How To Start Blogging In 5 To 10 Minutes

I thought starting a blog would be hard. I thought it would be technical and tear my hair out getting them to work. At that point, most of what I'd read about blogs and RSS was just so much geek-speak.

But I still give it a go because I want to have a blog so when I finally got myself to give it a go, I signed up with Blogger.com for an account. I never thought I would have my blog set up in about 5 minutes. My first post was uploaded from my computer about 10 minutes later after some familiarization.

The only thing even remotely technical I was required to do was enter the FTP settings for the website my blog would be published on. But even that wasn't a requirement. With Blogger, you can set up a blog on their site, Blogspot, and not even worry about FTP settings.

Blogger remains one of the most popular blog applications in the world simply because it is so simple to use and set up. If you're a technophobe or don't have the time to learn something completely new, Blogger.com is worth to try blogging - and enjoying the benefits - almost immediately.

Another very simple blogging tool is Wordpress. Like Blogger, Wordpress has a very powerful tools and easy to use. You can download Wordpress to install it on your website and start blogging right away. If your host doesn't already include Wordpress in the scripts on your server, you can still pick it up at:

http://wordpress.org/

Then go to the Wordpress Wiki for instructions on how to install it in 5 minutes:

http://wiki.wordpress.org/?pagename=5MinuteInstallation

Wordpress is free, open-source software. It is very simple to install, even for technophobes, and has a lot of online documentation. There are also many sites with free Wordpress add-ons and templates. I'm using a template for this blog that I picked up at Alex King's site:

http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/wordpress/styles.php

The Wordpress Wiki is a wealth of information on all things Wordpress, including installation instructions, help files, a long list of template sites, and all kinds of hacks and extras you can use to modify your blog and make it original.

If you're a new blogger, both Wordpress and Blogger are very user friendly.