Creating a Blog

Before you can create a blog, you have to create a Blogger account. This account is separate from your Google account, so you'll have to go through the process even if you use Gmail, Google Talk, or other Google services.

Creating a Blogger account is a piece of cake. In fact, Blogger combines the process of creating your account and creating your first blog. It's a simple three-step process.

Start on the new user home page, and click Create Your Blog Now. This opens the Create an Account page, shown in Figure 23.3, where you enter your desired user name, password, display name (separate from your user name, if you like), and email address.

Figure 23.3. Creating your Blogger account.

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When you click Continue, you see the Name Your Blog page, shown in Figure 23.4. Enter a title for your blog, a corresponding blog address (the part of the URL that goes before Blogger's blogspot.com domain), and click Continue.

Figure 23.4. Naming your blog.

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Next, you get to choose a template for your blog. As you can see in Figure 23.5, a template is a pre-designed combination of page layout, colors, and fonts. Try to choose a template that's easily readable, especially for the types of postings you think you'll be doing. (You can preview any template at full size by clicking the Preview Template link under the template's thumbnail picture.) After you make your choice, click the Continue button.

Figure 23.5. Choosing a template for your blog.

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Blogger now creates your blog and displays a confirmation page. If now is a good time to write your first blog post, click the Start Posting link. Otherwise, you can create posts at any later time.