An ambitious title which will probably ensure that the rest of the post will be a let down, but this is what I typed into Google around the beginning of November last year, and has lead me to where I am now. By putting this title on the post, it should attract people searching for an answer to the same question, and while I cannot guarantee you anything, I can pass on what I’ve picked up in the last 9-10 months.

The main 3 results I got out of my Google search last year were Steve Pavlina, Problogger, and WordPress, and if you’re looking to start blogging you can do no better still, than to visit those sites and read all you can (after bookmarking this one of course!).

Steve Pavlina is a personal development specialist, who writes a relatively small number of posts each month, but which are of the highest quality. He also has a huge income from this blog and his other sites, but it is for the former, not the latter reason that you should have a read. He convinced me to have a go at blogging, not for the material rewards that may or may not appear, but for the simple reward of doing it for yourself. It’s true that blogging is enjoyable, whether or not you have 10,000 daily readers, or if it’s just you and the cat.

Darren from Problogger is also a partial inspiration by dint of income, and the fact he makes a full time living from blogging, but again more because of the quality of the writing and advice offered. If you want to learn about everything from the technical aspects of blogging, through to the human side and how to build relationships, then this is an essential subscription.

WordPress was the first blogging platform I tried, and I’m so glad: With relatively little effort, you can produce a high quality site, and the platform is constantly being updated with new features, templates (themes) and add-ons (plugins), all for free, that no other platform comes close to in my opinion. It may look daunting at first, but by reading the comprehensive instructions, and making use of the active forums I had my first WordPress installation up and running in less than 2 hours, and now it only takes me a couple of minutes. There’s lots of help available, indeed, just ask me if you need to!

Why Read Blog-Op?

I set up this blog as a repository of lessons learnt, and for linking to other sources of good advice, especially for the new blogger, and over the course of the next week I’ll be running a series of posts, linking to some of the best articles from my archives to get you started and to improve your blogging. I’m no expert, but with following my own advice, I’ve had over 100,000 visitors across my 3 blogs and earned a few thousand dollars, so I can get you started.

To make sure you don’t miss them, just click on this link to subscribe to my RSS feed, or pop your email address in the box in the right sidebar to get each article mailed direct to you. If you have no idea what an RSS feed is, or how to subscribe to one, pleased read this post. Oh, and don’t forget to say hello in the comments, so I can come read your blog

If you’re a more experienced blogger, why not pass on your best blogging tip in the comments? Or why not write a guest post explaining all, and gaining some exposure for your blog.