Chapter 2: Getting Yer Blog On

In This Chapter

check.png Choosing a blogging tool

check.png Setting up your blog

check.png Changing the look of your blog

check.png Putting your first post in print

Blogging is defined, in part, by the tools you use to publish the words you write. These tools tend to be extremely easy to set up, but you still have to do a little work.

This chapter helps you select the best tool for your purpose and then set up the tool and perhaps customize it. After you accomplish all those tasks, you write your first post.

Choosing Your Blog Platform

First things first: Choose your tool. All blogging tools have certain characteristics in common:

They work in your web browser.

They publish your written material on a website.

They enable site visitors to then write comments in response to your entries (called blog posts).

They include a way for visitors to subscribe to your blog by using the RSS feature. (For more about that, see the section “Creating your RSS feed,” later in this chapter.)

Apart from those similarities, though, the various blogging platforms differ widely. The following sections ...

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