Notes to a Beginning Blogger

It's been a little over four years since I started blogging here at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, and one year since I introduced the Roxy's Best Of... Community of local sites. Every now and then, someone will ask me how to get started blogging and I think about making a list of resources for the beginning blogger. If you're just getting started, it makes sense to start with one of the free, easy to use, blogging services such as Google's Blogger/Blogspot. That's where I started Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, and while I've branched out to many more blogs in other formats, this blog is still one of my most popular. Once you've decided to get serious, it makes sense to look into a web hosting service so that you control your own site or sites like I do with Roxy's Best Of... I find that what they call a "self-hosted" blog (or in my case, an entire blogging community) gives me a great deal more flexibility and I don't have to worry about the evil Google overlords shutting down my site. A site like Web Hosting Geeks can help you to review the choices and make an informed decision.

No matter where your blog is hosted, two of the best ways to find other blogs to read and to "drive traffic" (get new visitors) to your blog are BlogExplosion (see the banner at the top of this page) or EntreCard (see the Blog of the Day in my right sidebar). If I have the time to post more while we're at the beach for the next two weeks, I'll try to provide an updated set of helpful tips for the beginning blogger, so be on the lookout... and good luck!