Hi everyone! I have been away longer than I wanted to be, and I apologize about that. This last week I was away at a conference, and I was preparing for the conference the week prior.
I have had a number of folks ask me to post advice to beginning bloggers, and having once been a beginning blogger myself, I can sympathize with their quests for guidance.
“How do I start a blog?” “How do I make myself blog daily?” “How do I get people to read my blog?” “How do I make money?”
You might be asking yourself these questions as I once did, and scouring the internet desperately for help.
If this describes you, DON’T PANIC! Your writing ninja is here to save the day!
My advice for new bloggers falls broadly into three categories: Starting a blog, maintaining a blog, and acquiring readership.
This post will cover category number one.
STARTING A BLOG
There are many blog hosting platforms out there. Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress seem to be the top three. Keep in mind that I don’t have the data on that, but most (if not all) of the blogs I read are hosted on one of these three platforms. I have worked with all three platforms, and my favorite is WordPress. It is easy to use and offers a wide array of layouts and plugins to customize anything. Get a WordPress blog and your life will be so much easier! (They’re not even paying me to say this!) 
Once you’ve chosen a blog platform, you next have to go through the arduous and sometimes overwhelming process of choosing a theme, building content, and deciding which plugins to use (and which ones to ignore). It’s enough to give even a ninja a panic attack!
When all the choices start to freak you out, remember The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and
Instead DO THESE THREE THINGS:
1. Choose a simple theme. You can always change it later if a better one comes along, and the golden rule of internet aesthetics is “less is more.” If your theme is too complex or too filled with fancy doodads (yep, that’s the official term) it won’t load easily, and will be hard for visitors to navigate.
2. Write quality content. No matter how relevant your topic is, if the content in your site is not well-written and entertaining, you won’t gain readership. Now don’t let this scare you. You don’t need to be a writer to start a blog. However, you do need to write with easy-to-understand language in complete sentences, and you need to make it your goal to connect with your readers.
3. Use images. Images are engaging, and offer alternative stimulation to readers. Images are not so hard to come by either, although you do need to make sure you use open source images if you are going to use photos other than those you take yourself. Images are stimulating to readers and help to break up blocks of text, so use a couple in each blog post if you can. Your readers will thank you!
I hope this helps! Happy blogging!
From my desk to yours,
Jonae’
P.S. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3!