Want to blog? Find out how.

I first got the idea for this guide through our local blogging group. With more than 700 members and growing, I realized there is a great deal of interest in blogging. While we do have quite a number of experts in our ranks not all of our members even have blogs yet, and some of those that do still struggle over many aspects of blogging. This means there are really two main problems facing would be bloggers:

• they don’t know where or how to start correctly or,
• they are overwhelmed by the avalanche of information from different experts and gurus.

The truth is that there are no real secrets to creating a great blog. Every piece of information you need can be found online for free. You don’t need another expert to share with you his best kept super pro secrets. You just need an experienced blogger to help you pick and organize all the right pieces of information to help you improve your chances of success.

If you are therefore a beginner who wants to start or has already started a blog but feels lost, this is the guide for you. If you don’t fit this description, you should:

• wait for succeeding posts that will teach you more advanced tricks,
• keep subscribed to my list for strategies I can’t discuss here or,
• look for another guide to follow.

Who am I to be giving you advice?

I’ve been blogging since 2007 and like every beginner, I knew nothing at first, but I took a great deal of time educating myself. That initially got me more confused than enlightened. My mentor, who is an Australian internet marketer and blogger helped me put the different pieces of the puzzle together. You can read more about me on my about page.

Let’s be clear about this though. I am not a tech genius, code expert or script whiz. I am also not a big-time marketing guru. I am however, passionate about blogging and I’m pretty good at tweaking blogs. I know a lot and I have a lot to share.

About this guide?

This post and all succeeding posts that teach about blogging basics are now part of an ebook that you can get for free by signing up for it. I’ve compiled and organized step-by-step posts into chapters so you don’t have to dig deep into my archives and put the information in order yourself.

This is generally for beginners but I understand that people are in different levels of expertise. Depending on how much you already know, you can skip sections or read only those that you’d be interested in.

The core guide will teach you the basic steps you need to know to establish a solid foundation for your blog, leaving out other advanced techniques for later. In other words, you’ll learn steps every beginner should follow. You’d want to follow the right steps so you don’t have to deal with irreversible errors in the future.

As I’ve already mentioned, this blog will later take you farther into blogging tips, tricks and strategies so you can hang around here, subscribe to my list, or subscribe to my RSS feed to get updates. For now, it’s important to learn how to start right.