This is our step by step guide to using blogger.com, from setting up your profile to making your first post

Stage 1 (Signing up)

The ONLY option here is for a Google profile sign up. After all it is owned by Google so it goes without saying it will need a Google account to login in with. Nothing too hard just login into your Google Gmail or G+ and click sign in!

 

Stage 2 (Setting up your Blogger profile) 

 

Confirm Your Profile

What is happening here is that Google is asking if it is OK to use your G+ profile information as your “About me” widget. This is entirely up to you if you want to use this, but if you have the G+ account set up fully it might be easier to just integrate it here.

Also take note that there is a tick box here that asks if you want feature announcements sent to you e-mail address. I suggest you un-tick this as it will only serve to bring more rubbish to your inbox. Even if you want to keep up-to-date on the latest Blogger features and news un-click it and you will discover why in the next section.

Then when you are ready and have had a good read through you are ready to continue, s0 click the button [Continue to Blogger]

Creating a New Blo

The top bit is the only part you need to worry about in this section, but it is worth noting that the reading list automatically adds  “Blogger Buzz” to your reading lists, so you now see my point about un-checking the news box in the previous part.

Unless you already have some blogger blogs you would like to follow you can ignore the bottom part of this page and just click the “New Blog” Button to continue.

New Blog

It is time to create our new blog. First up it is asking for the following information…

Title – This is going to be the main title for your blog, so make sure you get your main keyword in here, while it can be changed later on it is best to get it right first time, as the title will say a lot about your blogs content and style it is a main point to take care of and get right first time.

Address – No matter what you put in here it has to end with blogspot.com, while later on you might well move away from blogger and drop the last part, but for now you are stuck with it. I decided to call my blog my name just for demonstration purposes, but I suggest that you try to get a URL that is as close to your main keyword as possible.

Then the fun part, it is time to pick a theme! As you can see in the image about I went with the “Picture Window” theme. Please note that this is just a quick apply theme, later on you will be able to choose from thousands of theming options.

So for now just make 100% sure you are happy with both the title and the address, the rest can easily be changed later on. (Yes the others can be changed as well, but it is part of the flow and A-Z method of building the profile I have chosen.)

When you are ready click that [Create Blog!] button and lets move on.

What happened to my blog

Don’t worry! At this point all that has happened is that the blog has gone back to the first create blog page, but this time your blog is there and ready for you to create a new post. From here you can click the [View Blog] to see your newly created blog, but as of yet you have no posts, and it would look a little bare. So what I will do to keep the blog creation flow going I will now be moving on to us creating the first blog post.

So when you are ready just click on that orange pencil [Create new post] and let’s go!

Stage 3 (What is the perfect post?) –

Main Post Creation

As you can see I have already laid out what all of the top bar things are in the main image, but I will now go through the more important things. Once again it is best to get your blog post keyword in here, but it is more important to make the blog tittle as catchy as you can, maybe taking the form of a question or shocking stat, something to draw your reads in.

So you have your title, used the main text body to create something amazing, you are now ready to post right? Well no. Not yet anyway. What we now need to do is take a look at the side bar.

Side Options

 

We have 5 options here. Labels, Schedule, Permalink, Location, and Options.

Labels – This means tags! We suggest that you use no more than 2-3 labels per post.  Just chose what you think is the 3 main single words that sum up the new post. Maybe News, Information, funny, cats, dogs, food…etc just read through it and you will soon discover what they are without much thought.

Schedule – This is a very handy tool indeed. Have you noticed some posts on your social media channels get more attention than others because of the time they were posted? Well why not post that blog at the same time as well! Perfect timing can make the difference in the amount of readers pacifically.

Permalink – This is the option to change the URL of your blog post, this is a handy option to make sure that the URL is not too long. I suggest here that you make sure your main title keyword is in here regardless of anything.

Location – Oh, yes! Very handy for tagging not only local SEO posts, but also for tagging holiday snaps and touring information.

Options – You have various options here.

Do you want to stop comments, or can’t be bothered to deal with the spam ones? Then turn them on or off!
Reader comments
– Allow
– Don’t allow

Are you one of those skilled people who can type in HTML code as you go along? Well I am not, but if you are the option to interpret code, or leave it alone is right here.
Compose Mode
– Show HTML literally
– Interpret typed HTML

Is it going to be a long post? Then why not break it up a little bit with the following options.
Line breaks
– Use <br> tag
– Press “Enter” for line breaks

When you are done going through these options you are then ready to click that bright Orange [Publish] button. Well done, your first post on Blogger and the start of what will hopefully be something wonderful.

Check out the one I made as well>> http://prabchadha.blogspot.co.uk
Profile Link? – Yes

Profile Image? – YES

Background Image? – YES

Post Links? -YES

Post Amount Limitations? – NONE

Image Support? – YES

Animated GIF Support? – YES

Video Support? – YES

Hashtag Support? – YES (Via Labels)

Location Support? – YES

Tags Support? – YES

Bookmarking Opportunity? – YES

Turn on/off notifications? – YES

Summary and final thoughts? – It is a great blog site for people who are very new to blogging. Kind of my first blog if you wish. Not only does it take the effort away from posting and creating, it also has its own built-in ads system! So when you are bringing in enough traffic you can be earning money from it, at the simple click of a button. 

But for me the single most off-putting thing about this site is its complete lack of personalized URL options which is a real shame, as otherwise I am sure a lot more people would be on the platform. But for new bloggers it is just about perfect and doesn’t cost a single penny.

About the author

Pogo Digital

Digital Marketing Services at Pogo Digital Marketing

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