Even if you're worried about doing something "technical" on the internet, it's surprisingly easy to create a blog for your personal use or to promote something for profit.

Far and away the best way to create a blog is to get some web space yourself (if you've already got a web hosting account, you've already done this part) and use your host's one click install option to put on a Wordpress blog.

Why create a Wordpress blog? Because it's free and it's pretty much the industry standard for blogs. There are lots of add-ons that you can use and there are lots of free blog templates (which Wordpress calls themes) that you can use to differentiate your blog from the thousands of other blogs out there.

Which means that the first thing you should do when you've created your brand new blog is personalize it.

Start with the blog theme.

The standard Wordpress theme works OK but it's a bit boring.

You can get "under the hood" and customize the look and feel of your blog from your Wordpress control panel but it is a lot quicker, easier and more reliable to simply choose a new blog template from the huge number available. Then you just upload it to your web space (use the file upload option in your web hosting control panel or, if you're feeling brave, an FTP program). Once it's uploaded, Wordpress will recognize this and will offer you the option to change your theme to the new one you've just installed.

Take the time to go through the various menu options on Wordpress. If this is the first time you've created a blog this way it may take you 20 or 30 minutes. Once you start to become a blog veteran, you'll get this process down to a couple of minutes.

Unless you have a pressing need to keep them, delete the Blogroll links that come with every installation of Wordpress.

Put your own blogroll there instead - this is a great place to discretely put some affiliate links and start earning your blog some cash.

Change the default "Permalinks" to something the search engines prefer. If you're not sure what to do, just select the "date and name based" option.

Activate Akismet anti spam.

Start creating the first post on your brand new blog.

Congratulations! You've just created a blog!

Before you even start to setup blog, you need to set your main topic for your blog. Decided if it is going to be an MLM blog or a blog on pets or relationships, etc… Once you have decided your main topic, content is next keeping in mind various keywords tools that you can use to improve your blog ranking on the search engines. Blog ranking helps to generate web traffic as well.

When you start to setup your blog, you first need to decide which niche you want to concentrate on. This will set your main topic for you blog. Do your research and find what people are looking for. Remember that research is cash. Failure to do a proper research may end up with you having a blog that nobody is interested in.

When you do your keyword research, do pick something that you love to do. You must have an interest in the topic to keep yourself motivated to continuously blog about it. It is best to pick a topic that you have knowledge of. If you are in MLM, use that as your niche.

So how do you search for a good market online and what is considered a good niche? Use the various free keywords tools to do your research. Check out the number of people searching for a specific keyword from sites like freeadwordstool.com. Take a look also at additional keywords to give you an idea of what you can do.

At the same time, look at the competition that you will be facing for that keyword. You can check on this by taking a look at how many websites there are with that specific keyword on sites like google.com. As a general rule of the thumb, look for keywords with approximately 1,000 searches a month and less than 50,000 competitive sites for the exact keyword match.

There are various schools of though here but the above is one that I personally use. Using the right keywords can help move your blog up the search engines which is essential for traffic generation.

Doing your keyword research is key to your success. This will help you to optimize your blog by bringing it up the ranks of the search engines as well as generate traffic to your blog by attracting readers to your blog posts.

Once you have done your research and found your niche, then you may proceed to choose a good domain name for your blog. Check out my blog for more tips on how not to spend hours to brainstorm a good name for your blog.

So to setup blog, do proper research using free keywords tools available online. Whether it is an MLM blog or any other blog, once you have done the setup, work on improving your ranking on the search engines. Blog rankings, the higher it is, the better it will help to generate web traffic. This will go a long way in helping to optimize your blog.

I've received a lot of email lately from people asking how they can set up their own blogs for family, friends, or business purposes without spending much money or hiring an expensive programmer or web developer.

Well, ask no more because I will now show you exactly how to get your own blog without dipping too far into your own pocket (if at all) and get up and running, even if you don't have your own website, hosting account, or domain name.

You basically get two choices when it comes to setting up a blog: host it yourself, or use a service that hosts the blog for you.

Each one carries advantages based on your level of skill, experience and how many options you want to add to your blog.

If you choose to host your blog on your own website, then you can pick from a number of different options, including MoveableType.org and WordPress.org.

However, if you don't want to host it yourself, you can also go to Yahoo.com, put in the term "free blog" and obtain a long list of services that will host a blog for you, either free of charge or for a fee.

Probably the best-known free blog service resides at Blogger.com

Recently purchased by Google, Blogger boasts thousands of blogs on topics ranging from ecommerce to pet manners.

Blogger enables you to set up a functional blog in about 5 minutes and start posting your thoughts, rants, or family facts with the world.

Log on to http://Spaces.MSN.com and find another free option offered by Microsoft's online service, MSN.

This service makes it a bit easier to share photos than Blogger, which requires a separate software tool called Picasa (also available from Google for free).

MSN's blogger service also seems to appeal more to individuals sharing their thoughts than to businesses trying to scare up new customers or get their links crawled by search engine spiders (another advantage of publishing a blog).

So if you're publishing the family blog, this one might offer more of the user-friendly options you need.

The one drawback to using free services always comes back to the age-old saying, "You get what you pay for!"

These free blog services come with virtually zero customer support, so if you can't figure it out on your own, good luck finding anyone to assist you.

If you don't mind paying $5 a month, you can get a full-featured weblog at TypePad.com that offers a decent level of customer support.

The blogs available here offer many more features than Blogger or MSN, but also require you to understand a bit more about blogging's more advanced features like "trackback links" and "pinging" blog directories to let them know you've updated your blog (so others can come take a look at your new material).

Regardless of whether you choose the free or paid option, using a hosted blogging solution rates best when getting started.

However, once your blog really starts to take off and you find you need more "bells and whistles," you may want to consider upgrading to a more sophisticated blogging solution.

For a free video that explains "trackbacks" and more, check out:

=> http://www.igottatellyou.com/trackback.html