Starting Off...

The first and foremost thing to do is select a good tool for your blog. By tool, I mean the software or site that will provide you with the basic functionalities. Me? I am currently blogging on the new beta version of the blogger. It has a nice, easy to use interface and is highly customizable provided, you know XML. Any blogging tool will suffice as long as it has basic blogging functionalities. Below are some of the well-known ones...

Blogger
Blogger Beta
Wordpress
MySpace
TypePad

This should get you started...

Next, you have to choose a good template for your blog. The template decides the layout, font, color, functionalities, etc. of your blog. For those of you who are blessed with a respectable knowledge of XML, editing the template in blogger beta is a breeze! If you need a good XML tutorial, you can visit A Technical Introduction to XML.

For the rest of us, all hope is not lost. There are many respectable XML gurus on the net who spend time and effort to create cool and custom templates for you. I visited one such person's blog and got this template for blogger beta. This is the link to where I got this template. I am now in the process of customizing this template. Check out some of the template sites listed below for all sorts of templates.

Blogger Templates
The Ultimate Template List


The look and feel of your site is an important factor. Don't underestimate it's importance. If you were to go to a well-designed site, you will surely check it out more than if it were a dull, boring, tough-to-navigate site. Right? You need the traffic. Trust Me. So the design and customiz-ability of your blog is IMPORTANT!