how to create blog

 I have written about many blogging platformsthat you can use to create a blog for yourself.  I usually suggest creating a blog using your own domain and hosting, and creating your blog via WordPress(.org).

We have talked a lot about self-hosted WordPress blogs in previous posts, and there is no doubt that this presents a better blogging platform when compared to free blogging platforms like BlogSpot.com and WordPress.com.

However, many newbies who want to start blogging don’t want to make an initial investment of funds to create a blog. This is completely reasonable.

There are many blogging platforms which offer users the ability to create free blogs. If you are looking for a simple free blog, my suggestion would be to start blogging with WordPress.com or BlogSpot.com.

Once you have some blogging experience, you can advance and become more professional with a self-hosted WordPress blog.

BlogSpot allows you to create a free blog,but it does have limitations.

However, as I mentioned above, for a beginner it is a great way to learn how to create a blog and begin the blogging process.

This post is dedicated to the “beginners” who are new to blogging and would like to get started by learning the basics involved in the process.

Before I begin the complete tutorial, there are a couple of things you should know:

• Firstly, BlogSpot is a blogging platform powered by Google.  It offers you an opportunity to start a blog, but all your images will be hosted by Picasa (also part of Google).  BlogSpot, in this sense, is aGoogle-centric blogging platform.
• Secondly, if the goal of your blog is to make money and to have a blog that is professional in appearance, I would recommend that you create your blog using WordPress. It’s easy, and with the help of our exclusive free WordPress guide, you can create your blog in the next 60 minutes.

Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Free Blog on BlogSpot:

To create your free BlogSpot blog site, head over to BlogSpot.com and login using your Google account. If you don’t have a Google (gmail) account, you can create one for free.

For a first time user, you will see an option to use the identity from your Google Plus profile, or you can use your limited BlogSpot profile. I recommend using your Google Plus profile.

Once you are logged in, click on “new blog” or click on this link to directly go there: Create a free blog

Name your blog:

The first thing you need to do is add a name and select your domain. I suggest you read “How To Select a Domain Name” for additional information.

Avoid using your personal name as the domain name, and instead use some generic domain name that you can brand later with a custom domain.

You can then select a blog template (you can change it anytime), and click on “Create Blog”.

Now your blog is created, but you are not done yet!

There are a few settings that you need to set on your newly created BlogSpot blog to make it easy to use.

You are now on the BlogSpot dashboard where you will see your blog’s backend. From here you can go to “Settings” and make changes to improve your blog’s visibility.

Here is a screenshot of what you should be seeing:

From here you can click on “Posts” > “New post” and start writing your very first blog post!

But before you write your first post, I would recommend that you go to “Pages” and create at least one “About” page describing who you are and what your blog is about.

• You can read my post on why you need an “About” page for your blog.

Most importantly, you should change your blog’s template as the default one is generic and boring (in my opinion).

Here I have compiled a list of free BlogSpot templates that you can download and install on your blog. Alternatively, you can go to “Settings” > “Template” and change the template from there.

On this page, you can also add a logo to the header of your BlogSpot blog, and add or remove various other features.

Once you have a few blog posts up and running, you can go to “Settings” > “Earnings” and enable AdSense for your blog. This will allow you to earn moneyfrom your free BlogSpot blog.

• Read my earlier guide on how to sign up for an AdSense account.

So your blog is almost ready and you can start writing posts. There are just a few more things I suggest you do.

Post by Aakash Singare

   

To place ads

How to put Amazon affiliate Ads in blogger  in India

I had already discussed regarding the benefits of including Affiliate programs in my earlier post - How to make money blogging. Let me repeat the same thing, if your blog is new and say it contains very few posts, you cannot include AdSense (the most used ad network for monetizing) immediately. Also, for developing countries like India and China, Google expects at least 6 months of active blog usage from the bloggers end; before approving their accounts. 

So, it seems like you cannot earn money for the first six months. Even if your AdSense account gets approved, then also it takes time to grow traffic to your blog and hence monetize it. For blogs with ordinary traffic, we can't expect even 1$ per day. It's true, it takes a lot of investment (in terms of time) and you really need to be patient. 

But fortunately; there are some other alternative ways of earning money from your blog as soon as you start writing. The best option being Affiliate Marketing. Famous Affiliate programs like ebay and Amazon 

lets you add product ads of your own interest filed. 

Say if you are writing review about electronic gadgets or writing about upcoming gadgets, then you can select ads related to electronics from the thousands number of available option. The beautiful thing in affiliate marketing is you are even free to choose any single product (of your choice) for display and can change the same anytime. Usually they will give you 8 to 20% of actual product cost as commission; only if the product gets sold from your blog. But you won't get paid for any clicks like AdSense does.

Let us now see how to include Amazon ads in our blogs (for Indian bloggers).

Step - 1

If you are new to Amazon associates. Signup to create an account. Do the formalities by entering your basic details, bank details and more as listed by them.

Step - 2

Once you are done with the standard procedures, you will be directed to the home page as shown below. There select the type of ad format that you want to include by going through either "Links & Banners" or "WidgetsThe best being Links & Banners.

Step - 3 

Move the cursor over Links & Banners to get a drop down list. Under this click "Banner Links". Amazon allows four standard sized banner formats. The best one being 300 X 250 and 160 X 600. But again ad size depends on your blog width, design and space available. For now, let us take 160 X 600 banner.

Step - 4

Click the link '160 X 600' as shown below. Once you click this, the page will move to 160 X 600 ad zone. There you will be shown HTML code with the tab 'HighlightHTML' as shown below. Copy the code.

Step - 5

Now log in to your blogger account. Navigate to your blog and click 'Layout', which will display your blog's layout. There click "Add a Gadget".

Step - 6

Clicking 'Add a Gadget' will display a list of gadgets. scroll down to see 

'HTML/JavaScript'  gadget, click that. Doing this will display a popup window like shown below. If you wish; you may give some title like 'Advertisement', 'check this' or any other similar title's. You can also leave this blank. Paste the copied code from amazon account in the 'Content' space provided.

Step - 7 

Click Save and you are done. If you view your blog, you will see a banner immediately. To change the location of the ad, just drag the html gadget in your blogger layout to the desired place and click 'Save changes'

This is how we place Amazon Affiliate ads in our blogger account. The banner that we placed is not related to a specific product and will display ad about a general category like say books etc. To include more specific ads related to your blog's niche, log in to your amazon affiliate account and go-to Links & Banners > Product links. Search the product that you want to include in the search bar and select the required one from the list. Get the HTML code by clicking 'Get Link' as shown below. 

Then repeat steps 5 to 7.

Happy blogging to you.