How to start a (Mormon) Blog

Dave’s right.  Since Elder Ballard’s call for Latter-day Saints to get more involved in new media, there has been an uptick in LDS blogs and Mormon bloggers.  And LDS and Mormon Blogs has definitely received more submissions for LDS-themed,  particularly for missionary and doctrine-oriented blogs

Like Jeff Lindsay, I have received some questions on how to start a blog and I thought I’d post this here for future reference . 

1.  Before you start a blog, read a lot of different blogs and decide for yourself what makes a successful blog.
Blogging may sound interesting and it’s commendable to want to follow Elder Ballard’s suggestion.  But unless you have already read blogs for awhile, I would suggest that you hold off starting your own and read many different blogs first. 

Check out the Bloggernacle at LDS and Mormon Blogs and  Mormon Archipelago.  Also, look at non-LDS blogs to get some ideas.

As Jeff suggests, the best thing you can do may be to not start a blog but instead contribute in the comments of other blogs, forums, or other websites.  It may be more useful to engage bloggers who are uninformed about the church and post respectful comments, giving them further light and knowledge rather than the heat that so many generate. Participating in thoughtful discussions or civilly correcting someone in error may be preferable to just being another voice in the wilderness.

On the other hand, one of the great things about blogging is that it is so easy to start, you may just want to disregard the above advice and just dive in and learn by doing.

2. Starting a blog
To start your blog page, you basically need two things, blogging software and a hosting service.  There are many  alternatives (free and otherwise) to choose from.  A few are described below.

If you are a complete novice, I would recommend using free services, like Blogger or Wordpress.com.  Both your site hosting and blogging software are free and are a great way to test how serious you are.  But they’re great for even the most serious of bloggers.  Typepad, also provides hosting services and software for people who are willing to pay a little bit for more options but don’t want a lot of the hassle of back-end blog administration.

For geeks who want to do most everything on their own (install and maintain blogging software, hack and customize their blogs, and find a server that suits your needs with their own URL) they have many more options but also need to have some knowledge and experience or get help from someone who does.  The two most prominent blogging software packages for self-hosted blogs are probably Movable Type and WordPress.org.   Having used many of these services, I now use WordPress.org’s software and I’m really happy with it. 

My recommendation is once you are ready to give it a try, go to Wordpress.com and poke around to just get a feel for what it involves.  Give yourself a few weeks and see what you think. 

3. Publicize your blog
Email your link to friends and bloggers that you like.  Network with other bloggers by making comments on other sites.  Submit your blog, if you choose, to LDS and Mormon Blogs and other sites that aggregate blogs. 

You may have an individual blog, but the currency of the internet is linking and if you want to get any attention, it’s best to develop good relations with your like-minded (and not so like-minded) bloggers.

4. Keep blogging
A successful blog produces quality content consistently and regularly.  It doesn’t have to be daily, but I recommend that if you start a blog only if you’re confident you are going to be in it for the long haul.  I haven’t always been good at that myself and as Jeff says, it can be hard.

Good luck! 

Please add any further suggestions.

The following links are to articles on how to start a blog.

Evangelical Outpost
The How To Start a Blog Series: Tips and Suggestions for Launching a Successful Blog

wikiHow
How to Start a Blog

(Possibly) Related posts:

1. SL Trib to start charging for some content
2. LDS Newsroom launches the Newsroom Blog