...a blog started is trying to figure out what toblog about. Once you have that down, choose a host. There aremany different blog hosts out there, and most are free. I useBlogger.com. I like it, because it is free and very userfriendly. You don't need to know any HTML or other programmingto get going. Of course, Blogger is not the only one there is,just the only one that I use. Taking it to the next level If your blog is getting a bit stale, you can spice it up a bitwith some...

... HTML programming. I learned most of my programmingskills while customizing my own blog. If you need a littletutoring on some minor programming of you blog, just do a googlesearch for "html tutor", and you will find many very helpfulsites. Most improvements you can make to your blog are fairlysimple, and most beginners can pull it off. If you are browsingaround and see something on someone else's blog that you "gottahave", this is how you get it.... If you are using MicrosoftExplorer, open the view menu and select "source". Then justscroll down until you find the part that you want, then selectthe "area", and copy it. Then simply drop it into your own blogand make any changes to make it more like your own! Please keep in mind: I have seen a lot of blogs that are packed so full of "neatstuff", it makes me not want to read the blog. Just remember,that just because you can do something, it doesn't mean youshould. If you want people to read your blogs, make it appealingto them. I have seen many blogs that contain so much code, ittakes an enormous amount of time for the page to load. It's bestto keep it kind of simple. Making Money on Your BlogDid you now you can actually make money from your blog? Well, ifpeople read your blog, then you can make money from it. Now holdon, you're probably not going to get rich off it, but a littlebit certainly won't hurt! Probably the most popular means ofmaking your blog work for you is Adsense. You have probablynoticed these ads by Google on many pages you visit. If you everclicked on one of these ads, you helped somebody get paid. Theseads are very easy to set up. You will need to register, then youwill be able to pick the style of advertisement for your blog.Do you want some discrete text boxes? Or do you want to go withthe big skyscraper in your sidebar with the graphics in them?This is all customizable to your preferences. It is recommendedthat you try to make the ad colors match the rest of your blog.The easiest way to do this is from the Google Adsense Adsensesite. If you know the 6 digit RGB color code you can make anexact match. You should also keep in mind that these ads aregenerated from page content, so if you have a blog devoted to,let's say, bridal goods, then your ads may be a bit morerelevant than someone whos blogs are their own daily ranting andhave no particular subject. Yahoo! is now beta testing theirversion of this program, and they are taking sign-ups. MSN hasindicated that they also are looking into starting an online adsprogram. Another way to earn money from your blog areaffiliates. Affiliates are companies that pay allow you to placeads on your blog, and when a sale is made due to a link fromyour site, you get paid. There are many companies out there thatoffer this partnership, just go out and look. I highly recommendagainst paying any money for directories of these companies. Itjust doesn't make sense! You can normally find several simply byusing your search engine and searching for them. Blog EtiquetteI have never seen an instruction manual on what to say in ablog, and that is because anything goes here. You should,however, keep in mind that there is a common courtesy withblogs. If a blogger is allowing the general public to comment ontheir blog, then you should follow the same guidelines that theblogger goes by. For example, if this blog appears to be familyoriented, then I would assume that the blogger would not likefoul language in the comments area. However, if the blog iscarries an adult oriented tone, then I would say anything goes.Another thing I would like to put out is a little practice Icall "Blog-Spamming". Yes, you have a nice new blog, and youwant everyone to read it, but please don't go from blog to blogpasting a ready made line of code in bloggers comment area,linking back to your blog. This tends to aggravate the blogger.If you are going to do so, you should make sure it is ok withthe blog owner first. If your blog is good enough then thetraffic will come to you.This article is free to distribute as long as all hyperlinks areattached and this text area is included. Copyright © 2005www.blog-hints.com All rights reserved.