Starting from scratch doesn't have to cost you much.
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| (photocredit: Johnny does) |
You want to start out simple, and as quickly as possible.
After over 16 years designing websites, I can tell you from experience which is currently the best platform to get started with:
While everyone else is telling you about Wordpress, I can tell you that the recent improvements by Google to this platform puts it way ahead. Wordpress has problems with it's plug-ins, which can get you kicked off hosting. The one real solution to that is to pay Wordpress.com monthly to host your site - but Blogger will do the same for free. All you have to do is set up a domain name - which will cost you about $14 per year. (Also cheaper than Wordpress.com.)
Here's the link to get started: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/set-up-your-new-google-blogger-blog.html
I've tried about everything out there. I did a review of over 47 content management systems one time, and settled on a custom backend. However, the support for this was weak - and they took years to get it to support mobile devices, something Blogger did almost from the beginning.
You don't want free sites in general, but assigning a domain name to your Blogger blog takes it out of that category. Google takes care of your hosting costs. And it ties into YouTube and the other Google+ universe. Which means, that if you're smart, you can get better search engine rankings than anywhere else.
(One of the reasons not to have a free blog is that they don't show up in the search engine rankings any more - not very high, anyway.)
The reason you want a blog is...
Because you will be updating this regularly, and Google likes regularly updated content. They have been indexing and ranking blogs better than most websites for a long time, and don't have any indication they'll quit anytime soon.The trick is to set up your blog today, even if you have nothing to post there right now. Because the older these blogs are, the better they rank.
How to get your domain name added
Really, it's mostly following instructions. Here's the links to find out how to do it:The trick is to be able to wait for the 48 hours it might take to get the DNS servers to settle down. I linked up a domain name recently and watched it go back and forth from the old host to the new one until they all agreed.
Like Archimedes said - you have to stand somewhere before you can move the world.
This will get you started.
Yes, it really is that simple.
