Having a blog is a great thing because you can share anything you want (…and if you are wise you can also earn a decent income from your blog).
- (Read: My AdSense Earnings for 5 Years)
Here at ShoutMeLoud, I have written about many blogging platforms that you can use to create a blog for yourself. I usually suggest creating a blog using your own domain and hosting, and creating your blog via WordPress(.org).
We have talked a lot about self-hosted WordPress blogs in previous posts, and there is no doubt that this presents a better blogging platform when compared to free blogging platforms like BlogSpot.com and WordPress.com.
Also see:
- How to start a blog for making money
- How to make money blogging (Earn up to $40000/month)
However, many newbies who want to start blogging don’t want to make an initial investment of funds to create a blog. This is completely reasonable.
There are many blogging platforms which offer users the ability to create free blogs. If you are looking for a simple free blog, my suggestion would be to start blogging with WordPress.com or BlogSpot.com.
Once you have some blogging experience, you can advance and become more professional with a self-hosted WordPress blog.
BlogSpot allows you to create a free blog, but it does have limitations.
However, as I mentioned above, for a beginner it is a great way to learn how to create a blog and begin the blogging process.
This post is dedicated to the “beginners” who are new to blogging and would like to get started by learning the basics involved in the process.
Before I begin the complete tutorial, there are a couple of things you should know:
- Firstly, BlogSpot is a blogging platform powered by Google. It offers you an opportunity to start a blog, but all your images will be hosted by Picasa (also part of Google). BlogSpot, in this sense, is a Google-centric blogging platform.
- Secondly, if the goal of your blog is to make money and to have a blog that is professional in appearance, I would recommend that you create your blog using WordPress. It’s easy, and with the help of our exclusive free WordPress guide, you can create your blog in the next 60 minutes.
Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Free Blog on BlogSpot:
To create your free BlogSpot blog site, head over to BlogSpot.com and login using your Google account. If you don’t have a Google (gmail) account, you can create one for free.
For a first time user, you will see an option to use the identity from your Google Plus profile, or you can use your limited BlogSpot profile. I recommend using your Google Plus profile.
Once you are logged in, click on “new blog” or click on this link to directly go there: Create a free blog
Name your blog:
The first thing you need to do is add a name and select your domain. I suggest you read “How To Select a Domain Name” for additional information.
Avoid using your personal name as the domain name, and instead use some generic domain name that you can brand later with a custom domain.
You can then select a blog template (you can change it anytime), and click on “Create Blog”.
Now your blog is created, but you are not done yet!
There are a few settings that you need to set on your newly created BlogSpot blog to make it easy to use.
You are now on the BlogSpot dashboard where you will see your blog’s backend. From here you can go to “Settings” and make changes to improve your blog’s visibility.
Here is a screenshot of what you should be seeing:
From here you can click on “Posts” > “New post” and start writing your very first blog post!
But before you write your first post, I would recommend that you go to “Pages” and create at least one “About” page describing who you are and what your blog is about.
- You can read my post on why you need an “About” page for your blog.
Most importantly, you should change your blog’s template as the default one is generic and boring (in my opinion).
Here I have compiled a list of free BlogSpot templates that you can download and install on your blog. Alternatively, you can go to “Settings” > “Template” and change the template from there.
On this page, you can also add a logo to the header of your BlogSpot blog, and add or remove various other features.
Once you have a few blog posts up and running, you can go to “Settings” > “Earnings” and enable AdSense for your blog. This will allow you to earn money from your free BlogSpot blog.
- Read my earlier guide on how to sign up for an AdSense account.
So your blog is almost ready and you can start writing posts. There are just a few more things I suggest you do.
I cover these things in the video tutorial below.
Video Tutorial to Create a Free BlogSpot Blog:
Note: This post is meant for every reader out there who does not already have a blog and is looking for an easy way to create a free blog.
I started my blogging journey with BlogSpot, and I later advanced to WordPress. If you want to take the more professional route right from the beginning, you can always refer to my WordPress Beginner guide.
- Also read: BlogSpot SEO tips
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Great article, Harsh. You’ve briefly explained to create a free blog on blogger platform and I’m also agree that blogger is best for start-up bloggers or newbies and WordPress is best for professionals.
Hi Harsh,
A Very very Informative article, Many newbies will get help from this blog.
Hi Harsh, I want to know about that how to create a blogger blog directly with custom domain without redirecting on blogspot.com like sscadda.com , mybloggertricks.com etc.
Example:
sscadda.blogspot.com —> Is not redirecting on >> sscadda.com
Mybloggertricks.blogspot.com —> Is not redirecting on >> Mybloggertricks.com
I also want to use single custom domain . I don’t want to connect my domain with blogspot.com
Hi Harsh,
Thanks for creating such an innovative guide. Blogspot gives the freedom to start blogging without any investment, which is great for newbies and students who cannot able to invest on hosting and domain. Good thing is that they can migrate to WordPress whenever they want.
Your blogging tips are amazing and easily to understand for a beginner.
ye finally i get my own website with custom domain name. Thank you very much sir
sir, I want to give you thanks by the depth of my heart because of the guide from your blog I finally start my blog and now I’m working on its SEO and I purchased a custom domain for my blog. again thank you very much sir for your guides.
Harsh sir, Thanks for the priceless information 🙂
Hello Harsh Sir I Read Your All Post Very Carefully, this Another Great Article for Beginners. I am a new Blogger and I create my blog on Blogger, Please Sir Suggest me can I need any hosting site for my blog.
@Prosanta
You need hosting only when you ready to move your blog to WordPress. Since you just started, blog for one month or so on BlogSpot. Improve your writing, learn about Keyword research & on page SEO. A bit about social media marketing & then plan to get a hosting & move your blog from BlogSpot to WordPress.
Wish you luck!
Hi Harsh Sir, Thank You Very Much , For Suggest Me improve my Keyword, on page SEO and social media marketing. I follow your all instructions very carefully and apply my own blog.
Hi Prosanta,
You can use Grammarly to improve your writing. It will help you correct spellings, punctuation and lot more things related to English grammar.
Once again, another nice blog post. Thanks!
I just started messing around with blogger this year and managed to get some very professional looking sites off the ground using this platform.
The more I play with it the more flexible it becomes and I find it a great way to start out especially since it’s a nice way to build up a free blog network which you can use latter on to give strong back links to future sites.
Another thing I like is to add name cheap custom domains.
That and adding your own custom favicon really seals the deal when it comes to making a free site that doesn’t look free. 🙂
Great work harsh it is very clear and useful for newbies to create the blog for free. I appreciate your work in helping newbies like me. To create WordPress blog and tips to grow in content marketing.
Hi Harsh,
Your blogging tips are amazing and easily to understand for a beginner.
It’s very interesting and helpful tutorial for beginner.Thanx for sharing this article
This is a great article.It’s very interesting and helpful tutorial for beginner. It’s very useful for bloggers.
Hello sir,
Priceless suggestion for me…
Thanks, It has helped me a lot to build blog and now i have migrated from blogspot to wordpress as ur guide….Amazing.
Thanks for share this harsh bro. Helped me a lot. Great work. Keep it up.
If I start with a blog that is NOT self-hosted, can I transfer/upgrade to a self-hosted one later on (once I know I really like blogging…) or would I lose all my content doing that?
@Nazrul
You would be able to move all your content from BlogSpot to self hosted WordPress. You won’t lose anything.
These DIY guides will help you:
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/migrate-blogspot-wordpress-301-permaredirection.html
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/how-to-import-your-blogger-posts-comments-users-from-blogspot-to-wordpress.html
Hi Harsh,
Great point about beginners not wanting to invest their dough in something like a WordPress self hosted blog. Better to join Blogger in the beginning. Even if it means doing a transfer, get a feel for blogging, if you want to get serious about this platform and then you can invest money down the road. All about testing the waters with Blogger before you dive in head first. I even had 3-4 of these free blogs myself over the years, before I got super serious with Blogging From Paradise and CWATC.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ryan
The blogspot platform always appeals to me. I remember a few months ago, I tried to make my blogspot post to load youtube video in fullscreen style, and I failed.
I stopped for some time. But then I went back to continue the project – “youtube video fullscreen style”. And finally succeeded.
I started to continue with the redesign of some blogspot templates that exist in my laptop for the purpose of my new web blog with the topic of hollywood movie reviews – which incidentally can display fullscreen movie review (video background) in the form of blog posts.
In the same way, I can even make my blogspot posts like salespage and squeezepage in fullscreen, as long as it can only be done on wordpress.
Blogspot is amazing. In addition;
1. It is Free.
2. Super Stable.
3. Super Safe.
4. Free Modify by yourself.
5. Can be customized with tld domain.
6. Unlimited bandwidth and hosting capacity.
7. Can be integrated with many features.
8. Can be monetized.
9. SEO Friendly.
10. Suitable for Beginners and Blogger Masters.
11. Can be a personal web or business.
12. And hundreds of other “hidden” benefits …
In fact I believe, blogspot will again become a favorite choice for the world bloggers in running their online business with blogspot.
And hopefully, google does not charge for it. 🙂
Greetings.
Richard Daris
Hmmm cool article. After testing both platforms all I can say is WordPress is more better than blogger. I only see blogger as a platform to start blogging career with.