What is a blog?
A blog is basically an online journal where the creator or user can basically share anything they want. Bloggers share their stories, details of their day, photography, music, fashion, food… the list is endless! If there is something you’re interested in, you can blog about it.
Why would I want one?
Well, for one thing, blogs can be therapeutic. Expressing yourself through writing is a good way to relieve stress, and the internet provides many options for you. Your blog also opens you to other places that you’d never look at before. You can meet so many different people in the blogging world, and understanding their stories can be a rewarding experience.
How do I create one?
The beauty of the internet is that you have so many options to choose from when it comes to blogging. The downside to that is that you might not know which one to pick! I’ll help to break it down for you.
- Cutenews — this is a PHP based script that you can install. It’s simple enough to update and integrate into your site, the problem lies is that it lacks a lot. For one thing, if you are looking for a host, many hosts don’t want a hostee using cutenews, something you should consider in trying to get hosted. Another thing is that through my experiences with cutenews is that there isn’t much to go from. There isn’t a real archive system and managing posts can get messy. But if you find that you like it, that’s fine too. You can still post simple enough and get comments from your readers.
- Blogger — Blogger is a free tool powered by Google and the most popular blogging tool today. It’s free to use and you can sign up with your Google account. Because this platform is so popular, there is a large community and those part of the Google network can “follow” your blog. It’s simple to set up a blog and update all in a few clicks. Because there are so many Blogger users, there exist many sites that can help you to design your blog at Blogger. I myself have tried Blogger, but have found it a little hard for me to customize, but that’s my opinion. I’ve seen many lovely blogs on Blogger, and it’s probably that I’m used to other platforms that I didn’t continue using Blogger. Again, this is the most popular choice and very easy to create a blog here.
- Tumblr – Tumblr is a microblogging platform that’s becoming more and more popular. It provides you with a “tumblog” and from that account you can create many more blogs. It’s quick and easy to use and the cool thing is that there are certain ways you can post things. For example, you have text, photo, quote, chat, video, and link options depending on what you want to post. Other tumblr users can follow you as well. You can also use your domain for your tumblr for free, but you must buy the domain name of course. The issues concerning tumblr are that for one thing, there server tends to be tricky. Another thing is that tumblrs are mainly just spontaneous posts of gifs, feelings and quotes. It’s microblogging, and real blogging could tend to clog the dashboards of others who use the site to just reblog pictures. I have seen effective tumblr blogs and they are lovely because you can customize the themes.
- Livejournal – This is bascially an online journal community. You have your own journal and the nice thing is that you can make your posts public, available only to friends or completely private. It’s been waning in popularity in my opinion, but still a great site. You can upload icons and even most your mood at the time of your post. There are many communities that are more than just about blogging and you’ll be sure to find something you like. There are also many themes to choose from and many users make their own for you to use.
- WordPress — This is what I’m using. It’s more complex than all the other sites mentioned above but once you get used to it, it becomes a very effective tool. There is the free wordpress where you can set up an account at wordrpress.com and have a url of yoursitehere.wordpress.com. With this type, you’re free to blog, but limited in what you can add (like plugins and themes for example). If you download wordpress from wordpress.org, you need an actual site (subdomain or domain) that’s hosted. Set up could be complicated, but you can find support online. If you do this method, there’s so much you can customize. You can add themes, plugins and there’s just so much you can do. This is my preferred method of blogging, but it’s a bit more complex and perhaps you just want to type, post and be done with it.
Now these aren’t the only options available. Like I said, the internet provides so many options for you and it’s just up to you to decide which method works best for you! So here’s me wishing you the best of luck in creating your blog! 
