Create your Blog

Congratulations.  You're about to start making money online!

The first step is to think about what you know or what you like doing, and would like to write about.  That's going to be your frst blog (oh yeah, once you start doing this, you're going to want to have several blogs).

Now visit Blogspot's home page and create an account or log in with your Google ID.  After you click on the Create New Blog link, you'll see a screen that contains this:

Choosing your title and blog address are very important steps.  Avoid the mistake that many people make when they enter their name or something they think is cute or funny.  If your blog is going to be successful, you want your title and address to be words that people are searching for.

Open a new tab or broswer window, and go to Google's free Keyword Tool.  This is designed for their AdWords customers, but works just as well for you.  You should see a screen that looks like this:

Enter your blog idea in the box, enter the verification word in the box below, and click the "Get keywords ideas" button.  If you enter "model trains," for example, you might see results like this:

At this point, I click the column heading "Global Monthly Search volume" to sort the results in descending order.  Look at all the search terms related to your idea.  The bigger the numbers, the more people have searched for that term in Google.

If you scroll down the page, you'll see additional search terms related to yours:

Either print out these pages or export them to a file you can save on your computer.  They're all valuable words that you're going to want to use.

Now go back to the window or tab where you were creating your blog, and find a really good blog address that's available.  What's a really good address?  It's one that says what you do, and is also a popular search term. 

In our example, we might try "modeltrains" or "model-trains" (without the quotation marks, of course).  Try one and click on the "Check Availability" link.  Don't be discouraged if your first few choices are taken.  That's why we have the list of keywords.  Maybe we'll have to use "train-sets" or "toy-trains" for our address. 

Remember, you're trying to find an address that is relevant to your blog's theme, and is something that people are searching for. 

Once you find something that is available, Use the same terms for your blog's title (in the box above the address box).  Why?  The search engines love this.  And if the search engines love it, then you'll rank high in search results and thus get more traffic. 

Once you've completed these steps, enter a verification word and click on the "Continue" link.  On the next page you'll choose a template that appeals to you. 

Congratulations!  You've just created your blog, and are ready to start building it up!

Next: Using gadgets to create a layout that makes your blog work.