How to Start a Blog on Blogger.com

Do you have something to say? Do you want to help people, share a passion, earn money online, or just create an online journal? Starting a blog on Blogger.com is fast, easy and free.

Before Starting a Blog

Begin by brainstorming a blog topic. Create a list of your hobbies and interests to explore. A blog topic must be one that will sustain your interest for the life of the blog and if you want readers, the topic must be interesting to a large number of people. To determine if the topics are popular enough to draw any visitors to your blog, search for each of the topics in Google'e free Adwords Tool using several different keywords or keyword phrases related to each topic.

A keyword is simply any word that a searcher using a search engine might use to locate your topic or any word that is commonly associated with that topic. For example, if your interest is beauty, search for the keyword "acne treatments" or "hair care" and then try phrases like "exposed skin care review," or "get rid of wrinkles" and review the popularity of the suggested keywords for the topic by looking in Global Monthly Searches column. Search for words and phrases that you might use in your blog posts if you choose this topic for your blog. Monthly searches under 50,000 will not garner many hits, and searches in the millions are usually too competitive.

If you would like to earn money from Adsense ads on your blog, take a look at the CPC values of the keywords. Click the Columns tab in the top right of the screen and select Estimated Average CPC. Click Save and the CPC values will be shown. Generally, you want to see values over one dollar. The larger the values, the larger the potential for this topic to earn money through Adsense. Of course, larger Adsense values also come with greater competition for visitors and clicks.

Creating a Blog on Blogger

On Blogger.com, sign in using your Google user name and password. If you do not have an account, sign-up for a free account by clicking the Getting Started button. Choose a name for your blog that is easy to remember, clearly convies your blog's topic and is a high CPC keyword that you discovered from your keyword research. Choose a free template for your blog and you are ready to create your first post. Simply click the New Post button, give your post a title and start typing.

Benefits of Blogging with Blogger

Several free blogging platforms exist and each platform has benefits and drawbacks. Being a Google owned property, Blogger has many benefits for the begineer.

• Easy to use publishing interface. Just a few clicks and your post is published.
• Easy to monetize with Adsense and Amazon Affiliates.
• Easy to create and customize the blog template.
• Easy updates and edits for each blog post.