"Blogging" is a relatively new craze that has taken the internet by storm over the past five years.
Blogging in and of itself is far older than this, but it was not until around late 2004 that it became mainstream, ballooning in popularity much faster than anyone could have anticipated.
Blogging is simply sharing your thoughts, opinions, or ideas on any one of a myriad of topics with the world through a website.
Some bloggers typically review products or promote business ideas, but the vast majority simply use their website as a virtual landfill for every thought that crosses their mind.
Not to imply that there is anything wrong with that - it is simply the way things are.
As with any other new popular thing, there are a lot of new people interested in getting involved themselves.
A lot of these new people, however, have no experience online, and often have little experience using a computer all together.
That should not discount from them the opportunity of blogging.
Setting up a blog of your own is fairly simple and easy.
There are literally thousands of different ways to go about it, and there are many free services (such as blogger) that handle all of the back-end stuff for you.
If you are simply looking to launch a no-frills site for posting your thoughts, you may want to look into one of these options.
The method I will explain is for setting up a moderately professional blog, and involves a little more work and money than a free service.
Step 1 - Obtain Hosting and a Domain The first thing you will need is hosting.
This is the virtual space that your blog will "live" out on the internet.
Web hosting typically carries either a monthly or an annual fee, but most are reasonably low.
You should be able to purchase simple web hosting with unlimited transfer and several hundred gigs (if not unlimited) storage for around $5/month.
You will also need to obtain a domain name.
This is the ".
com" name that people will use to access your website.
These are purchased from a domain registrar, and also carry an annual fee of about $20.
The most popular domain registrar is GoDaddy.
com, but there are thousands of them, so shop around for the best price.
For hosting, I recommend DreamHost.
You can purchase very robust hosting from DreamHost for $110/year, and they include the cost of one domain name registration.
If you host your blog from them, you will never have to pay an additional fee for registering your domain name.
Step 2 - Install Blog Software There are lots of different blog software tools out there, but for this step, you want WordPress.
Trust me - it is not even worth the time to look at other options.
WordPress is the most widely used, easiest, and most customizable blogging software available today, and it is FREE.
The software and installation instructions are available at WordPress.
org, along with plenty of add-ons to customize your blog.
Installation is simple, and requires very little technical knowledge.
Additionally, if you go with DreamHost hosting like I recommended earlier, they have a one-click install available for WordPress that does all of the work for you.
Step 3 - Start Blogging! That is it! Your new blog is online and ready to use! Log in to your site as an administrator and start posting your messages for the world to read.