloading them all and installing them. This would probably be a waste of time.

You can test them as a visitor or administrator. The most common options are presented, only those that compromise security have been disabled. But you will have a good vision of how different blog engines work. It will only be up to you to make your choice.

Monetize your blog

Finally, once your blog is finished, from the moment you regularly write quality content, you will gain visitors. All work deserves to pay, and here are some tips to monetize your blog:

• Monetize your blog with a newsletter (and related products)
• Advertising revenue (Adsense for example)
• Sell advertising space directly to advertisers
• Offer your expert services

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