Blogging has become a very popular way to communicate with others. Many businesses use blogs to teach and inform people about things related to their business. Others write blogs to share their stories and experiences. Perhaps you have seriously considered writing a blog but don’t have the slightest idea where to begin. Well, here are a few tips about how to set up a blog.

Of course you should first choose a subject for your blog. Not every article has to be on the same subject, but there should be a common thread. For instance, if your blog is about raising children, you can include articles about shopping for kid’s clothes, school lunches, childproofing your home, etc. But you wouldn’t write an article about how to train your dog to sit up or how jet travel was first introduced to the world.

Staying on subject is important because people will return to your blog again and again if they are interested in the subject. If you have no subject, you will never build up a loyal following.

Blogging does not have to cost a cent, nor do you have to know computer programming to develop a blog. There are several really good free blogging platforms available to anyone who wants to use them. A few of the more popular platforms are:

• Blogger
• Blog.com
• WordPress.com
• Weebly

Just go into any of those sites and there will be easy to understand instructions about setting up your own blog. Many very popular bloggers who have millions of readers have blogs on these blogging platforms.

It is important when writing a blog that you write about something you know or care about. You don’t have to be an expert — in fact your blog might be about how you are struggling to gain expertise in some area. The reason it should be about something familiar to you is so that you will write blog posts regularly.

Writing regular posts is a very important tip when creating your own blog. If you are passionate about something then you will write about it. If you are writing a blog about dog training, but you don’t even own a dog, then you will not feel like writing regularly.

Be sure to include photos on your blog. The most popular bloggers have learned their readers like to see pictures of the things they are writing about. If you are writing about your kids, show their pictures. If you post an article about the first day of school, show pictures of the school and your son or daughter getting on the school bus. This will really help you develop an audience.

After you post a new article to your blog, let your friends know about it by making a comment on your Facebook page or announcing it to your Twitter followers. Don’t say: “I posted a new article today”. Instead, whet their appetite. Say something like: “What a fiasco! Today was Billy’s first day of school and boy, was I unprepared! I wrote about my humiliating experience on my blog.”

Blogging can be great fun and it can also be a way to communicate with lots of people. So get out there, put up your own blog and start blogging!