Saturday, March 25

A Definitive Quick Guide to Starting a Free Blog

So, you have decided to venture in the line of blogging and want to start with no initial investments?

If you are just getting started with the idea of having your blog and want to spend no initial investments, then you definitely should start with Blogger.com

To be honest, many blogging platforms offer users the ability to create a free blog.

I would not recommend any newbie blogger to start a blog with WordPress.

I’m not saying that WordPress should not be considered as your first blogging platform. WordPress provides you with very cool themes that you can customize and plugins which you can install to run a fully professional running blog.

Having a blog with Blogger is free and it does not have any limitations.

I am dedicating this article to all newbie bloggers who are new to the world of blogging and would like to start understanding the basics of running a blog.

What is Blogger?

Blogger is a blogging platform powered by Google. It offers you the opportunity to start a free blog.

Blogger formally known as Blogspot is a Google-centric blogging platform.

You may wish to check out one of my previous articles about the 4 Powerful Steps to Building a 6 Figure Blog.

To start a free blog with Blogger you don’t need to be tech-savvy as you need very little technical knowledge.

To tell you the truth, there are only two top reputed blogging platforms for this 2019 and they are Blogger.com and WordPress.com

Why Blogger is Easy-to-Use?

Unlike WordPress, where you are required to install different plugins and go through their complicated dashboard, Blogger does not need you to install anything.

This the main reason Blogger has become a great alternative for any newbie blogger to start-off free and with no what so ever initial investments.

Below the illustrated table, I have highlighted the Pros and Cons of using Blogger as your first free blogging platform –

The Pros:

  • Blogger is free of cost and you get a free subdomain
  • The blog is hosted by Google and you do not worry about anything
  • The Blogger interface is very user-friendly and you don’t need any basic technical knowledge of running a blog
  • You only need a Google account to set-up blogger
  • With Blogger you can create a blog with no investment and can monetize it with Google AdSense

The Cons:

  • The Blogger subdomains do not look professional so you have to pay for a custom domain
  • Blogger is not suitable for professional blogging as you do not have enough control
  • The Blogger theme can only be customized to a limited extent. There is very little what can be done.
  • Other email accounts can be used to create a blog on Blogger
  • As Blogger is a free platform you have to follow the terms and conditions. In case you violate any terms your account can be banned and shut down

Creating Your Free Blog with Blogger

First, you would need to head over to Blogger.com and log in using your Gmail account.

To open a Gmail account is Free and you are not required to pay anything.

Once you are logged in, click on “new blog”.

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Creating Your First Free Blog with Blogger

The next step in the process is to create a name for your blog.

This will be the title of your blog.

Note: You will be required to select an address for your blog to be hosted under the blogger.com site URL.

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Creating a Blogger address

Note: Blogger requires you to comply with EU laws for posting a blog post on their platform. The EU laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies and data collected on your blog. In many cases, these laws require you to agree with their EU terms and conditions.

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Blogger.com EU Compliance Agreement Terms & Conditions

Once you have agreed with the EU Compliance Agreement, it’s time to create your first new post with Blogger.

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Creating your first Blogger post

Now you have entered the main Blogger Editor Dashboard.

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Blogger main Editor Dashboard

I recommend you to take advantage of their Blogger Editor Tools Tabs which will help you customize your font size, highlight important points of your content, create bullet points,  embed images, add video files, and much more.

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Blogspot Editor Dashboard Tool Tabs

You even have the option of posting Banner HTML Ads in your blog by using the HTML Tab.

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Blogger HTML Tab Editor

The Editor Dashboard provides you a few sidebar options to Schedule the posting of your blogs, edit Permalink, add labels/tags, enable/disable Reader Comments, etc.

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Blogger sidebar editor options

Great! Now you are one step away posting your first blog post.

Before you go ahead pressing that Publish button, you may like to preview your blog first.

It’s very easy, just click on the Preview button and it’s always a good idea to save your blog post draft.

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Once you’re ready to go live with your new post, all you need to do now is simply click on the orange “Publish” button.

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Here you can see a screenshot of how your sample blog looks like when its live.

You can see in a matter of minutes how quickly I was able to post my first blog post article with Blogger without any complications.

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Monetizing your Blogger Blog

Now that you have a few article posts published, it’s time to monetize it and make some money.

Note: I suggest you should start monetizing your blog once you start receiving a steady flow of traffic.

To monetize your blog you need to have a Google Adsense account. Having a Google Adsense account is Free!

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Note: You need to qualify for Adsense and once you have Adsense approval, you will be able to place ads in your blog post contents (banner ads/text ads) or on your blog sidebar space (banner ads) and earn online. Google Adsense does offer you rotational banner ad features targeting the niche which you shall customize for your blog.

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Having Adsense ads running on your blog is more like a privilege.

Adsense provides you with high-quality ads that appear on your blog.

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Note: Do not apply for an Adsense program until you start getting a decent amount of traffic and some posts published. You may get rejected :-(

Conclusion

I started my blogging journey with Blogger.com, and later I migrated to WordPress.

I will be shortly coming up with a detailed WordPress Guide.

My final thought here would be that Blogger is a platform for newbie bloggers which you can use to gain experience.

If using the Blogger platform seems too basic for you and you want to take your blog to a professional level then you can always use WordPress.

Hope this helps,

Let me know your thoughts or suggestions in the comments below.

And if you like it, Share it!

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