How To start your own website or blog for free on Blogger.com

Here's a tutorial on how to create your own website or blog on Blogger.com.
Free, of course.
A common question is what's the difference between a website and a blog ? Well a website tends to be more static and interactive - think online banking.

A blog or weblog tends to be more like a diary of events or new posts, rather like this one, where the posts are dated and time ordered. There's usually a history of posts and a few other boxes on one side.

Start at Blogger.com

It also helps to crank up a fresh "Gmail" to use specifically for this website or blog.
For example, I started up a fresh one called genuinefreelinks@gmail.com. It helps to keep things organised.


Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows you to create private blogs with time and date stamped entries.
It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003.

Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at sub-domain of blogspot.com.
For example, this blog is hosted at "http://genuinefreestuff.blogspot.com/"

You can also buy your domain name for a small fee, and still use Blogger to publish your blog.
Then I might use, say, "http://genuinefreestuff@simonblogs.com".

So, pick a name...

No spaces in the website address !
Click that orange button to continue...

Pick a template...

That's all it takes. Now all you need is something to say.

Here's where it goes next.
There's a NEW and an OLD editor. I still prefer the old for various reasons. You can switch between the two as often as you want.

So, you write a heading, insert some text, upload some pics from your computer.
Set a date to be published if not today's date. I tend to write a few at once and have them drop in at 2 a.m.

Click on that DESIGN button to bring up this page.
Here you can create all the items you see on the right of my blog - Google Search Boxes, Introduction, Adverts (Google will pay you money !), PayPal button, Various Indexes and so on.

If you click that ADD A GADGET you see this...
Simply pick from a choice of many standard boxes.

You can also copy chunks of HTML into a text box to create other gadgets or widgets.
It's quite common to go looking for exotic widgets for your blog. You tend to subscribe to a site like PayPal, enter your details, choose what you want and then receive a chunk of HTML to paste into a box to create, say, a PayPal button like mine. You don't need to know anything about HTML to do it - you just copy and paste.

You can open an "Adsense" account with Google and put Google adds in to earn a little pocket money. Don't expect big bucks though.

That's it in a nutshell. You should be able to work out anything else from the standard boxes and help guides.

*** Incidentally, this is a great way to BACK UP your photos and your diary. If you are on holidays, you can email in a few pictures and a few lines of text to make a blog entry. Do it when you sit down in a free WiFi area. Make sure you set up a new blog before you go, and enable email posting.

Read this post in Blogger Help about email posting - it's easy to do.
https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41452?hl=en

Looking for something new to say...
Cheers. Si.
Checked April 2014 for link and relevance.