Starting a blog - step one

So you want to start a blog? Your first decisions are:

1. what it's going to be called and
   
2. who is going to provide it

The first decision is important because once you've chosen the name and the domain name, you shouldn't change it unless you absolutely have to (legal reasons, for example). That's because as soon as you've created the blog, other websites will start to link to it. If you then change the name and the URL, you will be losing all of that good work.

In choosing your name, consider whether you want to have a neat, personalised domain (www.mynameblog.com) or whether you are happy to share it with the blog provider (myname.blogspot.com). Click here for more information on choosing and registering a domain.

If you're happy to share it, the next job is to choose the provider. There are lots of different options available to you. Over the next few articles we will assess the pros and cons of:

• Blogger
• Wordpress.com
• Wordpress.org
• Typepad
• Livejournal
• MySpace