So, you have been out on the Internet and hear people talking about blogs. Weblogs (Blogs for short) are web-based publications consisting of information of all sorts. Some people have personal blogs. Others are using blogs to market a product or service. I use one of my blog as a complimentary informational site to my home based business. It allows me to easily and quickly publish information about my home-based business. It is also a portal for my team to keep abreast of business related information.

The first thing you need to decide what type of blog you want. Having decided, go to www.blogger.com (there are other, but for the purpose of this article, I will discuss www.blogger.com.) to setup an account.

Once your account is setup, you will want to login into the dashboard. At this point, I would send some time reading the tutorials and looking at some of the other blogs. By looking at other's blogs, you can get an idea of how you want your to look and function. Blogger provides a help group (forum) where you can communicate with other members.

First, you will want to create your blog. You do this by using the 'Create A Blog' button. This will bring you to page asking you a few questions. At this point, you have two options: simple setup or advanced setup. If you are new and have no knowledge of setting up a website and ftping, stay with the simple setup. But if you are familiar with setting up website and ftping, I suggest the advance setup. The advance setup would allow you more flexibility, but requires more of a learning curve. For our discussion, we will stick with the simple setup.

For the simple setup, chose a title and address (URL) for your blog. Select a title that reflection your intention for the site. Selecting a good title is an important consideration, especially if you are using it to market a product or providing information to your audience. Put in the word verification number and hit 'Continue'

Secondly, you will want to select a template from the ones provided on this page. Make your selection based on how it will coordinate with product or service. Also, the template should have an aesthetic affect on your targeted traffic. In other words, if you are using this to promote a home-based business, use a color scheme that is not loud and boisterous.

Lastly, hit the 'Continue' button. Your blog has been setup. You will now want to start publishing to your blog. You are back at the dashboard, so select your blog link.

Under the 'Publish' tab, select the 'Create" tab. You will have a blank editor box to enter your new information to be published. If you are familiar with HTML tags, you can add it into your text. (i.e.: Bolding the text will produce "This is my new text".). There are some edit buttons within the editor that you can use also. Once finished entering your new information, hit the 'Publish Post' button.

As a side note, once you have published to your site, you will want to draw traffic to your new blog. You can use two sites that will send out your post so others can see them. They are www.pingoat.com and www.pingomatic.com. Every time you make a new post, use these two sites.

Whether you are just wanting expound your personal views, market a product or service, or provide a portal for additional information about your home based business, blogs are great. They can be setup easily and quickly be published. You do not have to worry about web hosting and programming if you are a newbie. Just start typing in your thoughts on a daily basis to keep your content fresh.