I may not be a famous blogger, but I do know one thing:  you need passion in order to be successful!  Not only in having a website online, but in anything you choose to do in life.  Truth is, if you’re not having fun in what your doing, the enthusiasm will not be behind your work, and it will at best be mediocre.  If you’re going to step into the wide world of bloggers, you have to focus, find your niche, and make it fun.  That way, you will have a better chance at beating the odds of failure.  With 126 million blogs out there and counting, it will be challenging to stand out among the huge Internet crowd… Trust me!  So you think you want to start your own blog??  Read on…

When you want to start a blog, here are my first suggestions:

Take your time.  Start one blog at a time so not to push yourself too hard, and decide with confidence the niche you want to go into.  Allow it to be something that will be the most fun and rewarding for you!

Decide who will host your blog.  There are two ways you can start your blog:  With a free blogging service such as wordpress.com and blogger.com, or you can purchase a domain and hosting service from a company such as hostmonster.com.  The pros with purchasing is that you have your own domain name… With free services, you do not.  Decide your name and open your account.  If you use a paid service, install WordPress into your hosting account to run your blog.

Install a WordPress Theme.  This will make your blog look presentable.  A nice style, background and Font to any blog will further your success down the road.  They have free as well as premium options to this as well.

Configure a few plugins.  You don’t want too many, but choose the few that will be best for your blog.  Got a huge Facebook or Twitter following, for example?  Perhaps adding these options to your blog as well will attract even more visitors to it.

Set up RSS Feed for your readers.  This will make it much easier for people who enjoy what you write, to subscribe and it will give you stats on your visitors.

Register, Promote, Spread the Word!  Start promoting the new articles you post on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, social media and blog directories such as Yahoo and Google, Blog Catalog, and Blog Flux to name a few.

Set up an Google Adsense Account.  Monetizing sites such as Google Adsense and others help you get paid cash for visitors who stop and check out what you have to offer.  The pay can be good, or none at all.  This option is worth adding yet don’t get discouraged when the first few months add up to literal pocket change if that.  You can blow up and make thousands a month, I know first hand.

I have over the last 5 or so months, also found it helpful to take note from successful bloggers and get advice from them one on one.  I have personally emailed some asking what I could do to further my blogs, with many helpful responses.  Many fellow bloggers will take the time to answer your questions and find it flattering that you think they could be of help.  It never hurts to ask, that is one of my many motto’s, and it has gotten me quite a few back-links as well.  Just try it after you start your own, and see how far you can get.

Here are a few more tips that have been very beneficial to me while blogging:

Be Unique.  There are a lot of copy cats out there, do your own thing, create your own “branding” of yourself, and leave impressions on people about your blog that will make them want to return.

Have a schedule set.  If your a real “jack of all trades” like myself, then you have many things to do each day(such as I work full-time, go to school, take care of my child, and still blog and lead a personal life).  A schedule is important in keeping on task and also allows your readers to know when they can expect more.  Write once a week or everyday of the week, but do what is best for you and keep at it!

Type your articles clearly, with focus, use spell-check and proof read.  That is pretty self explanatory!

Create back-links!  Create back-links by commenting on other blogs and leaving your link behind.  Trust me, others will check out of curiosity what you have to say if you leave interesting comments.  Write other bloggers and ask them to add you to their blogrolls.  When you write your articles, link all sources of information with a link of the website you got it from.

That’s pretty much it, to get started. Keep a positive attitude and you can make it in blogging!! These tips will surely help any beginner out there who wants to have an successful start to any blog. I hope these ideas of mine will get you off on a good foot! if you have any other suggestions, I’ll be happy to hear them from you! Just leave a post below…