The Hindu Business Line : All about blogs

In the early days of Web designing, many people created their own personal home page where they discussed themselves, their families, ideas, and interesting information and pictures. In order to create a personal home page, some knowledge of Web design languages such as html, javascript etc, various server settings, FTP settings, etc, was required.

Now, thanks to the latest Web technologies, you can create your own home page without knowing much about Web design languages.

A blog (also known as weblog) is a personal diary shared over the Web, a private or business online journal, a collaborative space, a collection of links, your own private thoughts, memos to the world. In simple terms, a blog is a Web site where you write stuff on an ongoing basis; new stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they may comment on it or link to it or e-mail you. It's a place to collect and share things that you find interesting — whether it's your political commentary, a personal diary, or links to Web sites you want to remember. Publishing of a blog is `blogging'. Entries in blogs are called posts. Blogs are frequently updated and entries in the blog are arranged in a chronological order. So you can create your own personal blog, group blog, blog for business, etc.

A large number of Web sites offer blog accounts. Some offer free blog hosting, such as blogger (www.blogger.com) and LiveJournal (www.livejournal.com) .

Now let's see how we can create a blog (weblog) at Blogger.com. Blogger is a free service from Google. This helps you build a personal Web site without learning much about Web technologies. Before creating a blog account at

Blogger.com, just click "Take a quick tour", to get some idea about blogs.

Now decide what kind of blog you are going to create, whether it's a personal blog, group blog or blog for business.

Also please decide the hosting part, whether to host it yourself or use the free Blogger host service. Next click the "Create your Blog now" Arrow button to create your own blog.

In the first screen "Create a Google account," you have to provide some basic information about your account such as email address, Password (at least six characters long) and Display name. The "Display name" is the name that will be visible when you post on your blog.

Just fill in the Word Verification box and Accept (tick) the "terms of service" and click continue arrow button.

The second screen is "Name your blog" that chooses where you will host your blog. You may host it with free Blogger.com (blogspot) or host it on your Web site.

If you want to host your blog on Blogger.com, please fill the Blog title and Blog address (URL). Enter a meaningful Blog title. If you create group blog, you may give the title that ends with group or

community. If you create a blog for business, you can include the company's name as part of your title.

Next enter the first part of your blog's URL address. All blogs hosted on Blogspot have ".blogspot.com" as the last half of their URL address. So, you only need to supply the front half.

The URL address you provide can be the same or a shortened version of the title of your blog. Once you decide on a URL, you then need to click on the Check Availability link to see if anyone has already chosen that combination.

If that combination is already taken, you will get a message saying so and a list of a few alternative URLs. If it passes the test, you are all set to click Continue. (If you want to host your blog on the same server as your Web site, you will need to use the "Advanced Setup" form instead.)

The Next step is choosing a template. Just scroll through the template list, choose any template that you like and click the Continue button. You can change the template completely later on if you wish. In the next screen, you will get the "your blog has been created" message. Click the "Start Posting" button. In the compose tab windows inside the text box, type the contents that you wish to post. Here you may change the text font, size and style, insert image etc. Use the preview button to see how it will appear. Then click publish your post.

Now you have successfully posted your first post. Click the "view blog" link or type directly http://www.(url address).blogspot.com. if you wish to make posts or edit options for your blog, you must go to www.blogger.com and log in with the user name and password you created.

For more information, please refer http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/

art45094.asp

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.

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Solution by M. Sampath

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