New blog—and account

photo: aaron burden

Are you new in town? Welcome!

In this guide for newcomers, the ➧ symbol indicates my personal recommendations for success.

Your new blog setup will go smoothly if you read this post through before you start, and use it to ➧ plan out the following steps:

• what account you'll use to administer the blog
• what your blog title will be
• what you'd like your blog's web address ("universal resource locator" or url) to be (along with some alternatives)
• what name you'd like to be known as on your blog

Your blogging account

Your Blogger account is a Google account. If you have one or more accounts, your blog will be linked to the one that is active when you start your blog at blogger.com.

• If you don't have one you'll be prompted to start one when you click "create your blog." 
• If you have one but want to start a new one, ➧ sign out of all your Google accounts before you start, or visit blogger.com in a private or incognito browser window.
• If you have an account you'd like to use, go to www.blogger.com and click "create blog" or "create your blog."

Do yourself a favor and ➧ start with the account you'll want to use to run the blog. You can change this later, but it's easier to start where you want to be.

New Accounts

If you have no Google account, or want to start a new one, go to www.blogger.com and click "create your blog."  

Google will prompt you to create a gmail address by specifying a "username," but you can alternatively use any active email address instead.

Still a Google account, whatever you choose.

That address will be the email contact for communications from Google about your blog. ➧ It will also be the user ID for your blog—for signing in to its Google account. It does not have to be a Gmail address.

There is a bit of an operation to change this later. So think about how you will administer the blog, and pick or create the account you expect to use over time.

Next, Google will send a verification email to the address you specify. If you are creating a new email, you will have to provide the number of a phone that can accept text messages for a verification code.

You'll have to ➧ open that email and respond to it, or enter the code you receive, to continue.

If you create a Gmail account, you can sign in to it online with that user ID and password. But if you use another address, ➧ be sure it works!

The information Google requests here, including the email address and your name, and of course your password, will be private. That information won't appear on any public page unless you put it there.

Most of the information that Google requires in subsequent screens is also private. Google explains how it uses that information.

I'm skipping the rest of account setup to focus on things related to Blogger alone.

Blog name and address

You can name your blog whatever you like. Names cannot be copyright. But your web address must be unique, and many of the obvious addresses are unavailable.

• Getting your free web address
• Making do if the address you want is taken

➧ Don't be discouraged if the web address of your dreams is taken. It usually is.

Find one that's like it (maybe with hyphens, like mine, or underscores) and get going.

The important thing is to blog.

Display name

If yours is the first-ever blog in the account, Blogger will also ask you to ➧ specify a display name for yourself.

This is a Blogger-only identifier that is separate from any information you have already provided to Google about your account (such as your user ID).

It's easy to change your display name at any time.

By default, this will appear in several places on your blog, though you can customize your blog to leave it out. 

You do not need to use your real name. You can hide hide your identity, if you like, while showing your Blogger nickname on your blog. 

However, impersonating another person or organization can get you kicked off the platform.

New Blogs

Your blog is a web page that you plan to turn into a collection of individual blog posts.

(Don't call those posts "blogs," OK? It's just confusing.)

At upper left on your dashboard at blogger.com is a drop down menu that lists all the blogs in your account.

"New Blog" is an option at the end of that list; select it to create another blog in the same account at any time.

Visual theme

After you create the blog, you will have access to all of the administrative controls at your Blogger dashboard.

From there, you can select a blog theme that will handle all the design stuff for you. You can switch themes in seconds (and, they are customizable).

In keeping with my stated philosophy ("just blog"), don't worry about this: you can change it easily at any time. But go ahead and try a few themes on for size. 

Tips for starting out

Assume you'll use forever the email address you create or provide at sign up to sign in to the blog. (You can change it, but it is a pain.) Think about that before you start the process.

All the personal information Google wants on your account-creation page is private, or can be hidden.

Do not get hung up over the web address of your blog at blogspot.com. You can still name your blog whatever you like, and there is probably a close match that is available.

Blog like no one's watching. No one is, at first, and you can also ➧ make your blog private while you get started. So try stuff, screw up, experiment, etc. You'll learn faster!

Blogger's help page on starting a new blog is ➧ required reading.

The volunteers at the Blogger Help Community (bloggers like you, not Google employees) can help you with questions about this process. ➧ Be sure to include a link to your blog if you post a question there.

Have fun with it, and best wishes for the new blog!

Here's what to do next.                                               

Links

• Create a Google account, if you need a new one
• How Google uses information about you
• Start a blog at Blogger
• Your free web address
• If the address you want is taken
• Make your blog private to start with
• Blogger help pages
• Blogger Help Community