Blogger is a blogging tool from Google that will help you create your very own blog with minimal effort. All you need to do is create a free Blogger account and then you can give it a name, customize the theme, and finally, write your first blog post! A blog can be about any subject you like, whether it's cooking or gardening or even your family life. With Blogger, you can create a free blog and share your stories with the world or only the people you choose.

Now that you have your very own blog, it's time to customize the way it looks. Blogger gives you tools to easily change the template of your blog, the colors, and even the font. Each page element can be adjusted to match the personality of your blog and make it stand out.

Gadgets are extra features that you can add to your Blogger blog. A gadget can be a photo-stream from Flickr, polls that your readers can participate in and even something as simple as a welcome message that your visitors will see every time they visit your site. Gadgets can be easily added and removed from your blog with just a couple of mouse clicks and they help you add even more of your own personality to share with your readers.

Your blog settings is where you can do things like change the title of your blog, add a description to go along with the title or even use your own custom domain for your blog. It's also where you can decide just who can see your blog - anyone on the Internet or select people who you invite. If you want to add additional authors to contribute stories and content to your blog you can do that in your settings as well. Your settings page is like the hub of your blog so make sure you take the time to go through them and create the functionality that you desire.

Now that you've created a blogger account and customized it, it's finally time to write your first post! It's so easy you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. You can add photos, change up the font, add links and even video. You can also write blog posts to be published at a later date and choose whether or not to allow comments on each post.

If you published something to your blog and you decide later that you want to change it, don't fret. With Blogger, you can easily go back and make edits to the post itself as well as any labels you added to it. After you make changes, your blog will automatically be updated. Want to delete a blog post altogether? No problem, you can do that too. Since it's your blog, you're the editor and you can make any changes you see fit.

A great part of blogging is creating a connection with the people who are reading the stories that you choose to share. A nice way to make even more of a connection is to create a Blogger profile that your readers can view to learn a little more about you. You can show your real name, add a photo and even your favorite music clip. You can also share your education and work history. It's up to you to decide just how much information you want to share with the people reading your blog.

Chances are that if you have your own Blogger blog, you read other peoples blogs as well. Did you know that you can also find other Blogger blogs to read and read their content right in your Blogger account? You can also keep up with the latest news from the Blogger team so you always know when there are new features available.

Once you start getting more and more readers to your blog you may want to think about adding Google Adsense for a way to make a few bucks. Google Adsense are relevant ads that are put on your site. When visitors click on the ads, you make a little money. It might not pay the rent (unless you have a lot of readers, then who knows!), but it may pay for dinner and drinks with friends.

Navigating around your Blogger blog is easy. As long as you're logged in, you can access the "hub" of your blog, otherwise known as the dashboard, at the top of any page. There are also many different help resources where you can find answers to any questions you may have - whether it's how to change your password or how to update the theme of your blog.

A

blog

is your outlet to share your thoughts, your progress, details of your growing family, your home renovation project, your... well, anything you'd want to share. In our

Beginner's Guide to Blogger

series, we'll walk through creating your new blog from the initial idea to publishing your first post and into customizing, uploading photos and much more.