How to start a blog

Somebody asked me how do they start their own blog so I said I'll write a blog about starting a blog in case somebody else also wants to start a blog! Let me know once you've started one so I can check it out.

1. Go to blogger.com (click on the link I just posted).
2. Click on the big orange button that says: CREATE A BLOG.
3. You need to have a google account, in other words a gmail email address. If you already have one, you can type it in.
4. If not, you need to create one: Go to www.google.com At the top of the page click on google mail and then there will be a button to click to create a gmail account. It's free :-)
5. Back to the blog: Fill in all the fields on page one to create your blogger account.
6. Click next
7. Decide on a name for your blog.
8. Choose a template for your blog to make it look pretty. You can change the template any time.
9. And start typing your first blog!

Don't forget to let me know the link to your blog so I can follow.

Now some other tips when writing a blog:

1. To post a new post, click "New Post" of course ;-)
2. Type a title for that post and start composing your post.
3. Buttons from left to right at the top where you're typing your new post are:

- To change the font,

- the font size,

- bold or italics and

- to change the colour of your font

- Then with the next button you can add a link. Say you want to tell people about some place you went, then you can include a link where they can read more about this place. Open this website you want to link to, highlight and copy the address at the top, go back to your post you're busy with, highlight some text, e.g. the name of the place you're talking about, click the link button and paste the address in there. Done! Try it out.

- The next couple of buttons are self explanatory I think.

- Over to the right there is a little picture which looks like a landscape photograph. Click on this to add photos to your blog.

- Next to that you can upload videos too. I don't use that, I use my vimeo instead and embed it in there and here is a link to doing that!

You can preview your post by clicking on the preview button.

Then click PUBLISH POST, bottom left in orange, when you're all done.

Happy blogging! I'm now going to enjoy some Italian chocolate which our good visitors brought us from Italy mmmmm....