I had a question from a reader (and actually, not for the first time) the other day, on the general "how" of getting a blog like this set up. It's not hard, but it can seem a bit daunting at first, so, in the interests of having the answer somewhere that can be saved for posterity, I thought I'd do it as a blog post - in fact, inevitably, this is going to be a series!
First up, why Blogger? The simple answer is, because most of the blogging wargamers are using it, and it gives you the chance to join the community.
With that said... go to https://www.blogger.com/ and click on the 'Create Your Blog' button. It will prompt you to log in with a Google account - I'm assuming you have one, since most folks do: if not, you'll need to create one before you can use Blogger.
You'll then be prompted for a title for your blog and a domain name. The former can be whatever you choose, the latter will be <something>.blogspot.com. As far as the <something> goes, it can be whatever you like as long as it's a) memorable, b) unique and c) only contains letters, numbers and dashes.
At this point you also get to pick a theme. This you can change later, so pick one that looks OK, and then click on 'Create Blog!'. Ignore the Google Domains prompt (they're after your money!) that follows.
There. You have a blog. That wasn't so hard!
You'll now be faced with the management screen - see right. The first thing you'll probably want to do is create a post, which is all in all pretty easy: hit New Post, give it a subject, start typing - c'mon, this is the easy bit, you wanted to create a blog so you must have something to say!
When you're done, hit Publish, and there you go. Your blog has content!
Next up, I'll cover adding fixed content such as sidebars etc, to your blog.
First up, why Blogger? The simple answer is, because most of the blogging wargamers are using it, and it gives you the chance to join the community.
With that said... go to https://www.blogger.com/ and click on the 'Create Your Blog' button. It will prompt you to log in with a Google account - I'm assuming you have one, since most folks do: if not, you'll need to create one before you can use Blogger.
You'll then be prompted for a title for your blog and a domain name. The former can be whatever you choose, the latter will be <something>.blogspot.com. As far as the <something> goes, it can be whatever you like as long as it's a) memorable, b) unique and c) only contains letters, numbers and dashes.
At this point you also get to pick a theme. This you can change later, so pick one that looks OK, and then click on 'Create Blog!'. Ignore the Google Domains prompt (they're after your money!) that follows.There. You have a blog. That wasn't so hard!
You'll now be faced with the management screen - see right. The first thing you'll probably want to do is create a post, which is all in all pretty easy: hit New Post, give it a subject, start typing - c'mon, this is the easy bit, you wanted to create a blog so you must have something to say!
When you're done, hit Publish, and there you go. Your blog has content!
Next up, I'll cover adding fixed content such as sidebars etc, to your blog.
Thanks Mike - look forward to part 2. Setting up a Blog was one of my New Years resolutions. I intend to record my weekly humiliations of Mr Ames in “The Red Room” - next week FIW Sharp Practice! You could become my first follower!
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