Chris Pirillo's biggest fan tells you how to start your own online journal,

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Weblogs (blogs) are more than just online diaries. Blogs have revived the Internet in a big way, allowing users of all ages and backgrounds to interact. Today I'll show you how to start your own blog. But before you start, be warned that blogging is highly contagious and addictive.

Why should I blog?
People blog for many reasons:
  • Share your life. Post anything, from what's for dinner to the step-by-step progress of your pregnancy.
  • Share news, tech finds, and humor -- never forget the humor.
  • I blog to stalk my favorite all-time geek, Chris Pirillo. (Trust me, it's a healthy kind of stalking.) Visit my blog at Gnome-girl.com.


Blogging programs
In my opinion, Movable Type is the best program for blogging. But there are many other tools out there, such as LiveJournal, Greymatter, Radio UserLand, and Blogger.

Blogger is fast, free, and easy to use. Before you purchase one of the more intense blogging tools, take Blogger for a test drive. It's a good choice for "newbies" who want to get started. You won't waste money if the blog falls by the wayside like your hard-copy journals.

Create and publish your blog
The interface at Blogger.com is really easy to follow. You'll have plenty of template and publishing options. Click here for a step-by-step guide to creating your first blog.

Participate
Comments are to bloggers as caffeine is to coffee drinkers: a much-needed boost to blogging habits. Trust me, you will learn to like other people's feedback. Here's how it works:

Publish your words of wisdom. Then someone comes along and says, "Hey, I agree" or "Hey, you are so lame." (You might get some of these but don't sweat it. There's one in every crowd.) The person can then hit the comment link to speak their mind too.

If you're visiting someone else's blog, be sure to leave your own feedback.

That's your blogging lesson for today. If you venture on to create your own little words of wisdom, be sure to pass those words on to cheyenne@gnome-girl.com. I'm always on the lookout for new reads. Catch you all in blogland.


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