Google’s Blogger is a blog-publishing service that also lets you host domains for free. It is the best platform for you to create a free blog and gain some experience in the Blogosphere.
Blogger is absolutely free. There are no hidden charges or upgrade fee. You will get everything that Blogger has to offer right off the bat.
You will see many posts that give you hundreds of reasons as to why you should absolutely not use Blogger, how many disadvantages it has, and so on. Some of them genuinely list the disadvantages with its advantages while some talk as if blogging with WordPress CMS(content management system) will make everything a walk in the park. They usually do it to convince you to buy WordPress hosting through their affiliate link.
What only a few bloggers will tell you is that combined with a custom domain Blogger sites can give a tough competition to WordPress blogs. But, you will also have to work harder.
Obviously, there are some disadvantages to using a free service instead of paid hosting.
But as a newbie, if you don’t want to invest anything. It’s a good place to start.
Steps to Create a Free BlogSpot Blog:
1. Visit Blogger.com and login with your Google (Gmail) account. If you don’t have a Google account you can create one for free.
2. Click on “Create Your Blog” button.
3. Now you need to create your Blogger profile. Enter your name next to Display Name (this will appear above your posts).
Don’t write your nickname or try to come up with a cool name. Use your real name. This helps build trust with your readers.
Click “Continue to Blogger”
4. Now you’ll be taken to your Blogger dashboard but it’s empty. Let’s make it lively.
Hit the “Create New Blog” button.
5. Enter a Title and Address for your blog. If your entered domain name is available you can select it. Your domain would look like this: infosmush.blogspot.com.
Don’t use your name(unless it’s brandable). Pick a domain name that you can build a brand around later. Also, Google the domain name to see if it is already in use in other forms e.g., Facebook page or a custom domain.
For example, if your (sub) domain is infosmush.blogspot.com but there is already an infosmush.com, infosmush.net, or whatever the extension is, it’s going to confuse your readers and you’ll have a hard time building a brand around it even after buying a custom domain with a different extension(domainname.extension).
You can later buy a custom domain from registrars like GoDaddy, NameCheap, Google Domain, etc.
It will cost you less than $10 for the first year, depending on the registrar you choose.
5.2. Now select your theme. Don’t worry if you don’t like any of them, just select one. Later, you can download a custom theme/template.
Click on “Create Blog”.
7. Your free blog will be created. Your dashboard would look like this:
8. Now go to Settings -> Basic and write a short description for your blog. This will help search engines and visitors know what your blog is about.
You can choose to show the description below your blog title if it’s short.
To introduce yourself and your blog create a page or write your first post and let them know about yourself and your blog.
After you have written 20-50 posts you can head over to the “Earnings” tab and apply for Google Adsense. Adsense is an ad network. If your blog is accepted, you’ll be able to show ads on your blog and earn money.
But don’t bloat your blog with ads. This will slow down the load time of your blog and has a bad impact on user experience and SEO.
How would you feel if this article was filled with ads?
Creating your First Post:
Blogger has a basic WYSIWYG editor with the option to switch to HTML editor. The main editor is good enough for creating a standard post; adding images, embedding YouTube videos, formatting text, insert list, check spelling, etc.
You would need the HTML editor if you want to insert a table or other complex or CSS rich elements.
The other option is to copy and paste the element in the editor, but this will also keep the formatting and styling of the source. Which may make it stand out(in a bad way).
Post Settings are located on the right side of the screen. You can schedule posts, modify the permalink, add labels(tags), allow or disallow comments and more.
You can either Publish your post or save it as a Draft.
Customizing Your Blog:
Gadgets:
Gadgets are widgets that Blogger comes preloaded with. Some of them might already be installed in your theme.
You can add or remove gadgets in the Layout.
You can drag and drop to rearrange the elements.
There are many third-party gadgets that you can add to your blog for more functions. For example; AddThis is a freemium service that lets you add related post widgets, share buttons, opt-in forms and more to your blog.
Blogger Theme Designer:
Use the Theme Designer to customize your theme.
With Blogger’s Template Editor you can change font size, font family, font color, sidebar width, image display, link colors, hover effect, header size and much more.
You will be able to view the changes live on your blog. Once you are done apply the changes.
Branding:
You can brand your blog by uploading your own logo and favicon (Favicon is the image that is displayed on the left side of the browser’s tab).
To do this head over to the Layout and click Edit next to Header for logo and Favicon for the favicon.
To make the design and look of your blog consistent- Pick 2-3 colors that you are going to use across your blog.
Earn Money With Your Blogspot Blog:
When you have a free blog the opportunities of making money are limited. But there some ways:
Google Adsense:
One of the advantages of a Blogspot blog is that you can easily integrate Adsense and start making money. You don’t even have to do anything besides applying for Adsense. Blogger automatically places adds between your blog posts and sidebar(s), depending on your theme
To apply for Adsense, open the earnings tab and click the “Sign up for Adsense” button:
For your blog to be accepted, your content needs to be original.
It would be better to apply for Adsense after you have published 20 or more posts and your blog is at least 3 months old.
Affiliate Marketing:
You can also make money by recommending products and services. When someone buys the recommended product through your affiliate link you will get a commission.
There are other ways to make money like sponsored posts, direct ads, but your blog needs at least 1,000 views/day.
Can You Get a Free Custom Domain?
Yes, you can but you shouldn’t.
Freenom is a free domain and DNS provider. You can get almost any domain for free and host it on Blogger.
But you won’t get a .com or .net extension. The domain extensions available on Freenom are .tk, .ga, .ml, .cf and .gq.
So what’s the catch?
Well, since your domain is free, you don’t own it. They can take it away at any time. There are thousands of complaints against Freenom regarding this issue.
So, getting a free custom domain is not an option.
Blogspot Backup:
Blogger lets you backup your posts and themes so if you accidentally do something that can’t be reverted you have a way of restoring things to the way they were.
Back up your Posts:
Backing up your hard work is always a good idea. This ensures that if your account is hacked or if there’s an error that messes up your content. You can use your backup file to restore your posts with images and embedded videos.
The backup file doesn’t actually contain images and videos. It just contains the HTML codes for them. Your media files are stored on the Blogspot server.
1. Navigate to Settings > Other and Click Back up Content:
2.Click Save to your Computer:
Back up Theme:
You should back up your theme as soon as you have settled on a design. The reason is that, you may need to add codes and widgets after your blog is up and running. You may have to add scripts for ad providers, analytics, search console, and any other third-party tool. And sometimes a little mistake can break your template.
In this situation, a backed-up theme will help you restore your blog quickly.
1. Click on Theme from the side menu
2. Click Backup/Restore button on the top right corner
3. Click Download theme and save the file.
Essential Tools For Blogger:
Google Search Console
Search Console is a free webmaster tool from Google that you can connect to your blog.
These are the things search console can be used for:
As you can see Search Console is pretty useful.
Here’s how you can connect your site with search console:
1. Visit Search Console and log in with the same account that you used to create your blog.
2. Enter your domain or sub-domain and click Continue:
3. If you are using a custom domain you will have to create a new TXT DNS record to verify your ownership.
Google Analytics
This is another free tool that will help you monitor your traffic. With Google Analytics you can view:
There are a lot of other reports that you can see. But the things that I like to pay attention to are:
Obviously, my goal is to increase both.
Here’s how you can connect your Blogger blog with Google Analytics:
1. Head over to Google Analytics and sign in.
2. Add your blog:
3. You will need to paste the tracking code in the <head> section of your template.
You can also copy and paste your Tracking ID here(Settings > Others):
4. Send test traffic to verify that the code has been installed correctly:
Blogspot App:
Blogger has a decent Android app that you can download and install from the Google Play Store.
There aren’t as many features as you would need to write well-formatted posts.
With the blogger app, you can create new posts and edit the existing ones.
You can add labels(categories)and location. You can also add images but they are placed at the end of your post.
But there are a lot of limitations:
Due to these cons, I recommend using a third-party app. There are a lot of apps that will let you create and publish content on your Blogspot blog. Some of these apps let you do everything that can be done on. desktop.
Some of the apps you can use are:
For ios users, there’s no official blogger app which isn’t a problem. There are other apps that let you manage the content of your blog.
Blogspot tips and tricks
These tips will also help you attract visitors to your blog quickly and start earning money.
Best Way of Using Blogger:
The ideal way of using blogger is with a custom domain.
Blogger lets you host a domain for free so the only cost you’ll be incurring is on buying a domain. Which is not expensive at all.
You can own a domain for a year for less than $10 from NameCheap and if you opt for a 2-year plan it will be cheaper than renewing it the next year.
The advantage of having a custom domain is that it is more professional and trustworthy. You might already know many people misuse free blogging sites like Blogger and provide low quality and misleading info. Due to that users are more likely to click on a site.com than site.domain.com.