You want to create a blog and communicate your knowledge to the world.
You have heard of many options but do not know any.
You are in luck.
I am going to explain how to create a free blog on Blogger.
It will be a step-by-step tutorial in which you just have to follow what I do.
When you finish, you can start writing on your blog.
Go for it.
Table of Contents
- Why forgetting technical topics with Blogger is a smart option
- Limitations of having a free blog on Blogger
- 1. Create your blogger account
- 2. Create your blog
- 3. Set options
- 4. Write your first post
- 5. Post your entry
- 6. Buy a domain
- 7. How to migrate from Blogger to a blog hosted by your hosting provider
Why forgetting technical topics with Blogger is a smart option
Currently, there are several platforms to create a blog and web pages. In fact, people usually use WordPress.
Still, this is not the only option that exists. In this post, I am going to explain how to create a blog in just 4 steps using Blogger, Google’s alternative to WordPress.
Blogger is the quintessential free blogging platform.
Why is it a smart choice? For its simplicity and speed of creation. In fact, in a matter of minutes, you can have your blog created.
Forget about hiring hosting, installing plugins, and technical roles.
Limitations of having a free blog on Blogger
Keep in mind that it is still a free platform. And like everything free, you will find some limitations when creating and managing a blog on Blogger.
- At the level of customization, you will find several aspects and sections that you will not be able to customize.
- You will work under Google’s policies. So if you break their rules, they may end up closing your blog.
- You can only create a blog and nothing else. Forget about offering a Lead Magnet to create a mailing list or even create a sales page to offer your products or services.
- You start with a .blogspot.com subdomain. And obviously, to personalize your domain, you will have to pay.
With that said, let’s start with blog creation.
1. Create your blogger account
Creating a blogger account is very simple. To do this you just have to enter Blogger.com and click the “Create your Blog” button.
Second, it will ask you to log in with an existing Google account or with a new account. Either way, you just have to start or create an account to access it.
Once you are inside, you will need to confirm your profile. In other words, write the name that your blogger profile will have. Simple, right?
You are already inside Blogger, with your account created.
Let’s go to the next step.
2. Create your blog
Great! You already have your account created. Now all that remains is to create what your blog will be.
To do this, click the “Create a blog” button and then add the title of your blog (name that it will have), the domain you want (which in this case is not personalized), and finally select the theme or template you want to Add.
PS: The custom domain will be added later.
Once you have it, click the orange “Create blog” button.
3. Set options
Perfect, you already have the main structure of your blog created. Now we are going to configure the options.
As you can see in the image below, a menu appears on the left side with various options.
Actually, all the options are already configured by default. If at any time you need to modify any type of information on your blog, you can do so in the “Settings” section.
If it turns out that the topic you initially selected for your blog does not convince you, you can also change it for another one, in the “Theme” section.
And in the event that you want to modify the design of the main blog page, you can do so through the “Design” section. In it you will find the widgets that are currently being displayed. From here you can add, modify or delete widgets.
The setup is very simple and intuitive, so there should be no complications.
Remember to click the “Save Layout” button.
4. Write your first post
To create your first post, you will have to click on the “Tickets” section and just in the upper left, click on the orange “New entry” button.
An important subsection.
Don’t write for yourself. Put the focus on your ideal client.
We continue.
If you are seeing the same thing as me, a Word-type window should appear, where you can add and write the text of your first post.
We are going to start writing the title in the upper section “Entry”.
And from here the content creation process is simple.
If you want to add an image, you just have to click on the corresponding icon, select the image you want and add it to your entry.
The same with the text and the rest of the elements you want to add.
Come on, I’ll leave you a few minutes to do the first test while I write mine. ?
5. Post your entry
Do you already have it? Great, in this case, save the changes by clicking on the “Save” button and then clicking on the “Preview” button to see how your entry is looking.
This is what the entry in Blogger looks like.
Once you have finished writing and designing your post, you will have to publish it.
To do so, on the page where you have been writing the entry, click the “Publish” button.
Once you have done so, the entry will be visible to everyone on your blog.
6. Buy a domain
With the creation of your blog and the publication of your first posts finished, it’s time to acquire your own domain.
Google offers a domain purchase service that is very simple to use.
Still, I recommend that you purchase your domain from a dedicated company as this Google service is still in the Beta phase.
In my case, I use Siteground.
To acquire your domain through this platform, you simply have to search for your domain in the central search section.
You can instantly see if the domain you have searched for is available or not and what alternatives you have.
Once you have found it, you will have to make the payment as in any other type of online purchase.
And finally, it only remains to link the domain with your blog.
To do this you will have to open the Blogger section “Settings”> “The Basics” and in the “Publishing” section, just below the domain editor, you will find a blue text where it says “Configure a third-party URL for your blog”. Click.
From here you will have to follow some guidelines to be able to connect your domain with your blog.
So that this Post does not take too long, I leave you here the steps to follow provided by Google support.
7. How to migrate from Blogger to a blog hosted by your hosting provider
In the event that the time comes when you want to upgrade and go to the professional side, you will have to follow these steps:
- Acquire a domain + hosting here.
- Install WordPress
- Install the template you are going to use
- Import all the information from Blogger to WordPress through a plugin called “Blogger Importer”, which you will have to install and use from WordPress.
This post is not about this in particular, but obviously, I will not leave you lying.
So if you want to know exactly how to create a blog hosted by a hosting provider, you can read this post where we explain it step by step.
Remember that content creation is essential for the growth of your audience. For that, you will need to create an editorial calendar.
As you can see, everything has its reason.
Strategy is key to the success of a blog.