how to start your own blog

Sign into your Gmail account if you haven’t already.

Then visit Blogger.com:

Click on the orange “Create Your Blog Now” arrow:

If you’re already signed into Gmail, you should find yourself already on Step 2,

Name your blog:

Think up a name for your blog. Try to make it something a bit different.

Now enter a word, or words, that will be your blog’s address (URL). You may have to try quite a few because a lot of names are already taken. Click on the Check availability link to see whether your name is available:

Once you find a name that is available, make a note of it somewhere.

Type the letters you see in the Word Verification window (horribly tricky this one):

Once you’re done click on the orange Continue arrow:

On the next page, choose a template (the design of your blog. You can always change it later.) Choose one by clicking the little circle below the one you like:

Scroll down the page and click on the orange Continue arrow:

Do this after you’ve done this.

Select the text you want to edit using your mouse or the keyboard’s Control and arrow keys:

If you want to change the font, style or size of the words, use the functions on the left of the bar above the text window:

If you want to add a link (also called a hyperlink) to some text so it links to another webpage, first open another browser window and visit the page and copy its URL or web address. You can do this by selecting the text in the address bar:

or right clicking on a link to that web page and selecting Copy link location from the pop-up menu:

Once you’ve done that, go back to your blog post editing window and click on the link button next to the formatting buttons:

A window will pop up like this:

Click on the field and paste in the address you’ve just copied either by hitting Control and V or right clicking and selecting Paste from the drop-down menu:

Click OK and the words you selected should now be underlined in blue:

That’s it.

Experiment with the other functions: Place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph, and try aligning the text:

or turning the text into lists:

or quotes (good if you’re quoting another blog; a quote means that the text will appear indented from the main text):

You can also insert images or videos from your computer:

You can also keyboard shortcuts for many of these tasks. There’s a list here.